Illini Basketball 2026-2027
DICKnaggie
- Champaign
Great NYT article on the new offense and the coaches are installing it.
This is a cool concept. IMO it speaks mainly to the overwhelming amount of talent we have. You could take any individual guy off our team and still say we can get to the F4. Like if Mirk has a big regression this season, we still have plenty of other guys who could step up.
Compare that to MSU for example. If Fears regressed they would most likely struggle.
Just bought tickets for the UNC game in Nashville!
ILL
ILL
RichardKeenesCousin
Richard Keene's Cousin
I just want everyone to be healthy and win every game, all the way to the very last one. I don't think that is too much to ask.
My bar is much lower. I just want to win the last 6 games.
Fantastic article. If this works, will be great for recruiting - who wouldn’t want to play in this scheme?
Curbelo Fanboy
BERTBALL IS LIFE
Same here. We have the talent. We have the fire. Just need the breaks at the right time to finish the job.
Really awesome read. It feels like it ties back to what @illini0440 has alluded to this offseason, namely in this post:
Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread
Also as someone else said, injuries happen and no program can “injury-proof” their roster through having guys who could start on another high major team and earn a million dollars in NIL come here to play 7 minutes and earn 150k (or whatever the 9th man makes). Wow, a poster that makes claims...
www.illinoisloyalty.com
I really liked this quote from the article: "During the Civil War, everyone trained at West Point, and it became the bloodiest war in our country’s history because “everyone was doing the same s—.”
It seems like now more than ever, it's critical to be two steps ahead in order to truly compete for a championship, so I appreciate the balls it takes to go out and overhaul the offense, especially in a year when you have so much retention.
Curbelo Fanboy
BERTBALL IS LIFE
I just read it & am reporting that I might be ERECT now.
Curbelo Fanboy
BERTBALL IS LIFE
Who knows if he gets it done but it says a lot that Brad is willing to take this on as a way to get to the mountain top. Not just change for change sake but a way to risk it all for the biggest possible reward.Really awesome read. It feels like it ties back to what @illini0440 has alluded to this offseason, namely in this post:
Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread
Also as someone else said, injuries happen and no program can “injury-proof” their roster through having guys who could start on another high major team and earn a million dollars in NIL come here to play 7 minutes and earn 150k (or whatever the 9th man makes). Wow, a poster that makes claims...
I really liked this quote from the article: "During the Civil War, everyone trained at West Point, and it became the bloodiest war in our country’s history because “everyone was doing the same s—.”
It seems like now more than ever, it's critical to be two steps ahead in order to truly compete for a championship, so I appreciate the balls it takes to go out and overhaul the offense, especially in a year when you have so much retention.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Never underestimate the turnout of a Blue Blood with bandwagon fans in all states, but given how many fans we had there last year and the hype surrounding our team coming into this season ... I have a feeling Nashville will be filled with Illini fans!Just bought tickets for the UNC game in Nashville!
ILL
I'm excited to see how the approach works this year. I like the flexibility of the staff.Really awesome read. It feels like it ties back to what @illini0440 has alluded to this offseason, namely in this post:
Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread
Also as someone else said, injuries happen and no program can “injury-proof” their roster through having guys who could start on another high major team and earn a million dollars in NIL come here to play 7 minutes and earn 150k (or whatever the 9th man makes). Wow, a poster that makes claims...
I really liked this quote from the article: "During the Civil War, everyone trained at West Point, and it became the bloodiest war in our country’s history because “everyone was doing the same s—.”
It seems like now more than ever, it's critical to be two steps ahead in order to truly compete for a championship, so I appreciate the balls it takes to go out and overhaul the offense, especially in a year when you have so much retention.
I'll probably get skewered for saying anything that isn't 100% positive, but this stood out to me: "Underwood embraced a five-out offense a few years ago when behemoth center Kofi Cockburn left for the pros. Cockburn was the classic anchor in the middle who won in the physical Big Ten. But the Big Ten hadn’t won a national championship since 2000, and that’s what Underwood was after. He believed skill, spacing and shooting, preferably with positional size, would win in March."
What about Mara, Clingan, etc (even Florida got ~30 minutes from Chinyelu and Handlogten)? I have nothing against a 5-out offense. I just think it's obvious that traditional big men can still win (though it isn't clear whether Underwood or the author is claiming otherwise).
Curbelo Fanboy
BERTBALL IS LIFE
One issue is it just seems there aren't as many of the classic big men as there used to be. They are taught at high school/prep school to play more of the 5 out style. The highly skilled big man that plays a true power inside game has always been a rarity but it is even moreso in the modern game.
Z fits the archetype of all those guys as a shot blocker. On top of that, he's got the ability to knock down shots.
We just haven't seen it fully come together, from a consistentcy standpoint.
Per EvanMiya,
Last year there were 164 players who returned to CBB who shot at least 40% from three the year prior (min 40 attempts). Only 13% of them shot above 40% again the next year, and just 7% matched or improved their percentage from prior.
Last year there were 164 players who returned to CBB who shot at least 40% from three the year prior (min 40 attempts). Only 13% of them shot above 40% again the next year, and just 7% matched or improved their percentage from prior.
It felt like leaving the 2025 season we had the best of both worlds with Tomi. Last season was defined by Keaton and Mirk. But Tomi regressing from someone who looked prime for a year-2 breakout to an above average 5-man was moderately disappointing.
And we had hoped a healthy offseason would provide some tailwinds going into this season. And then he got stuck in Croatia. I hope to eat crow in a few weeks.
But we had a guy averaging 7.7 rebounds as a sophomore. And I understand he probably boxed out to help our guards and Mirk grab some boards last year. But with Mirk out, we need the 2025 Tomi to protect our defensive boards against the likes of TTU, Duke, and UConn. The battle vs. Ngongba and Hines will really define Tomi's progress in the program (or potentially lack thereof).
I havent posted much but i was kinda reading how situation will develop for our guys and at least for me, this is very concerning change, even bigger than some injuries from recent time. Article mentioned Miami Heat as an example for that and it caused them to have good offense but once teams scouted it, they couldnt buy a bucket or even defend decently despite having some really good defenders.
This is such a predictable gimmick offense that will fail spectacularly once teams adjust when games that actually matter which will happen most likely in March. Dont get me wrong, you will still run some weaker teams out of the gym and win a lot of games but i dont see this as a good thing. Playing fast sounds nice but its like everything in basketball, game of give and take. If you wanna win the whole thing, this isnt the way, this most likely put you on upset alert coming March.
Let me try to explain why, you will start playing high pace, 5-out basketball, score a lot of points and cause defensive chaos early on because you will be harder to scout and other teams wont really have time or personel to focus on multiple threats who could go off each night. It will be nice watch, especially against less talented opponents, with that no-ball screen heavy movement offense. It will work wonders on less talented players that will develop and help them make plays and make them look better by putting pressure on opponents. It will come handy in spring when NIL money becomes a factor.
If you watched Miami last season, you know what happened. Without ball screens to create separation, their drivers often collided into wall-off paint coverages. This led to a ton of bricked shots and bad spacing. Because Heat was playing at such an exhausting pace, these bad misses turned into long rebounds and immediate track meets going the other way, testing already bad transition defense. Opponents ran directly down the Heat's throats. Playing a "zero-play" offense requires continuous, almost frantic cutting and re-spacing from all 5 players. When opponents adjusted, Miami’s players lacked the stamina to maintain both that offensive pace and their standard, high-energy defensive closeouts. They looked slow out on the perimeter, giving up big scoring nights to elite ball-handlers and scoring guards who feasted on lazy, delayed contests that came out of fatigue. In the end, like i mentioned above, silver lining from last season from Heat were exactly those players nobody expected to do as good - Jaquez and Pelle Larson while their "stars" struggled to find real chemistry and faced some chemistry and injury issues between them.
This is when things get interesting. When only option to gain offensive advantage is off-the-dribble, your best players will tend to overdribble and take contested shots late in the clock once they face decent defenders. You'd think it would be hard to stop and would require some generational defensive plan but it wont take that much. Teams will stay home on shooters and wont over-help from the wing defenders, just stunts. Some teams will be sagging one-on-one coverage against Andrej, without getting beaten off the dribble (easier said than done, but the some teams will have the right personnel), and late paint help by their bigs - only when the Illini drivers commit for the lay-up. As a result, the primary weapon of every drive and kick offense - the kick for a 3-point shot - will be limited. The ball wont move as good as you would like, and most of the shots will be tough, off the dribble, and contested.
Whole Larry Bird comp they threw at David Mirkovic is just poor and wont age well. Not because David isnt talented but because its just limiting his game to ISO basketball and drive & kicks. Guy that showed his versatility and ability to be used on multiple ways such in PnR as both handler and roller, pop threat, cutter, elbow and post threat, as well as offensive rebound threat is exactly what made him ranked so high and dangerous players in preseason despite not even playing in preseason because of injury. Simply said, this smells like mismanagement.
Rebounding might also become an issue for you guys, despite having size this could kill opportunities for offensive rebounds. OREBs helped you guys win some games and possession battles that ended up going in your favor. Because this offense weaponizes a 5-out style to pull opposing bigs out of the paint, when shots go up your players will also be spaced out, but not like it was last season. On the defensive glass, running at such a high tempo will force cross-matches in transition. Instead of traditional box-outs, your guards and wings will be often caught trying to check larger players on the block. Coleman is already elite rebounder for a guard, but you cant rely on him as a freshman to check bigger players night after night w/o getting in foul trouble. This could lead to rebounding troubles that will make some games that could be seen as "easy" on paper to become harder than expected.
In (not so) short, the no-ball-screen offense requires a serious physical tax. Once the easy buckets dry up, Illini might be left playing a track-style game with a roster built for a half-court basketball that eventually led them to success. True, there are no Wagler anymore but most of the other players are there from same run and probably it would require less adjustment and chemistry to build up for new offense.