Illini Basketball Uniforms

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#51      
Fighter of the Nightman
chibar said:
I don't hate our current set, but change is always exciting.

If we were to get any updated jerseys next season, would we be hearing about it by now?

Also, the people in here upset with the current set are probably an older demographic than the 18 year olds it really needs to appeal to. I wonder if the kids like them, plus, they are associated with the success of the past few years
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To continue to die on this hill, a few counterpoints:

1. I am 32, so while I am certainly "old" in the eyes of 18-year olds, it's not like I am pining to wear the uniforms I remember from ~back in my day~ or something, haha. I never saw the Flyin' Illini uniforms in person, let alone the Script ones ... I just like them because they objectively look like a lot more thought and care went into their designs than the cookie cutter ones we got from Nike, which are almost identical designs to what Creighton and (especially!) Clemson have, for example.

2. Regarding younger players, I do remember Coleman tweeting something funny last year about how they wanted new uniforms and they had been wearing the same set for like 7 years ... so at least some of the players don't like them or at least want something new.

3. On that same point, if you look at college basketball social media accounts like March Madness Analysis or CBK Report, the vast majority of people commenting are young (almost certainly under 25). And when they do lists of the best uniforms in the country, the Flyin' Illini and especially the Script uniforms are often featured ... whereas I have never seen anyone of any age say anything good about our current set. I have specifically seen many non-Illini-fan young people comment that our Script uniforms are some of the best in college hoops and the best of the best as far as the "script trend."

4. I posted this in another thread, but I REALLY don't think the current uniforms are uniquely associated with this era. If you were 18 in the 2021 season when we were OFFICIALLY "back" and started following the Illini closely, here are just some of the best memories of the past 5+ years where we wore one of the throwbacks. Again, I think those two throwbacks are equally associated with memories of Ayo, Kofi, Trent, TSJ, etc. at this point:

2021
- Orange Flyin' Illini for our shocking 76-53 win at #2 Michigan without Ayo.
- White Script for our BTT Semifinal win over #5 rival Iowa to advance to the BTT Championship Game.
- White Script as we hoisted our first Big Ten Championship trophy of any kind since 2005 after beating #9 Ohio State in OT in the BTT Championship Game.

2022
- Orange Flyin' Illini for a 74-57 beatdown of rival Indiana in Bloomington that catapulted this team into the top 15, in what was a super hyped Saturday game that Indiana desperately needed to win.
- White Script for a thrilling 74-72 win over #24 Iowa to end the season and clinch our first Big Ten regular season title since 2005.

2023
- Orange Flyin' Illini for our OT upset of #2 Texas at MSG.

2024
- White Script for our exciting 98-89 win over #11 FAU at MSG.
- White Script for our victory over Wisconsin in the BTT Championship, marking our third Big Ten Championship banner of some kind in the last four years.

2025
- Orange Flyin' Illini for our Thanksgiving Day beatdown of #19 Arkansas in Kansas City, which was the most viewed regular season college hoops game in 15+ years.
- Orange Flyin' Illini for our literally historic 109-77 win at #9 Oregon.
- Orange Flyin' Illini for our (also historic) 94-69 beatdown of Indiana in Bloomington, marking the Hoosiers' worst-ever loss at home.

We've obviously had good memories in the defaults as well (e.g., beating Iowa State last year to make the Elite Eight). However, my point is that we have worn one of the two throwbacks SO often - including in tons of really big and memorable games - that our current default set is probably less associated with this current era than any past uniforms have been when they were worn.
 
#53      
Fighter of the Nightman
Toews said:
I associate Ayo and Kofi with the scripts. I associate last year and TSJ, along with the current team, with the default orange specifically. Feel like the team has sort of moved away from the throwbacks oddly.
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On that last note, we have now gone 5 games since wearing the Flyin' Illini throwbacks (last worn for the Duke loss on February 22) and 6 games since wearing the Script throwbacks (last worn for the MSU loss on February 15).

Some people would try to say the team is superstitious and thinks those uniforms are "cursed" now or whatever ... but we wore the default whites for our embarrassing home loss to Maryland, and we busted them right back out two games later! We also wore our default orange for the disastrous outing at Nebraska, our beatdown defeat at Wisconsin and now for our most recent humiliation vs. Maryland in the BTT, lol.

So I guess we only follow superstition when it applies to the throwbacks. :ROFLMAO:
 
#54      
ugottabjoshinme
Fighter of the Nightman said:
On that last note, we have now gone 5 games since wearing the Flyin' Illini throwbacks (last worn for the Duke loss on February 22) and 6 games since wearing the Script throwbacks (last worn for the MSU loss on February 15).

Some people would try to say the team is superstitious and thinks those uniforms are "cursed" now or whatever ... but we wore the default whites for our embarrassing home loss to Maryland, and we busted them right back out two games later! We also wore our default orange for the disastrous outing at Nebraska, our beatdown defeat at Wisconsin and now for our most recent humiliation vs. Maryland in the BTT, lol.

So I guess we only follow superstition when it applies to the throwbacks. :ROFLMAO:
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So, the only ones that aren't cursed this year are the Blues...
 
#55      
Fighter of the Nightman
ugottabjoshinme said:
So, the only ones that aren't cursed this year are the Blues...
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Yep, but someone on the staff was clearly scared $hitless after the PSU loss last year. :ROFLMAO: FWIW, this is probably the worst loss (at least IMO) in each uniform this year, ranked in order of how much it sucked. Some were so bad for different reasons that I had to have a tie, lol.

Regular Orange
L 65-88 at Maryland
L 74-80 at Nebraska
L 74-95 at Wisconsin

Regular White
L 71-90 vs. Maryland

Regular Navy
N/A

White Script
L 72-82 vs. USC

Orange Flyin' Illini
L 67-110 vs. Duke at MSG

It sucks that we had to wear the Flyin' Illini uniform for the Duke game, because that was going to be ugly no matter what. :ROFLMAO:
 
#56      
ugottabjoshinme
Fighter of the Nightman said:
Yep, but someone on the staff was clearly scared $hitless after the PSU loss last year. :ROFLMAO: FWIW, this is probably the worst loss (at least IMO) in each uniform this year, ranked in order of how much it sucked. Some were so bad for different reasons that I had to have a tie, lol.

Regular Orange
L 65-88 at Maryland
L 74-80 at Nebraska
L 74-95 at Wisconsin

Regular White
L 71-90 vs. Maryland

Regular Navy
N/A

White Script
L 72-82 vs. USC

Orange Flyin' Illini
L 67-110 vs. Duke at MSG

It sucks that we had to wear the Flyin' Illini uniform for the Duke game, because that was going to be ugly no matter what. :ROFLMAO:
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That PSU loss last year in that little dungeon still give me nightmares too...
 
#58      
Fighter of the Nightman
UDillini said:
Nothing new here - just another day to be thankful we aren’t Wisconsin - they are wearing some nasty uniforms right now - including that world famous Madison skyline on the back!
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Haha, I never noticed that. Yeah, no disrespect mean to any mid-sized cities (they are often excellent places to live!), but you really can't "stylize" a skyline well if you are not one of 7-8 cities.
 
#59      
OrangeBlue98
Fighter of the Nightman said:
Haha, I never noticed that. Yeah, no disrespect mean to any mid-sized cities (they are often excellent places to live!), but you really can't "stylize" a skyline well if you are not one of 7-8 cities.
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Drake did this a few years ago. Since Des Moines has one really tall building, it basically looked like a capitol building and a phallic symbol. :ROFLMAO:

godrakebulldogs.com

Des Moines’ Hometown Team Uniforms Unveiled - Drake University Athletics

The Drake University men's and women's basketball teams officially unveiled special Des Moines' Hometown Team uniforms that will be worn during the team's upcoming
godrakebulldogs.com godrakebulldogs.com
 
#63      
Cook
Fighter of the Nightman said:
First throwback appearance in almost a month and first time seeing the Script since mid-February! So good to see ‘em back, and I’m hoping we wear these (if UK wants to wear blue) or the orange Flyin’ Illini (if UK wants to wear white) on Sunday!!
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Big time, I had a great feeling when I saw the tweet that we were wearing the white scripts. Praying we don't wear any 1ll1no1s versions tomorrow or the rest of the way! Would be fantastic if someone could sneak into the equipment trailer and burn them leaving only the throwbacks as options. Kidding, not kidding. :sneaky:
 
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#64      
splitter
Cook said:
Big time, I had a great feeling when I saw the tweet that we were wearing the white scripts. Praying we don't wear any 1ll1no1s versions tomorrow or the rest of the way! Would be fantastic if someone could sneak into the equipment trailer and burn them leaving only the throwbacks as options. Kidding, not kidding. :sneaky:
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If you do, probably shouldn't leave just the blue ones. Even tho i like them and am not stupidstitious.
 
#66      
Toews
Fighter of the Nightman said:
If Nike didn’t suck, we’d be busting out the Orange Script or Navy Flyin’ Illini tomorrow! However I’ll gladly accept either of the current throwbacks!!
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I’d love the Flyin Illini I just worry the team has soured on them since Duke. Though they did bring out the script uniforms yesterday so let’s hope.
 
#67      
Fighter of the Nightman
Toews said:
I’d love the Flyin Illini I just worry the team has soured on them since Duke. Though they did bring out the script uniforms yesterday so let’s hope.
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Well I think Kentucky will wear white, so at what point does Regular Orange become just as bad of juju considering we wore it just the other week during an embarrassing loss to Maryland??
 
#68      
Toews
Fighter of the Nightman said:
Well I think Kentucky will wear white, so at what point does Regular Orange become just as bad of juju considering we wore it just the other week during an embarrassing loss to Maryland??
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Yeah I just think a matchup like Kentucky-Illinois for a sweet 16 deserves the crisp flyin Illini jersey (like you said we can’t wear scripts)
 
#74      
Fighter of the Nightman
redwingillini11 said:
Need new defaults (which should be throwbacks). And if the 05s aren’t ready to go for 2029-30, Josh gets a demerit.
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On this note, I’m surprised that after years of removing SO much of the stink from the Mike Thomas years, it doesn’t piss Josh off to still look at an awful rebrand conducted under MT’s watch … it’s been well over a decade, and it’s past time JW puts his stamp on the brand.
 
#75      
redwingillini11
Fighter of the Nightman said:
On this note, I’m surprised that after years of removing SO much of the stink from the Mike Thomas years, it doesn’t piss Josh off to still look at an awful rebrand conducted under MT’s watch … it’s been well over a decade, and it’s past time JW puts his stamp on the brand.
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Last year he did indicate at a Fan Council meeting that they would be looking at a reset of sorts on the Illinois branding. Saying that after 10 years the individual athletic programs have all kind of gone off in their own directions, and it might be time to bring them closer together. It sounded like maybe a soft/half rebrand. If that is still ongoing, maybe we could still be due for new uniforms this fall, or maybe more likely fall 2026.

But I agree that it is a bit surprising he hasn’t done more to move away from the MT rebrand. I imagine part of it is how they can’t make these changes too often. But also, Brad technically made this latest design of the defaults happen when he got here. So it’s not like we are wearing John Groce era uniforms.
 
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