Not that athletic? For a 7 footer, he is very athletic. He can go coast to coast in no time. Very good ball skills and can shoot the 3. I see the skinny part but he has all of the tools. To me, he is more of a tall 3-4. He can slash, dribble drive, stop and pop, score at all 3 levels. He is very skilled. To bad he doesn't bring those skills here to Champaign. Be glad to have him.
Illini Basketball
- Status
Funny how many people are quick to judge a 6-10 or 7 foot kid as “not athletic” yet they are dribbling down the court at a sprint, slashing through the lane and dunking on people.
Does anyone else feel the B1G struggles in the tournament because of the overreliance on traditional bigs? We're a better team with Kofi and want him back but I'm looking forward to seeing how this team does with bigger and better wings and more versatility with stretch bigs.
UNC almost won the whole thing with a traditional big.
Maybe, but Kansas, NC and Duke all had what I would consider as traditional bigs but they were all more mobile than Kofi.
TheFameProtector
- Champaign
I think we struggle in the tournament b/c we simply attract less top-end talent. Most (not all, paging Baylor last year) teams that go far do so on the backs of multiple top 50 (or much higher) recruits. Just see UNC for example: underwhelming season, yet when the games became really important their multiple top recruits really showed out. Caleb Love never looked like he would live up to being the #13 ranked recruit until the end of the season, when he all of a sudden looked like Kobe.
Is Bacot as effective without Manek stretching the floor? How many of those teams relied on their traditional big to play 30+ minutes and score most of their points? I'm not saying it's not possible to succeed with a traditional post, just that teams in general seem to be less effective when they're used as the primary weapon.
Kansas sure seemed to look for McCormack a lot in the Final 4 and Championship rounds...
You just need a solid plan B. This year, we didn't really have that.
Must be nice to have all starters scoring double digits on a consistent basis. That's asking for too much for us next year but I think it could happen. My dream is for RJ to develop into the go to guy at the end of the shot clock. Trent was sometimes that player but that role was never really defined this past year. Given how fouls are called, and the general flow of the offense, we need a guard/wing to be that guy. Kofi gets too much focus and easily scouted without it.
Looking for RJ to become Malcom Hill on a much better team?
2005 had 5 guys that could score. You could not leave anybody open on the perimeter. The ball moved like lightning with the extra pass to find the open man.
Dee, Deron, Luther, James and Roger
1989 had 5 guys that could score - the three pointer was not popular back then
Nick, Kenny, Lowell, Steve and Kendall
Last year we looked to Ayo and Kofi - everybody else was complementary and only took wide open 3's (except for Andre who took layups)
This year we looked to Alphonso and Kofi - the offense would stagnate when opponents triple teamed Kofi. The 3's were not wide open and Andre was not available.
next year if Kofi does not come back it could be very exciting or very difficult
-- 1989 Jens Kujawa 7 ft went back to Germany after 1988 season so the Illini could no longer pound the ball inside
-- 2003 Brian Cook graduated and went to NBA. Self took his high low offense to KS and we got the motion offense from Weber.
Dee, Deron, Luther, James and Roger
1989 had 5 guys that could score - the three pointer was not popular back then
Nick, Kenny, Lowell, Steve and Kendall
Last year we looked to Ayo and Kofi - everybody else was complementary and only took wide open 3's (except for Andre who took layups)
This year we looked to Alphonso and Kofi - the offense would stagnate when opponents triple teamed Kofi. The 3's were not wide open and Andre was not available.
next year if Kofi does not come back it could be very exciting or very difficult
-- 1989 Jens Kujawa 7 ft went back to Germany after 1988 season so the Illini could no longer pound the ball inside
-- 2003 Brian Cook graduated and went to NBA. Self took his high low offense to KS and we got the motion offense from Weber.
Not at all or at least not in that same way. I like guys that can do a bit of everything but that usually emerges out of others on the team having a deficiency. We're a better team when scoring is more spread out. If a guy emerges as a natural bucket getter that teams have a hard time containing, then you have to let them do their thing, but it should be known who our go to guy is that has the confidence to want the ball at the end of the shot clock or in the midst of a scoring drought.
Kevin Durant and Ben Simmons are examples of what athletic looks like at that size. Holmgren is clearly not at that level.
How to say you've never watched an entire Holmgren game without saying it.
How to say you don't understand nba athleticism without saying it.
Lol. Dude. All due respect but KD and Simmons are two of the best athletes of all time, and at the top of their game are two of the best players in the world. He doesn’t have to be on their level of athleticism to be call athletic or be considered not athletic if he’s a tier below them.
Durant was 225 at the Combine and Holmgren is 190. 35 pounds is quite a difference.
215, not 225. He also did famously bad at the bench press. Couldn't even do one rep at 185.
We now have next-level-training. IlliniMBB and IlliniWrestling:
Tacomallini
- Washington State
I see this going down a couple ways - BU and crew knew all about it and love it or BU and the crew had no idea until these pics and are fuming that they'd risk the injury (cue "Lighten Up, Francis" GIFs)
blackdog
- Champaign
No way that is getting posted on an official Illinois sports page without BU having signed off on it already
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