Illini Basketball

ChiefGritty · May 16, 2024

Hadn't seen these mentioned:

Men's Bracketology: The fact that UConn even has a chance to three-peat is amazing

The last time anyone saw an NCAA basketball three-peat the heroes were John Wooden, Bill Walton and the UCLA Bruins. Enter the current UConn Huskies.

www.espn.com

Men's WTE Top 25: Kansas, Houston, Gonzaga are the new top 3

Kansas remains the preseason No. 1 but the rest of the top 10 is just as loaded, and coming for that spot.

www.espn.com

Not listed even among the 5 "next in line" schools in the way-too-early Top 25, and among the "Last Four In" playing in a play-in game in Bracketology.

(Purdue #13 3-seed, Indiana #16 4-seed, UCLA #17 5-seed, Ohio State #22 6-seed, Maryland #24 10-seed, Oregon Next in Line 11-seed, Rutgers Next in Line 9-seed, Michigan State 7-seed, Michigan 7-seed, Wisconsin Northwestern and Nebraska First Four Our, Iowa Next Four Out.)

It has to be the least projectible season in the history of college basketball with the level of player movement among the top teams, there are wide error bars for literally everybody.

But for all the chest thumping hype around here about how Daddy Brad will always make fools of any doubters, we have been in the preseason rankings four years in a row now. We're a considerable distance from that as the roster stands.

NarrowJ · May 16, 2024

ChiefGritty said:
But for all the chest thumping hype around here about how Daddy Brad will always make fools of any doubters, we have been in the preseason rankings four years in a row now. We're a considerable distance from that as the roster stands.

That's odd, I have had the exact opposite experience here lol.. Where are all of these posts you speak of?

Bigtex · May 16, 2024

ChiefGritty said:
Hadn't seen these mentioned:

Men's Bracketology: The fact that UConn even has a chance to three-peat is amazing

The last time anyone saw an NCAA basketball three-peat the heroes were John Wooden, Bill Walton and the UCLA Bruins. Enter the current UConn Huskies.

www.espn.com

Men's WTE Top 25: Kansas, Houston, Gonzaga are the new top 3

Kansas remains the preseason No. 1 but the rest of the top 10 is just as loaded, and coming for that spot.

www.espn.com

Not listed even among the 5 "next in line" schools in the way-too-early Top 25, and among the "Last Four In" playing in a play-in game in Bracketology.

(Purdue #13 3-seed, Indiana #16 4-seed, UCLA #17 5-seed, Ohio State #22 6-seed, Maryland #24 10-seed, Oregon Next in Line 11-seed, Rutgers Next in Line 9-seed, Michigan State 7-seed, Michigan 7-seed, Wisconsin Northwestern and Nebraska First Four Our, Iowa Next Four Out.)

It has to be the least projectible season in the history of college basketball with the level of player movement among the top teams, there are wide error bars for literally everybody.

But for all the chest thumping hype around here about how Daddy Brad will always make fools of any doubters, we have been in the preseason rankings four years in a row now. We're a considerable distance from that as the roster stands.

Yep This is the only place where the general consensus is that Illinois has had a good portal year. Most places only have boswell ranked as a portal get. Love to prove them wrong as winter rolls in.

sacraig · May 16, 2024

NarrowJ said:
That's odd, I have had the exact opposite experience here lol.. Where are all of these posts you speak of?

Both sets of people exist in here. A lot of folks just tune out or hyper-focus on the ones that don't align with their own worldviews.

NarrowJ · May 16, 2024

sacraig said:
Both sets of people exist in here. A lot of folks just tune out or hyper-focus on the ones that don't align with their own worldviews.

Don't really think I'm tuning anything out or hyper-focusing on anything, I just objectively have seen far more 'bottom half B1G' prognostications than I have 'Final Four' guarantees.

ChiefGritty · May 16, 2024

sacraig said:
Both sets of people exist in here. A lot of folks just tune out or hyper-focus on the ones that don't align with their own worldviews.

The general mood of a game thread (even a win!) and any postgame thread after a loss versus the recruiting thread are totally unrecognizable from one another, despite amazingly including many of the same people.

But as the discussion has gone this offseason, it's one pessimistic or concerned post and literally like five pages of everyone gif-dunking on it. Which is fine, but let's just accurately observe the tenor of the conversation.

Anyway, these things are called "way too early" for a reason. We aren't done, nor are others.

Illinidrew · May 16, 2024

Pre-season rankings mean nothing, especially 6 months before the season starts with an incomplete roster.

LvilleILL · May 16, 2024

ChiefGritty said:
But as the discussion has gone this offseason, it's one pessimistic or concerned post and literally like five pages of everyone gif-dunking on it. Which is fine, but let's just accurately observe the tenor of the conversation.

Maybe because it's largely the same group of people that do this every year before, during, and after the season

ChiefGritty · May 16, 2024

LvilleILL said:
Maybe because it's largely the same group of people that do this every year before, during, and after the season

Lotta that going around

NarrowJ · May 16, 2024

LvilleILL said:
Maybe because it's largely the same group of people that do this every year before, during, and after the season

Well, that and the fact that we have a long string of evidence that maybe Brad does, in fact, know what the heck he is doing.

jacekpardol · May 16, 2024

Bigtex said:
Yep This is the only place where the general consensus is that Illinois has had a good portal year. Most places only have boswell ranked as a portal get. Love to prove them wrong as winter rolls in.

Unfortunately this is correct. "Doomers" on Loyalty are just the consensus from a national perspective. The portal is still not yet done and we should withhold final judgement. Having said that, if we don't land an alpha type talent you can put me in the "concerned" camp.

BretMyBeachHouse · May 16, 2024

Bucktown said:
In the late 1980's there were several years in a row were we played a high quality non-conference game during the Big Ten season. Perhaps the league office during that period left a spot in the schedule for every team to schedule a non-conference game? We played Georgia Tech twice, Houston, Arizona, and maybe others.

Oklahoma? Definitely happened. Not sure of date.

NarrowJ · May 16, 2024

Just curious what team rankings aka 'national perspective' thats being used to justify the 'Loyalty Doomer' mentality/takes?

247 has us as 15th in team rankings, 23rd if you sort by 'Avg' ranking (so as to satisfy those folks who think quantity doesn't matter).

We're also adding another pretty big piece which should move us up quite a bit there.

PizzaHutParkingLot · May 16, 2024

Bigtex said:
Yep This is the only place where the general consensus is that Illinois has had a good portal year. Most places only have boswell ranked as a portal get. Love to prove them wrong as winter rolls in.

Instead of one Marcus Domask, how about five?

jacekpardol · May 16, 2024

NarrowJ said:
Just curious what team rankings are being used to justify the 'Loyalty Doomer' mentality/takes?

247 has us as 15th in team rankings, 23rd if you sort by 'Avg' ranking (so as to satisfy those folks who think quantity doesn't matter).

We're also adding another pretty big piece which should move us up quite a bit there.

I think the way-too early preseason lists Gritty posted along with guys like Sleepers, the Field of 68, Torvik. Doesn't seem like any of the national guys think too highly of us next season.

That being said, I think we're one Alpha away from making noise next year. Let's hope it happens and make these guys eat crow.

sacraig · May 16, 2024

ChiefGritty said:
The general mood of a game thread (even a win!) and any postgame thread after a loss versus the recruiting thread are totally unrecognizable from one another, despite amazingly including many of the same people.

But as the discussion has gone this offseason, it's one pessimistic or concerned post and literally like five pages of everyone gif-dunking on it. Which is fine, but let's just accurately observe the tenor of the conversation.

Anyway, these things are called "way too early" for a reason. We aren't done, nor are others.

I remain cautiously optimistic because each of the last few seasons (in the era of portal insanity) have had a lot of uncertainty and a lot of posters thinking the sky is falling, yet we keep being at or near the top of the Big Ten. I think Brad & Co.

have earned a certain measure of my trust.

Emerson Bigguns · May 16, 2024

NarrowJ said:
Well, that and the fact that we have a long string of evidence that maybe Brad does, in fact, know what the heck he is doing.

I don't think he's scheduling a bunch of heavy weights to roll the dice hoping for a quad 1 win. I think he truly believes we will win those games, or at least be highly competitive. BU has typically been pretty good at getting the most out of the talent he has.

From a team building perspective this will be Brad's biggest challenge since his first year here. Back then, talent was a major issue. It won't be next year. IMO the coaching staff has never been stronger.

A lot of these guys need to develop physically... we now have two of the best S&C coaches in the business.
We have a lot of front court pieces that haven't quite put it all together previously... we have perhaps the premier big man coach in the business.

We have an emerging, criminally under-rated offensive coach. I believe if Tyler's last name was Smith, we'd have been singing his praises all last season. Instead, half the comments about him are more focused on who his dad is than the job he has actually done. As if being Brad's kid negates all the positives he has brought to the table.

I really like the length and athleticism we will be putting out there. I realize it doesn't look overwhelming on paper at this point form a previous stats standpoint, but this is a very talented group. Testing them early in the season is going to be really instructive to Brad and Co. It should pay dividends by the time the B1G season rolls around.

Just get another guard...

SoCal Illini · May 16, 2024

Fighter of the Nightman said:
EDIT: This is why I think the perfect series are one of the following:

1. A two-game series with a Blue Blood and/or other elite program that recruits nationally, with one game at the United Center and another game somewhere like Madison Square Garden. This gives both teams what they want, but we would likely have to stagger it with another UC option or just live with the UC game being every other year.

2. The more traditional "neutral-neutral" series like we used to do, where we would play a team in their big neutral market, and they would return a game at the United Center with us. We have done this with the following teams in the last 30 years:

UCLA: Chicago in 1996-97, Los Angeles in 1997-98
Clemson: Chicago in 1997-98, Greenville in 1998-99
Kansas: Kansas City in 1998-99, Chicago in 1999-00
Duke: Chicago in 1999-00, Greensboro in 2000-01 (though this was the Big Ten/ACC Challenge, so maybe not the best example)
Arizona: Chicago in 2000-01, Phoenix in 2001-02; Phoenix in 2006-07, Chicago in 2007-08
Arkansas: Chicago in 2001-02, Little Rock in 2002-03; Chicago in 2003-04, Little Rock in 2004-05
Oregon: Chicago in 2004-05, Portland in 2005-06; Portland in 2012-13, Chicago in 2014-15
Xavier: Chicago in 2005-06, Cincinnati (neutral arena) in 2006-07
Georgia: Chicago in 2008-09, Atlanta in 2009-10
Gonzaga: Chicago in 2009-10, Seattle in 2010-11
UNLV: Chicago in 2011-12, Las Vegas in 2013-14
Auburn: Chicago in 2012-13, Atlanta in 2013-14

Ucla in 97-98 was at Pauley pavilion, so not neutral. I was there. The bruins got the hometown referee treatment big time.

WyattEarp · May 16, 2024

Emerson Bigguns said:
I don't think he's scheduling a bunch of heavy weights to roll the dice hoping for a quad 1 win. I think he truly believes we will win those games, or at least be highly competitive. BU has typically been pretty good at getting the most out of the talent he has.

From a team building perspective this will be Brad's biggest challenge since his first year here. Back then, talent was a major issue. It won't be next year. IMO the coaching staff has never been stronger.

A lot of these guys need to develop physically... we now have two of the best S&C coaches in the business.
We have a lot of front court pieces that haven't quite put it all together previously... we have perhaps the premier big man coach in the business.

We have an emerging, criminally under-rated offensive coach. I believe if Tyler's last name was Smith, we'd have been singing his praises all last season. Instead, half the comments about him are more focused on who his dad is than the job he has actually done. As if being Brad's kid negates all the positives he has brought to the table.

I really like the length and athleticism we will be putting out there. I realize it doesn't look overwhelming on paper at this point form a previous stats standpoint, but this is a very talented group. Testing them early in the season is going to be really instructive to Brad and Co. It should pay dividends by the time the B1G season rolls around.

Just get another guard...

I can get behind all that.( I thought Jon Sanderson went to Vandy or somewhere? If that is who u meant on SC side…)

RabidDawgClassic · May 16, 2024

BretMyBeachHouse said:
Oklahoma? Definitely happened. Not sure of date.

Oklahoma was pre-conference (84-85) but we did play Seton Hall during conference play during Corey Bradford’s tenure.

ChiefGritty · May 16, 2024

I'd say I am generally in favor of strict segregation between conference and non-conference, but hey, what does "conference" even mean anymore, that horse long since left the barn anyway.

Kenny67 · May 16, 2024

Illinidrew said:
Pre-season rankings mean nothing, especially 6 months before the season starts with an incomplete roster.

Bro Illinidrew ...
Exactly ...
The last two bball seasons the Illini Nation has seen a chemistry mix disaster in 22/23 and a pleasant elite 8 mix in 23/24.
The tea leaves read plus our Statistics 101 forecasts for 24/25 say the bball team mix probably is likely between the two past seasons.
We will know by mid to late Jan 25 else every thing else is speculation.

Birdus · May 16, 2024

ChiefGritty said:
The general mood of a game thread (even a win!) and any postgame thread after a loss versus the recruiting thread are totally unrecognizable from one another, despite amazingly including many of the same people.

But as the discussion has gone this offseason, it's one pessimistic or concerned post and literally like five pages of everyone gif-dunking on it. Which is fine, but let's just accurately observe the tenor of the conversation.

Anyway, these things are called "way too early" for a reason. We aren't done, nor are others.

I think that this is a good perspective to have. I don't even look at the rankings until around the 5th or 6th weeks sometimes and that's still not the most accurate snap shot. Purdue as a 3? I think they are over the middle of the pack but not in the upper echelon.

The Galloping Ghost · May 16, 2024

ChiefGritty said:
Hadn't seen these mentioned:

Men's Bracketology: The fact that UConn even has a chance to three-peat is amazing

The last time anyone saw an NCAA basketball three-peat the heroes were John Wooden, Bill Walton and the UCLA Bruins. Enter the current UConn Huskies.

www.espn.com

Men's WTE Top 25: Kansas, Houston, Gonzaga are the new top 3

Kansas remains the preseason No. 1 but the rest of the top 10 is just as loaded, and coming for that spot.

www.espn.com

Not listed even among the 5 "next in line" schools in the way-too-early Top 25, and among the "Last Four In" playing in a play-in game in Bracketology.

(Purdue #13 3-seed, Indiana #16 4-seed, UCLA #17 5-seed, Ohio State #22 6-seed, Maryland #24 10-seed, Oregon Next in Line 11-seed, Rutgers Next in Line 9-seed, Michigan State 7-seed, Michigan 7-seed, Wisconsin Northwestern and Nebraska First Four Our, Iowa Next Four Out.)

It has to be the least projectible season in the history of college basketball with the level of player movement among the top teams, there are wide error bars for literally everybody.

But for all the chest thumping hype around here about how Daddy Brad will always make fools of any doubters, we have been in the preseason rankings four years in a row now. We're a considerable distance from that as the roster stands.

Not gonna stress about bracketology in May, man. We know we have a hole. We know we are working to fill it. We know we have a coach that can solve problems. We know we just added one of the best assistants in the game. We'll see where we land once the roster is complete. Right now, though, nobody knows much of anything about where we will be, let alone compared to everybody else. Bracketology is useless at the beginning of the season, let alone now. ESPN is just pumping out meaningless content to get those clicks.

FromTheLogo · May 16, 2024

jacekpardol said:
Unfortunately this is correct. "Doomers" on Loyalty are just the consensus from a national perspective. The portal is still not yet done and we should withhold final judgement. Having said that, if we don't land an alpha type talent you can put me in the "concerned" camp.

Proof of this is the latest Field of 68 YouTube video on 'if Mich St. and Illinois have done enough this off-season.' I rarely if ever listen to Field of 68, but what a waste of time that was. Sad I rationalized myself into watching that garbage.