Illinois 101, UIC 66 (Exhibition) Postgame

#51      
ptgrd23
My observations

1. Cross court passes will be stolen by good teams. Picking up bad habits in exhibitions
2. Morillo and Vaaks are easily picked in traffic. They need to tighten their handles. Andrej shows this trait as well but has improved.
3. Jaksys cant shoot free throws.
4. Coleman is a stud. Will continue our streak of 1 and done.
5. Brown is very nice surprise.
6. Vaaks defense is as bad as everybody said. He appears to be trying hard but lacks athleticism. 6th man shooter role may be where he stays.
7. Despite UIC being terrible program we often barely beat them and even lost 2 times. Nice to see our backups put them away early and maintain 30 point victory margin

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#53      
March2TheArch
Fly Illini Fly! said:
I don’t think it was something we excelled at.

Illinois was 232nd in free throw attempt rate.

Only 19.2% of our total points came from free throws, which was 215th in the country.
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That’s fair.

If you watch a Deron Rippey Jr., Colben Landrew, and Burries (AZ last year)… all freshmen who not only pressured the rim but also finish / draw fouls / kick out.

Teams like UConn love to close out hard on the 3pt line. Need to be able to use their momentum against them and get to the rim.

I see why Tomi often sits corner or wing to lure the Ngongbas, Hines, Thiams etc. away from the basket. But he needs to improve back to being a 35% shooter like 2025 to make the 5-out a credible offense against top 10 opponents.

Keaton scored nearly 50 at Purdue for arguably our best win of the season outside vs. Houston (in HTX).

I think the solve for all of this is for Mirk to take on his Cam Boozer esque role for this team. I hope we have him back for UConn.

TTU is very beatable. Saw their exhibition vs. Kentucky. Lots of stagnancy in their offense without Toppin.

Duke is a freebie. They’ll like be ranked #1 so we lose nothing for a true road loss. Beating a Top 5 UConn with Mirk back on a neutral court could be the crown jewel in an attainable 15-0 midseason streak before we play MSU.
 
#54      
March2TheArch
ptgrd23 said:
My observations

1. Cross court passes will be stolen by good teams. Picking up bad habits in exhibitions
2. Morillo and Vaaks are easily picked in traffic. They need to tighten their handles. Andrej shows this trait as well but has improved.
3. Jaksys cant shoot free throws.
4. Coleman is a stud. Will continue our streak of 1 and done.
5. Brown is very nice surprise.
6. Vaaks defense is as bad as everybody said. He appears to be trying hard but lacks athleticism. 6th man shooter role may be where he stays.
7. Despite UIC being terrible program we often barely beat them and even lost 2 times. Nice to see our backups put them away early and maintain 30 point victory margin

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I would echo the point that I don’t really like this offense fully. I hope Brad is keeping some cards up his sleeve for TTU / Duke / UConn. I imagine that is the case.

Many times our players trap themselves along the baseline, get doubled, and make a bail out pass to the nearside wing or sweep it to the opposite corner. Better teams will easily trigger TOs in these situations.

If you saw our game vs. UConn in the Final Four towards the end, we basically were spamming Keaton ISO. He shot 2/10 from 3.

It’s hard to judge off exhibition and without Mirk. But it would be great to see more PnR action to set up easier advantages for our main scorers.
 
#55      
Fly Illini Fly!
March2TheArch said:
I would echo the point that I don’t really like this offense fully. I hope Brad is keeping some cards up his sleeve for TTU / Duke / UConn. I imagine that is the case.

Many times our players trap themselves along the baseline, get doubled, and make a bail out pass to the nearside wing or sweep it to the opposite corner. Better teams will easily trigger TOs in these situations.

If you saw our game vs. UConn in the Final Four towards the end, we basically were spamming Keaton ISO. He shot 2/10 from 3.

It’s hard to judge off exhibition and without Mirk. But it would be great to see more PnR action to set up easier advantages for our main scorers.
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Maintaining a low turnover rate would be my #1 skepticism/priority with this new offense.

Illinois was 8th in lowest turnover rate last year. It was a massive reason for our success.

When you turn it over, you waste shot opportunities to score / get offensive rebounds, which lowers the chances of being an elite offense.
 
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#56      
EmeraldCityIllini
An exhibition for a valley team, so not really here to mock game plans.

But at this point, I think if you decide to trap Illinois defensively, you’re just DOA.

The Houston game will stick with me for a long time on that front.
 
#57      
RockfordIllini
ptgrd23 said:
My observations

1. Cross court passes will be stolen by good teams. Picking up bad habits in exhibitions
2. Morillo and Vaaks are easily picked in traffic. They need to tighten their handles. Andrej shows this trait as well but has improved.
3. Jaksys cant shoot free throws.
4. Coleman is a stud. Will continue our streak of 1 and done.
5. Brown is very nice surprise.
6. Vaaks defense is as bad as everybody said. He appears to be trying hard but lacks athleticism. 6th man shooter role may be where he stays.
7. Despite UIC being terrible program we often barely beat them and even lost 2 times. Nice to see our backups put them away early and maintain 30 point victory margin

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I still have nightmares about Robo Krepps, whoever the hell that was.
 
#58      
March2TheArch
EmeraldCityIllini said:
An exhibition for a valley team, so not really here to mock game plans.

But at this point, I think if you decide to trap Illinois defensively, you’re just DOA.

The Houston game will stick with me for a long time on that front.
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We had a #5 pick in the draft (who was selected over more athletic/speedy guards with better handles in Acuff, Flemings and Burries for his processing ability) running the offense. Keaton brought up the ball and orchestrated the offense 80-90% of that game.

Keaton was a cheat code. He broke full court pressure by Michigan and UConn and then orchestrated the best half court offense in the nation as a near 20-pt per game scorer alongside 5 boards and 5 assists.

You saw what happened to UConn when they lost Castle, Clingan, Newton, and Spencer. You saw what happened to Florida once they lost key pieces of their 2025 Natty squad. You're already seeing Michigan get blown out by Houston with their top 3 players (Cadaeu, McKenney, Thiam) all playing at full speed/health.

I don't think we'll know what this team really is until Mirk is truly back to a full 100 with a 5-10 games under his belt. That may coincide with when our brutal B1G stretch kicks off with games against the LA teams plus MSU. But till then I don't think we'll be able to say how this team holds up against last year's Final Four team led by the best processor and off-the-dribble shooter in the country.
 
#59      
lstewart53x3
March2TheArch said:
We had a #5 pick in the draft (who was selected over more athletic/speedy guards with better handles in Acuff, Flemings and Burries for his processing ability) running the offense. Keaton brought up the ball and orchestrated the offense 80-90% of that game.

Keaton was a cheat code. He broke full court pressure by Michigan and UConn and then orchestrated the best half court offense in the nation as a near 20-pt per game scorer alongside 5 boards and 5 assists.

You saw what happened to UConn when they lost Castle, Clingan, Newton, and Spencer. You saw what happened to Florida once they lost key pieces of their 2025 Natty squad. You're already seeing Michigan get blown out by Houston with their top 3 players (Cadaeu, McKenney, Thiam) all playing at full speed/health.

I don't think we'll know what this team really is until Mirk is truly back to a full 100 with a 5-10 games under his belt. That may coincide with when our brutal B1G stretch kicks off with games against the LA teams plus MSU. But till then I don't think we'll be able to say how this team holds up against last year's Final Four team led by the best processor and off-the-dribble shooter in the country.
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The offense is honestly the least of my concerns.
 
#62      
LouHenson
SescIllini said:
I'm seeing starters Brown, Coleman, Andrej, Mirk and Tomi...Off the bench Davis, Vaaks, Lincoln, Big Z. See Davis and Vaaks being the scoring off the bench. The minutes Big Z and Lincoln get will be more match up dependent and their effectiveness. Big Z did not have a good exhibition, but will sub in for Tomi and Mirk.
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Big Z is my biggest concern. Really he is probably the key to how good we can be. With his athleticism he should be a terror on the inside? Blocked shots and dunks will tell the story for him this year, not 3’s? Our defense is not good, but he could make up for a lot of our deficiencies if he would only learn how to use his skills?
 
#63      
mysterio2525
I am feeling a hybrid of 2024/25 and last year. everyone green light on transition from rebounding, conditioning and passing. increase the pace, increase fast break points, tire out the defense. the difference is we can then go halfcourt chess match with mirk , the passing and shooting and limit turnovers and fouls.

see you in the final four again. after that I'm not sure. just hope

Ethan brown is our annoying old school Wisconsin player who torches you quietly but then drinks your tears
 
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