Illinois 95, Lewis 51 POSTGAME (Exhibition)
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Rayvonte Rice was also labeled "great in practice" during his redshirt year. I'm betting that Leron will trend towards the Rice end of this comparison. He will end up being a positive factor during his remaining 3 years at the U of I.
Hey y'all, been following this board for years and figure I'd give it a shot and make an account. Before I get into anything i'd like to just say that I really appreciate everything that Dan's been doing as the leader of this site. All of your guys insight, knowledge and information on the team has really been appreciated and is great to pass the time.
I didn't get to watch either of the two first exhibition games but heard a lot of positives and negatives.
1) I think the sloppy play will slightly decrease as the season goes on. Something that seems to be a commonality in college basketball recently has been the increased sloppy play, especially in nonconference as teams have been recruiting a lot of guys based on size, length and athleticism and not focused much on skillset. I think something that stands out for this team is their variety of skilled guys (MH, MF, MM, TJL for example) and what Fletch has been doing with the guys in the weight room really seems to be transferring to games as I recall multiple and-1's and less offensive rebounds given up. I was wondering what you guys thought on how we stack up in regards to athleticism compared to the rest of the conference and how we stack up skilled wise.
2) lot of mixed reviews on the play of DJW so far, even with the loss of LB and Thorne early, he still isn't seeing much but late game minutes. What do you think his role is on this team? Something that I love about him is his length, athleticism and versatility but I think he has lacked confidence (maybe because of Hill being ahead of him) but what do you think are fair expectations for him this year? I think he might have one of the highest potentials of any of the younger guys on the roster to emerge into an important roll for us. He reminds me a lot of Bertrand, and could see him filling a similar role this year and definitely as an upperclassman.
I didn't get to watch either of the two first exhibition games but heard a lot of positives and negatives.
1) I think the sloppy play will slightly decrease as the season goes on. Something that seems to be a commonality in college basketball recently has been the increased sloppy play, especially in nonconference as teams have been recruiting a lot of guys based on size, length and athleticism and not focused much on skillset. I think something that stands out for this team is their variety of skilled guys (MH, MF, MM, TJL for example) and what Fletch has been doing with the guys in the weight room really seems to be transferring to games as I recall multiple and-1's and less offensive rebounds given up. I was wondering what you guys thought on how we stack up in regards to athleticism compared to the rest of the conference and how we stack up skilled wise.
2) lot of mixed reviews on the play of DJW so far, even with the loss of LB and Thorne early, he still isn't seeing much but late game minutes. What do you think his role is on this team? Something that I love about him is his length, athleticism and versatility but I think he has lacked confidence (maybe because of Hill being ahead of him) but what do you think are fair expectations for him this year? I think he might have one of the highest potentials of any of the younger guys on the roster to emerge into an important roll for us. He reminds me a lot of Bertrand, and could see him filling a similar role this year and definitely as an upperclassman.
It does seem that Morgan, Thorne, Finke, Black, Hill, JCL, Abrams, and Tate are a part of the 9 man rotation and I'd assume AJ would be 10 since he started two exhibition games. That would be followed by DJW and Lucas. I can see some games where maybe Lucas doesn't get in, at least early on. Kipper is still up in the air as to where he falls in the pecking order and who's minutes he could take.
Kipper will take someone's minutes, imo. Maybe not immediately, but he will be hard to keep off the court.
I see DJW being part of the 9 man rotation. I agree regarding Kipper. Either we play 10 more often (my choice) and see Kipper at one of the 10 or he takes someone else's minutes.
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