Context is important. The discussion was about trying to lure Wright to Illinois and comparing his defense to Kylan's. That's a fair discussion even if that comes with some Boswell critique, which I think is warranted.
Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread
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ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Without Boswell we started drifting into "positionless basketball" in the bad Matthew Mayer and Zach Hamer sort of way.
Terrence Hill, TJ Power, Kingston Flemings in the tournament.
Bennett Stirtz (the first game), Christian Anderson / JT Toppin against Texas Tech.
All he has to do is get a staffer pregnant= Michigan man!!!
Big Jack
- Decatur
Miller's Mom...Wait, am I disparaging the wrong mom?
Was it Millers mom? Both?
I can’t keep track of the crazy.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
I think what everyone can agree on here and something that's a bit missing from the discussion about returnees is that Andrej was a really critical defender for us. Blackwell would be a downgrade in that area most likely.
He’s not saying that Kylan was never a good defender. What he’s saying is that against weaker competition, Kylan was solid defensively—but against stronger competition, he struggled and was not an effective defender.
UCLA:
Donovan Dent had 15 assists with zero turnovers. If Kylan were truly a strong defender, you’d expect at least one forced turnover or some disruption. Instead, we gave up 95 points.
Michigan:
They had Kylan guarding Yaxel, which was clearly a mismatch, and Yaxel still dropped 16 points. We gave up 84 points in that game.
Oregon:
Arguably the worst team in the Big Ten, which actually supports Indy’s point—against bad teams, Kylan looked like a good defender.
Maryland:
Andre Mills scored 30, Darius Adams had 14, and David Colt added 10. We won by six against a bottom‑of‑the‑barrel team (and I’d still argue Oregon was worse), but Kylan guarded all of them at different points and got consistently torched.
Wisconsin (Big Ten Tournament):
Do we even need to discuss that one?
That’s really all @Indy Illini Fan was trying to say. Yes, against weaker competition, he looked like a First Team All‑Big Ten defender. But when it mattered most—against the better teams—his defense was not nearly as effective.
I hope he is but he was so bad here. What was frustrating for me was that he quit on so many plays and seemed to be doggin it. Literally one of the worst defenders I've seen at that level. Crazy.
foby
- Bonnaroo Land
ACTUALLY...
It started about Boswell's height compared to Wright. Then came the D discussion.
Noblesville Illini
- Nappanee, IN
Yes, the crazy mom club has DGL and Miller as charter members.
Truth is somewhere in the middle on Kylan. Shifty guards were a real issue for him, but Dent and Boyd were nightmares for everyone. And it’s not like we were shutting down Boyd, Fears, Smith in the games he missed either.
His offball physicality was big for us though. Putting him on some bigger wings was definitely problem solving for us at times. Also don’t think he was put in the best spots being forced to go over so many screens on quick guards.
As for the main point where this started… heck ya rob wright is a good option for us!
His offball physicality was big for us though. Putting him on some bigger wings was definitely problem solving for us at times. Also don’t think he was put in the best spots being forced to go over so many screens on quick guards.
As for the main point where this started… heck ya rob wright is a good option for us!
He literally said:
I'd have no issue if we just said he's not an "elite" defender... we think B1G All-Defensive team guy is not at least "good" in that area? That's why there's pushback.
We're anonymous message board posters. Should anyone really take any of us seriously?
redwingillini11
White and Sixth
- Batavia
I happen to think today would be a great day for a group “We’re coming back” from Mirk, Tomi, Stoj, and Z.
At this point, though, I'm surprised there hasn't been any talk from any Illini player yet regarding the transfer portal.
I mean, we know Ben (almost assuredly) and Kylan are out of eligibility.
We can be about 99.9% sure Keaton will enter the NBA draft (dude is a top 10 lock and top 5 realistic possibility, he isn't coming back).
We can also be about 90% sure Petro isn't returning, so I'm a bit surprised we haven't heard anything about that yet, unless Misko is just being extra weird about everything.
I mean, we know Ben (almost assuredly) and Kylan are out of eligibility.
We can be about 99.9% sure Keaton will enter the NBA draft (dude is a top 10 lock and top 5 realistic possibility, he isn't coming back).
We can also be about 90% sure Petro isn't returning, so I'm a bit surprised we haven't heard anything about that yet, unless Misko is just being extra weird about everything.
foby
- Bonnaroo Land
A house of cards!!!
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
He's overcooking the rhetoric in service of supporting an unrelated argument.
It takes one to know one!
Yeah...I tend to agree. I think Bos was pretty solid on D most of the year. A lot of talk about end of year but he was out against MSU (Fears game) & WI (1st Boyd game), and in major foul trouble against WI in B1G Tourney which was his fault but not b/c he wasn't guarding. He played so physical that at times he got a lot of really dumb fouls, but that physicality was also disruptive. It's the UConn "foul every possession & make the refs call em" strategy.
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