Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread

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#201      
RollChief
ChiefGritty said:
We went slow this year partially because we were so big and didn't have a full court demon like a TSJ or Ayo, but it was also because Wagler and Boswell could just keep plays humming and defenses stretching for the full 30 seconds without being bogged down.
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I could be wrong but to add to your point, the staff talked about slowing things down to put more of an emphasis on shot selection, and playing "slow" allowed the offense to search out the best possible shot in a given possession and get players in a position to rebound and continue a possession off a miss.

The '24 team ran faster but was a bit smaller and turned it over more, and also didn't get offensive rebounds as often.
 
#202      
marvin1991
Chuck Nuggets said:
College Basketball Sport GIF by NCAA March Madness
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I almost added unless you are Bruce Weber but decided to play nice.
 
#204      
EmeraldCityIllini
RollChief said:
I could be wrong but if I recall correctly, the staff talked about slowing things down to put more of an emphasis on shot selection, and playing "slow" allowed the offense to search out the best possible shot in a given possession and get players in a position to rebound and continue a possession off a miss.

The '24 team ran faster but was a bit smaller and turned it over more, and also didn't get offensive rebounds as often.
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I'm always stunned the '24 team didn't have a faster pace (87th nationally).

It really was just if TSJ got the rebound, that was the only fastbreaks, with Coleman going sometimes too. It just seemed so fast, because when TSJ did go in transition it was violent, electric, and efficient.

Edit: I imagine the games without TSJ probably brought that pace down too. We truly probably lived more around the 50's range.
 
#206      
ChiefGritty
RollChief said:
The '24 team ran faster but was a bit smaller and turned it over more, and also didn't get offensive rebounds as often.
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13th nationally in OR%, as opposed to 3rd this year.

The basic efficiency concepts of adding hidden possessions via offensive rebounding and using the free throw and 3 point lines to juice per-possession scoring don't change.

And then it's just about how to find the best possible shots. When you swap Keaton Wagler and Jake Davis for John Blackwell and Andrej Stojakovic, the shot you can conjure in the waning seconds of the shot clock gets worse, but the shot you can get by forcing the issue early gets better.

EmeraldCityIllini said:
I'm always stunned the '24 team didn't have a faster pace (87th nationally).
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66th per Kenpom.
 
#210      
lstewart53x3
ChiefGritty said:
I agree but they mostly weren't last year, it was Keaton's show.

We ran offense through Tomi all the time in '25, but did so rarely last year (got back to it a little out of desperation vs UConn). That's gotta come back, we are going to get to Detroit and put Tomi in the NBA that way. Pulling his defender away from the basket as a high screener to clear Wagler's runway is going to be less important.
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I don’t know, man. Keaton’s usage was high, but not that high:

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Nick Boyd’s for reference:

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And Tomi’s usage didn’t drop that much (2026):

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Vs 2025:

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We might not have run that as much offense through Tomi, but we did run a whole lot of offense through Mirk whose usage was even higher last year than Tomi’s was in 2025 + Andrej had decently high usage as well, both of whom appear to be back next year.

In a world where we replace Keaton with Vaaks and Boswell with Blackwell, while keeping the rest of the rotation relatively similar, does that really need to change our pace of play all that much?
 
#217      
EmeraldCityIllini
Personally, I like the idea Morillo and Coleman know Vaaks (and maybe Blackwell) are around. It becomes crystal clear what YOU need to do to play. What's your role?

And to me, that role seems clear. Defend, rebound, and knockdown your open shots. Vaaks is awesome, but lets be honest. There's a non-zero chance there will be games hes a cone defensively or not rebounding like he should. Brad cares about who finishes games.
 
#220      
bavanga3
They finished 17th in Kenpom despite their best player and lottery pick being out 1/3 of the season. They definitely didn't flop. Where would we have been without Keaton. They just had injury issues.
Seriously! Last offseason they had the #3 transfer portal class in the country, adding guys that 247 ranked as the #9, #14, and #20 transfers, on top of a prep recruiting class that had the #6 prep recruit, and a Euro freshman that wasn't included in 247's rankings but that they graded out as a 96 (equivalent to top 25)

They finished 6th in a bad ACC.
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#221      
ChiefGritty
lstewart53x3 said:
I don’t know, man. Keaton’s usage was high, but not that high:
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Keaton's kind of a perfect example of where I find USG% a little perplexing. Because it takes into account turnovers but not assists, it's not really a great metric of "who is the person with the ball in their hands running the offense", but then because FTA's (even bonus-induced ones) and TO's are in there it's not quite "who is taking all the shots" either.

Tomi shot fewer 2's, took fewer FT's, and had fewer assists last year, because post entries to him were not a priority the way they were the year before.

An early post entry to Tomi is going to be a good way to start a possession for us next year. Maybe Mirk too, but we really want to get some cut and roll action with him, that's where he most shines.
 
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