lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
He’s fast, but not Ben Fast.
Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread
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They are the #2 recruiting class. You can't just ignore the transfers. Thats part of recruiting.
So now that we've established they have the #2 recruiting class, smh, the question is can the transfers they're bringing in progress like the transfers they brought in last year. Because the transfers they're bringing in this year actually had better numbers with their former team than the transfers they brought in last year.
The "leap" forward was regarding the individual players taking a leap forward this year, not the Michigan front court from last year to this year. I would expect those players to have better years this year than they did last year with one more year of experience and more talent around them. I don't think thats too far fetched.
foby
- Bonnaroo Land
So what I've gathered from this thread lately;
Ben is beginning training to be an Olympic distance runner
Duke and Michigan are hands down favorites to win the NC.
Tom Cruise likes to run.
In other news, I'm hosting a pizza and cottage cheese party and am desperate for recommendations.
Ben is beginning training to be an Olympic distance runner
Duke and Michigan are hands down favorites to win the NC.
Tom Cruise likes to run.
In other news, I'm hosting a pizza and cottage cheese party and am desperate for recommendations.
My wife says the same thing.
Serious Late
- Peoria via Denver via Ann Arbor via Albuquerque vi
Not saying #3 isnt correct, but CJ Moore of The Athletic has us #1 currently.
College basketball top 25 after NBA Draft deadline: Illinois or Florida at No. 1?
College basketball rosters are now mostly set, and it’s time to provide a much clearer preseason Top 25 than the early April crapshoots.
www.nytimes.com
Florida. IMO
DICKnaggie
- Champaign
I'll buy beer for anyone in CU who wants to compete in the 10 yard dash. That's about my limit now, lol!
All of this. Additionally, Yaxel is nearly impossible to replace. Length, athleticism, the ability to guard 1-5…
Defense is how they won the title, and he was the head of the spear. He masked a lot of other issues.
If Cadeau had to guard guys like Wagler, would those games have been different? Almost certainly.
They will be extremely good, but that unit was driven by defense. The absence of Yaxel, Morez, and Mara changes a lot. Could the new guys be as impactful? maybe? It is, however, unlikely.
Agree- I know our defense is a clear weakness on paper but holy cow Batman, Michigan lost the best defensive front out in the country and replaced them with good players but not nearly the same caliber nor experience- Yaxel was their superpower
we get 5 of our top 7 back so that alone should
Have us above them
Your bruehaha could use some pineapple. Great combo food with pizza or cottage cheese.
I’m guessing it’s a metric mile…
Captain 14
- The Last Best Place
Put me down...
1) Buy more pizza than cottage cheese.
2) Forget the spinach and Kale on your pizzas.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The next person who mentions anything about running a mile, cross country or something even remotely close to that discussion should ban themselves from posting on this until October. Goodness sakes, reading these last few pages was more painful than watching Illinois inbounding the ball versus a press. 
In any tournament only one team will end up happy. Which is why, although I certainly enjoy watching March Madness, I'm more tuned in to what a team does during the grueling regular season. What can you do over a 4-month long haul, playing a lot of elite teams in hostile locatios?
Joel Goodson
- it's all ball bearings, nowadays
Yeah I shouldn’t have presented it that way. Didn’t mean he was replacing him in the lineup necessarily, just trying to show what they had vs bringing in. But this definitely also illustrates they won’t be nearly as big/long as last year too.
G/F RaSheed Jones (Coastal Carolina) commits to Rutgers
G Tristan Devers (HS, Australia) commits to Washington
docs.google.com
G Tristan Devers (HS, Australia) commits to Washington
B1G Roster Tracker
Yaxel/Mara/Morez were so good they made other insane frontcourts like Peat/Krivas/Kharchenkov/Awaka and Haugh/Condon/Chinyelu look pedestrian.
Obviously Michigan 2026 grinds my gears. But that team, like 2024 UConn and Brunson’s Nova teams, was generational.
2025 Duke was pretty generational too. Just didn't win it all.
Fact is, due to NIL, the time has come that we accept there will be a super team every year. Just look at the recent KenPom ratings for the top teams.
The recent rise in metrics is more due to coaching actively working to engineer the analytics scores now than it is NIL.
NIL has allowed teams to buy some success, but has also resulted in a lot of teams spending tons of money and getting not a lot out of it (eg, Kentucky). We know from history of massive spend 'super teams' that they tend to flop just as often as they succeed, it seems.
But, like... is Duke's success due to NIL? They were pretty good before...
I wouldn't even call Michigan last year a 'super team'... lost to an unranked Wisconsin team, squeaked by a bunch of horrible-to-okay teams like Wake Forest, TCU, Penn State, Oregon... even Northwestern and Minnesota tested them. Nearly lost to Iowa and Ohio State. Nearly lost to that same Wisconsin team again.
An argument might be that they played to the level of competition. When lights shined brightest, they excelled because they knew the competition has harsher. When they played easier teams they used it as opportunities to try rotations and schematics out. Which could be why they destroyed the better teams they played, but as you point out squeaked by teams like Minnesota, Penn State, and Oregon.
I think there was even a metric passed around that displayed if you played better/worse against top level teams or bottom level teams, and Michigan trended to struggle against easier teams, but showed strength against the tougher teams. Illinois on the other hand I think was neutral on harder teams but was very strong on easy teams. As demonstrated in our late season skid before the tournament. Now I think factors were at play for us, like injuries, etc. but dominating the elite teams and sometimes struggling but still winning against lesser ones can get you in trouble by messing with fire at the wrong time (like in March), or can get you places like the winners podium.
There is indeed. Michigan was #3 in "opponent adjustment" and UConn was #14. Wisconsin (#12) was the only other decent team in the top ~50 for that metric. Illinois was #330 (meaning we generally did worse against top teams). I don't know if there's enough of a sample size in a CBB season to say how robust this metric is though.
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