We won't see Andrej or Big Z Wednesday. Nothing serious long term, I expect both them back very soon. No need to push anything with the season starting soon-Andrej has to clear protocol and just giving Z's body a few days off.
Illinois vs UIC (Exhibition), Wednesday, October 28th, 7:00pm CT, B1G+
Should be a great opportunity for the younger guys to get playing time considering basically half of our rotation is out or questionable, especially if Tomi's minutes are limited
Every other day guys??
These preseason bumps/bruises are killing us.
Saw a stat that the last 10 CBB National Champions have 2 COMBINED losses (so that spans all the way back to UNC 2017 and KU 2022 dropping a game apiece).
November matters. And we're limping into it.
I'll hold out hope that we peak at the right time like last year. We have enough iconic non-conference wins (Wake 2005, etc.). We have plenty of Big 10 titles (conference and tourney). I don't care if we enter the NCAAs as a 4 seed. Just win the damn thing in late April.
I'm re-tuning my entire perspective towards this season. We won't be 37-3 with a 19-1 Big 10 record. But I hope we can be 33-7 cutting down the final nets.
Saw a stat that the last 10 CBB National Champions have 2 COMBINED losses (so that spans all the way back to UNC 2017 and KU 2022 dropping a game apiece).
November matters. And we're limping into it.
I'll hold out hope that we peak at the right time like last year. We have enough iconic non-conference wins (Wake 2005, etc.). We have plenty of Big 10 titles (conference and tourney). I don't care if we enter the NCAAs as a 4 seed. Just win the damn thing in late April.
I'm re-tuning my entire perspective towards this season. We won't be 37-3 with a 19-1 Big 10 record. But I hope we can be 33-7 cutting down the final nets.
Illinicpa14
- Chicago
I think with the changes to modern scheduling and selection criteria (and now a bigger tournament), you’ll see top teams playing more high major games in November and that stat will change.
Will be great to minutes for the freshmen (particularly Landon) and Jakstys. We'll need them in November with Mirk out.
And I feel like it’s not just this year. It always feels like we have someone miss fall practice for injury, visa issues, NCAA clearing issues etc and I do think it puts us behind for these November games.
I would argue that it’s been Purdue’s good fortune and Painter’s super power, is to have their team healthy and firing in November, which props up their seeding come March and as a result has led to a lot of second weekends.
Yeah my thoughts exactly, hoping LW is a full go, I’d love to see more of him because there was a weird bit of comfort having him on the floor on the guard bring the ball up in the second half of the Baylor game.
Glad we’ll see more of the freshman and young players, since I do think there is a great amount of depth to this team. Them building chemistry will be invaluable.
Though, one nugget of pessimism I will have is… we gotta beat UIC. I get having maybe missing half of our regular rotation, but this is one we just have to win. It’s a non-flagship campus of our own school system. It’s not Little Bro Northwestern, or ISU. It’s UIC, in our own House. Exhibition or not, we need a win out of this one if we want to continue into the regular season as highly regarded as we want to be.
It was his second jab, was who i initially responded to.
I mean it’s fine, negative one liners and short derogatory quips are all some have to offer, just comes off as complete ignorance being that the program is currently experiencing an elite level of success.