October Exhibition Games

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#1      

RollChief

RollChief
RollChief
Like a lot of folks here starved for hoops, I caught myself thinking, “Can’t believe we still have a full month until basketball.” Then I remembered we’ve got an exhibition vs. Illinois State, and there are plenty of other exhibitions coming up. Early basketball! For anyone tracking dates, Rothstein has a handy list of key exhibitions: https://collegehoopstoday.net/roths...y-exhibition-games-schedule-for-october-2025/

With all the roster churn (transfers, newcomers, graduates), it’s hard to know where teams truly stand. So I put together a quick rating system that blends early preseason Bart Torvik and EvanMiya numbers, a home-court adjustment, and a weighted composite of overall ratings. The lower the score, the better the game should be (think of this as an excitement score).

Below are two tables: first, the top 15 exhibition games; second, all exhibitions involving upcoming Illini opponents (filtered by date). Everything highlighted orange is an Illini opponent. I also included TV broadcasts that have been announced (hopefully more to come).

Happy to share the methodology if anyone wants the nuts and bolts, see both tables below.

Top 15 October Exhibition Games
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Illinois Opponents Exhibition Games
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#2      
Brosky
Illinois State will be good. Favored to win the MVC. We better come locked and loaded to beat them. OTOH, coaches often use exhibition games to measure different players and combos. We will want Stoyakovic for sure. And Petrovic. If we do, our starting lineup will be nasty, with good minutes for many nonstarters.
 
#10      
NarrowJ
#11      
RollChief
Maybe a hot take and I think this Michigan team has talent but something about the personalities around this team makes me feel like they’re going to be closer to indiana last year than they will be to a national championship caliber team.

They had a ton of churn from last year (as most college teams do) and they’ve brought in talent but it also seems like they’ve brought in players that may not exactly mesh. Morez has enough personal expectations that made him leave a pretty good situation at Illinois, Elliott Cadeau has potential but was an inconsistent, inefficient player in 2 seasons at UNC, and Yaxel Lendenborg seems a little full of himself, in a similar way as Russell Wilson that would really get on your teammate’s nerves. You can kind of see it from this post game from last night, the “trainer from last year” story is just kinda weird:


Further, for the hype that they have, there’s not a ton of experience with winning basketball on this roster. It seems like there is the most expectation to perform on Yaxel, who last year in the span of 11 games lost to North Texas, Arkansas St., Middle Tennessee, Illinois St., Longwood, and High Point. Don’t get me wrong, most players who transition from mid major to high major have similar experiences but they also typically have a pretty steep multi year learning curve. I just feel like guys like Knecht have really messed up people’s expectations, more often than not it’s a ton of work to transition these players and maybe that’s why we’ve moved away from recruiting transfers from mid majors.
 
#15      
Ga65
NarrowJ said:
Looks like Cincy ended up winning by 2

Game was played in Ann Arbor but did not say what facility
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Michigan certainly less than impressive. Defense kindly parts to allow uncontested layups. Maybe should shut up until I see how Illini looks with missing parts.
 
#17      
Oracle21
Ga65 said:
Michigan certainly less than impressive. Defense kindly parts to allow uncontested layups. Maybe should shut up until I see how Illini looks with missing parts.
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Morez didn’t play. I’m sure he will be a big part of their defense
 
#18      
cjw1901
BrownTown said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1979317982313746749

They need to let Morez shoot more 3s!!
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Good screen grab, but Michigan looked even worse after that next made basket, where Shon Abaev hit a 3 over Yaxel Lendeborg to put Cincinnati up 41-23. The fact that Michigan was getting blown out by 18 points in their home opener shows this Michigan team obviously isn't way better (now #7 vs #17, according to the AP Top 25) than Illinois.
 
#19      
Guest
I wouldn’t take too much from Cincinnati beating Michigan other than the good feeling it engenders. It was a close game, could have gone either way probably, and neither Morez nor Mara played. One of those two is projected to be a starter (opinions differ on which one), and the other will play a lot of minutes as well. But it was nice to see.
 
#20      
NarrowJ
Have any scores been listed?

Indiana 107, Marian (IN) 46 - Box Score
Cincinnati 100, Michigan 98 - Recap
Minnesota 80, North Dakota St 54 - Box Score
Nebraska 90, BYU 89 - Box Score
Dayton 78, Penn St 62 - Box Score
USC 60, Loyola Marymount 51 - Box Score
Washington 77, UNLV - Box Score **
Alabama 109, Florida St 105 - Box Score
UConn 71, Boston College 52 - Box Score

** DGL 14 pts 5 reb 2 ast 33 min
 
#22      
Rebounding Dog
Guest said:
I wouldn’t take too much from Cincinnati beating Michigan other than the good feeling it engenders. It was a close game, could have gone either way probably, and neither Morez nor Mara played. One of those two is projected to be a starter (opinions differ on which one), and the other will play a lot of minutes as well. But it was nice to see.
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I don’t expect Mara or Morez to be anywhere close to elite. Good? very good? not sure what either do this year. If Morez starts over Mara… I dont feel Michigan is strong at the 5 spot. Morez has limitations… unless he shows something new! If Mara starts that means he might be better than Rez! Not sure what that means! But he is better than last year which was not stellar by any measure! Unless one of these guys has a breakout year… the 5 spot for MU might not be strong!
 
#24      
RollChief
I know this is an exhibition, but Purdue doesn’t look like a #1, league of their own against Kentucky. Most of the retained players look like the same guys as last year. They’re going to have a lot of trouble with spacing having both TKR and Oscar Cluff on the floor. Oscar Cluff looks like a Matthew Nicholson against this level of talent.

Honestly wouldn’t be shocked if they’re in the 15-20 KP range by the end of the season, similar to last year.
 
#25      
ChiTown
RollChief said:
I know this is an exhibition, but Purdue doesn’t look like a #1, league of their own against Kentucky. Most of the retained players look like the same guys as last year. They’re going to have a lot of trouble with spacing having both TKR and Oscar Cluff on the floor. Oscar Cluff looks like a Matthew Nicholson against this level of talent.

Honestly wouldn’t be shocked if they’re in the 15-20 KP range by the end of the season, similar to last year.
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Kentucky is also missing 2 starters and Purdue is about to get run off the court right now.
 
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