I listened to Hummel last night and I do like Hummel doing games but he sounded confident that Gard would win COY in the B1G. How about this, you lose the equivalent talent Illinois has lost this year through injury, illness and suspension and lets see what their record is? I bet they lose 2-3 more games having to deal with the crap we have had to deal with. Hummel did also say Underwood in the same breath but its obvious who should be COY and its BU. We lose a piece for the season, have two of our best players with concussion protocols, covid, and now a appendectomy. No team with these issues to key players wold have the same record than Illinois this year. It should be a slam dunk for BU.
Illini Basketball 2021-2022
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blackdog
- Champaign
If Wisconsin lost Davis they would lose every game. We still won some tough ones without Kofi and Belo.
They simply reward the coach who's team they under-rated coming into the season. "We thought Wisconsin was going to suck, and they are pretty good, so Gard must be doing a great job!" Rather than, "We totally undervalued the players on this roster. Johnny Davis is much better than we thought."
Illinois was supposed to be good and is good, so people just don't have the attention span for acknowledging the difficulties the team has had to overcome.
BU would have won it in 2020. By the start of last season, everyone knew we would be good, so he never got the accolades associated with the rebuild of the program.
drsmitty74
- Rochester
If you substitute TJD (#30) over Trevion it makes it a lot harder to imply that ratings have no predictive value. The list also conveniently leaves out Hunter Dickinson (#43), who Torvik lists as the #5 player in the Big Ten.
It’s just my opinion. TJD probably should have been included. Indiana is so far out of the BIG race that he doesn’t have much of a chance anyway. Probably also true for Keegan Murray.
Even if we include TJD and HD. Not a single 5 star in the bunch.
Might have to do with the fact there aren't that many 5 stars in the Big Ten to begin with. In the 2021 class there were 3. In 2020, 1. Zero in 2019. In 2018 there were two but they're both in the NBA now. So you're talking about 4 total 5-stars recruited to the conference (not counting transfers - not sure if any 5-stars have transferred in), of which 3 are freshmen. I'd note that all three of those freshmen start for their teams btw.
I originally posted this to the recruiting thread. My motivation was to soften the blow of losing out on KB. Clearly the Illini are not the only team in the BIG missing out on 5 stars.
What tough one did we win without Kofi? The only one that sticks out as "ok" was Michigan State at home. That said, they can't beat anyone right now.
I have no idea what the NIL money is actually like other than some of the 7 figure deals for football players that are well known - everyone was projecting over 7 figures for Kofi though. I'm sure us making a run in the tournament, him winning a bunch of awards and coming in next year as the player of the year favorite would influence NIL money as well for next year
It's not uncommon for 2nd round picks to get guaranteed money - Garza got 2 year $2.5M with $925K gauranteed, Ayo got a little more than that
My point is if Kofi improves his passing and game away from the basket even a modest amount next year he'll be drafted - he's NBA ready physically obviously and a low post scorer/defender/rebounder still has value - ironically the Bulls would love him coming off the bench right now I'm sure
Keegan Murray is a favorite to win it…lol he is leading the league in scoring handily.
Trevion Williams and even Edey are not really in the race. Edey is efficient, but not in top 5 in scoring nor on rebounds. Trevion is like 17th in rebounding and not even top 25 in scoring.
If you look at the top players on the best teams, you’re going to ignore some really serious contenders. I don’t care how good Purdue is, they don’t have 3 BTPOY candidates.
InDaAZ
- Eugene, Oregon
Trevion & Edey are like Arizona snowbirds: Dual residents of both the court and the bench. Semi-retired, if you will…
Exactly why KM was on my list. I highly doubt he will win it given that Iowa is not really in the title race. Go look through the list of previous BTPOY winners. I bet you won’t find too many playing for middling teams.
Not trying to nitpick because I agree, the award is often given to the best player on one of the best teams. But the last two winners played for Iowa teams that finished 3rd and 7th in the conference.
That’s why I said not too many players from middling teams. Iowa also finished last season ranked EIGHT in the nation! 2019-2020 they were 25th in the final AP poll. Hardly a middling team.
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They were like 15 when we beat them. It was a very impressive win.
BU also had to bring on an entire new staff of assistant coaches and fold them into the mix with current players. That’s no small feat!
Is that because their teams are middling? Or because the best players in the conference normally lift their teams above middling? It’s not always the case, but normally the best players also have good players around them, making it harder to game plan to solely one person. Keegan is all they have and STILL putting up numbers.
Also confused how you called Iowa “middling” while ranked in the so top 25 but call that hardly middling last year…
madillini4
Ozamataz Buckshank
- Millywaukee
I need a damn cigarette
FeelYourPaign
- So Cal
To your point, middling Iowa is now 1 position ahead of Illinois in KenPom. Ouch
I really do not care who starts but I would like our top five guys in minutes to be Trent, Kofi, Hawk, Jake, and Plummer. Pretty much in that order in terms of minutes.. Hawk needs 25 plus a game. He fills more voids at the 4 spot than anyone can. The next in terms of minutes should be Belo and RJ.We missed RJ last night vs a long taller athletic wing . Goode, DMW and BBV playing some too. After last night and other recent games it's pretty clear for this team to take the next step Coleman must get more time and experience. He showed he can do more things at the 4 than anyone else can. I am fired up for the next few weeks to see him on the floor more with Kofi. He is gaining more and more confidence and that seemed to be the main thing Hawk was lacking. He isn't anymore
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InDaAZ
- Eugene, Oregon
I’ve been harping & carping on the observation that Coleman is not at this point in his development a plug-n-play type, but is instead a flow player. I wish he could be Mr. Instant Impact (like Belo, for example), but it seems to me it takes unbroken time on the court for him to gain his confidence and identify how he can contribute.
I’ve noticed how much he looks back at the bench while he’s out there - if you could read his mind, I think he’d be saying, please don’t take me out already; I won’t make that mistake again; I’m starting to figure this out.
If there’s a right amount of minutes he’s earned, I get it. But if that number is 12, let’s say, I think he’d perform better if it was two stretches of 6 each, rather than 4 x 3. Longer stints would yield even better results, imo.
It appears to be psychological with him. Maybe with another year of experience/maturing/coaching, things will be totally different. The good news is that he’s a smart kid who cares about winning and is working with some pretty incredible physical talents.
With every game bringing a prolonged slump that costs the Illini, I wonder if we could switch it up, even if only for a short time. Go wholesale, take out the starters and replace with a second five of Belo, Hawkins, Goode, RJ, andPayne/Podz. Then have them play a swarming press, and try to run if given the chance. Solely staying with a regular rotation doesn't seem to be working, so maybe this could bring some energy and break the slump. But, what do I know. I just don't see this team reaching a higher level by doing mostly the same thing.
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