Illini Basketball 2024-2025

Dan · Monday at 7:00 AM

Welcome to the Illini Basketball 2024-2025 & College Basketball news thread :illinois:

Tickets
Season Ticket Info
(Single game ticket info has not yet been released.)

Schedule
Reported unofficial non-conference schedule-
Eastern Illinois (Monday, November 4th)
Oakland (date TBD)
Alabama in Birmingham, AL (Wednesday, November 20th)
Arkansas in Kansas City, MO (Thanksgiving Day - Thursday, November 28th)
Tennessee (Saturday, December 14th)
Missouri in St. Louis, MO (Sunday, December 22nd)
Duke at Madison Square Garden, NYC (Saturday, February 22nd)

Big Ten opponents-
Home Only – Iowa, Maryland, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, UCLA, USC,
Away Only – Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oregon, Rutgers, Washington
Home & Away – Michigan State, Northwestern, Wisconsin

Roster
IL Returnees
1) Ty Rodgers
2) Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn

IL Signees
1) Morez Johnson (2024 PF) committed on November 4th, 2021.
2) Jason Jakstys (2024 F) committed on July 23rd, 2023.
3) Jake Davis (Mercer guard) committed on April 1st.
4) Tre White (Louisville wing) committed on April 9th.
5) Kylan Boswell (Arizona guard) committed on April 14th.
6) Carey Booth (Notre Dame forward) committed on April 16th.
7) Ben Humrichous (Evansville forward) committed on April 30th.
8) Tomislav Ivisic (Croatian center) committed on May 6th.
9) Kasparas Jakucionis (Lithuanian guard) committed on May 28th.
10) Will Riley (2024 F) committed on June 23rd.

Big Jack · Monday at 7:01 AM

hi

aveseaboy · Monday at 7:43 AM

Anyone have any guesses or stats for where our strength of schedule compares to other teams in the country? I completely support the ideology that you have to play the best to be the best and I don’t see how this schedule could get a whole lot better

Fly Illini Fly! · Monday at 7:48 AM

Our starting five is surely good for top 2 in the B10 IMO. Trying to think through how many starting fives in the B10 would rank below our bench 5 of: DGL, Ty, Tre, Booth, Morez...it honestly might be somewhat around the half mark...

of course this is how it seems preseason and it'll all have to come together...

LadyLoyalty · Monday at 8:36 AM

I wouldn’t say this year is the “best team” in Illinois history (I solute you, flying Illini), but it does have the potential to have the best outcome.

Every elite team (which I consider us now) has to deal with the same transfer portal and its unknown team dynamic/chemistry each season. We are loaded with elite players, coaches, conditioning. BU has been far ahead of most coaches managing the portal/team dynamics. If this team gels anywhere near last year, we could be in for a really thrilling season.

Illinifan2005 · Monday at 10:20 AM

An on3 article has our projected starters as Boswell, Ty, KJ, WR, and booth

Illwinsagain · Monday at 11:08 AM

Illinifan2005 said:
An on3 article has our projected starters as Boswell, Ty, KJ, WR, and booth

That would be surprising to me. I think it would be surprising to almost everyone. Maybe they did their projection, based on who was on campus 3 weeks ago.

Brosky · Monday at 11:30 AM

Illinifan2005 said:
An on3 article has our projected starters as Boswell, Ty, KJ, WR, and booth

I think that's off the mark. Booth? come on, No Ivisic? No Ben? No Morez? No White? If Booth is truly that good, then watch out!

IlliniFan42 · Monday at 12:48 PM

Illinifan2005 said:
An on3 article has our projected starters as Boswell, Ty, KJ, WR, and booth

Ty is the wildcard to me. I think being a junior and with the program the longest he seemingly demands the starting spot, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him lose it.

Illini B-Ball Fan · Monday at 1:01 PM

IlliniFan42 said:
Ty is the wildcard to me. I think being a junior and with the program the longest he seemingly demands the starting spot, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him lose it.

If he's shooting 1500 shots a day this summer, he's upping his game, i.e., he's solidifying his spot as a potential starter for a long time.

bbpeoria · Monday at 1:05 PM

IlliniFan42 said:
Ty is the wildcard to me. I think being a junior and with the program the longest he seemingly demands the starting spot, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him lose it.

Uh, imo Booth has a better chance of not being in the rotation than being a starter

bbpeoria · Monday at 1:07 PM

IlliniFan42 said:
Ty is the wildcard to me. I think being a junior and with the program the longest he seemingly demands the starting spot, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him lose it.

And I’ll add to your comments on Ty. Whether a starter or not he WILL be a key member to this team and play big minutes.

FoundersClub · Monday at 1:08 PM

Kasparas stock up.
Kylan down?

SescIllini · Monday at 1:09 PM

IlliniFan42 said:
Ty is the wildcard to me. I think being a junior and with the program the longest he seemingly demands the starting spot, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him lose it.

I believe BU is going to give him every opportunity to excel and get PT. Similar to Damonte, he supports the coaches and culture. He also was a part of an elite 8 and top 10 team, he knows what winning takes at this level.

Only Boswell and Ty have been starters for high level Div 1 winning teams.

illiniwil · Monday at 1:32 PM

coach will tell you it doesn't matter who starts.

Bigtex · Monday at 1:38 PM

FoundersClub said:
Kasparas stock up.
Kylan down?

Boy a first glance, I thought it was Curbelo (Will Riley)

IlliDan · Monday at 1:44 PM

FoundersClub said:
Kasparas stock up.
Kylan down?

Strange to be casting Boswell's status after a few scrimmages and videos.Brad loves guys who can shoot and pass.Lets not pigeon hole every guard as a PG,room for multiple talented players,positionless recruiting.

Fan Since '70 · Monday at 2:54 PM

SescIllini said:
I believe BU is going to give him every opportunity to excel and get PT. Similar to Damonte, he supports the coaches and culture. He also was a part of an elite 8 and top 10 team, he knows what winning takes at this level.

Only Boswell and Ty have been starters for high level Div 1 winning teams.

Jakucionis and Ivisic have as much or more high level experience (European experience is better than H.S. and at or above college level) than anyone on this roster so their experience definitely translates to Div 1 and Big Ten. I wish Ty develops a 3pt shot and can stay on the floor longer. If his defender packs it inside because Ty doesn't shoot from outside, that has been a real problem. Ivisic can shoot very well from outside as can Humrichous and Riley so their defenders will get pulled out of the paint. Kasparas, White, DGL, Boswell, Booth and Johnson have also both shown they can make threes, so when everyone spreads the floor, that hopefully leaves interior open for cuts, backdoors, lobs and drives. Virtually everyone on this team can shoot outside and many shoot well on all 3 levels. I hope Ty develops a reliable 3pt shot as well, not only to help his Illini team be more potent but to make himself more draftable (like Shannon and Hawkins have done).

Chad Fleck · Monday at 3:07 PM

FoundersClub said:

They sort of foreshadowed the Fears decommitment.

ChiefGritty · Monday at 3:54 PM

Fan Since '70 said:
Jakucionis and Ivisic have as much or more high level experience (European experience is better than H.S. and at or above college level) than anyone on this roster so their experience definitely translates to Div 1 and Big Ten.

Europe does do a great job of developing players (not least of which having youth team players practice with the adults so they are exposed to that skill level and process - top HS kids do workouts and stuff with the pros but it's not really the same thing), but to be clear, in terms of playing in actual games Ivisic has two full years of experience as a senior professional in a top adult European league, the most recent one as a frequent starter, whereas KJ has virtually none and has been playing almost entirely for Barcelona's youth teams.

That's just a natural function of their 3-year age difference, but it's important to note that the experience gap between the two is colossal, the Balkan adult pro league is so much better than college basketball it's difficult to analogize in college terms.

SescIllini · Monday at 5:00 PM

IlliDan said:
Strange to be casting Boswell's status after a few scrimmages and videos.Brad loves guys who can shoot and pass.Lets not pigeon hole every guard as a PG,room for multiple talented players,positionless recruiting.

Full two year highlights of Boswell. His play is methodical, smart, opportunistic, unselfish...

He can shoot well, handle the ball, penetrate abd pass. He is a better version of McCamey IMHO. He is also 19 years old, two years younger than Skyy Clark.

Indy Illini Fan · Monday at 5:51 PM

Illinifan2005 said:
An on3 article has our projected starters as Boswell, Ty, KJ, WR, and booth

Booth ain’t gonna start …

Boswell hasn’t locked up starting PG role yet …

WyattEarp · Monday at 6:05 PM

IlliDan said:
Strange to be casting Boswell's status after a few scrimmages and videos.Brad loves guys who can shoot and pass.Lets not pigeon hole every guard as a PG,room for multiple talented players,positionless recruiting.

Thank You

Indy Illini Fan · Monday at 6:26 PM

Chad Fleck said:
They sort of foreshadowed the Fears decommitment.

They talk to the Fears family all the time ...

ILFaninFL · Monday at 6:29 PM

Indy Illini Fan said:
Booth ain’t gonna start …

Boswell hasn’t locked up starting PG role yet …

I agree with the Booth comment. That is the most open spot, which could be one of the centers, Humrichouse (sp?), or Trey, which is my outsider guess.

Boswell surprises me. Who do you see as the main competition for the point guard spot, or are you suggesting we go without one again?

Illini Basketball 2024-2025

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