Purdue - Illinois - Mich St. - Rutgers now go consecutively in his rankings, which is a lot more reasonable than before and also shows how hard it still is to figure out how the conference will be.
Illini Basketball 2024-2025
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Being able to penetrate and score in the lane is vastly different at the high school level vs college.
A lot better athletes playing defense with more size and shot blocking. It's a lot more difficult to get in the lane consistently and it's not necessarily easy for a 6'2 guard to score inside at the power conference level.
Indinia dropped from 23 to 31 -- Torvik must be factoring in coaching ability now.
Interesting if you sort by talent the Illini are second only to UCONN
Im suprised the ranking gain comes from the team showing a projected 11th ranked defensive efficiency. Is this coming from having an actual center or some other metric?
I think you see line ups based on match ups and what the team needs in the moment. Hoping Dra makes a name for him on defense because I think that ups his time on court. The 3pt line up has enough shooting that you could have Ty in there if Riley isn't ready day 1 to clean up the glass on misses. Ty is the only one on the roster that can legitimately slot in 1-4 so even if he isn't the primary option at any of the 4 spots he will still be on the court a ton. KJ and Bos are the best 1-2 punch at lead guard since Deron/Dee. If Riley can live up to his potential this team could be real good. He is the x factor and significantly raises the ceiling.
Defensive line up:
Dra, Ty, Tre, Booth, Rez
3pt (probably starting line up end of year):
Bos, KJ, Riley, Hum, Ivisic
Rebounding:
KJ, Ty, Riley, Booth, Rez
FT (end of game):
KJ, Tre, Riley, Hum, Booth
I'll eat my socks if this team is better on defense than offense. Also no way there are 32 teams better offensively than this roster.
I'm not good at basketball so I could be wrong but literally two weeks ago Will Riley committed to Illinois and I'm really good at math so I think this checks out, 6+1=7
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I watched this past tournament’s Sweet 16 game with Arizona and Clemson last night just to get an idea of Kylan’s play. I was pleasantly surprised.This is from a scouting report after one year at AZ:
'When the ball is in his hands, Boswell is quick and shifty. He is good at getting to the rim and finishes well in the paint. In his sophomore season, one area of improvement should be drawing fouls and getting to the line. The 18-year-old is a solid passer, but wasn’t a high assist guy in limited action."
He, by the way, was great on defense. He had at one time forced the ballhandler with hand checks so confused that he traveled and another time he was switching off on defense and had to guard their center Hall, and he slapped the ball away for a turnover as Hall was using booty ball to back down Kylan to try to score. There was only one time where his offensive players scored against him and it was on a three. I saw the whole game.
Arizona was pretty solid on offense but he ran the show, he is very very unselfish and he is a great passer. He is a general on the floor, but was having a rough shooting night. I believe he was one for four from the threes.
They took him out in the last eight minutes of the first and second half. You could tell that he had lost his confidence in his shooting.
You could see where the Staff had lost their confidence in him. I saw him on the bench, looking dazed and confused. It was confusing to me because Zona was down by several points late in the game when they were needing to win the game, but their coach had Bradley in and he is not the same player as Kylan.
We will be very impressed with BamBam‘s play. He is a great player.
The Galloping Ghost
- Washington, DC
All the bellyaching about us not being rated very highly by Torvik in May looks pretty silly right now. The "too early" rankings in various publications undoubtedly are about to follow suit. Again, this is why you wait till the roster is finalized before you freak out.
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The starting lineup talk is fun to discuss but is really irrelevant right now.
We have heard that Boz is guaranteed to start, that KJ is our best player (therefore presumed to start). Ty our lone returning started (rumored guaranteed to start). Will Riley is a top 15ish recruit and reclassed to come here and start. Ben H may be our best shooter and scorer and probably best fit at the 4 next to our 5s. We have also been told that Ivisic had played pro ball and is coming over to the states to not start.
This is without even mentioning Tre or Morez. You add it all up and one of the above is coming off the bench. Who it is? Your guess is as good as mine.
We have heard that Boz is guaranteed to start, that KJ is our best player (therefore presumed to start). Ty our lone returning started (rumored guaranteed to start). Will Riley is a top 15ish recruit and reclassed to come here and start. Ben H may be our best shooter and scorer and probably best fit at the 4 next to our 5s. We have also been told that Ivisic had played pro ball and is coming over to the states to not start.
This is without even mentioning Tre or Morez. You add it all up and one of the above is coming off the bench. Who it is? Your guess is as good as mine.
I look for Purdue to finish somewhere between 5th and 9th in the big. Edeys presence on both ends of the floor was the overwhelming reason for their success the last couple of years. They will no longer be able to rely on that.
Most of our team was guilty of this two years ago when they started realizing if they passed up any shot they weren't likely to see the ball again. I can understand why Boswell might have taken the same approach.
I don’t have any thing against you…but I hope you get to eat your socks…after properly laundered of course
No, you wait to freak out in February. That's about when you find out if the pieces fit.All the bellyaching about us not being rated very highly by Torvik in May looks pretty silly right now. The "too early" rankings in various publications undoubtedly are about to follow suit. Again, this is why you wait till the roster is finalized before you freak out.
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I don't know if we were watching the same games but I thought Bradley was great down the stretch for Arizona and he was probably the best player on the floor for either team in that sweet 16 loss to Clemson.
Player A: 18 pts/4.8 Reb/3.4 asts on a .544 TS% and 2.1 defensive win shares.
Player B: 15.9 pts/5.0 Reb/3.9 asts on a .550 TS% and 1.3 defensive win shares.
Who would you rather have between the two?
Player A is Caleb Love
Player B is Marcus Domask.
Personally I'm taking Domask but the stats aren't too different though Domask is hurt by a very cold start of the season and vastly improved as the offense started running through him.
The point I'm trying to make is that the Caleb Love is a ball hog narrative is vastly overblown and he had a great season. I'm not saying he hasn't had shot selection issues in the past but I thought he reigned it in this season and was very good.
The Galloping Ghost
- Washington, DC
Give me freaking out with evidence to point, rather than bed-wetting for no reason. And hopefully, this year, that'll be the point we become bigger than the sum of our parts. If so, look out.
Bradley scored 18 points but he’s not a true point guard. Just watch the game and watch how good Kylan is in that position. You’ll see what I mean when you see Illinois playing with Kylan at the point.
Maybe a better term describing Caleb Love would be gunner. He is a shoot first pass only if he can't get a shot off in any way player. He may have had better shot selection this year because he was passing on some the crazy out of offensive flow shots he was taking the previous years finally showing a little patience. Even that doesn't mean he kept the ball in his hands any less.
Caleb Love launched a career high 7.7 threes per game, made 2.6. 33%.
Kylan Boswell 1.8 / 4.8 38%
My impression is they were both doing what they were asked to do.
Boswell showed the ability to get the rim and finish or kick, but they had wanted him to catch and shoot. His shooting slipped late in the season.
Anyone notice where Indiana was? Pretty low for a team that was supposed to win the BIG.
They are factoring in that playing 5 in and not being about to shoot 3s with a bunch of studs still results in a bunch of losses.
Welcome to your new home Will Riley. We look forward to welcoming you to the familly.
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