You obviously have toddlers.
Illini Basketball 2024-2025
I'm not just annoyed on our behalf, but they only voted in one of the two Rutgers 5-star guys? That's just odd.
I was okay with them not having any Illinois players on there since most are newcomers. But then they put Dylan Harper on there and that sentiment went out the window.
Joel Goodson
- dawgville
or Indiana or PU
With graduate studies in Ann Arbor
splitter
- and not Nebraska
Coleman when you read this i hope you go troll that guy.
Pretty sure most of those players would not be on a preseason list in any other major conference. Is the B1G that bad this year?!?!?!
Joel Goodson
- dawgville
VG article:
texillwek
🔶🔹🔸🔷
I can feel the insiders nodding and quietly whispering to themselves - "Sean Miller".
The point of the article can be summed up as, "Illinois is only a top 20 program because of NIL." A backhanded compliment at best. Saying we weren't a top 20 program prior to NIL is quantifiably false.
His only argument for us being outside the top 20 from 1905 to 2021 seems to be that after Weber was let go, the job wasn't coveted by high profile coaches - a wildly myopic way to assess the situation.
I also got that Illinois was bad because they refused to cheat at all, unlike everyone else.
Bigtex
- DFW
Smith will be good but not B1G player of year good.
I don’t know. He averaged 12/7.5/6 last year in a complementary role to Edey. Maybe he struggles now that Edey won’t suck up so much attention. But now that it’s “his” team, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to think he will put up something like 16/9/5 this year. I don’t see any obvious candidates to average 20+ this year, so if Smith puts up that statline he’s at least in the running. It always seems like someone emerges though. Will see who it is. But given a lack of clear alternatives, I understand why Smith is the preseason POY.
Bigtex
- DFW
Can't disagree as B1G is wide open. Based on last year stats, I can see those that follow and rank players/teams giving Smith the preseason nod - IMO Smith averages 13/6/4 for the upcoming season. Similarly I can see not placing any Illinois players on the preseason team. As others have said - the end of season list will look significantly different than the preseason list.
I'm glad a couple other people spoke up. I was happy to read an article that discusses Illinois BB as being in the upper echelon, but that article was BS. I didn't want to be the first to say something negative. I agreed with some of the "perceptions" of the program historically. The malaise we experienced from 2006 through Underwood was the result of 2 events: 1. Gunther gave up trying to hire the best coach after Kruger and Self left and went with the security of Bruce Weber, 2. Mike Thomas was hired as AD, which led to Groce (and Beckman for good measure).
This was the bigger issue. Coaches weren't spurning Illinois as a top job, but they were shying away from an unlikeable AD.
Joel Goodson
- dawgville
am a long time reader and fan of Henricksen, but his premise that we're not a Top 20 program is laughable. yeah, we we're in a pretty bad trough, but there's a lot more to factor in when measuring a program's overall status
PizzaHutParkingLot
- McPherson, KS
Similar to LSU #7 in football, #21 should be reserved for elite big men
No way he averages 9 assists a game... When was the last time a big ten player did that? And without edey sucking in the defense for wide open shooters or easy dump off to edey for quick bucket. No way.
I think Purdue takes a step back for sure. I'll go 16/6/4 for Braden and it's borderline first team/second team big ten.... Still very good year
Yep, nobody has averaged 8 let alone 9 assists (I only went back to 2000, so maybe someone did it before then?). Most of his assists last season were to a guy who was one of the most efficient scorers that the league has ever seen. They no longer have that, and he's going to be asked to score more anyhow.