Illini Basketball 2024-2025

#505      
Calvin
Sleepers just posted an over-reaction video on the pre-season and exhibition games.
TLDW power rankings; Indiana looking good, favorite to win the BIG.
Next group Purdue, Iowa, MSU, Rutgers, OR, Illinois. They described the Illini defense as catastrophic.
 
#506      
NCKEITHJC
anyone have a sense of why White is starting over Ty? I am pretty sure Ty will be finishing most games
 
#508      
Big Jack
NCKEITHJC said:
anyone have a sense of why White is starting over Ty? I am pretty sure Ty will be finishing most games
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Per BU minutes are earned not given and Ty's total lack of an offensive game will be the reason he sits alot more this season.. JMHO
 
#509      
fatboyslim
Calvin said:
Sleepers just posted an over-reaction video on the pre-season and exhibition games.
TLDW power rankings; Indiana looking good, favorite to win the BIG.
Next group Purdue, Iowa, MSU, Rutgers, OR, Illinois. They described the Illini defense as catastrophic.
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Those guys are born idiots and I wish people would stop giving them the attention they don’t deserve. Not gonna happen unfortunately but I can wish.
 
#510      
aaeismacgychel
NCKEITHJC said:
anyone have a sense of why White is starting over Ty? I am pretty sure Ty will be finishing most games
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Joel Goodson said:
he's shown more in practice is the default answer. everyone knows Brad wants to win. he's gonna do whatever he thinks gives us the best chance
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So single exhibitions tend to lead to overreacting, especially since it was our first time seeing the team. I think the question becomes what were the issues had due to just not having enough chemistry, or not knowing system positioning responsibilities that will work their way out in time versus what issues might be signs of something more problematic throughout the season that are more likely not to work themselves out.

For me, the two biggest concerns coming out of that exhibition (outside of whether Ivisic will be allowed to play) had to do with the play of Tre White and Ben Humrichous. From Tre, I didn't see the motor and intensity that had been talked about behind the scenes, his decision making looked questionable relative to the rest of the team even for an exhibition where some of that stuff is expected, and his general play style of actively going after midrange shots off the dribble, which is consistent with his prior profile, just isn't efficient basketball. And so if Tre isn't actively moving offball, opening spacing for others and allowing himself more space to operate when he gets the ball, like in this scrimmage I'm not sure how he fits into the efficient offense Brad wants. And as for Ben, his defense looked really really rough even for an exhibition. So if he isn't getting you at least 1.2ppp on offense, I do have concerns about his playability because from what we saw, I'm not sure he can limit an opponent to under 1.1ppp and he's going to be targeted.

This was a long response, but I do think the exhibition did suggest there might be some early warning signs for Tre and Ben. Brad has a willingness to use his bench and change his lineups though, so it'll work its way out no matter what, but I would not be surprised if there are significant "why is _______ on the bench" calls starting very early in the season this year.
 
#511      
FeelYourPaign
aaeismacgychel said:
So single exhibitions tend to lead to overreacting, especially since it was our first time seeing the team. I think the question becomes what were the issues had due to just not having enough chemistry, or not knowing system positioning responsibilities that will work their way out in time versus what issues might be signs of something more problematic throughout the season that are more likely not to work themselves out.

For me, the two biggest concerns coming out of that exhibition (outside of whether Ivisic will be allowed to play) had to do with the play of Tre White and Ben Humrichous. From Tre, I didn't see the motor and intensity that had been talked about behind the scenes, his decision making looked questionable relative to the rest of the team even for an exhibition where some of that stuff is expected, and his general play style of actively going after midrange shots off the dribble, which is consistent with his prior profile, just isn't efficient basketball. And so if Tre isn't actively moving offball, opening spacing for others and allowing himself more space to operate when he gets the ball, like in this scrimmage I'm not sure how he fits into the efficient offense Brad wants. And as for Ben, his defense looked really really rough even for an exhibition. So if he isn't getting you at least 1.2ppp on offense, I do have concerns about his playability because from what we saw, I'm not sure he can limit an opponent to under 1.1ppp and he's going to be targeted.

This was a long response, but I do think the exhibition did suggest there might be some early warning signs for Tre and Ben. Brad has a willingness to use his bench and change his lineups though, so it'll work its way out no matter what, but I would not be surprised if there are significant "why is _______ on the bench" calls starting very early in the season this year.
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Thanks for the thoughtful post. I didn't see the exhibition so I really appreciated your insight
 
#512      
mysterio2525
aaeismacgychel said:
So single exhibitions tend to lead to overreacting, especially since it was our first time seeing the team. I think the question becomes what were the issues had due to just not having enough chemistry, or not knowing system positioning responsibilities that will work their way out in time versus what issues might be signs of something more problematic throughout the season that are more likely not to work themselves out.

For me, the two biggest concerns coming out of that exhibition (outside of whether Ivisic will be allowed to play) had to do with the play of Tre White and Ben Humrichous. From Tre, I didn't see the motor and intensity that had been talked about behind the scenes, his decision making looked questionable relative to the rest of the team even for an exhibition where some of that stuff is expected, and his general play style of actively going after midrange shots off the dribble, which is consistent with his prior profile, just isn't efficient basketball. And so if Tre isn't actively moving offball, opening spacing for others and allowing himself more space to operate when he gets the ball, like in this scrimmage I'm not sure how he fits into the efficient offense Brad wants. And as for Ben, his defense looked really really rough even for an exhibition. So if he isn't getting you at least 1.2ppp on offense, I do have concerns about his playability because from what we saw, I'm not sure he can limit an opponent to under 1.1ppp and he's going to be targeted.

This was a long response, but I do think the exhibition did suggest there might be some early warning signs for Tre and Ben. Brad has a willingness to use his bench and change his lineups though, so it'll work its way out no matter what, but I would not be surprised if there are significant "why is _______ on the bench" calls starting very early in the season this year.
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Hummer worried me. If he is just Luke Goode without Luke's rebounding than that's bad. I don't think that's the case but that better be the absolute floor. Kylan and Tre seemed to fall back to bad habits/the scouting report of what they were but I think they will step it up. KJ and will too much dribbling but no worries.

It's an exhibition, it wasn't pretty, things will improve, shots will go down, turnovers turn to buckets. Effort and familiarity will drive the change
 
#514      
illinifan1987
BretMyBeachHouse said:
Well, this summer I said that if Brad got this team into the top 10 as some were predicting that it would be his best coaching job ever. Lots of people knew that it wouldn't be easy. Some spoke up. I'm sure others didn't because people tend to attack anyone who expresses any doubts about our success.

It seems some people's outlook on the season has changed based on this one scrimmage. Mine hasn't. I'm still very optimistic and hoping that we don't have the chemistry issues that we say in 2022.
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monster energy motorcycles GIF by NASCAR
 
#515      
aaeismacgychel
mysterio2525 said:
Hummer worried me. If he is just Luke Goode without Luke's rebounding than that's bad. I don't think that's the case but that better be the absolute floor. Kylan and Tre seemed to fall back to bad habits/the scouting report of what they were but I think they will step it up. KJ and will too much dribbling but no worries.

It's an exhibition, it wasn't pretty, things will improve, shots will go down, turnovers turn to buckets. Effort and familiarity will drive the change
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Humrichous was difficult to analyze offensively for me simply because he was fairly invisible. There could be many reasons for it, but I want to give the benefit of the doubt as he had the look of someone unsure of where to be on the court or where his teammates were going. And playing an old experienced physical team like Ole Miss hurts there too as they were very disruptive to our offensive sets leading more to a pickup game with random players vibe. And that can be difficult for someone like him who isn't a primary ballhandler. Based on both the reports out of practice and his profile, I think he does have characteristics that have similarity to Mike Daum- a guy who can fill it up, and to me at least, he doesn't project to be just a "sit in the corner and just shoot threes" guy that he's being portrayed as by media like Sleepers. I'm fairly confident that once he starts feeling comfortable with his teammates and builds some chemistry he will start lighting it up as he does have a bag of offensive tricks and his advanced stats project nicely.

What worries me about Ben is that advanced stats already predicted him as a minus defender prior to the step up in competition level. And what he showed on that end of the court, he just looks overmatched in a not all that fixable way other than trying to shade secondary support over to him. Teams are going to go after him. So he could be one of those score 20ppg, give up 20ppg type players.

Kylan, I'm giving a pass to. I think he was going at it at 50-75% effort (not necessarily comforting to fans but it was an exhibition). His turnovers mainly were the, I expected my teammate to be there variety. Offense otherwise looked good, and he slashes to the rim well. His defense was uhhhhh passive, yeah, let's go with that, but his profile and advanced stats suggest that when he's actually trying to defend he's average. So, I'm not worried about him yet, but yeah obviously he'll be stapled to the bench if not the roof of the stadium if he shows up for actual games like that. Just don't think that was his priority in this one.
 
#517      
Bucktown
aaeismacgychel said:
Humrichous was difficult to analyze offensively for me simply because he was fairly invisible. There could be many reasons for it, but I want to give the benefit of the doubt as he had the look of someone unsure of where to be on the court or where his teammates were going. And playing an old experienced physical team like Ole Miss hurts there too as they were very disruptive to our offensive sets leading more to a pickup game with random players vibe. And that can be difficult for someone like him who isn't a primary ballhandler. Based on both the reports out of practice and his profile, I think he does have characteristics that have similarity to Mike Daum- a guy who can fill it up, and to me at least, he doesn't project to be just a "sit in the corner and just shoot threes" guy that he's being portrayed as by media like Sleepers. I'm fairly confident that once he starts feeling comfortable with his teammates and builds some chemistry he will start lighting it up as he does have a bag of offensive tricks and his advanced stats project nicely.

What worries me about Ben is that advanced stats already predicted him as a minus defender prior to the step up in competition level. And what he showed on that end of the court, he just looks overmatched in a not all that fixable way other than trying to shade secondary support over to him. Teams are going to go after him. So he could be one of those score 20ppg, give up 20ppg type players.

Kylan, I'm giving a pass to. I think he was going at it at 50-75% effort (not necessarily comforting to fans but it was an exhibition). His turnovers mainly were the, I expected my teammate to be there variety. Offense otherwise looked good, and he slashes to the rim well. His defense was uhhhhh passive, yeah, let's go with that, but his profile and advanced stats suggest that when he's actually trying to defend he's average. So, I'm not worried about him yet, but yeah obviously he'll be stapled to the bench if not the roof of the stadium if he shows up for actual games like that. Just don't think that was his priority in this one.
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Agree it looked like they had Humrichous in the Quincy Guerrier role like you said: "sit in the corner and just shoot threes". His success last year was closer to how Coleman was used with many of his scoring opportunities being initiated from top part of the arc. Of course, the sample size here is infinitesimally small.

Marcus Domask struggled last year during his first several games as well. Let's hope Humrichous and Tre White were just tight and wanting to prove themselves.
 
#518      
NarrowJ
Calvin said:
They're entertaining, and certainly no worse than posters here. If you come to this board, I don't see why you'd complain about their hot takes.
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Yeah, exactly. That's why they exist: hot, steamy takes.

Less than a month ago they had showcased a bunch of his Evansville highlights touting his effectiveness in ball screens, attacking closeouts, so on and so forth and they now put out a very contradictory opinion that he's just a corner 3 guy based off of one exhibition game.
 
#524      
Illiniguy13
NarrowJ said:
Yeah, exactly. That's why they exist: hot, steamy takes.

Less than a month ago they had showcased a bunch of his Evansville highlights touting his effectiveness in ball screens, attacking closeouts, so on and so forth and they now put out a very contradictory opinion that he's just a corner 3 guy based off of one exhibition game.
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There's quite a few examples of them contradicting their own opinions in later videos. But I'll give them credit, when they're wrong, they admit it and eat crow
 
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