Illini Basketball 2024-2025

#76      
RockfordIllini
Biggest defensive takeaways for me are we need to work on long closeouts. And as others have noted we got bullied down low. I looked it up and 23 is 7’1 255 senior transfer out of Bucknell. Sans Toni we don’t have anyone who can match up with that.

But as others have said, lots of 1 v 1 contested shots. Our ball movement and shot quality looked miles ahead of Butler’s. And given how little this group has been together, that bodes well.
 
#79      
Highlander
Looking over our roster, it’s great to see 3 from Indiana (where I now live). Nice to steal some from IU/PU backyard for a change.
 
#83      
illiniguy24
Fly Illini Fly! said:
...Who are much less deserving of that "benefit of the doubt".
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Thats It Martin Short GIF by PBS SoCal
 
#88      
BretMyBeachHouse
ChiefGritty said:
It's all more or less guesswork, but if you gave me the choice between being #26 AP and #23 Kenpom in the preseason versus #17 AP and #39 Kenpom, I am taking the former all day long.
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Not me.

Ken pom is a formula. You can't cheat the formula. So your performance will reflect in the rankings.

AP is an opinion. So if you start low it might take a bit to overcome the perception.
 
#90      
jamarvelous31
BretMyBeachHouse said:
Not me.

Ken pom is a formula. You can't cheat the formula. So your performance will reflect in the rankings.

AP is an opinion. So if you start low it might take a bit to overcome the perception.
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Kenpom is based on opinion at the beginning of the year. How else do you systematically rate AdjD fors team that haven't played? Or the AdjO of a team whose lead guard is going to be a new foreign player?

Kenpom himself even says that he's .500 against the AP poll & that he defaults to the AP for preseason and his work during the season:

 
#92      
Captain Bubbles
If you watch the clips, you may see #22 which is Patrick McCaffery, one of Fran's sons. Connor McCaffery is an assistant coach for Butler.
 
#93      
FreshlySqueezed
#96      
SkyysNotFalling
Well we were winning 49-45 with about 1:30 left in the first half. Butler ran up to a 21-14 start. Thinking our defense will be brutal, at least early on. But seems that we can still score the ball.
 
#97      
abchew2
the juiceman cometh said:
Has any team ever has the level of roster turnover we had this offseason and been ranked higher than the #26 ranking we essentially have? Just two returning players, one of whom averaged just 7 minutes per? This actually appears to be a high level of trust in our program from the national media.
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I have to imagine Kentucky has multiple times with how many one and done players they recruited some years.
 
#100      
the juiceman cometh
abchew2 said:
I have to imagine Kentucky has multiple times with how many one and done players they recruited some years.
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Yeah but they never lost all but 2 players to the draft. Most they ever had drafted in one year was 6. We lost 10 this offseason. This level of roster turnover is entirely due to the transfer landscape of the last few years. As someone pointed out, this year's UK team had a huge roster turnover and is ranked #23, which is just 3 spots ahead of us. I'd argue their ranking was also impacted by their roster (and coaching) turnover, as this is their lowest preseason ranking since 2008 when they were unranked.
 
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