White gothics tomorrow!
- Thread starter CappyNU
- Start date
Give me those red, white and Blue Chicago city jerseys. We do well in those and the Illini hate them.
They are not as geographically diverse as Pepperdine, but close. Players from Croatia, Lithuania, Canada, and Saginaw.
Yeah I bet whoever is from Saginaw is good. I played in that HS league and was dunked on by Jason Richardson, Mateen Cleaves, and Morris Peterson in consecutive games.
Game tonite vs illini IMHO is must win. For our players confidence precedence and resume if we want any postseason whatsoever. Flush iowa game. Go and get a big home win vs really good illini team
Probably not the best thread to post this, but couldn't start a thread for former Illinois players.
Former Illini star Marcus Domask is playing for the Windy City Bulls of the NBA's G-League.
Playing about 30 minutes per game in his last 6, averaging maybe 8.5 points per game.
He's earning about $41,000 plus housing.
Quincy Guerrier is with Toronto's G-League outfit and averaging about 35 minutes, 14 points and 8 boards. Same pay as Domask.
Former Illini teammate Coleman Hawkins transferred to Kansas State where he is ready to start annoying the Big 12.
Dain Dainja transferred to Memphis, where he is averaging 24 minutes, 10 points and 6 boards.
Terrence Shannon was the 27th pick in the NBA draft and has played about 27 minutes (total) in Minnesota's 21 games. He is earning at least $2.5 million this season.
Former Illini star Marcus Domask is playing for the Windy City Bulls of the NBA's G-League.
Playing about 30 minutes per game in his last 6, averaging maybe 8.5 points per game.
He's earning about $41,000 plus housing.
Quincy Guerrier is with Toronto's G-League outfit and averaging about 35 minutes, 14 points and 8 boards. Same pay as Domask.
Former Illini teammate Coleman Hawkins transferred to Kansas State where he is ready to start annoying the Big 12.
Dain Dainja transferred to Memphis, where he is averaging 24 minutes, 10 points and 6 boards.
Terrence Shannon was the 27th pick in the NBA draft and has played about 27 minutes (total) in Minnesota's 21 games. He is earning at least $2.5 million this season.
The Croatian, Lithuanian and Canadian guys are first year players who look like NBA draftees. The reason we will win is that our guys are veterans who play good defense, and they aren't and don't.
Looks like they play like a typical Underwood team so far, with one main difference being that they are taking A LOT more threes than usual, currently #9 in the country in 3-point rate. They have also pulled back a bit from the one-on-one offensive style seem the last two seasons now that Shannon and Domask are gone. Their defensive FG% numbers are elite, though it's hard to say right now how much of that is real and how much is due to their fairly weak schedule so far. As usual, they also have a ton of height/length that will be challenging, rarely playing more than 1 guy below 6'6".
Their roster has a top-20 5-star freshman in Will Riley, three 4-star freshmen in Kasparas Jakucionis, Tomislav Ivisic and Morez Johnson Jr., along with three additional former 4-star transfers in Carey Booth from ND, Kylan Boswell from AZ and Tre White from Louisville, a transfer from Evansville who started his career at an NAIA school in Ben Humrichous, and a no-star transfer who spent one year at Mercer in Jake Davis. Per Torvik, they have the 2nd-most talented roster in the conference, behind IU (we're 16th for comparison).
Starters:
PG - 6'6" Kasparas Jakucionis. Freshman from Lithuania, projected to be a one-and-done player, and is their best player so far. Able to create off the dribble, shoots 63% from 2, 36% from 3, gets to the FT line a lot where he shoots 87%. He's their top distributor as well, averaging 6 assists per game; however he is also averaging 3.6 turnovers per game, with 5 or more turnovers in each of their games against the top 3 teams they've faced (Alabama, Arkansas, Oakland - he actually has an A/TO ratio below 1 in these games). Averaging 6 rebounds and 1.6 steals per game as well. Will be a very difficult matchup defensively.
Combo G - 6'2" Kylan Boswell. Started nearly every game for Arizona last season in more of a traditional PG role, though still took the 2nd-most shots on the team behind Caleb Love. Was a 38% shooter from 3 and 79% from the FT line at AZ, but has struggled to start this year, shooting just 23% from 3 and 61% at the line. Against Bama and Arkansas, had his two highest scoring games of the year with 17 and 18 respectively, while also averaging 5.5 boards, 1 steal and a 2.5:1 A/TO ratio in those games. Hasn't hit a midrange shot all season, but rarely misses if he gets to the rim.
F - 6'7" Tre White. At his 3rd school in 3 years. Started nearly every game for USC two years ago, then was a starter at Louisville before missing 3 games due to injury, and eventually regained his spot. He's a starter for Underwood, but hasn't played more than 22 minutes in any game this year. Has never been a great shooter in his career, at 29% from 3 despite being a solid FT shooter. Where he shines is in the dirty work, he's their 2nd-best offensive rebounder and 3rd-best defensive rebounder, though he's struggled against the good teams they've played. Arkansas completely shut him down in their last game, with 0 points and 2 rebounds in just 10 minutes. Assuming Will Riley will take more of his minutes as the year goes on.
Stretch-4 - 6'9" Ben Humrichous. Spent last year at Evansville after 3 years at the NAIA level, and shot 54% from 2, 42% from 3 and 76% from the line. Missed 9 games due to injuries last year, but started every game he played. 80% of his shots are from 3, where he is a pure catch-and shoot player who's hitting 43% so far. Takes excellent care of the ball, and if he gets it, it's likely going up for a shot. Will crash the glass on the offensive end but surprisingly a poor defensive rebounder. Averaging 1 block and 0.6 steals per game.
C - 7'1" Tomislav Ivisic. Hailing from Vodice, Croatia, just an hour away from Split, Ivisic has played for the Croatian national team and is classified as a 21-year-old sophomore despite this being his first year playing college ball. His twin brother plays for Arkansas, so they just went head-to-head last game with Tomislav coming out on top with 21 points, 10 boards, 2 assists, 3 blocks and 2 steals despite fouling out. Averaging 16.3 points, 8.9 boards, 1.6 steals and 1.1 blocks per game. Oh, he's also the 3rd-best 3-point shooter on the team, despite being nearly the size of Big Matt, hitting at a 38% clip so far on an average of 5 attempted 3s per game, and also shoots 59% from midrange. Another matchup nightmare for us.
Reserves:
F - 6'8" Will Riley. Their other freshman phenom, a projected lottery pick in the draft next year who hails from the great white north (actually southwest of Toronto, not that far north). Had a breakout game against Bama with 18 points, 9 boards and 4 assists, but struggled against Arkansas and Oakland, with just a combined 13 points (4-17 shooting), 4 boards and 4 assists in those two games. Shots are split evenly between 2 and 3 pointers, but takes a whole lot of midrange shots, and misses 74% of them. Has also taken excellent care of the ball and if he gets it, it's likely going up for a shot as well, as he takes the most shots of anyone on the team when normalized against minutes played. Is a solid offensive rebounder, but his defense is much weaker than the starting rotation.
SG - 6'1" Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn. The lone holdover from last season's team who plays minutes. Averaged 5 minutes per game last season, where he did very little well aside from not turn the ball over. This year, he's averaging 16 mpg, but still doesn't do a lot well. Taking out their opener against Eastern Illinois, he shoots 19% from 3 and averages just 5 points and 2 boards per game, with just 1 assist on the year against 4 turnovers, though he does have a handful of steals.
C - 6'9" Morez Johnson. In limited minutes, has provided a solid defensive effort and might be the best rebounder and shot blocker on the team. Offensively, the only player who has not attempted a 3 this year. Also seems to have been subjected to "hack-a-Morez" efforts, as he gets to the line a lot but shoots just 52%. He is definitely much less assertive than Ivisic on offense.
Appearing mostly in blowouts:
F - 6'10" Carey Booth. Starter for ND last year during conference play. Decent shot blocker and defensive rebounder, can hit the 3 occasionally.
Wing - 6'6" Jake Davis. Started 22 games for Mercer last year and was their best shooter from 3, at 41% as a freshman. Played 6 minutes against Arkansas and picked up 3 fouls while hitting one 3-pointer.
Alabama dominated them in their matchup, getting 5 dunks and shooting 57% on layups, 6-6 from midrange, and 32% from 3 on offense, but they forced Illinois into a lot of midrange shots, where they only went 7-19. Illinois also shot 54% at the FT line and barely forced any turnovers. They never got closer than 8 over the last 31 minutes of the game.
Against Arkansas, Illinois was on fire shooting, making 15 3s at a 48% clip, including Ivisic going 6-9(!), along with 77% on layups. They took more 3s than 2s (and why wouldn't you if you were hitting them so well?) and shot 68% from the FT line. They forced nearly twice as many turnovers per possession as they did against Bama, and held Arkansas to 29% shooting from 3 while they shot just 59% from the line. They opened the game on a 14-2 run in the first 5 minutes and Arkansas never got closer than 9 the rest of the way. Illinois also got off to a hot start against Oakland, though Oakland fought back to keep it a close game through the beginning of the 2nd half.
If we can prevent them from getting off to a quick start (stares nervously at Iowa game), and not get caught up in their desire to run, hopefully we can have a strong effort backed by our students turning the gym into a living nightmare for the Illini.
Go 'Cats!
I am forced to watch the Illini because of my Illini blood traitor children.
It is a good team that could be very good by the end of the year. They will give NU fits with length. The only upside for NU is that its December so the Illini are still trying to figure out how the parts all work together.
They start two Freshman from Europe, one who is expected to be a top 10 pick (no. 6) and the other who is 7 feet and can shoot the three and is there leading scorer at 17ppg. He is also a projected Rd. 1 pick. In their last game they started 3 transfers. PG Boswell is from Champaign but played for Arizona last year and will give NU fits. The other two are White from Louisville and then Ben Humrichous from Evansville. The first guy off the bench is Wil Riley from Canada and their second leading scorer who reclassified -- he is also a projected NBA lottery pick. If he gets hot he's capable of going for 20 plus against anyone.
The pretty much play 8 guys with some other guys getting minutes. These are guys who signed on early and thought they would play before Orlando Antigua returned from Kentucky and they landed the two Europeans and Riley. As long as Antigua is at Illinois as an assistant, they will be a problem for the entire Big10. They are good program without him, they are a top 10 program when he is recruiting for the Illini.
If this was a normal roster pre NIL, I'd say they are a sweet 16 team with a chance to be a final 4 team next year. However, they will likely lose the 2 European kids and Riley to the draft and Humrichous graduates so that is not likely gonna happen.
As for a scouting report, its a winnable game. Just slow the game down and to borrow from Bill Carmody - MAKE SHOTS.
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Anybody named after a tropical island country and a city full amusement parks is going to be a good recruiter of 18 year olds, I guess.
Cap, are you moonlighting for the Writing Illini? Looks like their article where we don’t have much of a chance. Actually, that seems to be the consensus from pretty much everyone.
Nah, just looking at the numbers and calling it like I see it. Thought I caveated things a lot given their soft schedule so far and some of their guys not playing well against the only good teams.
Just saw we are 3.5 pts underdogs. I was expecting more 5-7.
Not giving us a chance seems a bit silly considering we just saw Penn State, at home, obliterate the choo choos led by Magic Johnson.
Cappy thats an excellent writeup. Perhaps your best - and its a bit depressing. Thanks for taking the time to put that together. And for giving me realistic expectations about tonight.
An NBA-style 5 who can actually shoot it from 3... I think tonight we're going to see more of Mr. Fitzmorris than we'd normally hope.
At least they only have one true guard and his backup can't shoot. Lets get Boswell in foul trouble.
Maybe our defense can jump passing lanes and turn them over a lot. If Brad Underwood blows a gasket because his team isn't playing defense, we have a chance.
Our defense is going to be in some trouble if Matt has to play away from the rim a lot. I also see Collins putting FitzMorris in the game for some minutes to see if he can help. He's a lot quicker and more agile than Matt, but I suspect he'll pick up a lot of touch fouls pretty quickly the way he moves his hands when guarding.
Based on Cappy's review, it sounds like they have at least two point guards with the shooting guard probably being better at it.
Based on Cappy's review, it sounds like they have at least two point guards with the shooting guard probably being better at it.
Purdue turned it over 24 times against Penn State's pressure.
Kaufman-Renn had 7 TO's all by himself.
Fletcher Loyer had 5.
Braden Smith had 3 turnovers to go with his 6 points and 5 assists.
11 guys played for Purdue - only 2 didnt have a turnover.
Ace Baldwin, the PSU defensive wiz, didn't have any steals, but it appears that they made people other than Braden Smith handle the ball and Purdue fell apart. (I didn't get to watch the game, just trying to interpret the numbers)
Good stuff. You are correct that Illinois does not run the isolation offense they used last year with Domask, it's all about ball screens with KJ this season. 5 shooters on the court will spread out opponents to get open 3s or drives to the basket. They'll also post Tomi a bit, he's an excellent passer as well.
On defense, the biggest strength is the length. Denying 3s and being one of the best rebounding teams in the country. They will struggle to stay in front of athletic guys that can drive to the hoop so if you have any of those, get them the ball.
Beat their press, play relentless defense and shoot with confidence!
