ADVERTISEMENT

Posts

Forum list Trending threads Live feed

Posts

National Championship Contenders

I
Since the "Dirty Dozen" is not around, let's try to make a list of national championship contenders in this thread. I'm going to propose certain traits that a national champion must have:

1. Top 8 seed
2. Top 40 defense in KenPom
3. Don't ever lose by more than 20
4. Don't lose in first round of conference tournament
5. Shoot over 34.5% from 3
6. Head coach with Final Four experience

Let's filter teams by that criteria and see what we have left:
Teams that pass criteria 1 and 2:
Houston
Alabama
UCLA
UConn
Tenn
Purdue
Texas
Kansas
St. Mary's
Creighton
San Diego St
Memphis
Arkansas
Duke
Maryland
Iowa St
Kansas St
Texas A&M
TCU
Michigan St
Northwestern

That's 21 teams so far. Who drops out because of a 20-point loss?
Alabama
Kansas
St. Mary's
Creighton
Duke
Maryland
Texas A&M
TCU
Northwestern

Down to 12 left
Houston
UCLA
UConn
Tenn
Purdue
Texas
San Diego St
Memphis
Arkansas
Iowa St
Kansas St
Michigan St

Who drops out because of a first round conference loss?
Kansas St
Michigan St

They didn't really belong anyway, so that's good. Now we're down to 10:
Houston
UCLA
UConn
Tenn
Purdue
Texas
San Diego St
Memphis
Arkansas
Iowa St

Who drops out because they can't shoot?
Tenn
Purdue
Texas
San Diego St
Arkansas
Iowa St

So we are left with 4:
Houston
UCLA
UConn
Memphis

Who has a coach with Final Four experience?:
Houston
UCLA

So those are your two title contenders.
Click to expand...
  • Like
Reactions: binyo, Illinitime2, Illinifletch and 3 others

Early Depth Chart

U
Was on here looking for the latest depth chart, but realized it may be a little early for that.

Happy to see our D line should be pretty good again. Maybe the best in the West. Not just the law firm but our Ends as well.

QB- assume our Transfer from Ole Miss is penciled in. WR- may have some freshman in there with Casey Washington and Isiah.

Oline? See we lost our stud transfer at the last minute. Maybe that's a blessing and we can get Olin's kid up to speed. Hear he's got a nasty streak and is smart.

What does our secondary look like? Liked Bailey's potential as a freshman.....

Who should I be getting excited about as newcomers? (Should probably wait until spring ball for that).

Thank you Bielema for making me think about Illinois Football in January.

We have suffered for decades. We have earned nice things.
Click to expand...
  • Like
Reactions: 1111SouthFirst, RSTU, JDL70 and 7 others

No point guard

I
"No point guard" is the phrase that needs to be etched on the gravestone of another Illinois season that failed to capitalize on its roster talent.

A point guard is primarily defined by having a positive A/TO ratio. Some examples are Jahmir Young on Maryland (22.5 / 14.8 ) A/TO rate, Jalen Pickett on PSU (40.4/12.5), Boo Buie on NW (31.4/15.0), and AJ Hoggard on MSU (39.2/18.2). (Guess who's still alive in the tournament. You can get away with a mediocre PG if you have Zach Edey, but I bet Purdue doesn't get too far nonetheless.) Nobody on Illinois had an assist rate over 20 and TSJ was the only one with a positive A/TO ratio (17.7/17.2)

Point guards provide on-court leadership and actually run your offense. Those are two things that we missed all year.

Lack of a point guard is largely what doomed the Weber and Groce eras. Aside from Demetri McCamey, Weber didn't recruit a real PG and so the other talent he did get failed to reach its potential.

John Groce totally failed to get a PG (Jaylon Tate, Te'Jon Lucas) and never went anywhere.

Underwood at least tried to get talented PGs. Many of his have left the program. The better solution appears to be finding a veteran PG who has succeeded at the mid-major level and is ready to step up to the high-majors. Failing that, at least try to find someone without an obnoxious father that will force a transfer at the first sign of adversity. You don't need flashy passes, you need someone who will deliver more assists than turnovers.

There are other things that can be debated, but that's the story of the season in a nutshell. This is the easiest fix for next season if you want a better result.
Click to expand...
  • Like
Reactions: ProudDaddy, HopkinsHall71, pt and 8 others
Load more
ADVERTISEMENT

Filter

ADVERTISEMENT
Top Bottom
Back