Illini Basketball 2024-2025

Dan · Jan 132025

Welcome to the Illini Basketball 2024-2025 & College Basketball news thread :illinois:

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2024-2025 Illini Basketball 15-7 (7-5)

Date	Opponent	Result
MonNov 4	Eastern Illinois	W 112-67
FriNov 8	SIU Edwardsville	W 90-58
WedNov 13	Oakland	W 66-54
WedNov 20	Alabama	L 87-100
SatNov 23	Maryland Eastern Shore	W 87-40
MonNov 25	Little Rock	W 92-34
ThuNov 28	Arkansas	W 90-77
FriDec 6	at Northwestern	L 66-70 OT
TueDec 10	Wisconsin	W 86-80
SatDec 14	Tennessee	L 64-66
SunDec 22	Missouri	W 80-77
SunDec 29	Chicago State	W 117-64
ThuJan 2	at Oregon	W 109-77
SunJan 5	at Washington	W 81-77
WedJan 8	Penn State	W 91-52
SatJan 11	USC	L 72-82
TueJan 14	at Indiana	W 94-69
SunJan 19	at Michigan State	L 78-80
ThuJan 23	Maryland	L 70-91
SunJan 26	Northwestern	W 83-74
ThuJan 30	at Nebraska	L 74-80 OT
SunFeb 2	Ohio State	W 87-79
WedFeb 5	at Rutgers	7:30pm BTN
SatFeb 8	at Minnesota	5:00pm BTN
TueFeb 11	UCLA	7:00pm Peacock
SatFeb 15	Michigan State	7:00pm FOX
TueFeb 18	at Wisconsin	7:30pm FS1
SatFeb 22	Duke (New York)	7:00pm FOX
TueFeb 25	Iowa	8:00pm FS1
SunMar 2	at Michigan	2:45pm CBS
FriMar 7	Purdue	7:00pm FOX

All times CT

phats22 · Jan 132025

GatorMcKlusky · Jan 132025

Causal Hangover Effects It’s not unreasonable to think that in-game sporting performance can be affected partly by what takes place off the court. We can’t observe what happens between games directly. Insteadwe proxy for the possibility of athletes partying by looking at play following games in party cities. We are interested to see if teams exhibit a decline in performance the day following a game in a city with active nightlife; we call this a “hangover effect”. Part of the question is determining a reasonable way to measure levels of nightlifeand correspondingly which cities are notorious for it; we colloquially refer to such cities as “party cities”. At first glancethe topic might seem callowbut in fact there are many interesting nuances to work through.

Causal Hangover Effects

foby · Jan 132025

Remaining on BU's To Do List;

Final Four
Natty

But before that........

PROTECT THE HOME COURT AT ALL COSTS

21ChampaignSt · Jan 132025

It's hard to believe that from January 12000 to January 12007 we went 97-5 at home.

This is why home losses are so hard to stomach for me and I assume others. I grew to expect that a good Illini team playing at Assembly Farm Center should be virtually unbeatable.

Probably an unfair standard given how much the level of competition has improved. But for referencePurdue was 95-7 at Mackey from January 12018 to January 12025. Soit's not totally unreasonable for us to expect that level of home performance as well.

Bigtex · Jan 132025

21ChampaignSt said:
It's hard to believe that from January 12000 to January 12007 we went 97-5 at home.

This is why home losses are so hard to stomach for me and I assume others. I grew to expect that a good Illini team playing at Assembly Farm Center should be virtually unbeatable.

Probably an unfair standard given how much the level of competition has improved. But for referencePurdue was 95-7 at Mackey from January 12018 to January 12025. Soit's not totally unreasonable for us to expect that level of home performance as well.

Too lazy but what is our home record for underwood? You can even leave out his first year.

21ChampaignSt · Jan 142025

Overall he is 98-27. If you take out the first two rebuild yearshe is 77-15.

Bigtex · Jan 142025

21ChampaignSt said:
Overall he is 98-27. If you take out the first two rebuild yearshe is 77-15.

77-15 is respectable but not close to 97-5 or Self years (39-2)

2001-2002 13-1
2002-2003 14-0
2003-2004 12-1

Every year underwoodIllinois has lost at least 2 games at home.

Impressive away record 30-19 when you leave out 22-23 season:

19-20 6-6
20-21 9-3
21-22 7-4
22-23 3-7
23-24 6-5
24-25 2-1 (so far)
away record 33-26

21ChampaignSt · Jan 142025

Bigtex said:
77-15 is respectable but not close to 97-5 or Self years (39-2)

2001-2002 13-1
2002-2003 14-0
2003-2004 12-1

Every year underwoodIllinois has lost at least 2 games at home.

Impressive away record 30-19 when you leave out 22-23 season:

19-20 6-6
20-21 9-3
21-22 7-4
22-23 3-7
23-24 6-5
24-25 2-1 (so far)
away record 33-26

Room for improvement for sure. I don't know how much blame to give Underwood for it. I'm not sure what leversas a head coach you pull to get your team to play better at home? Not being argumentative. I just truly don't know.

There are other contributing factors as well like changes in fan dynamics / demographicsstadium renovationchanges in gameday atmosphere such as traditions being replaced by corporationsand probably most importantlyincreased competition.

Bigtex · Jan 142025

21ChampaignSt said:
Room for improvement for sure. I don't know how much blame to give Underwood for it. I'm not sure what leversas a head coach you pull to get your team to play better at home? Not being argumentative. I just truly don't know.

There are other contributing factors as well like changes in fan dynamics / demographicsstadium renovationchanges in gameday atmosphere such as traditions being replaced by corporationsand probably most importantlyincreased competition.

agree it is more than the coach but we all know the coach gets credit and blame when things go great or not so great.

Battle89 · Jan 142025

Bigtex said:
agree it is more than the coach but we all know the coach gets credit and blame when things go great or not so great.

I know the responses will be "college students! weren't you ever 20 years old? they need to let off steam!" etc.but it is inexplicable to me when I hear of things like the late night partying before a game (i.e. the Coleman birthday before PSU). And then knowledge of that colors my interpretation of games like USCwith or without merit.

Yes I was 20 onceand yes I partied. But not the night before I was expected to to my jobespecially at the level of exposure / importance that the games areand most especially not if I were being paid the $$$ that some of them are.

Talk on here about 11am games is like they are at the crack of dawn. It's the middle of the day - and you skip shootaround for the sleepyheads? I guess I'd be even more indignant if the actual game results didn't back all that talk upour record in these games is terrible. So what do we change if we can't change the schedule?

risingfalcon98 · Jan 142025

Battle89 said:
I know the responses will be "college students! weren't you ever 20 years old? they need to let off steam!" etc.but it is inexplicable to me when I hear of things like the late night partying before a game (i.e. the Coleman birthday before PSU). And then knowledge of that colors my interpretation of games like USCwith or without merit.

Yes I was 20 onceand yes I partied. But not the night before I was expected to to my jobespecially at the level of exposure / importance that the games areand most especially not if I were being paid the $$$ that some of them are.

Talk on here about 11am games is like they are at the crack of dawn. It's the middle of the day - and you skip shootaround for the sleepyheads? I guess I'd be even more indignant if the actual game results didn't back all that talk upour record in these games is terrible. So what do we change if we can't change the schedule?

May have missed a post or two but is it speculation or confirmed that some of the team were out partying Friday night?

Old Farm Illini · Jan 142025

My bad if there are any mistakes:

Home win percentage against high major opponents - 35/45 = 78%
2024-25: Won 2 out of 3 - home against high major opponents
2023-24: 8 out of 10
2022-23: 8 out of 10
2021-22: 9 out of 12
2020-21: 8 out of 10

Overall win percentage against conference teams during break - 9/13 = 69%
2024-25: Won 1 out of 2- home during break against high major opponents
2023-24: 2 out of 3
2022-23: 2 out of 2
2021-22: 2 out of 2
2020-21: 2 out of 4

High Major Record with Morning/Early Afternoon Games At Home - 8/14 = 57%
2024-25: Won 0 out of 1
2023-24: 3 out of 4
2022-23: 2 out of 3
2021-22: 1 out of 3
2020-21: 2 out of 3

This is unacceptable. Josh needs to look at these games specifically and make some adjustments to improve the atmosphere. It is totally something that can be shifted.

AirNeazy · Jan 142025

Old Farm Illini said:
This is unacceptable. Josh needs to look at these games specifically and make some adjustments to improve the atmosphere. It is totally something that can be shifted.

I feel like this will be tough for Josh.....if we want to sideline a lot of the old farts in A section who sit down all game.....those same folks are probably the biggest NIL contributors lol

MikeTisdale · Jan 142025

risingfalcon98 said:
May have missed a post or two but is it speculation or confirmed that some of the team were out partying Friday night?

Pure speculation. And our (relatively) poor performance in early games is likely just small sample size noise.

PlayDeeBrownNote · Jan 142025

Old Farm Illini said:
My bad if there are any mistakes:

Home win percentage against high major opponents - 35/45 = 78%
2024-25: Won 2 out of 3 - home against high major opponents
2023-24: 8 out of 10
2022-23: 8 out of 10
2021-22: 9 out of 12
2020-21: 8 out of 10

Overall win percentage against conference teams during break - 9/13 = 69%
2024-25: Won 1 out of 2- home during break against high major opponents
2023-24: 2 out of 3
2022-23: 2 out of 2
2021-22: 2 out of 2
2020-21: 2 out of 4

High Major Record with Morning/Early Afternoon Games At Home - 8/14 = 57%
2024-25: Won 0 out of 1
2023-24: 3 out of 4
2022-23: 2 out of 3
2021-22: 1 out of 3
2020-21: 2 out of 3

This is unacceptable. Josh needs to look at these games specifically and make some adjustments to improve the atmosphere. It is totally something that can be shifted.

During the pre-game radio showyou could hear the music coming through the SFC PA and it was…not good. Regardless of your tastesplaying Sarah McLachlan during pre-game shoot around is not gonna get anyone hyped for a BIG game.

NashvILLe05 · Jan 142025

PlayDeeBrownNote said:
During the pre-game radio showyou could hear the music coming through the SFC PA and it was…not good. Regardless of your tastesplaying Sarah McLachlan during pre-game shoot around is not gonna get anyone hyped for a BIG game.

Agreedthat’s for those sad animal commercials.

I still remember being in the Krush and Brian Cook running out of the locker room dribbling a ball to a Jermaine Dupri song. It was awesome and brought major energy into the building.

the juiceman cometh · Jan 142025

PlayDeeBrownNote said:
During the pre-game radio showyou could hear the music coming through the SFC PA and it was…not good. Regardless of your tastesplaying Sarah McLachlan during pre-game shoot around is not gonna get anyone hyped for a BIG game.

21ChampaignSt · Jan 142025

PlayDeeBrownNote said:
During the pre-game radio showyou could hear the music coming through the SFC PA and it was…not good. Regardless of your tastesplaying Sarah McLachlan during pre-game shoot around is not gonna get anyone hyped for a BIG game.

Lol It's a gag. When the visiting team is warming upthey play sadslowwaiting room type stuff. Then when we come outthey turn on more energetic stuff.

Old Farm Illini · Jan 142025

21ChampaignSt said:
Lol It's a gag. When the visiting team is warming upthey play sadslowwaiting room type stuff. Then when we come outthey turn on more energetic stuff.

Well jokes on usit's calming and helping them shoot better. They should play chaotic deathcore or something with off beat patterns.

ThePortalMadeMeDoIt · Jan 142025

PlayDeeBrownNote said:
During the pre-game radio showyou could hear the music coming through the SFC PA and it was…not good. Regardless of your tastesplaying Sarah McLachlan during pre-game shoot around is not gonna get anyone hyped for a BIG game.

Neither is walking around the court burning Sage.

RollChief · Jan 142025

A nice reminder for everyone still feeling pessimistic coming off the USC home loss:

On 1/16/2021Illinois was 9-5 after coming off of back-to-back home losses to Maryland and Ohio State. Then we went on to take the #1 seed.

Thenin the NCAA Tournamentwe got bounced by 8-seed Loyola Chicago in the 2nd round.

Hope is still alive!

AnnoyedWithGarza · Jan 142025

PlayDeeBrownNote said:
During the pre-game radio showyou could hear the music coming through the SFC PA and it was…not good. Regardless of your tastesplaying Sarah McLachlan during pre-game shoot around is not gonna get anyone hyped for a BIG game.

To be fairthat may have been during the time when USC was warming up and Illinois was in the locker room. I was at the game and when Illinois was on the court that was not playing.

Howeverthat will put the fans in a sleepy mood that is for sure.

illini011923 · Jan 142025

RollChief said:
A nice reminder for everyone still feeling pessimistic coming off the USC home loss:

* This is the third year where the best player missed some time middle of the season *
- Ayo missed some time 2020/21 (blew out Michigan)
- TSJ missed some time 2023/24 (3-2 record with HOME loss to Marylandand @Purdue with a 30 point win and 2 wins of 15+)
- KJ missed 2 games (30+ win vs Penn St and HOME loss to USC)

Of course you want to win every home game but when you lose your primary ball handler/scorer its hard to win consistently yet Underwood has overcame that and has 3 separate cases where he's built a roster that can lose that star player and still beat BIG TEN opponents by 20+

The biggest difference from this year to those past years is the experience factor. This team is so young experience wise you have to expect a dip after 30+ vs Oregonand 30+ vs Penn St. They should only get better especially when KJ comes back.

the juiceman cometh · Jan 142025

Old Farm Illini said:
Well jokes on usit's calming and helping them shoot better. They should play chaotic deathcore or something with off beat patterns.

Would be a good time to hook the PA up to a karaoke machine and have some of our fans let it rip.

Illini Basketball 2024-2025

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