Illinois Scouting Report

[TroyHall98]

Talent disparity is overwhelming in this matchup. In addition to what has been said about Karaban and him needing help around him, the junior class (Ball, Stewart, Ross) does not inspire much confidence. This team needs a guy who can provide consistent offense even when teams game plan for him because the depth simply isn’t there. Maybe that is Mullins but that is asking a lot of a freshman let alone someone who has missed 20%, and counting, of the season. Missing Reed and Mullins and being forced to rely on inconsistent players has really exposed roster construction issues. I hope I am wrong but these top teams expose issues that don’t have an obvious fix.

 

[Gurleyman]

Hopefully Mullins will have a Castle-like trajectory, IIRC it only took a few games for him to get up to pace. Really my only concern.

I think we look good, maybe ‘23 good even.

Took a month - he was on a minutes restriction for December until Clingan got hurt and then we put him in the starting lineup. He didn’t look that great in his first start against St. John’s but had a key late transition basket that was an “ok, I see what he can do” moment.

He had a nice spurt against Xavier-Butler-DePaul in early January, then slumped a bit. Providence at the end of January was his coming out party.

But he played really good D all along. And we didn’t need him to be at his peak with all the other weapons we had.

 

[nomar]

How has the BY turned into such a bunch of timid scared weenies? we are UConn. We’re gonna win this game. Don’t care how many players they have with a last name ending in “-ic”.

Nut up boys.

I don't care . . . as long as we have one center with a last name ending in "-eed."

Suffice it to say, if we struggled in the paint against Arizona without Reed, things won't be better in that department without Reed against Illinois. It doesn't mean we can't win--we nearly pulled it off against U of A--but going into the game with one hand behind our back is sub-optimal, to say the least. Sorry if this isn't sufficiently nutting up.

 

[RuffRuff]

I don't care . . . as long as we have one center with a last name ending in "-eed."

Suffice it to say, if we struggled in the paint against Arizona without Reed, things won't be better in that department without Reed against Illinois. It doesn't mean we can't win--we nearly pulled it off against U of A--but going into the game with one hand behind our back is sub-optimal, to say the least. Sorry if this isn't sufficiently nutting up.

I am really hoping we aren’t without Reed. Very little confidence we can win without him. This isn’t a west coast team in our campus arena mid week.

This is a big team with bulletin board material during holiday break, in what will be MSG with a lot of Illinois fans.

 

[bendm]

Given Braylon has been practicing all week, I assume he is active but only 10 minutes given first game back.

Tarris unfortunately I think we do not see until Florida

Then I hope Mullins scores 10 pts in his 10mins lol

 

[superjohn]

Talent disparity is overwhelming in this matchup.

What?

 

[Ricker]

MSN

Very good write up. Ignore the factual error that Demary had the 5th triple double in uconn 'history', and substitute "in the last 10 years". Otherwise I think very insightful including Solo on his 3 point shot kicking his legs to draw fouls and losing his focus on actually making the shot, as well as a couple other small points.

Eat well, enjoy family and friends, and watch some sports for a change. 😊

 

[Scot-e]

The thing that stood out to me when I’ve watched them play is how “beefy” they look at every position. Reminds me of vintage Pitt teams where everyone looked 30 years old.