I love Andre Curbelo. He has a ton of potential. But the fact of the matter is he was very inefficient last year. It reminds me of this time last year when Rocket Watts was being touted as a top guard in the conference everywhere even though he had really bad efficiency numbers as a freshman as well.. There seems to be this group think forming that he is the best point guard in the conference.. Michigan State and Indiana have older point guard transfers who can also actually shoot and defend. Indiana and Michigan State both seem superior on the wings and the 4 position, where Illinois is reportedly considering a D3 transfer and still unknown as far as where they are going to turn for the 4 man.
Indiana has a very solid duo at the 4 in Race Thompson and Miller Kopp.
Indiana has a player who is very close to Kofi at the same position.
Indiana very likely has a clear coaching advantage.
Indiana adds a 5 star freshman on the wing to go along with a solid transfer in Parker Stewart, who is a 37% career 3 pointer shooter on 388 attempts.
Michigan State adds 3 highly touted freshman wings to go along with Gabe Brown. Max Christie is a potential one and done draft pick.
Michigan State returns a solid, experienced duo at the 4 position in Hauser and Hall.
Michigan State has a clear coaching advantage.
When I look at Illinois, I see older guys returning who kind of are what they are in Trent Frazier and D. Williams. Really solid defensive duo, but neither is suited for an increased offensive role that they will have to take on without Ayo Dosunmu there.
D. Williams was a bad offensive player who shot 33 of 122 (27%) from 3 his first three years in college basketball. Then last year, with no crowd in the stands and completely empty stadiums, he inexplicably shot 55% from 3 out of nowhere on a low amount of attempts. I'm not really expecting a repeat of that. On top of that, he is just kind of a bone head. He got a technical for trying to fight Wisconsin assistant coach. A flagrant for blatantly attacking an Iowa player with an elbow in the big ten tournament. Just not a heady player who is always susceptible to dumb plays. On top of that, you have assistants under Underwood getting into altercations vs Iowa, players getting suspended for stomping opponents. Just a bad mix of low discipline all around. Trent Frazier had a good year last year, but has mostly been inefficient his career as well. So we are kind of expecting Frazier, D. Williams, and Curbelo to all be efficient players this season while being forced to take on a larger role now that Ayo Dosunmu is gone. I just can't trust that. I think the offense is going to really struggle at times and Underwood teams have mostly been bad defensively even though Illinois was really good last year.
So that is why I see Illinois as more of a top 25-40 team as opposed to a top 10 team.
