Follow along all night from State Farm Center as Illinois starts the 2022-23 season:
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Illinois and Eastern Illinois might not have played a game that counts in two decades (I was a sophomore in high school when it last happened and am now 35 years old) but there was that game in Charleston five years ago.
The first real moment of the Brad Underwood era in a charity exhibition game that, thankfully for the Illini, didn’t count.
“I remember Trent (Frazier) crying after the game saying he couldn’t play here,” Underwood said. “I remember wondering if we ever going to win a game that year. We just got thoroughly outplayed. We just got whooped. And that’s OK. I think you have to go through those moments.
“I think we all wanted, ‘OK, Brad Underwood is the new head coach. We’re going to walk in here and just whoop everybody’s butt.’ No, it doesn’t work like that. There’s very much a process in college athletics to how you do it. Very few people walk into a blue blood and have instant success. It takes a lot of work. I’m excited where we’ve come.”
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Illinois has pinned some of its hopes this season on Baylor transfer Matthew Mayer. The former national champ with the Bears was widely considered one of the top gets in the transfer portal this offseason.
The Illini, though, are still waiting on Mayer’s best. He missed the bulk of the summer workouts between wrapping up his responsibilities in Waco, Texas, and then by a back injury once he got to Champaign.
“We can’t forget he’s been ingrained in a system for four years,” Underwood said. “Now it’s different. Now our expectation level is a little different. I don’t think he played bad. I think he missed some shots we’ve seen him make. He’s still finding his way into great shape. I think he’s still finding out where his opportunities come from. We’ve seen unbelievable Matthew in practice. It’s only a matter of time before that translates.”
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Illinois got the chance to figure out some things on the court during its secret scrimmage and exhibition game, but nothing matches games that actually count. So there’s still plenty to learn about this team as the 2022-23 season tips off against Eastern Illinois.
“There’s still a lot of role identification for us to come,” Illinois coach Brad Underwood said. “We still need to define a few things. I’m very curious to see our pace, our communication. I’m very excited to see how we play in terms of not turning the ball over.
“One of the things I’m cautious about is we don’t have tons of game experience. There’s going to be some slippage. I’m really curious to see how quickly we’ve grown. I thought we made a ton of improvement since our exhibition against Quincy. It will be nice to see that carry over to a real game.”
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It’s here! The 2022-23 college basketball season is underway, with Baylor getting things started with an early afternoon victory against Mississippi Valley State.
Now focus turns to Champaign. (At least for Illinois fans). It’s a new era for the Illini. No more Ayo Dosunmu. No more Kofi Cockburn. Position-less basketball has arrived, and the Illini are well suited to it with the roster Brad Underwood has pieced together.
How those roster puzzle pieces come together is still the primary question as the new season starts. Underwood will argue that the style of play won’t be that different, but that’s a hard stance to sell.
It’s five-out offensively instead of running every through Cockburn. And it will be a full-court press (of sorts) instead of essentially packing the paint with the 7-foot, 295-pound Cockburn.
So, yeah. The basketball is going to look different in C-U. And it’s not necessarily a bad thing. The current roster might actually be constructed for more postseason success. Now the Illini just have to get there.
And it all starts tonight against Eastern Illinois.
Scott Richey is a reporter covering college basketball at The News-Gazette. His email is srichey@news-gazette.com, and you can follow him on Twitter (@srrichey).
