Illinois Basketball: The Popularity of Booty Ball
Illinois Basketball and Brad Underwood famously coined the term “Booty ball”. After losing three times to the Penn State Nittany Lions and Jalen Pickett, Brad Underwood jokingly started the phrase in the postgame press conference. Jalen Pickett was virtually unguardable, especially for Illinois. Pickett would start backing down his man at various spots on the perimeter and then somehow find his way into the basket or a mid-range jumper. If anyone sent a double, Pickett had elite court vision and elite shooters as teammates.
Jordan Sperber of Hoop Vision described the sage perfectly. After Marcus Domask showed how good he was at the same kind of post-ups, Illinois went all in on that kind of offense. They ended up with the third-ranked offense in the country.
Can they still play it?
Illinois continues to recruit size out of the transfer portal. Ty Rodgers has the size and court vision to play this, however, he will need to develop some offensive versatility to his game if he wants to be effective. Additionally, Tre White and Kylan Boswell seem like strong options to play. They have positional size, court vision, and offensive versatility to lead the “Booty ball”. Regardless, Illinois Basketball fans can rest assured knowing that their coaching staff will adapt to their players. They have very self-aware coaches who know how to put their players in successful positions.
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