We Can Know Nothing About Illinois Basketball Until The Season Has Been Played

It’s now July 6, and as there’s only one more open scholarship for Illinois Fighting Illini men’s basketball for this coming year, the roster is mostly set. Sure, there will be workouts and practices in the coming months, but until the middle of November, no games will be played that actually count.

What that means is that, barring injury news or roster changes, there is absolutely nothing more to say about the program until they’ve tipped off and there’s meaningful game action to report.

Look, we can sit here and project player lineups and rotations until we’re blue (and orange) in the face, and we can break down what the team might try to do differently until the cows come home (to the south farms), but our hypotheses cannot possibly be tested until some tangible data exist.

As a matter of fact, given that Brad Underwood’s machinations are unknowable and far beyond the comprehension of we mere bloggers, it is downright irresponsible of us to try to divine the future using only such worthless tools as past results, game footage and practice reports. I would say that should extend to everyone who writes about the Illini in any capacity.

When it’s warm out, Jarling’s Custard Cup gladly fills the community’s need for refreshing cold treats, but when it’s their offseason, do they continue to try and push custard on you and try to peddle hot takes about which flavor you’re most excited about? Of course not. They close up shop for the winter because they know their audience.

I would urge that everyone on the internet with an opinion on Illinois basketball keep it to themselves until some games have been played, or at the very least keep it to some platform where such things are socially acceptable, such as an Illinois Fighting Illini community. In the meantime, we here at The Champaign Room will take a long hard look at ourselves and see if we’re living up to our commitment to important investigative journalism conducted with the utmost integrity.

Our publication was founded on the principles of providing the citizens of this land with the information they need to function in a free society and to do so accurately and reliably. A free and independent press is a right guaranteed to us by the Founding Fathers, but those who take it upon themselves to uphold that right for the benefit of all Americans must also bear the responsibility of maintaining the credibility and intellectual independence of the press. Nowhere in the American Press Association’s Principles of Journalism can you find anything about predicting win totals for seasons that are two years into the future.

I, for one, will ensure that from this day forward, we will live up to our new motto: Be Better, Be Smarter. Only the most important of verifiable facts will leave this news desk, and if there are none because it’s July, we will run something else relevant to the interests of our followers such as an update from our continuing on-the-ground coverage of the Yemeni civil conflict.

Anyway, Aaron Jordan will probably come off the bench for more than 20 minutes per game.