Scouting report: Illinois' full nonconference schedule

Aug. 18—Beat writer Scott Richey has the breakdown on all 11 nonconference foes on the Illini's 2023-24 schedule:

VS. Eastern Illinois, Nov. 6

Last season: Year two of the Marty Simmons era in Charleston was an improvement, but the Panthers still finished 9-22 overall and 5-13 in the Ohio Valley Conference. (That would be last). What EIU did do, however, was pull off one of the most stunning upsets of the season by winning at Iowa as 311/2

* -point underdogs.

Offseason: Simmons hit with his 2022 recruiting class. Now they're nearly all gone. It was definitely "the transfer portel taketh" for the Panthers, with Cameron Haffner (Evansville), Kyle Thomas (Bradley) and Kyle Carlesimo (Colgate) all playing elsewhere this upcoming season. The biggest blow, though, was leading scorer Kinyon Hodges

* transferring to OVC rival Tennessee State.

This season: EIU doesn't have much production returning, so senior guard Caleb Donaldson and sophomore forward Sincere Malone are going to have to carry a heavy load. Well-traveled Chicago native Tiger Booker

* , a Tarleton State transfer on his fifth team in five years, could bolster the backcourt.

VS. Oakland, Nov. 10

Last season: Most of the Golden Grizzlies' wins came in Horizon League play last season. After going 2-11 in nonconference action — beating just Defiance (a D-III program in Ohio) and Emoni Bates

* -led Eastern Michigan in overtime — Oakland finished on a 11-8 run to finish fifth in the Horizon League standings.

Offseason: The big blow to the Grizzlies' roster came with point guard Jalen Moore exhausting his eligibility. That's 19.6 points, 5.6 assists and 3.8 rebounds per game from last season that has to be replaced. Oakland coach Greg Kampe addressed some of that need by adding Long Beach State transfer Tone Hunter

* .

This season: Losing Moore (plus Keaton Hervey and Blake Lampman) is offset some by the return of Trey Townsend and Rocket Watts

* . Townsend averaged 16.5 points and 7.6 rebounds in the 2022-23 season, and Watts, a former Michigan State and Mississippi State guard, could be in line to improve on his 8.7 points per game from a year ago.

vs. Marquette, Nov. 14

Last season:

* For a program with some real basketball history, Marquette won its first Big East regular-season title in a decade and its first Big Ten tournament title last season. The only real disappointment for the 29-win team was bowing out in the second round of the NCAA tournament to Michigan State.

Offseason: The Golden Eagles were this close to running it back in 2023-24. Then Olivier-Maxence Prosper became the fastest-rising prospect in the 2023 NBA draft. Prosper was Marquette's third-leading scorer and second-leading rebounder, but jumped into the first round as the No. 24 pick to the Dallas Mavericks

* .

This season: Marquette is still basically running it back from last year's Big East title sweep. Tyler Kolek is a likely preseason All-American both because he's coming off an All-American season and at least one guard needs to be included in what will be a frontcourt-heavy group. Seven other rotation players return, and freshman guard Tre Norman was a consensus four-star, top-100 recruit.

vs. Valparaiso, Nov. 17

Last season: The end of the Matt Lottich era at Valparaiso came with an 11-21 record and bottom three finish in the Missouri Valley Conference. Only Illinois-Chicago and Evansville spared the Beacons (barely) from an ignominious last place. An overtime win against James Madison was Valparaiso's only non-Quad IV win of the season.

Offseason: Even those struggles weren't enough to make firing Lottich an immediate decision. More than three weeks passed from the Beacons' season finale before they entered the coaching carousel. Hiring former assistant Roger Powell Jr.

* was widely seen as a solid move. The former Illinois forward then had to rebuild almost his entire roster, with eight scholarship newcomers between freshmen and transfers.

This season: The 2023-24 projections for Valparaiso are not kind. That last-place finish the Beacons avoided last season? That's where Bart Torvik now has them. Losing All-MVC forward Ben Krikke to Iowa certainly doesn't help and leaves JUCO transfer guard Isaiah Stafford

* as the most likely go-to option this winter.

vs. Southern, Nov. 19

Last season: The Jaguars couldn't quite get back to .500 through SWAC play after a 4-9 run through a nonconference slate that had just two D-I wins and featured losses to Arizona, Saint Mary's and Xavier. Southern started 8-1 in the SWAC, but lost seven of its last 10 games to close out a third sub-.500 season in five years for Sean Woods

* .

Offseason: Woods was fired two weeks after the season ended, and Southern hired Kevin Johnson

* as its 15th coach in program history. Johnson's coaching experience is almost solely in the state of Louisiana with stops at Tulane, Louisiana, Nicholls State, Louisiana Tech, Centenary and Northwestern State in his career. He'll mostly be starting over with his first Jaguars team.

This season: Last year's top four scorers all graduated, and the player in fifth on that list, Terrell Williams, transferred to Iona. Johnson will be counting on a big leap from senior forward Festus Ndumanya with the hope transfer guards Derrick Tezeno (Stephen F. Austin) and Brandon Davis

* (Texas State) can lead his team.

vs. Western Illinois, Nov. 24

Last season: The Leathernecks had their best season in a decade, finishing 16-14 overall and 9-9 in the Summit League to tie for fourth last season. It was the second straight 16-win season for WIU coach Rob Jeter

* , albeit a season with a Quad III conference victory against South Dakota State ranking as the best win.

Offseason: Jeter won't be around to try and keep the success rolling. He bolted for the open job at Southern Utah once Bowling Green hired away Todd Simon after firing Michael Huger. Jeter's associate head coach Chad Boudreau was promoted after not quite a week as interim coach, and he added a pair of transfer centers in Joe Petrakis (Illinois State) and Drew Cisse

* (Missouri-St. Louis).

This season: WIU's top three scorers all departed, with guard Trenton Massner getting some NBA Summer League run with the Miami Heat. But some continuity on the coaching staff deterred a full-on exodus. Jesiah West and Quinlan Bennett

* rounded out last year's starting lineup and both return as the Leathernecks' top options.

vs. Colgate, Nov. 27

Last season: It was another typical Colgate season in the Matt Langel era. The Raiders finished 26-9 overall and went 17-1 to win the Patriot League title for a fifth straight season. Langel has won 202 games in 12 seasons at Colgate and at least 23 in each of the last four full seasons (with a 14-2 record in 2020-21). His success also includes an NCAA tournament appearance in the last four that were held.

Offseason: Langel didn't make many moves, adding just one transfer (Kyle Carlesimo) and a couple of freshmen. Colgate will have to replace two starters — Tucker Richardson and Oliver Lynch-Daniels — but the plan was clearly to do so internally.

This season: All five starters averaged at least 10 points last season for the best three-point shooting team in the country. Three of them return, including Keegan Records (13.0 ppg, 6.0 rpg), Braeden Smith (11.6 ppg, 4.4 apg, 3.9 rpg) and Ryan Moffatt (10.6 ppg, 4.2 rpg). Sixth man Jeff Woodward

* (6.9 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 2.2 apg) is also back.

vs. Florida Atlantic, Dec. 5

Last season:

* Safe to say the Owls — who will play the Illini at Madison Square Garden — exceeded expectations last season. FAU didn't lose between Nov. 14 and Jan. 28, won its first Conference USA title (just in time to leave for the American in 2023-24) and upset Memphis, Tennessee and Kansas State in the NCAA tournament to reach its first Final Four.

Offseason: What happened in Boca Raton, Fla., was literally the best-case scenario for FAU coach Dusty May. The only player on the entire roster that didn't return was sixth man Michael Forrest

* , and that's because he had run out of eligibility. A mid-major program fresh off a Final Four losing exactly zero players to the transfer portal was basically a miracle.

This season: FAU will likely enter the 2023-24 season as a top-10 team nationally thanks in no small part to the return of its entire starting lineup led by guards Johnell Davis and Alijah Martin

* . Memphis will be the Owls' stiffest competition in the new-look American, but expectations are soaring for the no-longer-a-Cinderella program.

at Tennessee, Dec. 9

Last season: Defense didn't win Tennessee any championships, but the Vols were No. 1 in adjusted defensive efficiency per both Torvik and Ken Pomeroy. Tennessee went 25-11 with a fourth-place finish in the SEC and a run to the Sweet 16 for the second time in coach Rick Barnes

* ' eight seasons on Rocky Top.

Offseason: The flow of players trended more out than in this spring and summer in Knoxville, Tenn. And in the case of Harvard transfer Chris Ledlum, both in and out after he changed his mind after joining Tennessee and decamped for St. John's instead. The Vols also lost second-leading scorer Olivier Nkamhoua to Michigan and former five-star freshman Julian Phillips

* to the Chicago Bulls.

This season: Plenty hinges on a fifth year of Santiago Vescovi and the health of Zakai Zeigler's left knee after his early March ACL injury. Those two give Tennessee one of the better backcourts in the country. A backcourt that should be boosted by Northern Colorado transfer Dalton Knecht and redshirt freshman Freddie Dilione V, a former four-star guard

* .

vs. Missouri, Dec. 22

Last season: The first season of the Dennis Gates

* era in Columbia, Mo., was a bonafide success. Missouri went 25-10, tied for fourth in the SEC and reached the second round of the NCAA tournament. Oh, and the Tigers destroyed Illinois — a 93-71 Illini loss in St. Louis — to reclaim Braggin' Rights, a fourth win by Mizzou against its border-state rivals in the past five seasons.

Offseason: Gates hit the transfer portal hard to stay old after losing several seniors and Kobe Brown to the NBA. New in black and gold in the 2023-24 season are Caleb Grill (Iowa State), John Tonje (Colorado State), Tamar Bates (Indiana), Connor Vanover (Oral Roberts) and Jesus Carralero

* (Campbell).

This season: Missouri had a bit of staying old, too, with seniors Nick Honor and Noah Carter

* returning. Carter averaged 9.6 points and four rebounds in 2022-23, while Honor put up 7.9 points and 2.9 assists per game. They'll be factors again this coming season, but Grill and Tonje will play equally large roles for Gates and Co.

vs. Fairleigh Dickinson, Dec. 29

Last season: Fairleigh Dickinson only made the NCAA tournament because Northeast Conference regular season and tournament champs Merrimack was ineligible in its final transition season to the D-I level. The Knights, of course, went on to become just the second No. 16 seed to upset a No. 1 seed when they knocked off Purdue.

Offseason: Tobin Anderson, who coached at D-II St. Thomas Aquinas for nearly a decade, engineered that 15-win improvement. Then he cashed in on that success by taking the Iona job after Rick Pitino left for St. John's. It wasn't the only change in Teaneck, N.J. Also gone are standout guards Demetre Roberts and Grant Singleton

* , who were FDU's top two scorers last season.

This season: New coach Jack Castleberry, who was on staff as an assistant for Anderson, did inherit the next six leading scorers in the rotation. Junior forward Ansley Almonor averaged 13.6 points and 4.8 rebounds last season, and senior guard Sean Moore scored a team-high 19 points in the win against Purdue.