Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread

[Illinifn79]

Originally Posted by icasaman

No we won't be that lucky. We can only hope both Tate and Nunn come close to the careers that Williams and Wright had.

I'm happy we have a point guard recruit, but realistic that he is probably a guy that is going to give you 10-15 minutes a game at best in his career. He will likely have a couple "standout" games and others that he rarely leaves the bench. I'm sure Groce is hoping to recruit over him so to speak.
And that's not a shot at the kid, just reality. I know we can all pull out stories of kids that turned out great who weren't ranked in the top 100, etc., but whether we like it or not the rankings are usually a good indicator of future ability of the kid in question.
I hope Tate overachieves, but I think and will be happy with if he is a solid contributor, plays the role Groce wants and is part of winning teams.

Tate was a top 100 recruit though so dont see it as overachiever. He was a backup at Simeon so of course he was going to drop. He will be right back up there this year as a starter. Take the Bloom game for example he came through under pressure. Simeon played horrible yet Tate hit 5 of 6 from the line in final 2 mins and led the team with 11 points in the game. If he wasnt as talented as some think believe me Smith would have a different pg starting for him.

[Dan]

Illinois basketball recruit Malcolm Hill of Belleville East has been cleared to practice after thoracic outlet syndrome surgery in July.

http://twitter.com/DavidMWilhelm

Illini recruit Malcolm Hill returns to court

Klee

[Umit9]

Great to hear about Malcolm Hill! Looking forward to seeing how he performs this year. Best of luck to him.

Go Illini

[icasaman]

Originally Posted by Illinifn79

Tate was a top 100 recruit though so dont see it as overachiever. He was a backup at Simeon so of course he was going to drop. He will be right back up there this year as a starter. Take the Bloom game for example he came through under pressure. Simeon played horrible yet Tate hit 5 of 6 from the line in final 2 mins and led the team with 11 points in the game. If he wasnt as talented as some think believe me Smith would have a different pg starting for him.

That is a very optimistic way of looking at it. I hope you're right.
But even with a good senior year, I doubt he jumps back into the top 100 rankings. Doesn't make him a bad player, but I think realistic expectations should be made for a player with his history. Hopefully, he will be a good rotation player. Anything else is a bonus.

[OrangeAndBlue217]

Originally Posted by ivwilsoniv

Maybe Tate and Nunn can team up on Parker and tell him that he's not getting the ball this year unless he commits to Illinois?

thats funny :laugh:

[Cool Hand Luke]

Nice job, Clete1.

[PeoriaIllini1]

Originally Posted by icasaman

No we won't be that lucky. We can only hope both Tate and Nunn come close to the careers that Williams and Wright had.

I'm happy we have a point guard recruit, but realistic that he is probably a guy that is going to give you 10-15 minutes a game at best in his career. He will likely have a couple "standout" games and others that he rarely leaves the bench. I'm sure Groce is hoping to recruit over him so to speak.
And that's not a shot at the kid, just reality. I know we can all pull out stories of kids that turned out great who weren't ranked in the top 100, etc., but whether we like it or not the rankings are usually a good indicator of future ability of the kid in question.
I hope Tate overachieves, but I think and will be happy with if he is a solid contributor, plays the role Groce wants and is part of winning teams.

I think he will be a quality back up PG. That can fill in if there is an injury. He gives us a better back up than we have the past. It really hurt us that [players like Jeff Jordan didnt really need to be guarded in the past and i am glad we are not in that position again.

[Redbirds33333]

I know XRM is deciding on Oct 13th and Colbert said Late October...any time frame announced with Moore?

[CharlesLawrence]

I am sure you guys know this already, but J James is going to W. Kentucky's Midnight madness. Seems as though JJ has really fallen off the map.. What are your thoughts?

[dansaint]

Clete is the man!!! Good stuff. Look forward to reading these. Always brightens up an always rather boring day at the post office.

Although surfing the boneyard...while there are no sharks....you MIGHT have a "Stand By Me" moment with leeches.

[BrooksTaylorFan]

Clete- I thought for sure you would make a reference about being glad that Groce landed Jaylon and not Loren Tate.

[Illini70math]

Originally Posted by CharlesLawrence

I am sure you guys know this already, but J James is going to W. Kentucky's Midnight madness. Seems as though JJ has really fallen off the map.. What are your thoughts?

I thought I read that he had an offer from Colorado State earlier this year, but who knows if that was accurate. His transfer to LaLumiere appears to have been a bad move, although in part it was about academics I believe. Seems like a nice kid, and he still shows talent in his recent LaLumiere video, so hopefully it will work out for him. His recent tweet to Jaylon was really classy.

[DaytonIllini]

Originally Posted by Umit9

Great to hear about Malcolm Hill! Looking forward to seeing how he performs this year. Best of luck to him.

Go Illini

Very happy for the kid.

[zoggle101]

There are players every year ranked outside of the top 150 who out perform guys ranked higher. Look at a guy like Anthony Collins at USF. He was ranked lower than J.Tate at the pg position in his respective class. Kid had a great year as the starting point guard for the Bulls and should go into his sophomore season on the rise plus a little national hype. A couple things factored into Collins breakout. USF had enough talent where other teams couldn't focus on stopping one maybe two USF players. It helped open up the court for Collins to take his man off the dribble, and if someone rotated Collins was a nice passer able to find open teammates. He also benefitted from a couple transfer in Anthony Crater and Lavonte Dority(valpro/ love what the rev in doing there) opening up a lot of minutes at the 1 .

Let's look at Trevor Ariza hs team that won a state championship and had four guys who went on to the NBA. Two guys went mid major off the team in Bobby Brown at CSF and Brandon Heath at SDst. Neither player was ranked by rivals when I checked. The other two were Ariza and Hassan Adams who were both ranked. I'd say that Ariza and Adams were better players than the other two. I'd also say Brown and Heath could of both played in a major conference because of the fact the NBA wanted them at one point but were over shadowed by the other two. Kids get over looked when they play on deep teams, scouts in my opinion don't like having more then a couple guys from the same hs team rated in the top 150 and I'm excited to see how good Tate is. Mike Shaw might be able to tell us.

[joekam]

Originally Posted by illiniparkie

Interesting. Jaylon Tate had an official visit set up for Western Kentucky later this month. Guess who is going to Western Kentucky's Midnight Madness in October? Jalen James.

https://twitter.com/GoinBASELINE

Curious to hear the opinions. If we could do it all over again, do we keep James or stick with Tate?

For what its worth, I think Tate will do great here.

[Redbirds33333]

Originally Posted by zoggle101

There are players every year ranked outside of the top 150 who out perform guys ranked higher. Look at a guy like Anthony Collins at USF. He was ranked lower than J.Tate at the pg position in his respective class. Kid had a great year as the starting point guard for the Bulls and should go into his sophomore season on the rise plus a little national hype. A couple things factored into Collins breakout. USF had enough talent where other teams couldn't focus on stopping one maybe two USF players. It helped open up the court for Collins to take his man off the dribble, and if someone rotated Collins was a nice passer able to find open teammates. He also benefitted from a couple transfer in Anthony Crater and Lavonte Dority(valpro/ love what the rev in doing there) opening up a lot of minutes at the 1 .

Let's look at Trevor Ariza hs team that won a state championship and had four guys who went on to the NBA. Two guys went mid major off the team in Bobby Brown at CSF and Brandon Heath at SDst. The other two were Ariza and Hassan Adams. I'd say that Ariza and Adams were better players than the other two. I'd also say Brown and Heath could of both played in a major conference because of the fact the NBA wanted them at one point but were over shadowed by the other two. Kids get over looked when they play on deep teams and I'm excited to see how good Tate is. Mike Shaw might be able to tell us.

Nice Post. I really think Tate could end up being pretty productive as we continue to add talent in '13, '14, '15...

[DaytonIllini]

Originally Posted by joekam

Curious to hear the opinions. If we could do it all over again, do we keep James or stick with Tate?

For what its worth, I think Tate will do great here.

I was critical of dumping James (and I still think he could be better than Tate in the long run) but I am pleased with the way it worked out. I think Groce said, I think I can do better. He tried. And I love that attitude.

[BurritoHead]

Originally Posted by Redbirds33333

Nice Post. I really think Tate could end up being pretty productive as we continue to add talent in '13, '14, '15...

As it stands now, the 2013 roster has some depth, athleticism, versatility and an interesting combination of experience / new blood. It will be fascinating to see how the 2012 season goes and how the puzzle looks in 12 months.

[Illini70math]

Originally Posted by joekam

Curious to hear the opinions. If we could do it all over again, do we keep James or stick with Tate?

For what its worth, I think Tate will do great here.

I actually liked Tate better because of his quickness when we got the commitment from James (who is taller). I think James will end up as a decent to good player somewhere, but I like still like Tate better as a player.

One big deal is that Tate is now listed at 6'2" and 180 while he used to be described as "thin". He looks pretty solid now for a rising high school senior. As he gets stronger, I think he can become quite good. Most of all, I think the coaches like him as a fit for want they want to do at UI with their offense and defense.

Broken record, I know, but defense will be at least as important as offense in coming seasons. Defense is what got Ohio to the Sweet Sixteen. They were a great defensive team.

[nicksmithfanclub]

Originally Posted by joekam

Curious to hear the opinions. If we could do it all over again, do we keep James or stick with Tate?

For what its worth, I think Tate will do great here.

If the staff thought James was the better option, presumably they would have pursued him again instead of Tate.

[IlliniRunIn07]

Originally Posted by DaytonIllini

I was critical of dumping James (and I still think he could be better than Tate in the long run) but I am pleased with the way it worked out. I think Groce said, I think I can do better. He tried. And I love that attitude.

+1.

Even if James turns out to be a better player than Tate, Groce was ridiculously close to landing a McDAA PG. I will never hold it against him that he missed on DJ. It seemed like we had literally everything go against us in that recruitment too. Give credit to Groce for trying, and then landing a solid backup plan!

[TCTORNADO]

Originally Posted by DaytonIllini

I was critical of dumping James (and I still think he could be better than Tate in the long run) but I am pleased with the way it worked out. I think Groce said, I think I can do better. He tried. And I love that attitude.

That is the key to your post, "he tried". He tried for like 7 of the top 15 PG's and was finalist in a couple of those. If he would have signed Tate in May this board would have been saying what about Ennis, Jackson, Morris, Clark, Powell, Perrantes, etc.
Competing on a national level may be the key to "he tried".

[WesterveltVictoryCigar]

Originally Posted by joekam

Curious to hear the opinions. If we could do it all over again, do we keep James or stick with Tate?

For what its worth, I think Tate will do great here.

Given the questions regarding James' academics, seems like even more reason to go with Tate.

[BrooksTaylorFan]

Originally Posted by WesterveltVictoryCigar

Given the questions regarding James' academics, seems like even more reason to go with Tate.

Not to mention the higher level of competition that Tate plays with and against on a daily basis. I certainly like his potential. Tate certainly isn't DJ, but I don't think that he's that much of a drop off. He'll certainly contribute to Illinois.

[UndercoverIllini]

Originally Posted by WesterveltVictoryCigar

Given the questions regarding James' academics, seems like even more reason to go with Tate.

Yep, you don't take kids with possible grade issues unless their talent is worth the risk. If it's borderline at all, find the next guy, IMO.