Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread

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#426      
Hopefully OA an Big Z package deal
Crystal ball has Z to Arkansas. Of course if OA is no longer at Arkansas.......
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#427      
I've said that I would aim higher then Booth...BUT if they get a real 5, then I feel a bit better.

Folks need to watch Booth a bit more, even if its a few highlights. I can see why they like him.

- He has NBA athleticism. There are moves and dunks that he has that are jaw dropping.

- He shot 29% from 3 if i remember correctly. If you assume he can get that to 33 or 34% you have an elite athlete that teams have to respect at the 3 point line...and if he fakes and drives the lane, he will dunk it on your head.

- He looks a legit 6'10. The measurements are all over the place, but its easy to see he is 6'9 or 6'10 with long arms. Great size for a 4.

- I like Amani, but Booth is bigger, significantly more athletic, fits a need better and wants to be here it seems.

If your going to take a risk on a kid, take a risk on the elite athleticism and size. If he takes to coaching and learning, he'll be drafted.

I think we need to stop recruit hugging. Most people do it with good intentions and you're more then welcome to cling to a recruit. But this is the wild f*cking west now. Its Free Agency and they can leave even AFTER signing with you. They don't owe you s*** and you don't owe them s***. You can either get with that or cry your couch until the season starts.
 
#428      
Last place teams in the NBA, NFL, MLB, and NHL still somehow manage to sign free agents too.
Yup - Lakers got Mozgov $64M 4 year and Deng $72M 4 year. They overpay for bad free agents who only care about money.
How many Chicago players did we lose to Duke and KY
 
#429      
....
Schutt’s upside as a solid three-and-d player will make him an attractive target in the portal for coaches looking for rotation pieces, as he looks to find more success elsewhere. He would likely have been competing for playing time once again, with another strong incoming class including guard/forward combos like Darren Harris, Isaiah Evans and Kon Knueppel II. ....Schutt’s departure marks the sixth for the team this offseason, as classmates Christian Reeves and Mark Mitchell and junior Jaylen Blakes also entered the portal while Jared McCain and Kyle Filipowski declared their intent to enter the NBA Draft. .....

JMO. That would be an interesting add. Like buying a lottery ticket. Could be our answer at SG. Evidently Duke has same issues with players leaving (4 at Duke vs 2 at Illinois) as Illinois. Duke recruits over existing roster every year. I doubt you hear Duke fans whining about it.
 
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#434      
#438      
I think we need to stop recruit hugging. Most people do it with good intentions and you're more then welcome to cling to a recruit. But this is the wild f*cking west now. Its Free Agency and they can leave even AFTER signing with you. They don't owe you s*** and you don't owe them s***. You can either get with that or cry your couch until the season starts.
the end of amateur athletics. About time people stopped exploiting the athletes.
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#439      
I never want to speak bad about one of our players but the whole Sencire Harris transfer portal really irks me. It feels like he used Illinois to better his own game and become a stronger player. He used our athletic training staff to improve himself physically. Then, he turns around and bolts because of a difference in philosophy between Frazier and Underwood? If this was really about play time, then he should've transferred out after last season. It just feels like he used the program for his own gains when his motivations were to possibly bolt. He was a great contributor in practice and I don't want to diminish what he did to help this year's team out behind the scenes but it just feels like he used the program and then ran out of town. Is this really about an assistant coach leaving? Last time I looked, doesn't the head coach matter in this whole thing too? Do you come to a school to play for an assistant coach or do you come for more than that? Sencire has been in this program for two years now so I would hope this goes beyond Chester Frazier. It's frustrating to see the time that someone like Fletch put into this kid to find him leaving town over nonsense
I doubt it was anything as nefarious as this seems. Every guy on our team has an ego, and every one of them wants to play. I'm sure Sensire thought he could carve out a role on last year's team. He was probably as misinformed on Marcus as most of this board and thought he could beat out some guys for PT. Once practice started, he could probably see the writing on the wall. By then the portal was closed.

He's not going to play SG... shooting is not his strength. His best bet was to play PG. Bringing in Boswell this week pretty much killed that dream. He's likely behind DGL already in terms of PT, since DGL can shoot and is a pretty pesky defender in his own right.

This isn't a bad kid "using" anyone. This is a competitive young man who puts in a lot of work and wants to play. I'm absolutely not going to put any blame on him for that. I'll be watching and pulling for him to do well wherever he goes, provided it isn't Missouri or anywhere in B1G country.
 
#442      
May I be allowed to interject a comment right here, right now to get a some of you totally hysterical?

Here goes: I love Navy Blue! Uniforms and otherwise.

Thanks a million.

GO ILLINI!
Blues have my vote esp on the Women Illini.
 
#444      
That person covers Louisiana. Why would I trust him when he doesn't know what Illinois is working on and Maddox is still on his visit as we speak?
@LvilleILL stated winning was important to Maddox and Illini offer his best chance at that. I find it hard to believe Illinois is just suddenly out of the picture while he’s currently on campus. Oh and Tim Anderson is lead recruiter on this one.
 
#445      
I get needing to put the best roster together possible and that this means recruiting over your own players at times, unpleasant as that can be. I’m not 100% convinced Booth is a clear upgrade over Amani to the point it’s worth recruiting over Amani to get booth. Maybe they figured Amani is headed out anyway now that Chester’s gone and this is more of a replacement than recruiting over. Will trust the staff I guess. They seem to be pretty good at this.

Interesting that Amani and Booth were ranked within 1 spot of each other (58-59) coming our of HS. RSCI

Still different pros/cons for each head to head, but if Amani's position was he was heading for the portal if a quality 5 was added that makes this decision at the 4 pretty easy.
 
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