Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread

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#301      
Yeah, I'd say saying a player had his foot out the door the entire year has a very negative connotation to it, tantamount to character assassination. He very well might be a bench player at many P5 schools, but he's not deserving of a label that he had a foot out of the door if there's not really any truth to it. As for the 30mpg or I leave ultimatum you are suggesting, seems unreasonable that happened or that he asked for it as again, we would have heard about it. So I'll say again, I don't see a need to drag Sencire through the mud unless there's a real factual reason to do so.
I don't see the two statements as necessarily mutually exclusive.

I have worked with many professionals in my career who found a better opportunity / situation elsewhere, but still gave 100% to our firm during their notice period. When SH redshirted many felt that was step one in an eventual portaling, and Sencire may well have thought the same. Why does that preclude him from being a good person / teammate last year, and wanting his team to do well? Especially since the hard work and good attitude helped his personal development at the same time.

If he is of good character, as every indication seems, then this is exactly what was likely to happen.
 
#307      
1. AZ struggling in tourney
2. Bad locker room chemistry - 6 AZ kids in transfer portal
3. Caleb Love - bottomless pit. Never passes the ball back. Shoots every time -think Russell Westbrook as teamate.
4. Jaden Bradley stole a lot of Kylan's minutes last 2 games of NCAA tourney
Jaden Bradley was taking a lot of Boswell's minutes from about mid-season on. There was a lot of speculation that Bradley could be starting over Boswell next year.
 
#309      
Not terribly upset about that.

Saw enough of Aidoo last year... He drove me crazy as a mostly uninterested observer. Half our fan base would need to be checked into an institution if they watched him for the whole season.
(Sigh) Alas, I am a Tennessee alum for undergrad so I watched many many a game and was indeed very very frustrated with him.
 
#310      
I really wanted to see Sencire this coming year but I understand him leaving as well, I wish him the best. However, is this a lesson learned for the coaches or could there be a rule change coming? He sat out this year as a redshirt and then joined the portal following that season. As I read earlier, the redshirt still holds a scholarship place which would prevent having another capable body on the bench. There is no doubt that at some point in the season, he could have helped the team win a game or more. I do wonder what could have been. Nevertheless, is there some sort of contract/promise to be had if one is redshirting for a year, especially on his own premise?
 
#312      
Another thing is, is school pride still a thing. Look at guys like Cook, Sergio, Frankie, Leonard, Tisdale. It's like they had pride to play for Illinois. Does that exist anymore? Or is it all about money. "I can go to this school I have always wanted to go and get paid 450,000 or this school across the country and get 900,000...I'll take the 900,000"
You think B. Cook or Frankie wouldn't expect a bag if they were playing in 2024? :LOL:
 
#313      
Aaron Bradshaw (big man transferring from Kentucky) has a crystal ball from Travis Branh to Ohio State. Between he and Ballo at IU, plus potentially Goldin at Michigan, the bigs in the Big Ten are looking pretty good
Except for one school we all know.

The NCAA tournament shows talked about how our lack of a true big made us susceptible to teams like Purdue and UConn. That hasn't changed for 2024-25.

With our B1G competitors locking up highly-ranked centers in the portal (and Purdue has 7'2" freshman center Daniel Jacobsen coming in to replace Edey) Brad better have something up his sleeve. I love Morez, but asking him to come in as a freshman and stop these experienced big guys is asking a lot. So far, I haven't heard anything from our insiders that says getting a top tier big (a 5, not a tall 4) in the portal is a high priority.
 
#315      
I guess this is the new top 20 model

1. recruit best HS players you can but assume you will lose a lot of them to portal
2. go to portal every year and bring in experienced upper classmen who contribute immediately
3. leverage relationships built during HS recruiting to get players on rebound - IE TSJ, Quincy, Tre, Kylan
4. Use NIL to get/retain key players

We are fortunate
1. Brad has adapted very quickly to this new model. Others like Calipari and Izzo are struggling
2. We have good NIL program to support this model
3. We have proven our program helps portal transfers succeed - TSJ All American, Marcus all Big 10, Alfonso 3rd team all B10
4. We are coming of BT championships and elite 8 run so we are viewed as successful program. Good players don't just want playing time and NIL$ - they also want to win.

I am sure a lot of programs want to emulate our portal success.

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#317      
There’s nothing Mid about taking FAU to the FF.
Agreed and that is an accomplishment- but if Purdue doesn’t lose to FDU in the first round that year- is anyone talking about Dusty May after this year- likely not

Still, you have to take advantage when you get breaks in the tourny and they did that- but I’m never sold on one tournament run meaning a coach is all of a sudden an elite final four coach
 
#318      
There’s nothing Mid about taking FAU to the FF.
True, now tell me what word you'd use to describe not winning their conference or conference tourney and getting bounced first round with almost the exact same team back this year?
 
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