All your questions can be answered by reading the board. He has been heavily discussed over the past several days.
Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread
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From what others have said it sounds like a no, on his end.
Too bad. Like his game and an Illinois kid. Thanks for the quick response.
Saw a couple posts on X saying he's an Illini!?!️
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Lol, yeah just go ahead and read the 50 pages over the last couple days. Don’t act so offended by the question. Not everyone has the idle time you apparently do.
Can’t blame a guy for not wanting to sift through pages of bad takes and off topic rants just to find a useful nugget or two. We need to enlist chatGPT/AI to scrape this board daily and provide a summary, with order of the summary being dictated by number of likes.
He’s a 7 footer with a twin brother at Kentucky. He is not as mobile as his brother but would bring an inside presence on defense. He can block a shot or two as it shows in his videos. He can move outside to hit a 3 and free up the middle. I’m sure he wants to make it to NBA but appears to have less of a chance compared to his brother. I think he is better than most of the 6’11” centers that are in the portal now and that is probably why Brad went all the way to Europe to recruit him.
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If it’s helpful for anyone, I use the search function and type in the name of the player (usually the last name unless the Board has given a common nickname to someone). It won’t catch every reference b/c of misspellings, use of first names, etc., but it can lead you to the place in the thread where he’s being discussed and save time sifting through everything.
Clearly not an EDG.
I'm setting the Dainja benchmark on Tomislav. I think it is clear he is a better free throw and 3 pt shooter. Dain was pretty darn good from up close minus going against the two NCAA giants. Passing, I will give it to Tomislav as he finds the player on the opposite 3 pt arc (behind his shoulder), something that Dain struggled with and believe led to benching at times.
On Defense and Rebounding I might say pretty even, although Dain got some tough rebounds in NCAA and BiG. Unless Tomislav is a true 7-footer, I'm not sure we gain much compared to Dain. Euro ball is hard to gauge because they play a lot of tall and older players (25+). One thing I notice from watching these videos is that the court is spread out more than college ball, often the center is guarding the arc or playing center defense by himself. So Tomislav would have that advantage over Dain as well.
My biggest concerns for Tomislav is minutes played, defense, blocking and rebounding. Biggest upside is passing, picking, 3pt and free throw shooting.
Just my 2 cents.
On Defense and Rebounding I might say pretty even, although Dain got some tough rebounds in NCAA and BiG. Unless Tomislav is a true 7-footer, I'm not sure we gain much compared to Dain. Euro ball is hard to gauge because they play a lot of tall and older players (25+). One thing I notice from watching these videos is that the court is spread out more than college ball, often the center is guarding the arc or playing center defense by himself. So Tomislav would have that advantage over Dain as well.
My biggest concerns for Tomislav is minutes played, defense, blocking and rebounding. Biggest upside is passing, picking, 3pt and free throw shooting.
Just my 2 cents.
One good thing is that we could probably offer a lot more of a starting role than Duke who has like 5 top 20 kids coming in(though not much at guard).
Plus, if we get Tomislav that would give him an Eastern European teammate and while they dont necessarily speak the same languages there is some crossover. Plus I imagine both are multi lingual.
That's not a certainty at this point. It has something to do with AAU.
Are we comparing him to Dain playing mid major opponents or Dain playing b10 teams with real bigs?
Its called a search bar, and its on this website. Work smarter, not harder.
Tomislav is a totally different player. Morez is who I would compare Dain to. Morez is a better shooter than Dain and has more range but Dain had some nice footwork inside. Morez will get some quality minutes and develop through the quality coaching we will receive. He's already in a man's body. He's a legit 6'9" and 235lbs. By next year, Morez should be a double double waiting to happen every game and if he improves his shooting and ball handling some could play the 4 or 5. For this year, Morez is a very High recruit who can rebound and give some pop coming off the bench. I see him getting quite a bit of playing time this year. Tomislav is likely a starter who gives us more of an ability immediately to play 5 out. In some circles, he is projected as an NBA draft choice next year. And at 7 foot will altar a lot more shots just by his sheer size. I think he is a great pick up and will nullify a lot of bigs especially since there are more in the league this year to deal with. Just my 2 cents worth. Someone else may have a different opinion about this but Morez is going to be a beast given time.
I think there's obviously some risk in Brad going with Tomislav over someone more proven against high major opponents. But one major issue with Dain is that last year, Brad never played him and Ty at the same time. Let's pretend for the sake of argument that Dain had stayed - I suspect, although I'm not sure, that Brad would have a similar policy next year with Dain and Morez as well. If that's correct, that's a fairly serious rotation limitation Brad would need to work around - having a starting big not able to play with 2 other prominent rotation guys.
Now, with Ivisic, In my opinion you COULD play him at the same time as Ty, and I think you could probably play him with Morez if you wanted to as well. The fact that you have to guard Ivisic out by the 3 point line is such an advantage for those other 2 guys, in my view.
My guess is this is why Brad was really prioritizing a big that could stretch the floor some and was willing to take this risk with this unproven guy. We'll see how it plays out, but I for one am good with taking the risk - I think the upside for the team as a whole could be huge.
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Relax. It's a basketball message board. Ignore it don't answer the question if it annoys you. People have jobs, kids, families and don't breathe loyalty.
Ok dude
I think the most exciting thing about Morez is how mobile he appears to be. Seems like a lot more fluid of an athlete than Dain or even Amani.
I think Tomislav is actually more proven in general. In his league there are a number of guys who have played in the nba at some point in their careers. He can also stretch the floor which is a major plus at any level
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