Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread (April 2018)

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#1,129      
Not sure why some are on the fence with this class. Ayo has been talked about a lot, Jones is the type of wing IL has been looking for, Griffin i think will add what was missing last year (shooting and toughness) and at the very least I think Kane will block and alter some shots and get some rebounds.
 
#1,130      
I still wanna know where Giorgi learned to get down like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jLJVihJqD0

I went down a youtube wormhole after watching that....The Delson Training that is profiled sure teaches kids to dunk the ball instead of laying it up. He seems to jump without gathering himself like Finke had to do. i think he'll be ok. Sure, he doesn't look hugely athletic, but I think he'll have a respectable freshman campaign. Strong enough and aggressive enough....Id be happy with 7 pts and 5 boards a game as a Fr.
 
#1,131      
Caillou_Character_Caillou_719x405.jpg

Finally! I've been wanting to post that for days!
 
#1,132      
No idea, but you'd assume the timelines for Hinson, Calloo and Golden are all much sooner than late May. As well as any 5th year we might pursue.

I'm a big fan of Bryce Golden based on what limited highlights I could find online. A better or more advanced Giorgi would be my very basic evaluation. He looked like he had some rise on his dunks, great form on his outside shot, had a little definition in his arms and showed some strength. All-in-all if we got him and that locked us out of the Okoro sweepstakes, I think we'd have to be okay with it.
 
#1,134      

BananaShampoo

Captain 'Paign
Phoenix, AZ
I went down a youtube wormhole after watching that....The Delson Training that is profiled sure teaches kids to dunk the ball instead of laying it up. He seems to jump without gathering himself like Finke had to do. i think he'll be ok. Sure, he doesn't look hugely athletic, but I think he'll have a respectable freshman campaign. Strong enough and aggressive enough....Id be happy with 7 pts and 5 boards a game as a Fr.

Uh, yeah, I think we'd all be more than ecstatic. Highly doubtful he hits that as a frosh.
 
#1,135      
Not sure why some are on the fence with this class. Ayo has been talked about a lot, Jones is the type of wing IL has been looking for, Griffin i think will add what was missing last year (shooting and toughness) and at the very least I think Kane will block and alter some shots and get some rebounds.

I don't think anyone has a problem with this class. It's neither good nor bad. Using 247, we're middle of the conference (7th in the BIG).

Ranking / Position
27 Ayo CG
117 Tevian Jones SF
279 Kane PF
- Griffin SG
- Giorgi PF
12* Feliz

*12th overall Juco transfer, #1 PG

We're losing our best player in Black, and we're thin on bigs from last year to begin with. On the plus side, I expect that we're getting system guys this year, given the issues executing it last year.

That group isn't going to scare anyone, but I'm personally in the camp that we're going to get guys who can run the offense, play hard, and accelerate the rebuild. Still, we're very young, and probably hard-pressed to get into the upper half of the conference.
 
#1,136      
I went down a youtube wormhole after watching that....The Delson Training that is profiled sure teaches kids to dunk the ball instead of laying it up. He seems to jump without gathering himself like Finke had to do. i think he'll be ok. Sure, he doesn't look hugely athletic, but I think he'll have a respectable freshman campaign. Strong enough and aggressive enough....Id be happy with 7 pts and 5 boards a game as a Fr.

He barely had those stats in high school. I just watched a couple of his games and he's definitely a below the rim player, but he had great vision with his passing.
 
#1,137      

t7nich

Central IL
I'm a big fan of Bryce Golden based on what limited highlights I could find online. A better or more advanced Giorgi would be my very basic evaluation. He looked like he had some rise on his dunks, great form on his outside shot, had a little definition in his arms and showed some strength. All-in-all if we got him and that locked us out of the Okoro sweepstakes, I think we'd have to be okay with it.

I like him for the same reasons you mentioned. Seems like the staff REALLY likes him. They would take him and then worry about Okoro later. I can't imagine them not making room for him if he reclassified and wanted to join.
 
#1,138      
So turns out Courtney Ramey is my next door neighbor. I bought this place a few months ago and have been fixing it up. I met his parents and knew they had a son in high school, but didn't put it all together until a bunch of recruitment letters showed up in my mailbox today by mistake. There have been some different cars there recently. I guess those were the in home visits. Small world.
 
#1,139      

Deleted member 631370

D
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So turns out Courtney Ramey is my next door neighbor. I bought this place a few months ago and have been fixing it up. I met his parents and knew they had a son in high school, but didn't put it all together until a bunch of recruitment letters showed up in my mailbox today by mistake. There have been some different cars there recently. I guess those were the in home visits. Small world.


You really missed an opportunity to open those letters and respond back with a commitment.
 
#1,140      

mhuml32

Cincinnati, OH
So turns out Courtney Ramey is my next door neighbor. I bought this place a few months ago and have been fixing it up. I met his parents and knew they had a son in high school, but didn't put it all together until a bunch of recruitment letters showed up in my mailbox today by mistake. There have been some different cars there recently. I guess those were the in home visits. Small world.



So did you find the recruitment letter from Illinois and forge his signature?
 
#1,142      

BananaShampoo

Captain 'Paign
Phoenix, AZ
I don't think anyone has a problem with this class. It's neither good nor bad. Using 247, we're middle of the conference (7th in the BIG).

Ranking / Position
27 Ayo CG
117 Tevian Jones SF
279 Kane PF
- Griffin SG
- Giorgi PF
12* Feliz

*12th overall Juco transfer, #1 PG

We're losing our best player in Black, and we're thin on bigs from last year to begin with. On the plus side, I expect that we're getting system guys this year, given the issues executing it last year.

That group isn't going to scare anyone, but I'm personally in the camp that we're going to get guys who can run the offense, play hard, and accelerate the rebuild. Still, we're very young, and probably hard-pressed to get into the upper half of the conference.

Note that the 247 class rankings only count rated players. A few of ours are not rated or unranked by 247. It also does not take into account how well a class fits a teams needs (roster/position gaps) and has a diminishing return on it's ratings the more players are added. I'd wager our class is really better than the rankings show.

Also, player development is important in this. We had Top 4 classes in the B1G for most of the Groce years, and what did that get us? Too many guys either did not develop/pan out and lack of a coherent system meant we were less than the sum of our parts. We of course also never got our PG (till JG was out the door). I think the difference with BU is going to become evident once he has his guys and once they begin to really be able to implement his system as he wants it to be run. Jeffrey Carroll and Thomas Walkup weren't highly rated guys coming out of HS, but man did they contribute to some pretty darn good teams. That's all because of fit. I'm looking forward to seeing how it all pans out and I think it's going to be a fun ride watching the development occur.
 
#1,143      

BananaShampoo

Captain 'Paign
Phoenix, AZ
So turns out Courtney Ramey is my next door neighbor. I bought this place a few months ago and have been fixing it up. I met his parents and knew they had a son in high school, but didn't put it all together until a bunch of recruitment letters showed up in my mailbox today by mistake. There have been some different cars there recently. I guess those were the in home visits. Small world.

OMG! A TRUE insider! Too bad a little too late! :tsk::eek:
 
#1,144      
- Griffin SG
- Giorgi PF
12* Feliz

*12th overall Juco transfer, #1 PG

That's not using 247, that's using some rando ranking pulled from the depths of the internet.

The issue people have with this class is that we were sold a mass exodus based on a lack of Big Ten talent and athleticism, and we've now brought in three players who had, generously, two major conference offers between them, none of whom we were really competing with anyone in particular for their services, all three of whom are totally unranked by 247, and all three of whom are minus athletes at the major conference level.

And we hung onto Matic Vesel, who shares all of those qualities and looked totally out of his depth last year, apparently for no other reason that too many other kids bailed.

It's not an issue with the class per se, it's an issue with whether this roster has actually been upgraded.
 
#1,145      

Deleted member 631370

D
Guest
That's not using 247, that's using some rando ranking pulled from the depths of the internet.

The issue people have with this class is that we were sold a mass exodus based on a lack of Big Ten talent and athleticism, and we've now brought in three players who had, generously, two major conference offers between them, none of whom we were really competing with anyone in particular for their services, all three of whom are totally unranked by 247, and all three of whom are minus athletes at the major conference level.

And we hung onto Matic Vesel, who shares all of those qualities and looked totally out of his depth last year, apparently for no other reason that too many other kids bailed.

It's not an issue with the class per se, it's an issue with whether this roster has actually been upgraded.


In fairness, 247 only has a top 8 for JUCO.

if you do a Google search for "2018 JUCO basketball rankings", the website that has Feliz #12 is the first website that comes up. It's www.jucorankings.com. So no, it's not some random website pulled from the depths of the internet.
 
#1,147      

BlindLoyalty

FartNoiseMotivation
And yet he (Maverick Morgan) was better than any big we had on the roster last year, probably considerably so, because our inside D stunk this past year.

From Fr to Sr seasons Morgan's Win Shares were: .6, .7, 1.6, 2.4

From Fr to Jr seasons Finke's Win Shares were: 1.4, 2.0, 2.3

From Fr to Jr seasons Black's Win Shares were: 1.4, 1.8, 3.2



From Fr to Sr seasons Morgan's Defensive Win Shares were: .4, .4, .6, 1.2

From Fr to Jr seasons Finke's Defensive Win Shares were: .4, .8, .7

From Fr to Jr seasons Black's Defensive Win Shares were: .9, 1.1, .8


According to defensive win shares, in seasons 1-3, both Black and Finke contributed more/were better defenders than Morgan was in seasons 1-3. Morgan made a jump in year 4 and obviously there will be no year 4 at Illinois for Black and Finke to compare.
 
#1,148      
There have been posters who don't think this class is anything to shout about based on rankings. I think this is a good class irrespective of rankings. I think Griffin will be a very good player and I'm glad he wasn't ranked.
 
#1,149      
I may be the only one who prefers Kane over Castleton and Conduit. He just looks like a better athlete to me. Believe if you get the athlete with the size and desire and have the right coaches you have a winner. We can look at video but can't judge the attitude and desire. Our success will depend on our coaches ability to do this. Need to sign the five stars early but don't see our late signing of the others a sign of failure.

I would like to point out that he was a Top 75 prospect for the 2019 class so he is basically a 4 Star we landed playing a year up
 
#1,150      
That's not using 247, that's using some rando ranking pulled from the depths of the internet.

The issue people have with this class is that we were sold a mass exodus based on a lack of Big Ten talent and athleticism, and we've now brought in three players who had, generously, two major conference offers between them, none of whom we were really competing with anyone in particular for their services, all three of whom are totally unranked by 247, and all three of whom are minus athletes at the major conference level.

And we hung onto Matic Vesel, who shares all of those qualities and looked totally out of his depth last year, apparently for no other reason that too many other kids bailed.

It's not an issue with the class per se, it's an issue with whether this roster has actually been upgraded.

No argument here. And yes, 247 doesn't have a Juco rating that I'm aware of. That's what the asterisk was meant for.

Now, if I *were* to argue..... :p

It's my baseless suspicion that Underwood was a lot more frustrated than he let on, and may have had to pick his poison. FWLIW, I watched a surprising amount of tape of Stephen F Austin, and we were not able to run the offense even at the end of the year. I assume there were similar issues on defense.

So it's my guess that Underwood looked long and hard at his roster and asked himself if it was worth having "talented" guys who couldn't execute his system, or better to do some house-cleaning, even when it meant digging deep into 3 stars/unrated guys. I actually think a couple of these guys have pretty good ceilings, but I understand the ratings.

Is it an upgrade? Maybe, maybe not. But with only 4 wins in the BIG, we can't do that much worse, and it's probably better from a coach's perspective to get the system in place.
 
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