Illini Basketball 2019-2020

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#351      

Deleted member 4960

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Not for sure why he is transferring. If it’s on his own accord, I just don’t get it. One year after you are a pretty raw recruit doesn’t make much sense. He would have got some playing time this year. If it is on him it’s just another sign of the epidemic of all these young kids transferring.
 
#352      

Govoner Vaugn Fan

New Orleans
If Kane were on track to make the rotation this year, I doubt he would be transferring. I suspect he has had realistic input from the coaching staff, looked at incoming recruits, and made a logical decision. I was hopeful that he could contribute in coming season, but that was probably not likely to be the case, assuming the coaches were up front with him.
 
#353      

foby

Bonnaroo Land
If Kane were on track to make the rotation this year, I doubt he would be transferring. I suspect he has had realistic input from the coaching staff, looked at incoming recruits, and made a logical decision. I was hopeful that he could contribute in coming season, but that was probably not likely to be the case, assuming the coaches were up front with him.
Ideally this means Kofi is indeed a beast and Samba knew he had no chance to start or play as much as he'd like. The flipside is it limits our frontline depth quite a bit.But oh well, we have a lot of options still.
 
#356      

ChiefGritty

Chicago, IL
Live by the Portal. Die by the Portal.

The new deal.

I will say, I was perusing one of those "Too Early Top 25" articles on ESPN or somewhere, and I was struck by how often transfers were mentioned as critical additions for the big teams.

I remain convinced that resisting the waiver wire is the path for smart teams looking to build in football, but the evidence that that's the path of least resistance to success in basketball is starting to mount.
 
#357      

illini80

Forgottonia
I think there might be something to this. Samba might have Crean'd
Wasn’t underwood quoted in that recent article talking about how he is really working hard and making strides?


This sounds like our typical “We didn’t want him anyway.” “He didn’t fit the system.” Etc, etc. We just signed two guys with much lower ceilings than Samba Kane imo.
 
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#360      

Deleted member 643761

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Wasn’t underwood quoted in that recent article talking about how he is really working hard and making strides?


This sounds like our typical “We didn’t want him anyway.” “He didn’t fit the system.” Etc, etc. We just signed two guys with much lower ceilings than Samba Kane imo.
We'll none of us is in much of a place to judge ceilings in freshmen we've never seen. Half this board thought ebo would have a better year than giorgi.

Creaning is a distinct possibility.

I think most everyone was high on Kane's potential.
 
#362      

illini80

Forgottonia
We'll none of us is in much of a place to judge ceilings in freshmen we've never seen. Half this board thought ebo would have a better year than giorgi.

Creaning is a distinct possibility.

I think most everyone was high on Kane's potential.
If true, we should know that very shortly.

Edit: Also if true, I’m very disappointed. Pushing guys out after one year is a very bad look to me.
 
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#363      
I don’t know why we would jump to creaning here. I think the most likely scenario is that summer practice started and Samba saw that Kofi was clearly superior, meaning Samba will likely never start as an Illini (apologies to those who believe every Top 50 kid we sign is leaving early for the nba).
 
#364      
Relative to Samba, we obviously only see a part of the athletic side of things. It has been previously stated that he may have struggled academically last year, which contributed to his overall athletic availability/performance. Maybe summer classes did or were not going well. Pure speculation on my part.

I am just trying to fit the pieces together, where whenever I am surprised, it is more likely than not I do not have the whole story.
 
#365      
I don’t know why we would jump to creaning here. I think the most likely scenario is that summer practice started and Samba saw that Kofi was clearly superior, meaning Samba will likely never start as an Illini (apologies to those who believe every Top 50 kid we sign is leaving early for the nba).

Agreed. This is the more likely explanation. If I did not get much playing time my freshman year. And it looked like I would not get significant playing time my sophmore year, I would likely be gone too.
 
#366      

Dren1

Glenview, IL
Really interesting timing after the trip home, positive article & just before the Italy trip/Late summer...
so does he not see playing time/spot, did he have an epiphany on his trip home, or a some under the table issues or fit. Or do we have someone else coming that is taking his spot.

disappointing, I wasn't convinced he would find a role this year, but did expect him to contribute before his career was over and if nothing else it was our best chance to fill a back end of the rotation big which I think was significantly higher this year than Kouma.
Not saying this is true, but there was this post from a few days ago:
Or was it that Samba had some off the court issues including the classroom that hurt his playing time?
 
#367      

Deleted member 236589

D
Guest
Yup. The timing on this is hilarious. This program desperately just needs to start winning ball games.
Or recruiting better talent that won't get minimal time and won't feel the need to transfer after their freshman season?
 
#369      
I think if we were doing some shady creaning our insiders would have known we were getting an addition.
 
#371      
I think there might be something to this. Samba might have Crean'd
If we just Creaned Samba, I'd like to puke on our staff. He was very young still and oozed potential. I didn't like Ebo leaving, and I like this less. I wonder if Egwu would have made it to his sophomore year in this environment. Post players more than any other need time to develop, and you will never end up with post depth by getting rid of all your players who have slow freshman years.
 
#372      

Epsilon

M tipping over
Pdx
If we just Creaned Samba, I'd like to puke on our staff. He was very young still and oozed potential. I didn't like Ebo leaving, and I like this less. I wonder if Egwu would have made it to his sophomore year in this environment. Post players more than any other need time to develop, and you will never end up with post depth by getting rid of all your players who have slow freshman years.

Are you hypothetically indignant or actually indignant?
 
#373      

BMoreIllini

Baltimore, MD
I'm hopeful that the staff got word that Donnie Tillman is going to commit to the Illini and this isn't a creaning as much as it was the staff being honest with Samba. With Tillman, Giorgi would split his time between the 4 and 5 next year and there wouldn't be many minutes available at the 5 with Kofi (assuming he's not a one and done) and Giorgi. The staff, knowing that Samba was on the fence at the start of the off-season, wanted to do right by Samba and let him know right away so he could land somewhere before it's too late to find a spot.

Edit: Tillman has to sit out a year so it wouldn't make an impact this year, but Tillman would eat into Samba's minutes his junior year. So Samba may want to look elsewhere.
 
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#375      

Joel Goodson

respect my decision™
I'm hopeful that the staff got word that Donnie Tillman is going to commit to the Illini and this isn't a creaning as much as it was the staff being honest with Samba. With Tillman, Giorgi would split his time between the 4 and 5 next year and there wouldn't be many minutes available at the 5 with Kofi (assuming he's not a one and done) and Giorgi. The staff, knowing that Samba was on the fence at the start of the off-season, wanted to do right by Samba and let him know right away so he could land somewhere before it's too late to find a spot.

Edit: Tillman has to sit out a year so it wouldn't make an impact this year, but Tillman would eat into Samba's minutes his junior year. So Samba may want to look elsewhere.

Checks out. Pretty sure Samba wants to play, and prospects for him seeing more than ~12 mpg for the next 2 years seem rather bleak. Really hope the staff did right by him.
 
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