Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread (May 2019)

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#526      

skyIdub

Winged Warrior
We clearly don't have the pieces we need otherwise the staff wouldn't be trying so hard to fill the roster out. I'll be confident they can win once they start actually doing it, but they're going to need to recruit first.

Wait...what? This is warped logic. What kind of message does it send to stand pat and stop recruiting? You...and an army of others...would be in full IL Defcon 1 meltdown if they came out and said "we're good" and stopped recruiting.

They've already proven they can win. Now they have to prove they can put an entire season together.
 
#528      
Agree they've got to continue recruiting. That's obvious. They don't have a lot of options but they have to manage best they can with those they have. As far as winning goes, they haven't really "proven that they can win" until they win enough to at least get into the tournament. Even the worst teams can pull off a win here and there. If they can't make the tournament then it really doesn't matter.
 
#530      
I call complete and utter BS.

Show me where Whitman said he's getting a new coach if Underwood doesn't make the dance. His contract isn't structured that way either --he's here for 2 more seasons minimum.

Agreed. both coaches are here for two more years minimum. No AD wants to change coaches once they have brought in their own hires.
 
#531      
You don't need to win to be able to recruit.
You need to be able to sell recruits on the idea that you will win.

Yes, past performance can be very helpful in doing that, but it is far from necessary.
I agree, to some extent. "Selling recruits on the idea that you will win" will only work for so long. You eventually have to actually start winning. It's not an easy thing to convince recruits that you will win, but some coaches are very good at it. I think BU is still in a position where he could do this, but it has to start soon or he's going to run out of time.
 
#533      
And I would agree with Whitman. No bowl game/NCAA berth and Lovie/Brad won't be coaching next year. Maybe it won't be quite so black and white but there needs to be Significant Improvement (with capital letters).
Lol. No he's not.

IDK- It seems to me that Whitman wasn't real happy with having to go through that investigation of Underwood and correct him on his treatment of players no matter how minor.
 
#536      

mhuml32

Cincinnati, OH
Lol. No he's not.

From looking at his contract, Underwood is going to have a buyout of ~$10 million (or more) for the next two seasons. I'm not privy to UI finances but that seems like a massive buyout for any P5 school.
 
#538      
Is this a shot at the staff, or a shot at the current state of recruits available?
Both, but I should've added I doubt we can meaningfully add 2/3 recruits to this class. Pool of possible impact guys for next year is shrinking every day, our resources (OVs), and honestly, our staff has closed 1.5 good recruitments (hiring Chin all but sealed Ayo IMO), in 2+ years here.
 
#540      
I can live with a kid who had played for BU before taking a pass; different time, different circumstance.

But a kid who had played for BU taking an OV and then passing, that's rough.
agree - this kid also went to a tournament with less talent under BU...so he 's also not the one we should have had to hard sell the vision of winning. Maybe he wanted to stay in Texas, maybe he thought he had a clearer path to playing time at TT, maybe the better opportunity to be the number 1 option...it's not the end of the world, but it is a bad trend on a kid we were the presumed leader & it means we need some growth from existing players to fill the gap at 4/5 and maybe 3.
 
#542      
Underwood needs an awesome PG pickup in 2020. If he does that he'll be fine.
We need to show some progress this year, enough to believe that 2 years from now will be even better after we lose Feliz and potentially Ayo. A big time pg and you maybe feel good about guard, but this unnamed freshman may still be replacing both Ayo & Feliz. Need Kofi to step up this year & still need to find a 3/4 for the rotation to feel real good that we are going to be better in 2 years.
 
#543      
agree - this kid also went to a tournament with less talent under BU...so he 's also not the one we should have had to hard sell the vision of winning. Maybe he wanted to stay in Texas, maybe he thought he had a clearer path to playing time at TT, maybe the better opportunity to be the number 1 option...it's not the end of the world, but it is a bad trend on a kid we were the presumed leader & it means we need some growth from existing players to fill the gap at 4/5 and maybe 3.

Closer to parents and family, closer to girlfriend, hates cold weather, could of been any number of non-basketball reasons. Agree with others, kind of a nutpunch,. Hope Underwood can pull some rabbits ought of his hat.
 
#544      

WiscIllini

Madison, WI
Wait...what? This is warped logic. What kind of message does it send to stand pat and stop recruiting? You...and an army of others...would be in full IL Defcon 1 meltdown if they came out and said "we're good" and stopped recruiting.

They've already proven they can win. Now they have to prove they can put an entire season together.

I didn't say completely stop, I said - or I meant - recruiting for the upcoming season. If they were recruiting exclusively for 2020 that would signal to me that they were confident in the pieces they'll have on the roster for '19 to win and that they are trying to get on pace with most of the other schools wrt 2020 recruiting.
 
#545      
The good: We signed the likes of Ayo, Kofi, Tev, Griffin, etc, without winning many games. That is a pretty good group out there whom we managed to convince that our win-loss record does not matter as much as their signing up and turning it around

The bad: We have been missing on (too?) many who come for an OV and do not sign up. The ratio of OV to signing in very poor, IMHO

The ugly: We go too far into the recruiting season to find players that fit our env



So, I am not sure I am convinced that winning more games will make that much of a difference. To be sure, it will make some difference.

So, what is the elasticity of winning more games? We win 22 or so and get more 4*s? We win 30ish and get all 5* - confirmed blue blood?
 
#546      

Deleted member 29907

D
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The good: We signed the likes of Ayo, Kofi, Tev, Griffin, etc, without winning many games. That is a pretty good group out there whom we managed to convince that our win-loss record does not matter as much as their signing up and turning it around

The bad: We have been missing on (too?) many who come for an OV and do not sign up. The ratio of OV to signing in very poor, IMHO

The ugly: We go too far into the recruiting season to find players that fit our env



So, I am not sure I am convinced that winning more games will make that much of a difference. To be sure, it will make some difference.

So, what is the elasticity of winning more games? We win 22 or so and get more 4*s? We win 30ish and get all 5* - confirmed blue blood?
The other "Good" - those recently recruited players did not transfer and we will start the year pretty much intact from last year's team (missing AJ of course). The impression is the coach has the hearts and minds of his players. Older teams with good talent can win and then make recruiting easier. Last year's schedule and only 4 returning players set us back a year.
 
#547      

skyIdub

Winged Warrior
The good: We signed the likes of Ayo, Kofi, Tev, Griffin, etc, without winning many games. That is a pretty good group out there whom we managed to convince that our win-loss record does not matter as much as their signing up and turning it around

The bad: We have been missing on (too?) many who come for an OV and do not sign up. The ratio of OV to signing in very poor, IMHO

The ugly: We go too far into the recruiting season to find players that fit our env



So, I am not sure I am convinced that winning more games will make that much of a difference. To be sure, it will make some difference.

So, what is the elasticity of winning more games? We win 22 or so and get more 4*s? We win 30ish and get all 5* - confirmed blue blood?


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#549      

UncleBob

San Clemente, CA
I’m not totally buying the idea that we have to win first. Crean and others can do it...why can’t we???

Per TCTornado we are 1-13 on closing OVs. I look at the scholarship grid for this year and we had approximately 60 offers. We got Kofi and maybe Kouma. We’ve got 40 or more offers for next year and have no signings with no early signings. That seems like an awful lot of offers. I’m certainly no expert but the ability to close seems to be the problem. If this is normal please correct me.
 
#550      
I’m not totally buying the idea that we have to win first. Crean and others can do it...why can’t we???

Per TCTornado we are 1-13 on closing OVs. I look at the scholarship grid for this year and we had approximately 60 offers. We got Kofi and maybe Kouma. We’ve got 40 or more offers for next year and have no signings with no early signings. That seems like an awful lot of offers. I’m certainly no expert but the ability to close seems to be the problem. If this is normal please correct me.
How ethical do we want to be?
 
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