Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread (October 2018)

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#626      

drewillini89

D
drewillini89
The best thing that can happen for this thread is the season to start. We have NO legitimate product to show recruits yet. Last year was a dumpster fire and we're lucky to have gotten rid of the bad players and gotten so many new kids willing to come in and build something. Once recruits see how this year's team is on the court, they'll have something to think about.
 
#628      

tpbradley

tpbradley
tpbradley
Why do I get that Illinois feeling that we end up with empty pockets again? I've either been reading too many S&C posts or listening to Counting Crows all day.
 
#630      

TownieMatt

T
CU Expat
Chicago
TownieMatt
drewillini89 said:
The best thing that can happen for this thread is the season to start. We have NO legitimate product to show recruits yet. Last year was a dumpster fire and we're lucky to have gotten rid of the bad players and gotten so many new kids willing to come in and build something. Once recruits see how this year's team is on the court, they'll have something to think about.
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This year's team is going to lose a lot of games, especially early. It's a very young team with a brutal non-conference schedule. I think we'll be better than last year's team by the end of the season, but I think people drinking too much of the Kool-Aid if they think or record this season is going to move the needle much for recruits.
 
#633      

PtownIllini8

P
PtownIllini8
Obelix said:
A couple of assumptions that are not necessarily true. First, you assume that we can outscout and outdevelop players compared to the rest of the upper echelon B1G, which we have really no proof that we can do. Given that BU's own choices in the first year (Alstork, Smith, Ebo, Matic) really washed out, it really puts at least some doubt into that thinking. Furthermore, most of the hopeful positive outlook this coming year is centered more around Ayo (the high ranked star) than some of the hidden gems. Without Ayo? Can you imagine?

The second assumption is that that we are losing highly ranked recruits because of lack of time devoted to them. I do not think that is necessarily true either. We are getting many to visit and show initial interest, but at the end we have not shown the ability to close the deal with them. That will not likely change if we target less of them, it may actually decrease our chances of that star or two.

Our current problem is closing on highly ranked players who give you better chances at improving the talent level that is needed to compete in the B1G. I do not think our problem is getting lower ranked players that we can develop. Most of our Spring recruits would actually fit that category, wouldn't they?
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First of all Vessel and Ebo were late, flyer bigs. Vessel failed and left, Ebo showed promise but strangely left. I don't think their situations put a single bit of doubt into the situation. Smith definitely failed, but is that because the staff didn't help him or is it because he was overrated and might simply not be good enough for P5 hoops? His handles need a major overhaul before he can produce at Mizzou.

You are going to lose recruits, it's the nature of the beast. But the spring haul we made last year made up for losing guys like Conditt. We got highly rated recruits in Coach U's 1st 2 years, unfortunately Smith was one of them and he left to go find a place where he could play PG (did people watch his handles last year???). Hopefully we can sign a well rated big that can compliment the very nice group of PGs and wings we have. One good big could really set us up for success in a year or two.
 
#635      

PtownIllini8

P
PtownIllini8
Second and Chalmers said:
Is speculation not what we do here anymore?

I mean shoot man, maybe we'll get OT, QG, and TSJ and then go out and make the tourney this year. I'm not clairvoyant.
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I'm just noting that you took some major speculation in the 1st place (13th pace) and speculated negatively from there. So it's double level speculation.
 
#637      

PtownIllini8

P
PtownIllini8
Second and Chalmers said:
And Kane and Giorgi and Higgs are what?

And 2019-spring-bigs-to-be-named are what?
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Failing on a flyer big doesn't say much about the staff, those things happen all of the time. Vessel makes the other bigs you noted look like 5 stars.

Who's says were signing any spring '19 bigs?
 
#641      

OrangeNTude

O
OrangeNTude
TheGMan said:
If someone ever makes the argument that the recruitment/signing of Ayo was a negative in any sense, but especially recruiting, they have lost all credibility. Not just with Illinois basketball, but with everything, ever.
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Sure and I'm not in that camp, but there seem to be posters that can consider the recruitment of Ayo negative in at least some sense, and maintain their credibility. Fwiw that doesn't seem to have the effect that you suggest it should. We've had posters saying that it would have been better to get Conditt than Ayo, so maybe that's where the idea came from that someone would list Ayo as a negative.
 
#642      

OrangeNTude

O
OrangeNTude
I went back and found one of the original posts. Quote:

"If we could trade Ayo for Conditt or Castleton right now, that would be a no brainer, despite neither player being as good. "
 
#643      

TheGMan

TheGMan
TheGMan
OrangeNTude said:
Sure and I'm not in that camp, but there seem to be posters that can consider the recruitment of Ayo negative in at least some sense, and maintain their credibility. Fwiw that doesn't seem to have the effect that you suggest it should. We've had posters saying that it would have been better to get Conditt than Ayo, so maybe that's where the idea came from that someone would list Ayo as a negative.
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I wasn't saying that you were arguing that. I bolded that in your original statement that those were merely arguments that could be made. And I can't speak for anyone else, but I was just saying that that hypothetical (or real) person would lose all credibility in my eyes.
 
#644      

Illini Resurgence

Illini Resurgence
Illini Resurgence
TheOlafRules said:
Its gonna be Def Con 1 in here on November 1st if/when Underwood whiffs on OT & TS. And that will be unreasonable. The quick fix isn't going to happen here. Illini Basketball has been too irrelevant for too long. BU is going to need to deliberately build this thing up over a period of years. If he can get to the dance for a couple years in a row with underdog teams, and gets a player or two to the NBA (Ayo, maybe?), then he'll have something solid to sell to Top 50 players. #realitycheck
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I don't believe Defcon 1 is in the cards. We have all become used to mediocre recruiting results over the last 10 years so are prepared for more unhappy results.
 
#645      

Obelix

Obelix
Obelix
tpbradley said:
Us and recruiting.
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#646      

Second and Chalmers

S
Second and Chalmers
Illini Resurgence said:
I don't believe Defcon 1 is in the cards. We have all become used to mediocre recruiting results over the last 10 years so are prepared for more unhappy results.
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Going 0-fer in such a critical recruiting period with such obvious, glaring needs would be pretty shocking.

The thing with last year was not just that Ayo was so good, but also the thought at the time, expressed publicly by BU, was that we had a deep, talented roster that was almost entirely going to return.
 
#647      

Mexi-Ken

M
Mexi-Ken
Obelix said:
A couple of assumptions that are not necessarily true. First, you assume that we can outscout and outdevelop players compared to the rest of the upper echelon B1G, which we have really no proof that we can do. Given that BU's own choices in the first year (Alstork, Smith, Ebo, Matic) really washed out, it really puts at least some doubt into that thinking. Furthermore, most of the hopeful positive outlook this coming year is centered more around Ayo (the high ranked star) than some of the hidden gems. Without Ayo? Can you imagine?

The second assumption is that that we are losing highly ranked recruits because of lack of time devoted to them. I do not think that is necessarily true either. We are getting many to visit and show initial interest, but at the end we have not shown the ability to close the deal with them. That will not likely change if we target less of them, it may actually decrease our chances of that star or two.

Our current problem is closing on highly ranked players who give you better chances at improving the talent level that is needed to compete in the B1G. I do not think our problem is getting lower ranked players that we can develop. Most of our Spring recruits would actually fit that category, wouldn't they?
Click to expand...
You should give this class a chance to compete before you judge them. Tired of Illini fans being so negative!!
 
#649      

NBB1979

NBB1979
UIUCFAN1
Springfield, IL
NBB1979
drewillini89 said:
Putting those OVs to good use!
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I know that we ran out of OV's last spring... does anyone have an update on the current OV situation? I thought someone mentioned that it was a rolling - month by month thing?
 
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