No, Myers was awful as a freshmen. People have this revisionist history of his play that year. He fouled a lot, turned it over and wasn't ready to play inside with the big guys. He went to some big man camp in the off season and that seemed to make a huge difference for him the following season.
Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread (July-August 2016)
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No, Myers was awful as a freshmen. People have this revisionist history of his play that year. He fouled a lot, turned it over and wasn't ready to play inside with the big guys. He went to some big man camp in the off season and that seemed to make a huge difference for him the following season.
Nowhere close? With the way our roster is looking a long 6'9" athlete could find himself some tick in the front court
He could be rawer than raw, he's still getting some tick to relieve Tilmon. Also wouldn't be shocked if he's more polished than some here make him out to be.
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Nowhere close? With the way our roster is looking a long 6'9" athlete could find himself some tick in the front court
You know who was a long athlete as a true freshman, and at a position which is easier on young players? Joe Bertrand.
But Bertrand wasn't a basketball player yet, so he didn't play, even though he was the most explosive guy on the team.
I see some of the same wildness and lack of body control and sense of space on the floor in Kiir that was once true of Bertrand.
That Matt Chastain kid we were all aflutter about a few months ago would be another example. Just a pogo stick let loose upon 1A basketball.
Put the best athlete in the world out there on a Big Ten floor, if he's not an airtight, rock-solid, instincts-firing BASKETBALL PLAYER, he is going to get exposed very very quickly.
If you play him & Tisdale together, then you sit Davis and/or Richmond who was more ready as a freshman. If he isn't better than Tisdale and he wasn't, then he didn't need more minutes. He also was a bit of a defensive liability that fouled at a fairly high rate. Practically, if you look at foul rate 50 fouls in 272 minute...he would foul out in an average 27 minutes/game.
http://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/schools/illinois/2011.html
Wildness, lack of body control, sense of space on the floor, you name it...look at our roster. Look at our front court.
Regardless, Kiir isn't a big wild project. He has areas for improvement, but he's got a motor and some focus to go with that size/athleticism. That'll do for a freshman big in 2017. And disclaimer, I'm not 100% positive this is completely accurate but as of Aug 1 Kiir stood 3rd for national rebound leaders behind D'Andre Ayton & Reggie Perry. He'd serve a great purpose as a true freshman here.
Black, Finke, Mav and Thorne are no bones about it basketball players. Black is a fouler and Finke's confidence comes and goes, but all four of those guys have a fully realized game out there.
I'm going based on YouTube videos, maybe our coaching staff feels differently, but Kiir's rawness jumps off the screen for me from what I've seen.
But we lose both Mav and Thorne next year. Kiir would be a nice piece to backup Tilmon so that we can keep Black and Finke at their natural position (the 4). He doesn't have to do a whole lot, rebound and play hard on defense and he will be more than serviceable as a backup his freshman year.
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My point is two of those no bones about it basketball players won't be here. That leaves Finke and Black. Do you want Finke playing the 5? Because I don't. What if the fouler fouls? You may have to throw a raw freshman big into the fire and spell some minutes. You can do worse than Kiir, he's not tremendously far at all from being a basketball player.
BananaShampoo
Captain 'Paign
- Phoenix, AZ
Hey, just like his former coach and mentor! Go figure. [emoji6]
I would rather Black play the 5 then Finke, He is much more of an inside player. He has always made me think of a less athletic Lowell. that being said I would to Get Kiir and another big like Victor U or Epps. I would love to ask JG if he could pick a team to coach would he rather have the 84 team with a healthy Welch, the 89 team or the 05 guys. all very very good teams but all built very different
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FrhTz0xvgk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Bn8WvpAqrs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCpiwFmKlDs
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This is why you get a 5th year guy. Even if he's a 6'10" Khalid Lewis.
Tilmon is ready to play, he's your 5 (assuming he qualifies). But there are plenty more minutes to soak up.
Not singling you (or anyone else) out, specifically, but it seems that when Alford is addressed, no one mentions that he coached at a P5 school before he ended up at UNM. I know that the semantics may say that the P5 didn't exist "back then" (look at the strength of the teams in the conference when he was coaching the Sqwaks), but the Sqwakeyes are in a P5 conference and have been a strong basketball team for quite some time. It's not like he shot out of D3, SWMS, UNM, and ended up at UCLA. He was coaching in the BIG and ended up at UNM (for whatever the underlying issues were at the time...). IMHO, he under-performed at Iowa (both on and off the court) and ran to UNM to redeem himself...but it isn't like his first "big time job" is the UCLA gig he holds currently...
OK...hate Alford, rant over....
This was kinda my point as well. Alford never finished higher then tied for second in conference before going to New Mexico and his NCAA record was terrible as well save for one Sweet 16 appearance 18 years ago. I guess his reputation as a player has a lot to do with that but you could say the same to a lesser extent about Ford as well then.
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Evan Daniels @EvanDaniels 1h1 hour ago Kentucky, USA Top 100 recruit Jermaine Samuels begins his official visit to Villanova this evening.
Could determine how Justin Smith stands with 'Nova, even though I still think we're so far down the pole on Smith, this won't matter. But -- surprise, surprise -- Xavier appears to be leading for Samuels. ("Why don't we just give Xavier ALL the players" -- in my best Rosie Perez voice.)
http://247sports.com/Player/Jermaine-Samuels-68278
Could determine how Justin Smith stands with 'Nova, even though I still think we're so far down the pole on Smith, this won't matter. But -- surprise, surprise -- Xavier appears to be leading for Samuels. ("Why don't we just give Xavier ALL the players" -- in my best Rosie Perez voice.)
http://247sports.com/Player/Jermaine-Samuels-68278
That's a definite possibility. Another Sam M wouldn't be a bad thing to back up Tilmon. As opposed to another true freshman obviously. But I don't know what Groces plans are on that matter. May come down to if we actually manage to land Kiir and or Wilkes. We could get one or the other and take a 5th year.
For position balance I think we need two more bigs. Two can be Freshemen to give us a total of 3 Freshmen bigs. Or we can get another freshmen (Kir, Epperson, Ully) and a 5th year transfer.
We need to provide back up for our bigs if they get injured or in foul trouble. Both scenarios occured last couple of years and don't want to go through that again.
We need to provide back up for our bigs if they get injured or in foul trouble. Both scenarios occured last couple of years and don't want to go through that again.
Joel Goodson
- how was I to know, she was with the Russians too?
Would love to get 2 more bigs (real bigs). But convincing a 2nd prep or a 5th year transfer is going to be very difficult. Not much early playing time for the former, not a lot of minutes (~15) for the latter.
Not sure this matters as we are behind both X and Nova on JS's wish list.
Even with 1000 college free agents to choose from, that player may not exist. And if he does, you still have to sell him on the opportunity that exists. Lewis had the chance to start. This player would clearly be a backup for his final season.
In many ways his game reminds me of Leron at the same stage. I imagine most of his numbers freshman year will come via rebounds and fouls.
Austin Torres may be available.
Nowhere close? With the way our roster is looking a long 6'9" athlete could find himself some tick in the front court
He could be rawer than raw, he's still getting some tick to relieve Tilmon. Also wouldn't be shocked if he's more polished than some here make him out to be.
Absolutely he would get some tick. No, he's not going to be ready to start, but this isn't an all or nothing thing. 10-12 mpg would be my prediction for him as a FR (mostly backing up Tilmon). As mentioned before, Tilmon won't play 40 mpg, or even 30. Buy guys get tired easier. And FR big guys tend to foul more.
That would be nice, but realistically, we'll be lucky to get just one of those guys. If Groce is able to convince two of them to come here to join our four commits, he's quite the salesman.
Joel Goodson
- how was I to know, she was with the Russians too?
Not funny (but clever).
MrOizo
- Chicago
Nah, the kid's opinions don't matter much in Chicago. The power brokers will not be impressed by success in Champaign. Only one way to increase recruiting success in Chicago.
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