Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread (January-March 2017)

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#301      
IlliniCards24
WOW. This is better than the first one!

I've been to about 10 of smith's games this year. You start to just get used to how good he has become. I want this kid on the Illini so bad.
 
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#304      
Wittsdream
IlliniCards24 said:
WOW. This is better than the first one!

I've been to about 10 of smith's games this year. You start to just get used to how good he has become. I want this kid on the Illini so bad.
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Read someone's comment posted at the bottom of Henricksen's glowing Sun-Times article two weeks ago suggesting that Smith would be the best player on the current Illini roster, in addition to the best recruit of the 2017 incoming class, were he to commit.

Sounds like hyperbole (considering we have Hill now and Tilmon next year), until you watch game tape of him or, better still, see him in person. I'll stick to my assessment of him as Jamal Murray-lite.

After missing out on Evans, Brunson, Snider and Jackson, landing Smith is a priority for the Illinois basketball program going forward; well, in addition to another fleet footed, 4/5 shot blocker/scorer who can run the floor to complement Tilmon and the stable of guards we'll have that cries out for an up-tempo, run 'n gun offense.
 
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#306      
ILL in IA
Wittsdream said:
After missing out on Evans, Brunson, Snider and Jackson, landing Smith is a priority for the Illinois basketball program going forward; well, in addition to another fleet footed, 4/5 shot blocker/scorer who can run the floor to complement Tilmon and the stable of guards we'll have that cries out for an up-tempo, run 'n gun offense.
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Sounds like a 5th year transfer to me.
 
#307      
Wittsdream
ILL in IA said:
Sounds like a 5th year transfer to me.
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Pretty much! It's really unfortunate that we couldn't have wooed Morrow away from Nebraska 2 yrs ago. He's exactly the kind of 4 we need now, and to have complemented Tilmon in the future. When he held his own against Okafor a few years back in a few games, you just knew he had the mettle to be a warrior in the Big Ten.

He averages 10 pts/8 rebs/1.5 blks/55 FG% in 25 mins of action, and only 2.7 fouls per game. Plays much taller than his listed height of 6-7 and is just an animal on the glass. I just have this feeling he and Leron are going to have a tussle or two when they go head to head.

Alas, if we could add a 5th year transfer capable of giving us this next season, we'll be in business (though I do think Black & Kipper are capable of producing as well):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6IGao_AkHE
 
#308      
Second and Chalmers
Wittsdream said:
It's really unfortunate that we couldn't have wooed Morrow away from Nebraska 2 yrs ago.
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We could have easily wooed Morrow away from Nebraska. We didn't try to.

We were all-in on Elijah Thomas at the time. The view was that ET was a nationally elite superstar talent and Morrow was just a 3-star try hard glorified mid-major guy. They ended up RSCI #40 and #85.

Thomas has already transferred and is chipping in some for Clemson. Morrow is a beast.

Scouting.
 
#310      
JimmyTheLayup
Second and Chalmers said:
We could have easily wooed Morrow away from Nebraska. We didn't try to.



We were all-in on Elijah Thomas at the time. The view was that ET was a nationally elite superstar talent and Morrow was just a 3-star try hard glorified mid-major guy. They ended up RSCI #40 and #85.



Thomas has already transferred and is chipping in some for Clemson. Morrow is a beast.



Scouting.
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Could we have easily wooed Morrow away from Nebraska? I don't think that I need to go over his connections to the Cornhuskers.

I have no idea if we could have or could not have but you have no idea if it could have easily been done or not.
 
#311      
JimmyTheLayup
Second and Chalmers said:
We could have easily wooed Morrow away from Nebraska. We didn't try to.



We were all-in on Elijah Thomas at the time. The view was that ET was a nationally elite superstar talent and Morrow was just a 3-star try hard glorified mid-major guy. They ended up RSCI #40 and #85.



Thomas has already transferred and is chipping in some for Clemson. Morrow is a beast.



Scouting.
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Morrow is also 2/2 so far on foot injuries to the same foot. We've all seen this movie play out before and it usually doesn't end well with basketball players and foot injuries.
 
#312      
Deleted member 10676
Second and Chalmers said:
We could have easily wooed Morrow away from Nebraska. We didn't try to.

We were all-in on Elijah Thomas at the time. The view was that ET was a nationally elite superstar talent and Morrow was just a 3-star try hard glorified mid-major guy. They ended up RSCI #40 and #85.

Thomas has already transferred and is chipping in some for Clemson. Morrow is a beast.

Scouting.
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I think the feeling here and with the staff was that Morrow was just another Leron Black and probably not as good. Whether that will end up being true remains to be seen.
And we did recruit Morrow but I think he was going to Nebby unless something major -- like a bluebood offer -- was happening. Parents graduated from there, lived there, he grew up there, only moved here to play better basketball competition and from a couple articles I read the family couldn't wait to get out of Chi and back to Lincoln.
About Watson -- even though I was one who was asking why weren't we in on him - I understood what this board and many fans would have said had we zeroed in on him and had him commit while we were still in the top 2 or 3 with Brunson and Evans. Groce was in a no-win situation with that one. Hindsight is 20-20. I know because I have it too.
 
#313      
Second and Chalmers
miketherevelator said:
About Watson -- even though I was one who was asking why weren't we in on him - I understood what this board and many fans would have said had we zeroed in on him and had him commit while we were still in the top 2 or 3 with Brunson and Evans. Groce was in a no-win situation with that one. Hindsight is 20-20. I know because I have it too.
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If that's a no-win situation, Illinois Basketball is going to be in multiple no-win situations every single year. You have to have the confidence to do what's best for the program.

The thing with Watson though, it wasn't that we slow played him. We weren't even involved. We didn't even offer a top 100 in-state guy at a position of desperate need who is the half-brother of a former Illini star. It was very bizarre.
 
#314      
TCTORNADO
It's been covered on here numerous times but there was zero chance that Morrow was coming to Illinois. He never visited nor did we offer. Now as has been stated before Watson was another story. I agree with S &C just very bizarre.
 
#315      
Deleted member 10676
Second and Chalmers said:
If that's a no-win situation, Illinois Basketball is going to be in multiple no-win situations every single year. You have to have the confidence to do what's best for the program.

The thing with Watson though, it wasn't that we slow played him. We weren't even involved. We didn't even offer a top 100 in-state guy at a position of desperate need who is the half-brother of a former Illini star. It was very bizarre.
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And Groce must've thought we were very certain to get either Brunson or Evans. Heck, for a night, we all thought we did 'have our point guard' the Saturday night Evans was here.
But I do agree that we should have offered Watson. We would have probably lost him slow-playing him for the other 2 guys but we should have been involved and I thought so at the time. However, I also never thought he'd be as good in college as he'd turned out to be. But with Ash and Rako on that St. Joe's team, he didn't stand out as much as he would have on most other hs teams.
I just went back and looked at the time he committed to Nebraska and there were some people who said we should have been in on him, but mostly it was just 'nice fit' for Nebraska and 'good get'. No real outrage. So I think the fan base had their eyes set higher as well as Groce and staff.
 
#316      
ILL in IA
Someday I would love to know what REALLY went down with Evans. Or maybe I don't want to. Either way, I think he is the pg miss that hurts the most as far as what he would bring to Groce's system and the program. That said I really liked TJL last night and love Frazier next year.
 
#317      
Deleted member 10676
ILL in IA said:
Someday I would love to know what REALLY went down with Evans. Or maybe I don't want to. Either way, I think he is the pg miss that hurts the most as far as what he would bring to Groce's system and the program. That said I really liked TJL last night and love Frazier next year.
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Probably the samo-samo. Between 8:00 and 10:00 on this week's No Shot Clock MOB and Henricksen talk about what really goes down in big time recruitments and kind of laugh at people who think the dark side doesn't exist. Henricksen says he'd love to write a book and that's one book I'd love to read.
http://www.suntimeshighschoolsports.com/2017/01/10/no-shot-clock-ep-51-outside-super-25/
 
#318      
IlliniinIowa
Me too. Evans was 100% Illinois on crystal ball and then he comes and visits and leaves heading to OSU. What in the heck happened?

I know Groce played stupid there for a while going after Evans and Brunson (and most of us knew we had no shot at Brunson with dad leading that recruitment to Villanova), but still wonder if that was the reason Evans soured (quickly) on Illinois (and Groce).

Still to this day I consider Evans the biggest recruiting miss in the Groce era. He would have made the difference in us making the tourney last year (barring injury of course) and made so many other players better.

Still lose sleep over that one....and baffles me what in the heck happened?

ILL in IA said:
Someday I would love to know what REALLY went down with Evans. Or maybe I don't want to. Either way, I think he is the pg miss that hurts the most as far as what he would bring to Groce's system and the program. That said I really liked TJL last night and love Frazier next year.
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#319      
TCTORNADO
#320      
Monte Carlo
I think the "misses" on Morrow and Watson are greatly exaggerated. I am not saying neither would help the team, but I am willing to say in the long run Lucas will be equal or better than Watson and Morrow as not needed, especially with emergence of Kipper at the four with Black. We don't need to find a four to run with Tilmon as an earlier poster said. We will have Black for two more years, along with Kipper for three and Finke for two more. We are fine there.
 
#322      
StateFarmCenter
ILL in IA said:
Someday I would love to know what REALLY went down with Evans. Or maybe I don't want to. Either way, I think he is the pg miss that hurts the most as far as what he would bring to Groce's system and the program. That said I really liked TJL last night and love Frazier next year.
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I remember seeing a video of him courtside at the Thunder game at the time of his commitment. Gave me an idea what I needed to know.
 
#323      
ILL in IA
StateFarmCenter said:
I remember seeing a video of him courtside at the Thunder game at the time of his commitment. Gave me an idea what I needed to know.
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I figured as much. Its the details of it all and the interaction that would be a great read. The all in on the visit only to call the coach and say you had a change of pocketbook. Its a good thing Groce is bald. He would be tearing out hair in bunches with the luck hes had in last minute changes to his recruiting.
 
#324      
CAHALL15
IlliniinIowa said:
Me too. Evans was 100% Illinois on crystal ball and then he comes and visits and leaves heading to OSU. What in the heck happened?

I know Groce played stupid there for a while going after Evans and Brunson (and most of us knew we had no shot at Brunson with dad leading that recruitment to Villanova), but still wonder if that was the reason Evans soured (quickly) on Illinois (and Groce).

Still to this day I consider Evans the biggest recruiting miss in the Groce era. He would have made the difference in us making the tourney last year (barring injury of course) and made so many other players better.

Still lose sleep over that one....and baffles me what in the heck happened?
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That's up there and we sure did seem to be in the driver seat. The signing day flip of Snider hurt as did Jackson going to ND after the alleged silent verbal. We digress, though. This thread is about current recruits.
 
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