Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread (January-February 2018)

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#2,001      

kuhl84

K
Orlando, FL
kuhl84
EyeoftheIllini said:
Count me in the TJL fan club. I thought it was somewhat humorous that he went from has to play, he is good last year to can't shoot, he's gonna transfer this year. I'd say he's the only player who somewhat consistently gets to the bucket and makes them. I do find it funny when people say "get to the rim" with Lucas though, because most of the layups I see him make I'm not sure how he gets them up there because he's not near the rim. And for all the talk about his poor FT shooting (and, yes, he needs to improve it), Frazier isn't much better but seems to get a pass.
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Not so much the fact he is a lousy FT shooter, but the timing of the misses. Missed front end of 1 & 1 in crunch time which directly led to losses in at least 3 games.

TJL is a good complimentary piece, if he accepts his role. He appears to have accepted that role since he came back from suspension. I expect him to back unless by the grace of God we get Ramey.
 
#2,005      

Joel Goodson

Joel Goodson
respect my decision™
Joel Goodson
kuhl84 said:
Not so much the fact he is a lousy FT shooter, but the timing of the misses. Missed front end of 1 & 1 in crunch time which directly led to losses in at least 3 games.

TJL is a good complimentary piece, if he accepts his role. He appears to have accepted that role since he came back from suspension. I expect him to back unless by the grace of God we get Ramey.
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Spot on.
 
#2,010      

skyIdub

skyIdub
Winged Warrior
skyIdub
Johnny Lawrence said:
It's also possible that he was never even considering leaving and the only place that speculated that he might was Loyalty.
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#2,011      

Deleted member 29907

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Deleted member 29907
Johnny Lawrence said:
It's also possible that he was never even considering leaving and the only place that speculated that he might was Loyalty.
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So true, just observing that the praise seems a bit more pronounced recently and of course, speculating as to why? if the observation is correct.
 
#2,012      

mhuml32

mhuml32
Cincinnati, OH
mhuml32
CAHALL15 said:
It’s pretty easy to put 3 guards and in some cases 4, on the floor at the same time. Having 6 guards on the roster (assuming Ramey comes) means plenty of fresh bodies. BU wants more scores in 7 seconds and to play at that pace and then turn around and play pressure defense will require a lot of bodies. Prior to the start of this season, BU mentioned Mark playing some 4 in the future because of his strength. Having a 6’4-5” guard in Ayo and a 6’3-4” guard in Ramey who averages one less rebound per game than his 4 star power forward teammate, only makes that more possible.
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This has been something I've been thinking about with so many guards being recruited and people responding by believing Underwood will just play more guards, but how would this come to fruition? The current roster, with a very thin frontcourt that everyone has questioned the whole season, seems to suggest that you are already maxing out the available minutes for the backcourt. Black is playing great, but it seems like an easy argument that putting a four-guard lineup around him would be untenable from a rebounding perspective.

Right now, your minute breakdown is the following for your true guards:

2018 Minutes
Frazier: 26.1
Lucas: 20.9
Smith: 19.1

Ramey is going to have to eat into minutes from predominantly either Frazier or Lucas due to height concerns (can't forsee how you could play Frazier, Lucas, and Ramey all at the same time). Let's do a walk through for minutes in 2019. Seems easy to expect Frazier's minutes to go up next year, and we're all hoping that Smith will make a leap forward and demand more minutes, plus he can play a little at the 3 in the right lineups. This is ignoring the comments from a couple posters about Lucas and whether he's caused problems and/or not bought into the team culture, because it can't be substantiated.

2019 Predicted Minutes
Frazier: 32
Lucas: 21
Smith: 25

That would leave 42 minutes for the backcourt to be split among Williams, Ayo, Nichols (partially), and Jordan (partially). As of now, Williams, Nichols, and Jordan are already playing 55 minutes/game. Maybe the answer is whoever in this group takes the next step forward will be eat away at the minutes for the other. Also, for those that might clamor for Ayo (and possibly Ramey) to eat into Tejon's playing time, his stats have shown a leap forward (FG% went from 40% to 47%, FT% improvement, rebounding rate improvement, TO's and assists are roughly the same). If I'm Tejon and I'm expected to take a cut in playing time, I'm looking to transfer.

The only answer for me would be if Illinois was able to bring in a 5th year front court player that is a monster on the boards, Trice commits and is a revelation, or Spicy G takes another step forward (my pick) that eases the pressure of playing a larger player at the 3.



tl;dr: you only have so many minutes to play guards, plus you need to rebound the basketball to be competitive.
 
#2,013      

Illini B-Ball Fan

Illini B-Ball Fan
Illini B-Ball Fan
kuhl84 said:
Not so much the fact he is a lousy FT shooter, but the timing of the misses. Missed front end of 1 & 1 in crunch time which directly led to losses in at least 3 games.

TJL is a good complimentary piece, if he accepts his role. He appears to have accepted that role since he came back from suspension. I expect him to back unless by the grace of God we get Ramey.
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Heard tell he's learning to consistently bank FTs in preparation missing any will not happen again next year. ;)
 
#2,015      

Ga65

G
Ga65
Before the season started it was all about MS and TF was a role player. My only point, is that we can't really project the development. My guess is that DaMonte will be tough to keep out of the lineup next year. He moves like an athlete and is deceivingly quick and has another year to strengthen the acl. MS may make a huge jump and be the player everyone expected this year. Who can even guess what Matic will look like with a summer of Fletch. I am probably in the minority in not believing we don't have the athletes. One additional quick big man will put us in the mix next year. However, we don't have one yet sooo
 
#2,018      

TCTORNADO

TCTORNADO
TCTORNADO
Alonzo Verge with a 51 point game (including 40 in the 2nd half) to break Moberly's school record.
 
#2,020      

Deleted member 175495

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Also been suspended once and held out of the first half of a game this year for breaking team rules. He's registered to come back. Tons of talent but I'm not sure he's going to grow up anytime soon.
 
#2,021      

Deleted member 175495

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Deleted member 175495
Verge is coming back to Moberly for one more year. Or at least he is registered to come back at this time.
 
#2,025      

PlayAZ

P
PlayAZ
peoriabball13 said:
Very interested to see where he ends up playing in division 1 college if at all? Or will he be another Marcus Lovett? Any news on him after St Johns dismissal?? I would like to see both play.
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Lovett has announced I thought that he was going the PRO route, this will be probably an NBA development vs Europe would be my guess?
 
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