TheFameProtector
- Champaign
Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread (Week of April 1st, 2021)
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60 percent of the time it works, every time.First 98% of your post...
Last little bit...
It could be an almost entirely different team, and we don’t know who’s going to be on it. Kinda hard to make predictions.
Well at this point not only recruiting is fluid but rosters are also fluid. So we are 100% sure we don’t know.
I think we do know that if Kofi goes, and at his age there’s not much reason to stay, we’re going to have major roster problems. I think our future hinged on the continued development of the Curbello/Miller tandem, and that’s off the table now, too.
At the beginning of this season, we seemed to be at an apex from which we’d have to rebuild. But, with Miller in the portal the rebuild looks harder than expected, and the apex turns out to have been a second-round upset. Job had it rough, but at least he wasn’t an Illini fan!
Certainly we can be optimistic about the fit for Payne in the “House of paign”.
Joel Goodson
- respect my decision™
Impossible to forecast until we know who's on the team. I do think the situation is a lot less dire than you do.
Particularly because this type of roster rebuild seems to be more the norm in college bball these days.
Joel Goodson
- respect my decision™
Yeah, we're certainly not an anomaly. Tons of programs in flux.
I agree that if everything goes right we could be good next year, but I also think that’s true for every team in every league of every sport. Realistically, I see us losing more production than we gain. Unless Kofi returns, of course.
Joel Goodson
- respect my decision™
Believe me, I have no interest in further debating the merits of Adam Miller's game. He's a good-VG high major player, with upside. But he's hardly irreplaceable. There are guys out there that are arguably just as good. Hopefully, we snag one.
This. Also, if you replace a guy with a player who doesn’t have people in his ear and he and those around him understand the role and fit, it’s all the better. Ace seemed like a GREAT teammate, but kids are human. If my mom/dad/influencer was upset at how I was being utilized when I played and making it known notwithstanding any team success, it would affect me (and by extension the team) negatively.
What I see in Franklin is a guy that managed to shoot really well from deep on decent volume in one of the most dumpster fire offenses in the B10 that stands a legit 6’4”. Sign me up, because that’s who needs to be Curbelo’s wing man in the back court.
Their will be plenty of players with talent replacing Miller And Trent and Damonte. Replacing Ayo will be tough. But can be done by committee. Replacing Kofi is a different type of problem (Let’s hope he stays one more year). However even their we go a different style of play to match our personal
Miller finished the season on Torvik as the #73 rated player in the BIG. A couple of players on both sides.....Gabe Kalscheur, Trey McGowens, Chase Audige, and Jonathon Davis, hardly all conference guys or even close. BTW, Franklin was #53.
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TheFameProtector
- Champaign
This Final Four is emblematic of this new era. Mulitple teams with some of their own recruits and some very productive transfers -- Baylor at the far end of that spectrum. It is even more important to have a culture and system in which players can thrive and make Juzang-like leaps or buy in to smaller but really important roles like a Nembhard/Flagler. We've made a lot of progress on the culture part and some of our development stories of late have been really, really good for future recruiting (Kofi's development is probably the main reason Payne is coming here). A deeper tourney run would've been nice too, but either way, time to see how sustainable this staff's culture building can be with potentially massive turnover.
sacraig
- The desert
He was a freshman. You're acting like he was going to stay at that spot next year, when in reality, freshmen generally improve quite a bit.
You have to compare his projected value over the rest of his career compared to any replacement, which is obviously much more difficult to do. But it's safe to say Miller would have most likely improved and has an extremely high upside (possibly NBA). Let's not pretend it's a minor loss.
TheFameProtector
- Champaign
Yes but, as it's already been said, it's not about what he did but what he's capable of doing. If we're grading that way I think it's worth including what Franklin's rating was after his freshman campaign. It's not unrealistic to expect Miller to vastly outperform what he did as a freshman, just as Franklin did.
That said, I was looking at his numbers on the EYBL circuit and they were only slightly better in efficiency than his freshman campaign (sub 40% fg, for instance). It's entirely possible that these numbers are emblematic of what he is against better competition (not that defense is that high of a priority on EYBL), a gunner that is really talented but who also has 5-10% of his shots/game that are of questionable selection.
Miller is a classic high ceiling, low floor guy. I could see him showing out and being a first round draft pick, or I could see him being a better version of JCL. I guess we'll see what he can do/be, just not in an IL jersey.
Agree in general... I think with all the power 5 shuffles, it will come down to which team has best processes and systems to rapidly integrate pieces .
I'm most worried about losing our player mentors. The veteran mentors have been critical for Curbelo and AM to get up to speed...TF, DMW and even Tyler to name a few.
We will lose alot more than stats when our veterans move on.
Nappy I_L_L
- Northern Indiana
Exactly. Thank you for pointing this out. Armaan would be an amazing get, and let's be honest, Ace was a disappointment this year. Disclaimer: he's a freshmen and will improve, but Belo was better this year, at least more fun to watch. Armaan is proven and put up more efficient numbers this year.
Just like to keep the efficiency numbers in their proper place and eliminate all the conjecture. IL is famous for conjecture.
Tacomallini
- Washington State
Ace was a disappointment this year? He didn’t come to the same team that Trent or Ayo came to when they were freshmen. Illini were pretty loaded this year. Dude started. Lockdown D. Averaged just shy of of 10 pts. a game. He or his camp might’ve been disappointed in his role, but he was not a disappointment.
Ace was not a disappointment this year.
Yep. Started as a freshman and put up almost 10 ppg on a team with two All Americans. His people may have had higher expectations, but I thought he had very good freshman year.
If we had those pieces we would be better, on paper, than this year's team. Potentially, that team is much harder to guard.
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