Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread

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#101      

TheDudeAbides

TheDudeAbides
TheDudeAbides
GoodePodzMelendez said:
I disagree, I would put Skyy,a soph RJ, soph Goode, a year older Hawk and Dain and those 5 would beat last years starters, We did not have a good record against teams who are long and athletic. I feel Brad would only need to land one solid transfer (shooting guard) and a grad transfer 5. We will be the deepest team in the conference and a top 10 starting the season.
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At the end of the year that group you mentioned minus Sky was giving the starters all they could handle in practice
 
#102      

Illini808

I
Illini808
idoc13 said:
I like Melendez and I think he showed potential. But, we are talking about a player who averaged 3.8 points, 1.7 rebounds and 0.7 assists last season...

If he is our best player this year, it’s gonna be a rough year.
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i am biased but i see it in Rj. I don't think he will be our BEST player (at least not every night) but even if he is, we wont be bad by any means
 
#104      

Illini808

I
Illini808
DB11Headband said:
What was Trent bringing to the table by tournament time? Love everything he meant to the program the last 5 years but he was <50% and out of gas come March, we just had no other option. I can assure you Skyy/Jayden combo will outperform end-of-season Trent. And I’m willing to bet that duo will equal Trent’s (offensive) production.

RJ>Plummer (all around). And it’s not remotely close.

Ty>Damonte-today, yesterday, last month. But Ty will not be starting.

Your Coleman and Dain takes are obviously valid, but that will not be your starting frontcourt come November.
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if coleman isn't starting, it better be someone legit
 
#105      

jamarvelous31

jamarvelous31
jamarvelous31
DB11Headband said:
Stopped reading after this. Some of the takes on here are getting absolutely absurd.
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3 things:
-He said he wasn't going to argue something...and then did.
-Imagine if we had a Soph Miller or if Hawkins hit wide open 3s...Alfonso and Trent might have had more than 3 good arms and eyes between them.
-Last year's team one 1 of 18 conference championships UI has won in 118 years and somehow there's folks on here that act like last year's team was a failure.
 
#106      

illini0440

illini0440
illini0440
Brad errored on the side of caution last year playing Monte. 5th year guy he trusts more than anyone not named Trent. A guy he knew understood his role and the scouting reports each game in and out. Right or wrong that’s just how it was. You don’t win the B1G without Monte last year….RJ sitting behind Monte doesn’t mean he’s less talented than Monte. It’s not black and white like that.
 
#108      

Illini808

I
Illini808
Joseph Kerr said:
Frazier did not have a great last two years as he was wasted in playing a different role than we needed for him to really be in (his defense perfect, just not the scorer consistently(a little over 11 per game, 39.7%). Skyy could be more natural where he is at and with his talent, do exactly what we would need and ask of him - uptempo, shots in 7 seconds, dude can pass and score, how is his D as a freshman.

Plummer gave us points from three, our second best scorer, but a weakness on D. He turned the ball over about the same as he did assists, and he would have a big game and then meh. Whoever comes in will have to replace the 3 point shot, ft % and only needs to improve the points to points given up per game. I think Goode can be an Altenberger shooter when used and I think using rotation in the 2 and 3 slots will pick up the offense as Sencire will surprise people. If we get 9 to 11 from this position.

Hawkins hopefully goes from 5.9 to say 11 since we aren't stuffing in into the middle 90 percent of the time, and get his 6 points from his back up?

Demonte, 3.9 points per game on full game minutes. This is where we need to gain on offense. Using Hawkins, Ty, Sencire, RJ, Goode, we should pick up points to cover.....

Kofi, this is where the committee has to score more, faster and I think Dain will give us double digits, but if you realize that the backups at center averaged 4 points a game, there is some ground that can be gained there. I think Dain will be a better defender than Kofi. Kofi had some monster blocks but didn't average a lot of them, nor did he have the footwork to not be exploited, Dain and Hawkins and Verdunk do. My opinion.

Nothing against last years group, but they were not consistent night in and night out and still managed to win the B10. I really think we will score easier and have more options, not lose as much on substitutions, and we will finally have some size where we can win on mismatches and not have them beat us based on exploited size or weakness. Would I like an experienced scorer? Sure would be nice to add one in the portal, but this team is starting it's journey young, would you settle for one good year and a national championship in year 2 or 3 or just make the tournament and then get exploited because we couldn't play with the size and speed of a non-Big 10 foe? I can take the heat for my opinion, It's a dog eat dog world and I'm wearing milkbone underwear.
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i agree with the damonte take, our offensive gain should be large. but, as much as I love coleman, I wouldn't expect hi to double his scoring. I expect him to start and average roughly 9p,6r,3a... his role will never be to score in bunches for us
 
#109      

Joseph Kerr

Joseph Kerr
Fort Wayne, IN
Joseph Kerr
Illini808 said:
i agree with the damonte take, our offensive gain should be large. but, as much as I love coleman, I wouldn't expect hi to double his scoring. I expect him to start and average roughly 9p,6r,3a... his role will never be to score in bunches for us
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I agree, but Hawkins is a garbage eater around the basket with put backs and I think with more minutes, the more opportunities, what's a few points between friends lol
 
#111      

Frank

Frank
Frank
idoc13 said:
I like Melendez and I think he showed potential. But, we are talking about a player who averaged 3.8 points, 1.7 rebounds and 0.7 assists last season...

If he is our best player this year, it’s gonna be a rough year.
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Or it won't be. Fact is nobody has any idea what will happen if RJ ends up as our best player. You're projecting minimal improvement, others are projecting linear improvement with more minutes. At this point, given the lack of vets, this whole discussion comes down to whether you tends towards optimism vs. pessimism when confronted with the unknown.
 
#112      

jjniner

J
jjniner
My thoughts.. younger, more athletic, which means a ton. Floor on the offensive end will be more spread out with a ton of space for the slashers. Also more athletic and deeper means picking up intensity on defense all 94 feet. Which will hopefully create more easy buckets. We still will need to knock down some 20 footers to keep defense honest. I for one am very excited about next year. We seemed to fall in the trap of trying to get it to Kofi and then firing up a long distance 3 ball. With Kofi drawing so much attention the lanes were always jammed up.
 
#113      

Brosky

B
Brosky
Frank said:
Or it won't be. Fact is nobody has any idea what will happen if RJ ends up as our best player. You're projecting minimal improvement, others are projecting linear improvement with more minutes. At this point, given the lack of vets, this whole discussion comes down to whether you tends towards optimism vs. pessimism when confronted with the unknown.
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Sophomores Goode and Melendez could well have soph breakout years. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me. And I think Dainja could play the 5 well and stretch it. Videos of him show a solid mid-range jump shot and even knocking down some threes.
 
#114      

jamarvelous31

jamarvelous31
jamarvelous31
jamarvelous31 said:
3 things:
-He said he wasn't going to argue something...and then did.
-Imagine if we had a Soph Miller or if Hawkins hit wide open 3s...Alfonso and Trent might have had more than 3 good arms and eyes between them.
-Last year's team one 1 of 18 conference championships UI has won in 118 years and somehow there's folks on here that act like last year's team was a failure.
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cringes at "one"
 
#120      

illini55

illini55
The Villages, FL
illini55
illini0440 said:
I’d argue we’re gonna be more talented and versatile next year…..
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If we are more talented and versatile than our Big Ten champs THE FIGHTING ILLINI, looks like yet another championship is on the way! Is it too early to celebrate? I don’t want to be late to the party.
 
#121      

HailtotheChief

H
HailtotheChief
idoc13 said:
I like Melendez and I think he showed potential. But, we are talking about a player who averaged 3.8 points, 1.7 rebounds and 0.7 assists last season...

If he is our best player this year, it’s gonna be a rough year.
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I would not assume that. He has not had much of an opportunity. We really don't know what to expect. I would argue we are getting more athletic pro type players even still and regardless of points last year that he had over the season. Why not look at what he did when he played and his productivity per minute for example. Plus it's pretty obvious we should be more athletic and likely have players with more NBA type of potential. We clearly need some experience but don't write of the skill and athletic ability of our current sophomores and incoming class either. Even now outside of the 5 spot I personally we have much more potential next year than we did last season. It may take losing a few games early but we will be better in March at least at the 1,through 4 spot. Kofi will be hard to replace for sure. We had a good team last year but unfortunately most likely none of them are NBA. type players at least for a few years. We have guys next year that when they leave the will have a much higher chance of making it plus I would not write off that we could easily add one or even two more starters in the portal
 
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#125      

Future Insider

F
Future Insider
illini0440 said:
Brad errored on the side of caution last year playing Monte. 5th year guy he trusts more than anyone not named Trent. A guy he knew understood his role and the scouting reports each game in and out. Right or wrong that’s just how it was. You don’t win the B1G without Monte last year….RJ sitting behind Monte doesn’t mean he’s less talented than Monte. It’s not black and white like that.
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Some can talk about Monte lack of scoring or being undersized for his position but there isn’t 1 coach in the BIG10 who wouldn’t have loved the opportunity to coach him. Complete Pit Bull of a player who wouldn’t think twice of ripping your heart out of your chest. Seen them practice a handful of times and he always brought it in practice. Like any Coach says “ You will play like you practice “.
 
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