I don't recall when he took those two but I believe he had a lot of spots to fill and little time to do it. Where the program is now vs then is completely different. Personally I don't feel BU would add those two nowdays. Jakstys may not be elite but he seems to have more potential for growth than Leib or Hamlin. He may not even take Giorgi Bezhanishvili out of high school nowdays.
Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread
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drsmitty74
- Rochester
IMO only, I feel the Hamlin signing was a favor to the Alexanders (Geoff and Neil). Hamlin was a Lincoln, IL product.
Perhaps, but Underwood clearly likes “development” slots. Most of which (all?) haven’t panned out. Might be better to view them as better warm bodies than walk ons in practice
uhhh, strongly disagree with you there. Freeman averaged 18 and 9 and shot 71% from the field on a State Champion team. He's also listed at 220 vs Jakstys 185. Not to mention Freeman was offered by most of the Big Ten vs Jakstys having only us.
Jakstys is the type of player that we have turned our nose up and ends up signing with Wisconsin and becoming a star
Freeman was ranked composite #178 on 247, a 3 star and the 36th best PF in the class.
Jaktsys is UR, but will very likely be ranked in that same 150-200 range, is considered a 3 star on 247 and the 48th best PF in his class before this productive summer as a junior.
Have you seen Freeman play? He is pretty passive, and does not have the ball skills that Jakstys has. Both average athletically.
Neither is probably ever a P5 starter in any system.
Certainly Freeman could develop as Iowa does a very good job (objectively better than Illinois) of developing players especially offensively.
Just my opinion, but will take Jakstsys all day as far as 4 year developmental big.
I wonder if Brad takes Giorgi now..probably not?
Program was in a much different place.
The Galloping Ghost
- Washington, DC
I find it interesting we're having this much of a discussion about Jakstys. It really goes to show how quiet we've been this summer. Right now, we have a lot of spots opening up next year and only one freshman coming in. Now that freshman is an absolute stud that we all could not be more excited for, but I have to assume most of us are expecting someone else, if not several someones to be coming with him. A currently unranked prospect isn't necessarily what you'd expect to be filling those holes. Now, I know, we are in get old and stay old mode, but man, that's really trusting our fate to a portal that hasn't exactly worked out perfectly for us this off-season. I don't know. It feels like we might be overcorrecting after what happened this past season.
He probably would. Giorgi always had legit talent and is a solid pro.
Sure of course you take Giorgi knowing what he became but if you eliminate that from the equation he's not at all a guy you immediately take.
As far as personality goes. Giorgi Bezhanishvili is likely my favorite player in the last 50 years.
Lieb helped us win a couple games, I'm glad we had him for those games.
Can't expect too much from the end of the bench guys
I hope BU can find a last minute PG that can play a little for our last ride.
If it comes in Jan, that's OK, too
Pretty sure Brad realized he not only had the size, versatility and talent to potentially be a solid big ten player but also the *exact* kind of character he looks for in guys. Either way this is a dumb rabbit hole I will be pursuing no further lol
This is where I am. I strongly believe you need to prioritize recruiting and developing hs players at least as much as getting experienced players in the portal.
Now, I'll play devils advocate to myself and say that 8/16 S16 teams returned less than 50% of their minutes last year, including the eventual champ.
But 6/8 E8 and 3/4 FF teams returned 50% or more.
So, you can frame last year's results to support either argument but for now, I'm sticking with what we know to be true historically - the teams who return the most minutes tend to improve more YoY than those who are rebuilding/reloading.
We were also desperate for bigs at the time. hard to tell the difference between the only/best available and truly thinking he would be a great fit.
They’re pushing the gas for him hard … But I wouldn’t count on anything … Will be in the fight though …
If we would’ve taken Jeremy … Jeremiah would have come without a doubt …
Expect the P5 offers to start rolling in a little bit for Phoenix Gill … Iowa State, Arizona State, Xavier, Michigan State, Ohio State all showing extreme interest …
Don’t know how many will really push the gas … They all know where he’s probably going to end up …
Don’t know how many will really push the gas … They all know where he’s probably going to end up …
Plus he could Dance!
Yea if PG should wind up going to another school other than Illinois....I would think that would be one of the biggest misses in Illini recruiting history
yes, I watched both games in the State Tournament. He's much more fluid and powerful than Jakstys. He had 10 and 8 and 17 and 9 in the title game. He looked like a pretty good player to me, had some range and pretty strong in the paint. He also reached down and just ripped his jersey in 2 through the neck, which I found quite strange but was rather impressed at the strength too.
Neither is/was rated terribly highly, but I'll take Freeman's offer list in addition to Illinois of Iowa, Wisconsin, Ohio State, Indiana, Michigan State, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Marquette, Purdue, etc. Whether all of those were committable or not, it still beats Jakstys list of: Illinois State, Indiana State, Drake, Lehigh, Penn, and St Thomas. Jakstys still has time to get offers, but we're mid July now. The AAU season will be winding down soon.
I bet Kofi would say Giorgi Bezhanishvili is Amazinggggg!
Joel Goodson
- ties will be resolved
if it's who's better at 18, you're right. but if it's who's better at 20-21, I think that it's far from resolved.
Add back in the equation that Kofi came partly because he liked Giorgi so...
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