Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread

[whatahack]

I hate everything

 

[Illini2010-11]

Illini fans dreaming of the Big 3/4 returning next year:

 

[TampaToo]

Seriously? Respectfully, they are not just giving up their beer money.

 

[Zorak]

I'm familiar with your record and have a lot of respect for you, but I absolutely do not believe this one.

 

[pweo]

I can't believe Morez got to the portal before Dra

 

[roger murdock]

Oh and Brad would LOVE to have Ben back … Freaking figures …

Hold on, April Fool’s Day isn’t here yet is it ?

 

[PeoriaIllini03]

Even though your question is likely rhetorical, I can explain: Kids at Purdue seem to genuinely like playing for Matt Painter. It sure isn't because they have a "Bigger NIL Bag" than we do.

Painter is also such a phenomenal coach that he turns mediocre talent that doesn't have the portal/NIL threat into legitimately good basketball players. They can throw the majority of their smaller $$$$ pool at just a few stars to retain them (Edey, Smith, TKR)

 

[Scoregasm]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1905724594537071051

ty rodgers aint staying either

So glad we paid TA for the season.

 

[D1959]

Then share if you know what the ongoing problem is with the basketball program. This happened last year and here we go again there has to be underlying issues.

 

[TheodoreRex]

If they aren't readily willing to give up their money it's because they have doubts about what Underwood is doing with that money...

And if I'm right, that is an indictment on Underwood

 

[SweetLuh]

This had nothing to do with money.

Can you elaborate? Is it the starting Ben? Tyler gripe? He thinks another program can get him more ready for NBA? TA leaving? Or a combo?

 

[aveseaboy]

I had read that before going to class and when I got out this happened…

 

[IlliniJeevs]

With all due respect to Dix/Sandfort/"Big Z" and the like, they aren't going to have the impact Morez will in 25-26.

Tomi-Morez was the building block of this offseason. Whatever order you want to put them, they were #1 and #2 priorities

This is just blatantly incorrect tho. Tomi was the #1 priority, Boswell #2. You can argue between White/Morez for 3. Without Boswell, we have 0 guards who can handle the ball. Without Ivisic, we have no bigs we can rely on to shoot the 3. Morez was always a luxury

 

[Warren Carter Fanclub]

I'm starting to think it's easier for a "student athlete" to change schools than it is for just a plain "student".
The courts have to rethink this mess.

 

[illiniguy24]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1905710330296373373

Someone should put him in touch with Adam Miller’s mom and ask how that worked out

 

[Gregjacksonfan]

But the issue was never Ben vs Morez. By the end of the season Morez was getting essentially starter minutes and Ben was benched to sub 20. Rumors for Ben’s NIL are less than 1/3 of what Morez was getting for the upcoming year. Clearly Brad wanted Morez in his system or he wouldn’t have even extended the NIL offer that they agreed upon last week. The role he was promised was at minimum the one he got this year by the end (which was extremely high for a freshman). Is being an Everyday Guy making more demands than this and portalling if they aren’t met?

This isn’t true. Against Iowa he had 11 minutes. 12minutes against Xavier and 17 vs UK. I don’t think those are starter minutes

 

[OrangeKrush1981]

Illinois gave Morez everything he needed ... and he still decided to leave

Somebody gave Morez what he needed, but that was not the Illini staff.

 

[2X2L]

Can't wait for football. Not indifferent to football.

 

[Todd99]

What aggravates me is when you hear all the talk about “building this program” “developing a culture” “investing resources” “state of the art facilities” None of it seems to mean anything to the players.

I’m not blaming Whitman or the coaching staff explicitly but it all like sounds like hollow talk. Just say “We have no control over any of this and we don’t know what kind of team we will have from year to year. We will try to do our best.”

 

[the national]

Fire Brad.

Good luck Morez.

 

[Illini 993]

Anyone shitting on Brad or anyone in the program over this is stupid. Morez is bailing on the team after being offered a ton of money and a key role. It a doesn’t work out leaving your comfort spot. These kids have some terrible ppl in their ears. He isn’t worth 2 million just to make it clear.

Anyone blindly following any coach, no matter what happens, is stupid.

 

[ILLfated]

So let me get timeline straight:
- Morez commits to Illinois in 8th grade
- As a freshman, he plays quality minutes off the bench, increasing more and more as the season goes on (Similar to our highest rated recruit in program history)
-End of the season clearly shows a priority in usage and trust in Morez from the Illinois staff
-We gave him a competitive NIL offer that he essentially agreed upon and his role would be increased from this year
-His dad convinces him to leave Illinois bc he can be an NBA player at another program + make more money
-Enters portal

I’m struggling to see here what the staff could have done to change this? Sure, playing Ben over him was a mistake in hindsight but nothing at the end of the season indicated it would happen again. NIL wasn’t the issue because he agreed to the NIL deal and I’m sure Illinois wouldn’t have minded paying him ~1 million.

Is the expectation then to pay TA absurd amounts of money to keep him? Let Morez play on the perimeter similar to Ivisic? Change the entire identity of the team to play through him so he can go to the NBA?

None of this points to being an everyday guy and frankly just sounds like his inner circle gave him bad info (Adam miller and Epps).

Morez has been lied to multiple times. Why trust the process?

 

[AirNeazy]

Respectfully, they were prepared to start him and give him seven figures next season after he started a crap ton of games AS A FRESHMAN BIG.

To be fair, just being "prepared to start him" doesn't mean much. Doubt there's many programs in the country where he's not 100% starting next year.

 

[alexander58]

Are you saying they took less than Illinois was offering?

 

[illiniguy24]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1905715033621012635

This is gonna get ugly huh