Dain has eligibility … But I think he’s staying at Memphis …
Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread
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Dain has eligibility … But I think he’s staying at Memphis …
Portal Target Update:
Andrej … Expectation is he’s an Illini …
Sarr … The money has gotten crazy here … Kentucky, Duke, USC, Oregon, Miami, BYU all involved … We are involved still but I just think it’s trending in the wrong direction for us in terms of being able to land him …
Ace … I continue to hear we should have a decision there sooner rather than later … He’s weighing taking less, coming home and winning vs. Getting a giant bag in his last year of CBB … Tough decision …
Coward … Not sure why he’s still being brought up but we are out … Hearing a lot of Bama & Duke with him but all his top 5 are involved …
Haggerty … We aren’t spending $4 million on one guy so we are out …
Ian Jackson … I’ve heard he’s going to St. John’s …
The staff has reached out to Monsanto & Nate Johnson … But the focus right now is on locking down Andrej … Figuring out if they’re getting Ace … Then filling out the roster … If no Ace then they’ll have more $$$ to play with …
Andrej … Expectation is he’s an Illini …
Sarr … The money has gotten crazy here … Kentucky, Duke, USC, Oregon, Miami, BYU all involved … We are involved still but I just think it’s trending in the wrong direction for us in terms of being able to land him …
Ace … I continue to hear we should have a decision there sooner rather than later … He’s weighing taking less, coming home and winning vs. Getting a giant bag in his last year of CBB … Tough decision …
Coward … Not sure why he’s still being brought up but we are out … Hearing a lot of Bama & Duke with him but all his top 5 are involved …
Haggerty … We aren’t spending $4 million on one guy so we are out …
Ian Jackson … I’ve heard he’s going to St. John’s …
The staff has reached out to Monsanto & Nate Johnson … But the focus right now is on locking down Andrej … Figuring out if they’re getting Ace … Then filling out the roster … If no Ace then they’ll have more $$$ to play with …
I am as well. There is no analytical backup for this but I fully believe he's going to have more of a role than he's getting credit for right now. Him and Tomi are the guys on the returning roster that I feel like really have the chip-on-the-shoulder swagger that our team sorely needed last year. We need dudes with some stank, I'm not as interested in the guru savants to lead our teams to success (and this is coming from a self-identifying spreadsheet guy).
Peja Jr. is officially in the portal. Let's hope this one doesn't drag out too long. We know how that goes. I still think Illinois needs a solid three-point threat in addition to Ace and Andrej, but I can't figure out how tight the NIL funds will be after those two.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Glad to hear he's not winding up getting screwed by his awkwardly timed transfer from Baylor (even though by the letter of the law it seems like he should be done).
It wouldn't seem fair that everyone and their sister is playing for like six years now and Dain would only get 3.01
Good for mom. He can't play basketball all his life. He has a degree from Illinois. He can get a master's from Memphis. He'll be happier with that when he's 35 than the extra few hundred thousand he'd get by transferring.
Davis is not going to be our 10th man.
They are worth what the market says they are, based on what others are willing to pay for them. I don't like it, but it is what it is.No player is worth 4 million, not one of them.
Did you not just post about us making a late, strong push for Coward like 2 hours ago?
1m4tr
Cliffmas
If Duke gets Sarr and Coward with what they have coming in and coming back, then the money game has really destroyed basketball.
He's our starting SG right now! lol
Seriously.
So is a players supposed to say "sorry sir, I know you're about to sign that check for $4 million for me but really I'm not worth that amount"
We're not so far off until we see top kids start to get 8 figure NIL deals.
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Be a lot more than a few hundred thousand …
Number I heard for Dain was $3 million … With multiple programs ready to pony up …
He made money at Memphis this year but not $3 million …
i mean, the AJ/Copper Flagg's of the world I bet made like 7/8.No player is worth 4 million, not one of them.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Boswell, Ace, Andrej, Davis, Mirkovic and fourteen feet's worth of Ivisic is a heck of a lot of three-point threat already.
Passing/ballhandling and depth in the frontcourt are bigger needs.
Duke with much more talent than everyone else, famously something that has never happened before.
yeah because that worked so well for Nico at TN (football so a little different). Some of these players shouldn't even sniff 1 million but continuing to pay these prices will just increase it the following year. I think you can still win with development but nowadays they will just leave for the bag.
1m4tr
Cliffmas
Yep exactly. Is there something about $4m that has crossed the Rubicon? We all thought $2m was crazy last year. Next year it’ll be $6m if we are lucky and $8m if we’re not.
There certainly are a handful of players this year worth $4m. The thing is whether or not one single player is worth 40% of your budget? That’s the rub. If your budget is bigger than $10m, then paying only 20-30% of your budget on one player is more palatable.
hooraybeer
- Peoria, IL
andrej/miller and the offseason is a win imo (assuming coaching changes as well)
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Man, wish I had a time machine to go back in time and tell Illinois boosters to buy a Natty in year one of NIL. Imagine what $10 million back then could have bought you? Probably the entire 1st and 2nd AA teams.
hooraybeer
- Peoria, IL
BYU tried last year, didn’t work
I doubt BYU was even the most expensive roster last year. They certainly weren't paying like 10x what other teams were, which is what $10 million in 2021 would have probably been like.
Wow. That’s one hell of a packed update. Thanks. Get Andrej locked up yesterday. Don’t want that dragging out and 20 schools deciding he’d look good on their roster.
As for Ace, I really feel like he would be an excellent fit for our roster. He can defend, make an open shot, and he has tons of experience. We need all thee of those things.
Hopefully it works out.
It's pretty clear after this year's tournament that "NIL", read Pay for Play, has completely ruined the college game. Mid majors are raided of their top players each season by the Power conference teams; even so, every team is just a collection of non-cohesive parts. The era of Cinderellas in the tournament is over. It leads to terrible basketball being played in general, and that is what we have seen - especially this past season; like watching a full season of AAU. Rinse and repeat each off season with unlimited transfers. Didn't see that coming when NIL was introduced /S /S /S
Thanks for the update - very helpful to simplify things, no need to discuss Jackson, Haggerty, Coward (which we knew we were out on) and even Sarr at this point. You didn't mention Watkins, was that on purpose?
If we're paying Ace 7 figures, he's going to be the starter, we don't have the kind of bag to pay guys 7 figures to come off the bench like Louisville can apparently, but I'm also still holding out hope that we lock in Andrej for something around $2.5M then we theoretically can make a push for another big time SF/SG like Watkins and be a real contender. If we end up with Andrej, Ace and a backup PG, we'll be competitive but clearly a notch down from the top of the big ten
I would think knowing we have Andrej in the fold, to go raise more money for a guy like Watkins to put us in contention next year is an easier sell to donors - is there any hope of that?
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