Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread

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#677      
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State Arm Center?
 
#678      
So... the Illinois 25-26 roster, as of now, has 12 scholarship players, and up to 15 are allowed. Brad has always said that he wants to keep at least one scholarship open in case of a midseason transfer. (This year, he might also want to keep one open in case Will Riley returns to the Illini.) Those 12 players are as follows:

Z Ivisic
T Ivisik
J Jakstys
B Humrichous
D Mirkovic
A Stojakovic
J Davis
T Rodgers
K Wagler
J Lee
M Petrovic
K Boswell

How many more players will Illinois sign? What positions will they play?
 
#679      
It would be awesome if Illinois could still sign Dame Sarr! But can we afford him? Or perhaps he will be in the 2025 NBA Draft?
 
#681      
Ben H played much better off the
Bench
I would caution ..
don't be hard on him
 
#686      
I would hope both Ivisics don't start as that would increase the chances of both of them getting into foul trouble. Then you have Mirkovic and Ben being your inside presence, which is less than ideal. Bring in big Z when Mirk or Tomi need a rest or get a couple fouls, but try to keep an Ivisic on the floor at all times. And try to have both available at the end of the game. I would only want to see Ben or Ty at the 4 when the match-up is right and an Ivisic is in the game.

As for taking a lot threes, that's how Ty will get most of his points, grabbing missed threes and putting them back in. If we can continue to be a top offensive rebounding team, we can afford to be a fair three point shooting team, just not a bad one.
 
#692      
This should be a separate thread, but I have to add that I was just inducted into my high school sports hall of fame for cross country.
I once played a game of 21 with a couple of brothas from Gary. After not guarding me initially and after I nailed a few threes, one of my opponents shouted to the other “get out there and guard him! That’s Larry Bird!”

I contend that’s the highest compliment a black man can give a white man in the basketball court.
 
#695      
There are a lot of players (other than Sarr or Watkins) still available. The best one I've read about and mentioned on this thread seems to be 6'5" 201-pound PG/SG Luka Bogavac (he's Montenegrin). Playing for SC Derby in the ABA, Bogavac (who turns 22 on Sept. 20th) averaged 14.4/3.7/2.2 while shooting .450/.402/.873 this season.

But I would be happy, as an alternative, if the Illini could add two different players:
6'6" 192-pound Sr. Forward Keonte Jones of Cal State Northridge, 13.1/9.0/4.1 on 50.6/38.2/67.5
6'6" 225-pound Sr. Guard Damari Monsanto of UT San Antonio, 11.1/4.0/1.4 on 40.7/42.0/93.3

I think that K Jones is a tough, athletic SF, one who's a VG rebounder, a solid passer, and a good defender.
D Monsanto might be somewhat of a one-trick pony, but he's an EXCELLENT at that one thing... shooting! He shot 42.0% on 3s last season, and 93.3% on FTs.
 
#696      
One of my 3 offseason wishes granted!

Wish #1: Illini put together a great recruiting class. ALREADY DONE! Anything else is upside!
Wish #2: Stop the "counting" exercise when a new thread is posted. I can almost hear the voice of Dr. Rick from the Progressive commercials saying "Stop. We already know how to count". There is a time and a place for Sesame Street, and I'm not sure this is it.
Wish #3: Stop putting "IC" on the end of every Illini player name. If we get a handful of Russian Players and I start seeing Boswellov or Rodgersov on here, I might need therapy.

It's Monday. I'll choose to focus on Wish #1
658
 
#698      
Massive commitment!!

Here is what happened to the best of my understanding:

Andrej's visit was fantastic. At the end of the visit, he verbally committed to the staff in some form. The staff's read off of it was that an announcement was imminent, but that obviously did not happen. Over the last few days, tons of schools tried to call and pry him off of his verbal to Illinois. Obviously, in this day and age, nothing is official until it's public.

I do think he took the time to think through his options. Might have felt he got caught in the high of his visit, and he did hear other schools out. However, like I said the past few days, not much changed overall in this recruitment. Illinois was always the leader throughout the entire time from the minute he hit the portal.

I think this was a recruitment where certain schools tried to create more buzz/drama that was not really there to get rid of the Illinois momentum.

Brad and OA need to be praised for this one. Prying this kid off of the west coast was no easy feat. Andrej loves the sell that the staff gave to him. The opportunity to play with the Ivisic brothers up front along with two guards like Kylan and Petrovic is going to open up so much for him. He hasn't been able to play with these level of players in college yet.

Peja LOVED Brad from what I heard. That played as big of a deal as any in this recruitment imo.

The staff went away from Sarr once they got word that Andrej was 100% hitting the portal. Sarr's price also played a role in that choice/his NBA interest, but I alluded to the mystery man a couple weeks before he hit the portal. People can say pivot this pivot that etc, but this was one of if not their top target this offseason.

I will go into what they might add in the next post if they add any more, but I think we have a legit top 15 team right now. This team should be way more consistent next year, has lots of talent and size. I think the ceiling will depend on a couple of different guys developing/taking jumps.
 
#699      
Just curious, why would you want Fland? We have a guy who has been playing pro ball in Europe at the same position, is 22 and in line for his conference MVP. Do you want to push him out? All this Boogie stuff is really short sighted to me. Brad has developed a roster that is old, is familiar with the style of play we want to run offensively and has proven success. Also, there has been zero smoke about us and Fland.
Just because he’ll be one of the best guards in the country next year is why we’d be interested- there is mutual interest and OA has been talking with his team- OA recruited him to Kentucky originally. It wouldn’t be pushing out Petrovic just having multiple guards who can handle, pass and shoot, we’re probably a guard short right now to really feel set

Fland is focused on the draft, similar to Watkins, you don’t hear much in their school lists yet but they are both projected 2nd rounders who would make a lot more money going back to college
 
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