Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread

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#26      
BDMAN
Excellent read in the News Gazette by ex-Illini Chris Gandy on the current state of recruiting at the national and state level. Also, what it means to be that kid from Illinois to get a full ride scholarship and don the O&B at the beloved and how it hits differently...ILL :illinois:

:hailtotheorange:

www.news-gazette.com

Illini Insider | 'I’d be lying if I said it doesn’t hit me differently'

The latest former Illini to answer our call for thoughts on Brad Underwood’s international roster rebuild: Bradley-Bourbonnais product Chris Gandy, who started 61 games for ’90s teams coached by Lou
www.news-gazette.com www.news-gazette.com
 
#27      
redwingillini11
NarrowJ said:
Stuff to update, yay

F Ivan Juric (Wichita, KS) commits to Penn State
C Aleksas Bieliauskas (Lithuania) commits to Wisconsin

docs.google.com

B1G Roster Tracker

docs.google.com docs.google.com
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Angry Vin Diesel GIF by Fast & Furious
 
#30      
NarrowJ
HereSoIDontGetFined said:
Dame Sarr still isn't committed anywhere?
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From what I had read various places, info coming from people who would have some reasonable way of knowing (if only via premium subs to beat writer content, I mean who knows), Sarr's agent raised the sticker price nearly every time Illinois had a conversation with him.

Originally they were talking in the $1.25 to $1.5 M range. Duke got involved. Oregon got involved. Miami got involved. Couple others too. Agent also used the NBA Draft as leverage when he started getting rotation minutes for Barc A team (i.e., we will stay out of the draft if you commit to paying us this number right now, etc etc). At some point his agent was asking nearly $4 M (I also understand we had given up long before the number got there).

Illinois took Andrej, Duke took Coward, Oregon took on Simpkins & Pryor (although they still may be involved, not sure), Miami got Allen & Malovec. Then it's become clearer that Sarr isn't going in this year's draft, he isn't welcome back with Barcelona, so on and so forth.

Given how this seems to have played out, have to imagine his entire camp is in absolute shambles right now lol.
 
#31      
the juiceman cometh
NarrowJ said:
From what I had read various places, info coming from people who would have some reasonable way of knowing (if only via premium subs to beat writer content, I mean who knows), Sarr's agent raised the sticker price nearly every time Illinois had a conversation with him.

Originally they were talking in the $1.25 to $1.5 M range. Duke got involved. Oregon got involved. Miami got involved. Couple others too. Agent also used the NBA Draft as leverage when he started getting rotation minutes for Barc A team (i.e., we will stay out of the draft if you commit to paying us this number right now, etc etc). At some point his agent was asking nearly $4 M (I also understand we had given up long before the number got there).

Illinois took Andrej, Duke took Coward, Oregon took on Simpkins & Pryor (although they still may be involved, not sure), Miami got Allen & Malovec. Then it's become clearer that Sarr isn't going in this year's draft, he isn't welcome back with Barcelona, so on and so forth.

Given how this seems to have played out, have to imagine his entire camp is in absolute shambles right now lol.
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IDK, this seems kind of like revenge-fantasy more than anything. I am sure he will be fine. Kansas is still involved and the guy is super-talented, someone is going to give him a lot of money to play basketball. If he strikes out on college programs (which he won't), and Barcelona won't have him back, his agent will be on the phone to Real Madrid, Fenerbahce, Olympiacos, and a host of other top Euroleague clubs to see who wants him on a one-year deal. He probably won't get $4 million but I'd be kind of surprised if he didn't get more than what we were initially offering him.

Also, Coward might well stay in the draft, so I wouldn't be surprised to see Duke get back in.
 
#32      
NarrowJ
the juiceman cometh said:
IDK, this seems kind of like revenge-fantasy more than anything. I am sure he will be fine. Kansas is still involved and the guy is super-talented, someone is going to give him a lot of money to play basketball. If he strikes out on college programs (which he won't), and Barcelona won't have him back, his agent will be on the phone to Real Madrid, Fenerbahce, Olympiacos, and a host of other top Euroleague clubs to see who wants him on a one-year deal. He probably won't get $4 million but I'd be kind of surprised if he didn't get more than what we were initially offering him.
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May be a little revenge-fantasy here for sure, but they were asking almost $4M at one point and seems Kansas is going to get him for about half of that.
 
#34      
NarrowJ
the juiceman cometh said:
Sure, but that's still more than what we were offering. So if the whole point was to get more money, then they did fine.
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Pretty sure we were involved up until Miami came in. We went significantly higher than $2M from what I understand.

He could've gotten upwards of $3M from Oregon/Miami and now he's going to Kansas for ~$2M so they certainly got the shaft if what I've gathered is correct (big if).
 
#35      
JKR
BDMAN said:
Excellent read in the News Gazette by ex-Illini Chris Gandy on the current state of recruiting at the national and state level. Also, what it means to be that kid from Illinois to get a full ride scholarship and don the O&B at the beloved and how it hits differently...ILL :illinois:

:hailtotheorange:

www.news-gazette.com

Illini Insider | 'I’d be lying if I said it doesn’t hit me differently'

The latest former Illini to answer our call for thoughts on Brad Underwood’s international roster rebuild: Bradley-Bourbonnais product Chris Gandy, who started 61 games for ’90s teams coached by Lou
www.news-gazette.com www.news-gazette.com
Click to expand...
I understand his point. That being said, I don't think his teams ever finished above 11-7 in conference. The available talent in state was also better in those days.
 
#36      
BashCtIllini
BDMAN said:
Excellent read in the News Gazette by ex-Illini Chris Gandy on the current state of recruiting at the national and state level. Also, what it means to be that kid from Illinois to get a full ride scholarship and don the O&B at the beloved and how it hits differently...ILL :illinois:

:hailtotheorange:

www.news-gazette.com

Illini Insider | 'I’d be lying if I said it doesn’t hit me differently'

The latest former Illini to answer our call for thoughts on Brad Underwood’s international roster rebuild: Bradley-Bourbonnais product Chris Gandy, who started 61 games for ’90s teams coached by Lou
www.news-gazette.com www.news-gazette.com
Click to expand...
I've been hesitant to say anything about this, because I know the zealots will go nuts, but I'm not thrilled with college basketball becoming the Euro league Jr, especially our team.

I agree 1000% with the statement, there's something special about seeing guys from Peoria lead the Illini to national success. Now that works especially for me being in the Bloomington/Peoria area, but the same holds true I'm sure for people around Lincoln with Brian Cook, or all the Chicago people with the many players from there. It's extra special to be able to watch guys close to home on TV.

Yes we always wanted the best talent so we weren't opposed to a Deron Williams or a Kofi Cockburn, but Mihailo Petrovic is a little different. We could watch Kofi on TV. There are fans in Dallas that could go watch Deron play. Sure, the largest number of fans are in state and there's always extra hope for the best in state players, but we've got fans all over.

We don't have a lot of fans in the Balkans though. Sure we can find clips and games of those guys online, but it's in a foreign language we can't understand. No one is going to swing by a game and give a live report showing up in Illini colors. There are no connections to these guys. I think there is already an issue with the transfer portal leading to a lack of affinity for players, look no further than Ben Humrichous. If Humrichous was in his 4th year at Illinois would he have gotten the same response last season? And he was from Indiana, not Croatia.

I just keep going back to a lot of things in this new world, if you are going to spend that much money, if you are going to turnover your roster every year, if you are going to bring in guys from foreign lands that no one knows, you better win. And I'm not talking 20 wins, 5th in the Big Ten winning 1 tourney game. If you're going to completely change the way college basketball has been for decades, you better win big.
 
#38      
ChiTown
NarrowJ said:
From what I had read various places, info coming from people who would have some reasonable way of knowing (if only via premium subs to beat writer content, I mean who knows), Sarr's agent raised the sticker price nearly every time Illinois had a conversation with him.

Originally they were talking in the $1.25 to $1.5 M range. Duke got involved. Oregon got involved. Miami got involved. Couple others too. Agent also used the NBA Draft as leverage when he started getting rotation minutes for Barc A team (i.e., we will stay out of the draft if you commit to paying us this number right now, etc etc). At some point his agent was asking nearly $4 M (I also understand we had given up long before the number got there).

Illinois took Andrej, Duke took Coward, Oregon took on Simpkins & Pryor (although they still may be involved, not sure), Miami got Allen & Malovec. Then it's become clearer that Sarr isn't going in this year's draft, he isn't welcome back with Barcelona, so on and so forth.

Given how this seems to have played out, have to imagine his entire camp is in absolute shambles right now lol.
Click to expand...
Sometimes you over played your hand.
 
#41      
Warren Carter Fanclub
ColSLU69 said:
I really don't understand the alleged Illinois "interest" in a possible transfer from 6'8" 210-pound senior SF/SG Puff Johnson of Penn State. Johnson, who will turn 25 years old on 10/11/25, has played 5 years of college basketball, 3 years at North Carolina, and then the last 2 years at Penn State. There's probably a Covid year in there. And I'm assuming that he may have qualified for a RS-injury year in there somehow. (Via a petition for an NCAA waiver?) Johnson averaged 10.2 points/game last season (in only 17 games), which was his highest ppg in his career. But Johnson shot only 30.2% on 3-pointers this past season, which was still the second highest percentage of his career. (33.7% in 23-24 for PSU.) One, I've been reading/hearing that Illinois was keeping one scholarship open for a possible longshot Will Riley return. Two, I didn't think that Illinois needed another player that is not good at shooting 3-pointers.

Maybe Puff Johnson is a great defender? Maybe he's willing to take very little money for a transfer to Illinois? Maybe he'd be happy to be only a role player for Illinois, and not play a lot of minutes? The best thing Puff has going for him is that his brother, Cameron Johnson, is a very good player for the Brooklyn Nets! But if Puff hasn't realized that same type of potential in FIVE years of college basketball, I have my doubts that he would do so coming off the Illini bench in the 25-26 season.
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As the Sleepers guys said "Puff....Puff....Pass."
 
#44      
mysterio2525
I'm assuming the money for sarr we had initially earmarked has now been spent on the current roster? Just curious if the price has gone down from 4m to 2m and that was within our budget back then if we had any donors willing to go back to that well or just assume it's over
 
#45      
NarrowJ
DICKnaggie said:
Would think he and Tre White will play same position, no?
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Both wings, but I think they could co-exist. They're pretty similar though so not sure about pairing them if it were me putting a roster together and I had Kansas money to do it with (athletic slasher type with ability to take it to the rack, yet not a primary ballhandler, not elite shooters nor elite defensively, etc etc).

mysterio2525 said:
I'm assuming the money for sarr we had initially earmarked has now been spent on the current roster? Just curious if the price has gone down from 4m to 2m and that was within our budget back then if we had any donors willing to go back to that well or just assume it's over
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4m --> 2m is just me reiterating what other people (yet people I think probably know) have said. The telling part is that all of their leverage (Illinois, Duke, Oregon, NBA, Barcelona) has now completely vanished.
 
#46      
Red77sng
What would of happened if we didn’t get Andrej who was our backup to him
 
#47      
Appleknockersaluki
Excuse my ignorance, but what would a team of current NCAA players from Illinois look like? And I would include players who finished at out of state prep schools.
 
#48      
idoc13
BashCtIllini said:
I've been hesitant to say anything about this, because I know the zealots will go nuts, but I'm not thrilled with college basketball becoming the Euro league Jr, especially our team.

I agree 1000% with the statement, there's something special about seeing guys from Peoria lead the Illini to national success. Now that works especially for me being in the Bloomington/Peoria area, but the same holds true I'm sure for people around Lincoln with Brian Cook, or all the Chicago people with the many players from there. It's extra special to be able to watch guys close to home on TV.

Yes we always wanted the best talent so we weren't opposed to a Deron Williams or a Kofi Cockburn, but Mihailo Petrovic is a little different. We could watch Kofi on TV. There are fans in Dallas that could go watch Deron play. Sure, the largest number of fans are in state and there's always extra hope for the best in state players, but we've got fans all over.

We don't have a lot of fans in the Balkans though. Sure we can find clips and games of those guys online, but it's in a foreign language we can't understand. No one is going to swing by a game and give a live report showing up in Illini colors. There are no connections to these guys. I think there is already an issue with the transfer portal leading to a lack of affinity for players, look no further than Ben Humrichous. If Humrichous was in his 4th year at Illinois would he have gotten the same response last season? And he was from Indiana, not Croatia.

I just keep going back to a lot of things in this new world, if you are going to spend that much money, if you are going to turnover your roster every year, if you are going to bring in guys from foreign lands that no one knows, you better win. And I'm not talking 20 wins, 5th in the Big Ten winning 1 tourney game. If you're going to completely change the way college basketball has been for decades, you better win big.
Click to expand...
I can understand where you’re coming from, but I don’t care if these kids are from Pluto. I want to win.
 
#50      
IndyIllini2
BashCtIllini said:
I've been hesitant to say anything about this, because I know the zealots will go nuts, but I'm not thrilled with college basketball becoming the Euro league Jr, especially our team.

I agree 1000% with the statement, there's something special about seeing guys from Peoria lead the Illini to national success. Now that works especially for me being in the Bloomington/Peoria area, but the same holds true I'm sure for people around Lincoln with Brian Cook, or all the Chicago people with the many players from there. It's extra special to be able to watch guys close to home on TV.

Yes we always wanted the best talent so we weren't opposed to a Deron Williams or a Kofi Cockburn, but Mihailo Petrovic is a little different. We could watch Kofi on TV. There are fans in Dallas that could go watch Deron play. Sure, the largest number of fans are in state and there's always extra hope for the best in state players, but we've got fans all over.

We don't have a lot of fans in the Balkans though. Sure we can find clips and games of those guys online, but it's in a foreign language we can't understand. No one is going to swing by a game and give a live report showing up in Illini colors. There are no connections to these guys. I think there is already an issue with the transfer portal leading to a lack of affinity for players, look no further than Ben Humrichous. If Humrichous was in his 4th year at Illinois would he have gotten the same response last season? And he was from Indiana, not Croatia.

I just keep going back to a lot of things in this new world, if you are going to spend that much money, if you are going to turnover your roster every year, if you are going to bring in guys from foreign lands that no one knows, you better win. And I'm not talking 20 wins, 5th in the Big Ten winning 1 tourney game. If you're going to completely change the way college basketball has been for decades, you better win big.
Click to expand...
While I agree it is really cool to see in-state kids come to Illinois and lead, the reality is that there top kids don’t finish high school in Illinois. Almost all 5-star or 4-star end up at a prep school out of state. Just doesn’t have the same shine to it after a kid leaves high school to essentially play semi-pro at a prep school.
 
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