Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread

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#276      
My prediction is we run it back with everyone except Andre and bring in a top PG and a top shooting guard who both can score and defend.

Starters:
Top Transfer (all BT level)
Top Transfer (all BT level)
Jake/Ty
Mirk
Tomi

Bench:
Lee
Jake/Ty
Z
Hopefully some sophomores and freshmen can make rotation
2 "all big ten level" players are not easy to land. EVERYONE would love to land that
 
#277      
Maybe im missing the point on owen freeman?

Isn;t he the perfect example of clear poor ROI? Bad individual year on a bad basketball team.

Im probably just reading wrong
Ah I see where I misconstrued things, but let’s say he would have averaged 20/10 but creighton was still bad, it would have been a bad return on investment?
 
#279      
Not sure how much Houston has. Sampson was on the local TV here a couple of weeks ago bemoaning their lack of NIL funds, saying how difficult it is to complete with such funding. If true, he’s a miracle worker.

He’s BSing. There’s no way they could have attracted two top 10 players and plus a top 20 guy if they didn’t have significant funds. That’s close to Duke-level recruiting.
 
#282      
Recruitment is open … We're active …

I get the vibe they’re waiting to see what Duke interest is …
Damn well that sucks for us. I guess we will lose another one to them. But makes sense
 
#284      
Recruitment is open … We're active …

I get the vibe they’re waiting to see what Duke interest is …
Eddie Murphy Whatever GIF by Coming to America
 
#286      
Ah I see where I misconstrued things, but let’s say he would have averaged 20/10 but creighton was still bad, it would have been a bad return on investment?

Oh gotcha! I agree with you. To be clear, I don't inherently think all players on bad teams are not good or worth finances to bring to yours. Ironically, your owen freeman example where hes actually good individually but the team was bad is pretty much Andrej at Cal last year, yeah?

My point is that because of playing style, roster, depth chart, etc - it seems to me a far better practice when evaluating a coach's $$$ roster spend would be just evaluating = how much did you spend compared to your peers and is it <=> where your team's results stack up compared to your peers?

Fullproof formula? Ofcourse not. Far better to actually evaluate ROI on what we really care about? 100%
 
#287      
Jake shouldn't be a starter. He gets exposed against top teams. I’m TBD on Andrej, he could make a big jump in year 2. We also desperately need more athleticism on the wings.
Jake is an ideal 6th man. He's your Sean Harrington on a great team. If he's starting it's because something went wrong (looking at you AS).

But also Ty hasn't played in 2 years and cant/won't shoot. If he's anything but an 8th man something went even worse this off-season.
 
#288      
Honestly, I don’t care if some guys have underperformed, I want everyone back. Continuity matters and if we only bring back Mirk and Jake, we are gonna be in for a long year. It’s been rough lateley, but still a 3 seed.

Give me the Tomi, Z, Mirk, Andrej, Davis back and find me a couple of Guards/wings in the portal to go along with the freshman

Lee, Petro, Jakstys - whatever happens happens
 
#289      
I think you're selling the Z value short.

Am i crazy on Andrej though? I feel like that dude has helped us win a lot.
Andrej has been great at running it up against bad teams. He's also great until good teams adjust to his go to play of driving into the paint, not passing and praying that his contested 5-10 footer lands or that he gets a call.

But after that what does he offer against a top 10 team? He's not a great defender. Teams sag on him on the perimeter. He doesn't score in transition. You have to beg him to rebound and he won't pass if he's driving.

The offense is based on the idea that dunks and 3s are the best shots. Its recruiting malpractice if he's not replaced by a SG shooting 40% from 3 next year.
 
#290      
Andrej has been great at running it up against bad teams. He's also great until good teams adjust to his go to play of driving into the paint, not passing and praying that his contested 5-10 footer lands or that he gets a call.

But after that what does he offer against a top 10 team? He's not a great defender. Teams sag on him on the perimeter. He doesn't score in transition. You have to beg him to rebound and he won't pass if he's driving.

The offense is based on the idea that dunks and 3s are the best shots. Its recruiting malpractice if he's not replaced by a SG shooting 40% from 3 next year.

Meh. 26 against Bama. 23 against Texas Tech. 19 versus Nebraska. 16 versus Iowa. 17 versus MSU. 17 versus Wisconsin.

Texas Tech was 11th when we played them. MSU was 10th. Alabama was 11th. The problem with Dre is that in the other ones against top 11 (im sorry Tech ad Bama were too close to 10 to ignore) UCONN, Tennessee, Purdue, and Nebraska he went 3, 5, 5, 8. Need more consistency, sure. But saying all the stats are inflated solely from against bad teams? bridge too far.

The bolded is the interesting question. Brad changes his style year after year, our pace has crawled to a halt this year. If that's something Brad wants to continue, I agree with you, money is probably best spent elsewhere. However, if we want to actually get back to running a bit, it makes more sense to bring him back IMO.
 
#291      
I'm just confused with the people that were happy to land Stoj in the offseason but are upset now.

He's actually a more efficient scorer than he was with Cal. Yes his 3pt% specifically has been worse (and it was never good to begin with, so that wasn't the main reason we got him) but his overall %s are, better, including higher eFG% and TS%, so he's done the responsible thing and reduced the number of 3s he takes. Higher rebound rate. Fewer turnovers.

So...what were you expecting him to be?
 
#292      
Andrej has been great at running it up against bad teams. He's also great until good teams adjust to his go to play of driving into the paint, not passing and praying that his contested 5-10 footer lands or that he gets a call.

But after that what does he offer against a top 10 team? He's not a great defender. Teams sag on him on the perimeter. He doesn't score in transition. You have to beg him to rebound and he won't pass if he's driving.

The offense is based on the idea that dunks and 3s are the best shots. Its recruiting malpractice if he's not replaced by a SG shooting 40% from 3 next year.

He averages 12.7 ppg vs ranked teams and 13.9 ppg vs unranked teams, which isn't that big of a difference and you always expect players to do better vs lesser comp on average, of course

Have yet to see teams sag on him on the perimeter, the sample size this year is really small compared to Cal/Stanford where he proved he can shoot just fine.. he's an 83% free throw shooter which further supports the fact he can shoot... teams are not sagging off him, thats baloney, watch the games

He is probably, other than KB, the only guy in our rotation who actually CAN score in transition

He is 3rd on the team in rebound rate... a team that's one of the top rebounding teams in the nation, so he can certainly rebound

The problem a lot of people are having is he was paid like he should be our best player, and he's not (but that happens so often.. the highest paid guy won't always be the best player, it just doesn't work like that)
 
#293      
I'm just confused with the people that were happy to land Stoj in the offseason but are upset now.

He's actually a more efficient scorer than he was with Cal. Yes his 3pt% specifically has been worse (and it was never good to begin with, so that wasn't the main reason we got him) but his overall %s are, better, including higher eFG% and TS%, so he's done the responsible thing and reduced the number of 3s he takes. Higher rebound rate. Fewer turnovers.

So...what were you expecting him to be?
To not be an all time bad defender. You only mentioned his offense. He’s fine on offense. He is a huge liability on defense.
 
#294      
No but we’ve had 4 of them the past 3 years in Wagler, KJ, Domask and TSJ. I think we will need to add two players of that type to be a top 10 next year which is what is expected with the investment the university is making.
Wagler and Domask were not major investments. Both outplayed their expectations. Im just saying adding 2 "all big ten transfers" is a tough ask
 
#295      
He averages 12.7 ppg vs ranked teams and 13.9 ppg vs unranked teams, which isn't that big of a difference and you always expect players to do better vs lesser comp on average, of course

He's also 8th in true shooting % and 9th in OBPM. the sample size this year is really small compared to Cal/Stanford where he proved he can shoot just fine.. he's an 83% free throw shooter which further supports the fact he can shoot... teams are not sagging off him, thats baloney, watch the games

He is probably, other than KB, the only guy in our rotation who actually CAN score in transition

He is 3rd on the team in rebound rate... a team that's one of the top rebounding teams in the nation, so he can certainly rebound

The problem a lot of people are having is he was paid like he should be our best player, and he's not (but that happens so often.. the highest paid guy won't always be the best player, it just doesn't work like that)
There's a good reason why most of his 3s are nearly wide open. But I'm not really going to debate it because there's a decent chance here you're just blind: he's 7th in rebounding rate on the team not 3rd.

It also really doesn't matter if he's shooting contested 3s or has the possibility to maybe score in transition because his preferred shots are inefficient short range jumpers against set defenses. That's reflected by him being 8th on the team in true shooting % and 9th in OBPM.

And it'd be different if he excelled elsewhere, but he's good for 4 rebounds, a stock and a 1:1.5 TO ratio with a 25% usage in those games. Yeah that's distorted by NIL but it's also distorted by Brad's words and the glimpses of him doing really well and then disappearing.

I'm just confused with the people that were happy to land Stoj in the offseason but are upset now.

He's actually a more efficient scorer than he was with Cal. Yes his 3pt% specifically has been worse (and it was never good to begin with, so that wasn't the main reason we got him) but his overall %s are, better, including higher eFG% and TS%, so he's done the responsible thing and reduced the number of 3s he takes. Higher rebound rate. Fewer turnovers.

So...what were you expecting him to be?
I was cautiously optimistic because we had either missed or passed on a bunch of dudes. I also thought Tomi would be all b10 and be opening up cutting lanes. Either of the Iowa transfers that ended up in Nebraska wouldve looked real good on this team...
Meh. 26 against Bama. 23 against Texas Tech. 19 versus Nebraska. 16 versus Iowa. 17 versus MSU. 17 versus Wisconsin.

Texas Tech was 11th when we played them. MSU was 10th. Alabama was 11th. The problem with Dre is that in the other ones against top 11 (im sorry Tech ad Bama were too close to 10 to ignore) UCONN, Tennessee, Purdue, and Nebraska he went 3, 5, 5, 8. Need more consistency, sure. But saying all the stats are inflated solely from against bad teams? bridge too far.

The bolded is the interesting question. Brad changes his style year after year, our pace has crawled to a halt this year. If that's something Brad wants to continue, I agree with you, money is probably best spent elsewhere. However, if we want to actually get back to running a bit, it makes more sense to bring him back IMO.
For sure Brad will adapt, but the 3 oriented O seems like his preference for a few years now.
 

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#297      
Meh. 26 against Bama. 23 against Texas Tech. 19 versus Nebraska. 16 versus Iowa. 17 versus MSU. 17 versus Wisconsin.

Texas Tech was 11th when we played them. MSU was 10th. Alabama was 11th. The problem with Dre is that in the other ones against top 11 (im sorry Tech ad Bama were too close to 10 to ignore) UCONN, Tennessee, Purdue, and Nebraska he went 3, 5, 5, 8. Need more consistency, sure. But saying all the stats are inflated solely from against bad teams? bridge too far.

The bolded is the interesting question. Brad changes his style year after year, our pace has crawled to a halt this year. If that's something Brad wants to continue, I agree with you, money is probably best spent elsewhere. However, if we want to actually get back to running a bit, it makes more sense to bring him back IMO.
I wouldn't say Iowa is a top team but regardless it's telling that IL was 2-4 in the games you listed.
 
#299      
There's a good reason why most of his 3s are nearly wide open. But I'm not really going to debate it because there's a decent chance here you're just blind: he's 7th in rebounding rate on the team not 3rd.

It also really doesn't matter if he's shooting contested 3s or has the possibility to maybe score in transition because his preferred shots are inefficient short range jumpers against set defenses. That's reflected by him being 8th on the team in true shooting % and 9th in OBPM.

And it'd be different if he excelled elsewhere, but he's good for 4 rebounds, a stock and a 1:1.5 TO ratio with a 25% usage in those games. Yeah that's distorted by NIL but it's also distorted by Brad's words and the glimpses of him doing really well and then disappearing.


I was cautiously optimistic because we had either missed or passed on a bunch of dudes. I also thought Tomi would be all b10 and be opening up cutting lanes. Either of the Iowa transfers that ended up in Nebraska wouldve looked real good on this team...

For sure Brad will adapt, but the 3 oriented O seems like his preference for a few years now.

You say he’s 7th but it’s because Jakstys and Fagbemi and so on are ahead of him which of course I wasn’t including guys who aren’t even in the rotation, lol come on

He’s been inconsistent, we all agree on that… I have to wonder how much these 3-4 lower body injuries over the course of the season have affected him
 
#300      
I wouldn't say Iowa is a top team but regardless it's telling that IL was 2-4 in the games you listed.
So those game results were Andrj's fault. You are silly.
 
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