Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread

#651      
skyIdub
For me the Blackwell watch is pretty easy now that Andrej is back.

If he doesn't want to be here, we didn't want him anyway. We can't mess this locker room up.
So if he's not all in, it wasn't going to be a fit.

I still say his best opportunity is to buy into this team. He's definitely going to get more opportunity on the ball which could be huge for him (NBA) and us if he were to flourish in that role.
 
#657      
Hingle McCringleberry
RabidDawgClassic said:
Do you guys not see how this works?

BIG RED LOUIE: Illinois re-signed Stojakovic! That MUST MEAN they're out of the Blackwell running!!

TWITTER: Looks like Illinois is out of the running for Blackwell

LOYALTY BOARD: Twitter says we're out of the running for Blackwell. Shoot me now, please.
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Not sure anyone is in the "shoot me now" camp. More like we are in the "who wants a shot now!" camp. 🥃 🥂
 
#658      
thefalcon5
FinallyMadeAnAccount said:
Jeremy Werner just said on his podcast that he thinks Illinois is done adding people this offseason
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Not many better out there at keeping their mouth closed until they have solid intel so this isn’t by any means an attack against Werner but we’ve been on the other side of this coin (I.e. having guys locked up silently and losing them).

I’ll still hold out hope for Blackwell, but I understand both why he doesn’t make total sense and why he’s probably too expensive to try and pull all the stops out for.

FWIW I bet if we didn’t land Coleman we’d full court press Blackwell. I expect a good year from Coleman.
 
#661      
201154JC
Highlander said:
Ditto that. My first game IIRC was Skip Thoren, Bogie Redman, Tal Brodie, Don Freeman, Jim Dawson.
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My Brother Peter was probably at that game. He and Skip were friends. They used to rideshare back and forth from Rockford to Champaign. It must have been cool to watch the Assembly Hall being built.
 
#664      
Todd99
#667      
LadyLoyalty
#668      
Iroquois County Illini
So what’s the thoughts on where Ty lands? Personally I’m hoping he goes down a level and gets guaranteed minutes next season, then hits the portal for a big school next year. Really don’t want to see him in the big ten, I’d like to cheer for him all next year.
 
#669      
sacraig
Joel Goodson said:
sauces!
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Gordon Ramsey Hot Ones GIF by First We Feast
 
#670      
63 Split
rdk573 said:
I think ZZ signing was the tell.. My Guess Blackwell price was too high...(we didn't match Louisville's offer) .Of course what do I know
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Maybe things reached the unfortunate stage of Blackwells agent going back and forth between schools with ‘I now have a higher offer of X …will you beat it?.’ I guess that’s his right…but at some point Underwood has to say, ‘You have my final offer…where do you want to play?’
 
#672      
Det_Illini_fan
LadyLoyalty said:
SB Nation:

Illinois looks like No. 1 in men’s college basketball preseason rankings​

www.sbnation.com

Illinois looks like No. 1 in men’s college basketball preseason rankings after retaining top players

Come fan with us. SB Nation is the largest independent sports media brand, consisting of SBNation.com, MMAFighting.com and over 300 fan-centric team communities.
www.sbnation.com www.sbnation.com
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i can get hate for this, but I get wary of Preseason no. 1 if we don’t pull in a Blackwell or strong guard in that spot. Purdue last year touted preseason no. 1 because it was essentially everyone coming back, and they were decent but struggled a lot and far from no. 1

I know the freshman coming in can be good, and we’ll be net positive from last year off development, but I think we need that “Yaxel” type piece to be head and shoulders above like ‘26 Michigan or ‘24 UCONN.

Just my two cents
 
#674      
Joel Goodson
if it's published in twitter, it's got to be true - Madeline Kahn, probably
 
#675      
March2TheArch
Det_Illini_fan said:
i can get hate for this, but I get wary of Preseason no. 1 if we don’t pull in a Blackwell or strong guard in that spot. Purdue last year touted preseason no. 1 because it was essentially everyone coming back, and they were decent but struggled a lot and far from no. 1

I know the freshman coming in can be good, and we’ll be net positive from last year off development, but I think we need that “Yaxel” type piece to be head and shoulders above like ‘26 Michigan or ‘24 UCONN.

Just my two cents
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There is no Yaxel-like piece in the portal this year. There is a reason ‘26 Michigan and ‘24 UConn are often quotes. They’re rare.

Duke’s teams the last couple years were Natty teams that couldn’t get it done. Duke even beat Michigan this year.

I think we’re ahead of where Florida 2025, Baylor 2021, and Virginia 2019 were in the buildups to their season. That said, we’ve seen what preseason #1 did to Purdue.

There is no dominant team this upcoming year. It’ll be a roller coaster of a season. And we have to hope we peak at the right time like a Florida 2025 or UVA 2019.
 
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