An “Airplane II: The Sequel” reference. ELITE.
Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread
I know we're all anxious about replacing Wagler, which is kinda ludicrous considering he was a total unicorn, especially for Illinois. But what if another KJ was about to walk through the door, which is what I see in Vaaks. Watch his tape and you see the same sling-shot over-the-shoulder passes, the contested logo 3s, the work-in-progress defense, the cutting hard to the hoop and generally playing hard all the time.
So we're replacing a lottery pick in Wagler with a late first-rounder, Oh, and we just retained the core of a final 4 team. It's time to dance!
So we're replacing a lottery pick in Wagler with a late first-rounder, Oh, and we just retained the core of a final 4 team. It's time to dance!
He was not slow at the offense end but he was pretty flat footed at the defense end at times.
If Vaaks has KJ’s turnover issues, that is not a great fit for this team. Taking care of the ball was a major factor in our success this past season.
Looking at his stats, that didn’t seem to be a major concern.
I was really impressed with our defensive strategy in the tourney. Varied coverage and showed looks we hadn't done much of in the regular season. I said out loud "we're gonna win" about 5 min into the Houston game when I saw how aggressive we were on ball-screens.
Every single word of this. Vaaks will be helped greatly by being surrounded by better players, a better coaching staff, a better culture, and so and so forth.
Providence was a depressing, hopeless situation.
skyIdub
"I can't tell you. Secret."
Lmfao...anyone here that actually.....really.......honestly, believes that a Final Four team returning 65-70% of it's production from the most efficient offense in CBB history....THAT ALSO ADDED a Top 5 portal guard AND 2 top 10 (position) freshman SG's AND Wisconsin Mr. Basketball AND a top 25 (position) combo guard....isn't competing for a NC......needs to take the weekend off of this board.
Sure, I get it's your "opinion", but it's really dumb.
I'll bet all of my Loyalty Beach houses and a gallon of your favorite cottage cheese we will receive pre season #1 votes.
Sure, I get it's your "opinion", but it's really dumb.
I'll bet all of my Loyalty Beach houses and a gallon of your favorite cottage cheese we will receive pre season #1 votes.
OrangeBlue98
Iowa is not in a great spot right now (LvilleILL1)
- Des Moines, IA
Forget it, I’ll never get over Macho Grande.
Illinicpa14
- Chicago
The decision to not pivot to another bigger name should tell everyone all they need to know about Morillo/Coleman.
They clearly saw John as a unique upgrade but not a lot of these other portal guys.
Would you feel better if we had Skyy Clark or last years Adam Miller on this team? I’d maybe feel better about losing a guy for a full season injury but doesn’t change a lot of the upside or base cases for this team.
We have 5 other deep bench guys; I’m sure 1 of them can end up being better than expected to be guy #9…and also I’m sure through Misko there’s some other convos happening. Nobody had ever heard of mihailo until he committed
They clearly saw John as a unique upgrade but not a lot of these other portal guys.
Would you feel better if we had Skyy Clark or last years Adam Miller on this team? I’d maybe feel better about losing a guy for a full season injury but doesn’t change a lot of the upside or base cases for this team.
We have 5 other deep bench guys; I’m sure 1 of them can end up being better than expected to be guy #9…and also I’m sure through Misko there’s some other convos happening. Nobody had ever heard of mihailo until he committed
Vaaks is a PG in the sense Wagler was a PG, as well as the way the NBA uses a PG now. If you want a direct comparison to a Championship level team, I imagine Tyler views Wagler and Vaaks as Shai in the Oklahoma City Thunder system. Uber-talented big guards that will torch if you choose to play them 1v1, but if you double they punish you as passers as well. Give these dudes a roster of talented shooters/slashers and it’s an efficiency machine.
Vaaks played with a lot less talent and still put up some crazy numbers. Him plugging into the Illinois system is a perfect match.
Vaaks played with a lot less talent and still put up some crazy numbers. Him plugging into the Illinois system is a perfect match.
Way quieter thread than yesterday lol.
Lee was never unplayable. He was a solid defender, which is why Brad played him in the early season. He was just zoomed over by other guards and buried on the depth chart. So how much of a jump does he take next season? I think he can develop into a Boswell-like on-ball defender. But can he carve out some role in our spacing-heavy offensive system enough to not be a liability? Of course it's all moot if he leaves.
Our system does a good job playing to our strengths. If we were a pressure + deny team with our personnel we’d give up 120 a game. (Interestingly enough, my HS team played a huge team in the playoffs that should have been a wall building team, but they were pressure and deny, and we sliced right through them).
We play a pretty solid zone. A little more matchup than traditional for my preferences but it works, especially on BLOBS/SLOBS. That said, for as a good as a rebounding team as we were, even we had the traditional zone rebounding struggle, which in theory is partially negated by the fact that we play more of a matchup zone. We clean that up, there’s even more room for growth defensively.
If we lose Lee, I'd even more have no idea how people could feel good about not adding anyone. You'd literally have nobody playable after the top 8.
That is, in the off-season (who knows what develops as things progress).
Would feel like a major settle, IMO.
That is, in the off-season (who knows what develops as things progress).
Would feel like a major settle, IMO.
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We only played 6 guys against Wisconsin (plus 1 minute from him), so he was evidently unplayable at least in that game.
Vaaks is a great offensive player
If our Insiders are content with this current team w/out Blackwell, then I am fine.
BU and staff proved themselves bigly this year; they deserve our trust.
For things to work, I feel Morillo and especially Coleman will outperform expectations.
I feel the Twins along with Mirk will get a ton of looks close to the basket, as it proved valuable during their awesome run.
Vaaks cannot be sporadic like KJ (great player still), and I don't think he will.
Jake will be Jake.
If the defense can defend like they did during their awesome run and rebound, then it's go time.
BU and staff proved themselves bigly this year; they deserve our trust.
For things to work, I feel Morillo and especially Coleman will outperform expectations.
I feel the Twins along with Mirk will get a ton of looks close to the basket, as it proved valuable during their awesome run.
Vaaks cannot be sporadic like KJ (great player still), and I don't think he will.
Jake will be Jake.
If the defense can defend like they did during their awesome run and rebound, then it's go time.
Will he wasnt listed that on 247 but 215lbs is way to small in mass. We are not the only one with a power 4 the size of Mirk and has some post game. Heck, someone the size of Domask as a 3 will likely eat vs 215lbs. Vs someone like Pherrell Payne, Mirk, a MSU 4, Rez or a Purdue 4 do you really think at 6'7" 215 Morrillo is a real viable quality option to stop them? Good luck because its not going to happen. Mirk and guys his size or bigger with any skill at all would have a field day vs 215lb freshman. Hell Maryland and others killed our much bigger guys than Morillo. It is totally chugging kool aid to expect Morrillo to guard a power 4 guy well. It was hard enough for Ben. I would be concerned if something happenned to Z or either 1 or both of T n mirk are in foul trouble. I hope we add another at the 4/5
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Averaged 7ppg for Arkansas last season
Battle89
- Cary-Grove, the better Trojan team
It is NOT greedy.
Any championship team needs about 1000 things to go right over the course of the year. You need backups and insurance as much as possible.
Michigan did not even blink when Cason went down, because they were so overloaded with talent. Now we may not have the resources they did, but for sure I wanted Blackwell and for sure I want other decent backups in his absence.
The other issue I wonder (this topic definitely came up last year though I’ve not seen it this year) is the overall size of the pot. I believe there was (extra) donor money for Blackwell but does that same money exist for other options? Maybe, maybe not.
Ya, we played 9-14 several times this year in the last few minutes of the game. Important to not get anyone hurt when up by 50 against critter schools like the UC santa Cruz Banana Slugs, evergreen state Geoducks, and Scottsdale Artichokes.
Very few teams play more than 8, but we are wanting 15 guys each making 1-5 mil, all B10, entire All-American team 1st-3rd. National title and then take the team over to NBA Finals and win it too. Dream roster is around 40 million
Illinicpa14
- Chicago
lol these people comparing Vaaks To KJ when KJ averaged a full 2 more turnovers a game on a better team.
I don’t think one more bench guard puts our roster over 40 million…. wouldn’t think so, no….
You don't have to work hard to find the negative in losing out on a player like Blackwell.
Are we going to be an excellent team? Absolutely. Would we better with Blackwell? Absolutely. Should we all be excited? Absolutely. Can I be both excited and disappointed? Absolutely.