Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread

#301      
IndyOrange
lstewart53x3 said:
I’m curious what everyone thinks about our depth.

If we had our best player go down with injury, do we think we have a backup good enough to come in and win a national championship?
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Most of the time, if not all the time, if your best player goes down, you're not winning a national title. Most good teams are about 8 deep. Both Michigan and UConn played only 7-8 players in the championship.
 
#304      
logjam
Tevo said:
Really, it would be scary for him to play >5 minute? What could possibly happen that would be so horrible. Brad's not going to put him into spots where it's crunch time and he can't perform. He could absolutely cover the last minute before a media timeout in the first half of a handful of games, or during blowouts. Not to mention, with normal switches, everybody should be able to guard every position for 30 seconds at a time. If you want to argue that he shouldn't be a regular rotation guy there, fine, but to act like he couldn't spend 5 minutes in that role is silly.
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We probably zone then not man to man anyway...
 
#305      
80'sIllini
HailtotheChief said:
I dont think Morrillo will play the 4 in B10 for 5 minutes all season unless we have an injury. If so, thats scary to me.
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If Morillo is currently 6'7" and 215 lbs it isn't unreasonable to think that he could be 225 lbs by the start of the season. I thought I saw somewhere that he is still growing in height also. Anyway, those figures are probably not far off from what 4's are in the big 10. For example:
As of the 2024-25 and 2025-26 seasons, Purdue forward Trey Kaufman-Renn's physical measurements are generally listed as 6'9" and 230–240 lbs.
 
#306      
logjam
Bootheel Illini said:
Hope Coleman can transition from a small private school in St. Louis County, MO to the BIG. The change in completion will be a huge change for him. Being Wagler 2.0 would be like finding 2 needles in 2 haystacks or discovering 2 matching snowflakes. Sure hope he is IT. Wagler has certainly spoiled us.
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He played the same AAU and and EYBL teams and excelled he'll be fine...
 
#307      
Combo
blackdog said:
Go look at B1G rosters. The vast majority have only 3 guys over 6'8 getting regular minutes. Some do have 4 but very few have a real rotation where they are playing with 4 big guys. A lot of the bench bigs are in no way good enough to able to exploit a matchup anyway.
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And most don't have a 6'9 beast starting at PF. 6'7 guys can play the 4 just fine in college ball. In fact, Ty Rodgers' best position at 6'6 is arguably at the 4. Kid rebounds better than guys several inches taller.

Again, nobody here is projecting Morillo to play a lot of minutes at the 4. We are just saying he can be the 8th guy in the rotation playing 1-4.
 
#308      
Combo
80'sIllini said:
If Morillo is currently 6'7" and 215 lbs it isn't unreasonable to think that he could be 225 lbs by the start of the season. I thought I saw somewhere that he is still growing in height also. Anyway, those figures are probably not far off from what 4's are in the big 10. For example:
As of the 2024-25 and 2025-26 seasons, Purdue forward Trey Kaufman-Renn's physical measurements are generally listed as 6'9" and 230–240 lbs.
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Don't do this to yourself! Most guys are done growing (height-wise) when they graduate high school.

I remember when people saying Roger Powell was "6'7, almost 6'8 and was still growing." Turns out he was pretty generously listed at 6'6. And was a beast of a PF.
 
#309      
blackdog
Combo said:
Don't do this to yourself! Most guys are done growing (height-wise) when they graduate high school.

I remember when people saying Roger Powell was "6'7, almost 6'8 and was still growing." Turns out he was pretty generously listed at 6'6. And was a beast of a PF.
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Will Riley grew another inch this year so I choose to believe that anything is possible 😁
 
#310      
Illinicpa14
NarrowJ said:
Ok, this one just hit the portal... elite-athletic 6'3" senior combo guard recognized as a premier perimeter defender and dangerous transition scorer

View attachment 49993

Checks all of the Loyalty 'we need another guard' boxes

Deer Popcorn GIF
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Pretty sure he has no eligibility unless the year 5 passes
 
#311      
theNewGuy
Thoughts:
I am disappointed in not pursuing blackwell.
I think there is a big difference between championship favorite and championship contender.
The last 3 or so years there has been a "super tier" of teams that the champion has come from. And granted, we are discussing the preseason expectations with fully completed seasons of basketball.
BUT, I will say it is disappointing to hear that a player that will vault us into that top tier, who insiders were saying that we had a really good chance of landing, along with all the retention, is now all of the sudden unnecessary. Could it cause ripples in the team? Sure, but I think with all these guys coming back, they want to win. and they didn't have a problem when a top150 freshman became the show.
I (and most people who are disappointed) are not saying Coleman can't be a star on this team.
I (and most people who are disappointed) are not saying we can't win a championship.
But when we were served with, "we can a championship favorite with blackwell", to we have all the pieces we need, it just seems... odd
Winning a national championships is one of the hardest trophies to win, why not go all in when you have such a good culture.

(also what is up with "adding a piece later", when brad wants everyone on campus as soon as possible? doesn't make much sense to me.)

and this isn't a shot at you insiders, I appreciate everything yall do. I think some of the things yall were putting in here hyped this board up to a point where it is championship or bust
 
#312      
PeoriaIllini03
Loyalty is so back. If we were told this would be the squad 2 weeks ago everyone would be ecstatic.

Some of you are delusional with this depth concern. Brad and Co. have clearly decided on how they want to build a roster and that starts with retaining your best talent, which costs $$$$. Then fill the gaps with talented freshmen that fit our style of play who are cheaper than portal guys.

Even if we have the additional $$ to add another experienced guard, we'd then have to sell them on taking 15-20 min/game in a reduced usage. What player would want that?

Werner described this perfectly in the pod from Friday when Drej announced.
 
#314      
CleverHandle1
jrichisamazing said:
True, but insiders were also saying we had elite backup plans if Blackwell didn't work. I find it hard to believe that we stopped being aggressive in the portal because of a 5 star freshman. If you have the resources to add an experienced portal piece to a team that's ready to win now, you do it 10/10 times, right?

If I put my orange tinted conspiracy glasses on.... Maybe the staff is working on another big addition but keeping it very hush hush to keep it from turning into a bidding war.
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I think this is a fair point.
 
#316      
Illini2010-11
theNewGuy said:
Thoughts:
I am disappointed in not pursuing blackwell.
I think there is a big difference between championship favorite and championship contender.
The last 3 or so years there has been a "super tier" of teams that the champion has come from. And granted, we are discussing the preseason expectations with fully completed seasons of basketball.
BUT, I will say it is disappointing to hear that a player that will vault us into that top tier, who insiders were saying that we had a really good chance of landing, along with all the retention, is now all of the sudden unnecessary. Could it cause ripples in the team? Sure, but I think with all these guys coming back, they want to win. and they didn't have a problem when a top150 freshman became the show.
I (and most people who are disappointed) are not saying Coleman can't be a star on this team.
I (and most people who are disappointed) are not saying we can't win a championship.
But when we were served with, "we can a championship favorite with blackwell", to we have all the pieces we need, it just seems... odd
Winning a national championships is one of the hardest trophies to win, why not go all in when you have such a good culture.

(also what is up with "adding a piece later", when brad wants everyone on campus as soon as possible? doesn't make much sense to me.)

and this isn't a shot at you insiders, I appreciate everything yall do. I think some of the things yall were putting in here hyped this board up to a point where it is championship or bust
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Is that what happened? I thought we were heavily involved but his team was getting in his ear that his utilization would not be used well at Illinois for his future purposes. That served as a major red flag. It seems that Blackwell's team has him chasing top dollar and location where he can have ball in hands all the time. We are not the place for him then.

I, of course, would think that he would be a major asset to the team, but if the advice he is getting is that he will not see correct utilization at Illinois (i.e., ball in hand/shots here), then we may dodge a bullet in that respect.
 
#317      
jdogggg
Bootheel Illini said:
Hope Coleman can transition from a small private school in St. Louis County, MO to the BIG. The change in completion will be a huge change for him. Being Wagler 2.0 would be like finding 2 needles in 2 haystacks or discovering 2 matching snowflakes. Sure hope he is IT. Wagler has certainly spoiled us.
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… his school was ranked 4th in the country and played a national schedule. He averaged more than 30 a game in the city of palms classic, which is the most prestigious high school tournament in the country… lol his high school faced high level competition
 
#318      
HailtotheChief
80'sIllini said:
If Morillo is currently 6'7" and 215 lbs it isn't unreasonable to think that he could be 225 lbs by the start of the season. I thought I saw somewhere that he is still growing in height also. Anyway, those figures are probably not far off from what 4's are in the big 10. For example:
As of the 2024-25 and 2025-26 seasons, Purdue forward Trey Kaufman-Renn's physical measurements are generally listed as 6'9" and 230–240 lbs.
Click to expand...
He already put on 25 this season. He is listed at 6'7" 180 on 247 but im sure he is bigger. Now your implying he is here to play a 6'7" version of TKR? Do you actually think he came to Illinois to play the 4? I dont. If you do fine. Odds are if Jason is healthy enough to play entering his 3rd season he will be behind Z at 6'10 or 11 and likely 260lbs. He is still likely just a redshirt/medical redshirt freshman. I do think we add someone for Bens role. At least i hope we do.
 
#319      
illini0440
I haven’t read everything the last 24/48 hours….so I don’t know who said Blackwell was unnecessary. Did the staff want Blackwell yes, do they still want him yes, but not at the cost of potentially causing issues with returning players and with Blackwell being finicky on his usage here. We’re still getting a top 5 roster next year as has been pointed out. You return I think it’s around 65% of your production from a final 4 team….you add a piece in Vaaks that imo keeps the offense potential in the top 3 in the country. Show me a team that’s 10 deep…kids have to want to come here for the role you guys are clamoring about…not many kids out there that want that.
 
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