Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread

#726      
NarrowJ
wncillini said:
Exactly. The portal era in the short term at least seems to point teams are getting better at the top not worse. There will be teams as good as Duke, Michigan, and Arizona this year, including maybe those very teams themselves. Hoping the top teams revert back to the pack with zero teams rising to the top and everyone in the top 10 having an equal shot isnt at all realistic.

In fact what looks like is happening is because there was so much draft talent this year then next, many guys are skipping the draft for another year of college hoping b to cash in next draft. So the gap n perceived talent between the two years has closed.
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And right now, Illinois is being placed at the top of the way too early rankings. The thought of a bunch of teams jumping us means they’re signing multiple top 15 xfers, and there just aren’t that many to go around. Keep in mind the way too early #1 ranking FOX Sports gave us was a week prior to the Vaaks commitment.

This thought that Illinois needs to go into the new season with zero competition across a national scale is weird and not feasible.
 
#728      
Illini2010-11
Altuve27 said:
Then they made the right decision. No question.
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Absolutely. There is no guarantee of how the locker room culture will work out when you bring in the hired one year assassin (we have seen the negatives of it from about 4 years ago).

It seems like the envisioned role for Blackwell that the staff had was not what his camp wanted. It is not like all of this is happening in a vacuum (other players know what is going on). Based on softly reading the tea leaves, I will take a high-end returning player (Andrej) who is known to work well with his peers than possibly losing him for the sake of bringing in a great player who may or may not mesh well with the locker room.

Part of the beauty of the team last year was how connected the locker room was (even when it seemed like things were slipping away in late Feb/early March). We have been able to retain a majority of that core, and I expect the connectivity of the team being a real strength of the team -- add in the high-level of talent, and there is no reason to doubt that we are still in prime contention to make it back to the Final Four again.
 
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#731      
Kilgore Trout
RabidDawgClassic said:
The last 15 days on the Loyalty board.

INSIDERS: We’ve got money and we’re going hard after Vaaks and Blackwell. It looks promising. But retention is the top priority.

LOYALTY: Yay! Superteam!

INSIDERS: Boom! We got Vaaks!

LOYALTY: Yay! Superteam!

INSIDERS: Pushing very hard for Blackwell. We’ve got the money. But retention first.

LOYALTY: Yay! Superteam!

INSIDERS: Boom! The “Triplets” are back! Ironing out details with Andrej. Blackwell still in the mix.

LOYALTY: Yay! Superteam!

INSIDERS: Boom! Andrej’s back!

LOYALTY: Yay! Superteam!

INSIDERS: Looks like we’re out of the Blackwell sweepstakes. I’m guessing you can figure out why.

LOYALTY: What?!? Why?!?

INSIDERS: Come on. Figure it out.

LOYALTY: ???

INSIDERS: Think about it.

LOYALTY: ???????

INSIDERS: ((sigh)) Blackwell backed off the day Andrej returned? Get it?

LOYALTY: So we’re broke?!?!

INSIDERS: ((sigh)) No… money is not a problem.

LOYALTY: So we’re just sitting on a pile of money?!? Can’t the coaches count???

INSIDERS: Yes, they can count. We’ll likely add more. Just not right away.

LOYALTY: So we’re gonna go into the season only eight deep?

INSIDERS: No, I said… ((facepalm)) ((sigh)). All is fine.

LOYALTY: I know what that means! All is NOT fine! PANIC!!! PANIC!!!

INSIDERS: Relax! Look… the staff knows who they want and what they’re looking for.

LOYALTY: Okay then… here’s a list of 40 players, all of whom would be a good fit and are desperately needed.

INSIDERS: You’re not gonna get any of those guys to come in and play backup to the backup.

LOYALTY: But you promised us a superteam!!!

INSIDERS: I’m getting too old for this sh*t.
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Thanks, best laugh I’ve had here in a long time
 
#732      
DReq
RabidDawgClassic said:
Yeah, but once we get that serviceable 9th guy we’re gonna want a serviceable 10th guy. Where does it end??
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I believe technically according to the rules it ends somewhere in the vicinity of a serviceable 15th guy. And maybe a silent European recruit to step in to fill any holes that show up. Possibly a serviceable lead manager or an assistant to the assistant coach's assistant. (Even then, maybe not)
 
#733      
ChiefGritty
NarrowJ said:
And right now, Illinois is being placed at the top of the way too early rankings. The thought of a bunch of teams jumping us means they’re signing multiple top 15 xfers, and there just aren’t that many to go around. Keep in mind the way too early #1 ranking FOX Sports gave us was a week prior to the Vaaks commitment.
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As others have mentioned, bringing back 5 of 8 rotation players from a Final Four team is rare in this era. This isn't any old season, this is special.

HensonHall71 said:
I'm not sure where you are going with this
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Just that it's hard, and perhaps foolish, to be certain about things at this stage.

Altuve27 said:
Then they made the right decision. No question.
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One trillion percent. And now we're being savvy about the situation to get the supplement the rotation needs. Our staff is good at this.

RabidDawgClassic said:
LOYALTY: I know what that means! All is NOT fine! PANIC!!! PANIC!!!
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We're reaching new levels of "inventing a guy to get mad at" around here.
 
#734      
DReq
Boomauer said:
Joke Expression GIF by Rona inc.
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I thought the early bird just got worms or something.
 
#736      
EmeraldCityIllini
NarrowJ said:
And right now, Illinois is being placed at the top of the way too early rankings. The thought of a bunch of teams jumping us means they’re signing multiple top 15 xfers, and there just aren’t that many to go around. Keep in mind the way too early #1 ranking FOX Sports gave us was a week prior to the Vaaks commitment.

This thought that Illinois needs to go into the new season with zero competition across a national scale is weird and not feasible.
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Michigan, Florida, Duke, UCONN, Lville, and maybe MSU seem the only reasonable ones with a chance.

But as you said, a few of those would both require a guy like Juke Harris to surpass, and there’s only one Juke Harris. Teams like lville and MSU even if they did, still are a discussion - you wanna talk about no depth, look at Lville.

All of this is all well and good offseason banter. But to me, my goal is I wanna be in the quadrant on the graphs that show me I’m in the “elite tier” - stack me as many of those seasons you can. If a preseason number 1 comes with it, then so be it.
 
#738      
EmeraldCityIllini
fatboyslim said:
I guess I’m not as sold on Florida as everyone else is. I wasn’t sold on them this past season either I didn’t think the SEC was very good and they beat up/dominated on a bunch of overhyped SEC teams
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I give you credit, you certainly were skeptical of them.

I thought the frontcourt was so freaking good they could survive the guards being erratic. So I won’t fall in that trap again, they need to land a big time guard for me to be all in.
 
#741      
wncillini
fatboyslim said:
I guess I’m not as sold on Florida as everyone else is. I wasn’t sold on them this past season either I didn’t think the SEC was very good and they beat up/dominated on a bunch of overhyped SEC teams
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Im not sure anyone has been sold on them through 2 or 3 of their national championships. However they are the 2nd best program since they won their first. They are going to be there for a while.
 
#747      
mysterio2525
EmeraldCityIllini said:
I give you credit, you certainly were skeptical of them.

I thought the frontcourt was so freaking good they could survive the guards being erratic. So I won’t fall in that trap again, they need to land a big time guard for me to be all in.
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assuming Aberdeen isn't coming back, then they are a decent shooting guard from being really scary. fland could take a jump and we already know what they have in the front court. if they got milan from Iowa State then that's a super team and clear preseason 1
 
#750      
illiniguy24
ILFaninFL said:
AND the Bulls coach is now available.
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I can’t imagine Billy wants to go back to the SEC to coach against Florida after the laughing stock Kentucky has become this spring.

Kentucky will be back, eventually, no doubt. But their stock is pretty low at the moment.
 
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