Huh? Zavier Zens is ranked 103rd and Brandon Lee was ranked 99th.
Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread
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Its pretty simple why Ty was told what his role would likely be given our system is about shooting, spacing the floor and hitting the glass. Ty cant shoot so that kills our ability to space the floor. I know fans love Ty and his attitude but he was not going to work in our system. He never developed any kind of jump shot whatsoever. He was provided more opportunity to do that but he didnt. It sucks. I wish him the best but he wasnt going to do much here.
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We just watched Morez Johnson in Maize and Blue (at least partially) because they didn't do this two years ago. It's a good thing, actually.
When does Brad ever play more than 8 in high level conference games?
I can see why you discount the staff watching Lee in practice and games for a year. We all know that incoming guards turn out exactly like their High School rankings.
2025. Jake Davis - 9.5 minutes per game.
A lot of guys out for multiple games in 2025. Kind of an anomaly.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
But that's the thing, right? Situational need for quality contributions from more players than your core rotation isn't an anomaly at all, it would be an anomaly if that WEREN'T the case.
You need too many in order to have enough, that's just kind of a truism of basketball.
Everything is frozen right now because of Andrej's draft process, that's the reality of it.
I agree. Brad typically doesnt go more than 8 deep. That being said, i do expect that we will add a 4 to be someone who is more suited to back up at the power 4 spot. Maybe not on Ben's level but possibly. Last year we had 4 guys that played the 4/5 in T, Z, Mirk and Ben. We needed all of them last season due to injuries and at times fouls. Currently to play the 4/5 especailly on the defensive end we only have 3 for those roles in T, Z and Mirk. For depth incase of injury or foul trouble i do expect us to fill that void in our rosters construction. How much they play im.not sure. We are stocked at the w7ng but not at the 4/5 if someone goes down or has foul trouble. Mayb s9me dont exoectvus to add a 4 man but i do expect that to happen eventually. Players get sick, hurt and get in foul trouble. The teams we are facing will have some big strong dudes at the 4/5 and we will need some back ups for depth or if someine does go down we arent in big trouble.
I think the key is fit. We have no shortage of guys who can play on the wing, and play well.
Clearly, playing time was Lee's primary motivation for leaving, or he wouldn't have gone the mid-major route. He has a chance to start and be one of their top usage players. We didn't kick him out. He decided to leave.
Zens is barely behind where Lee was in their respective final rankings. (like 4 spots?) Zens is a much more versatile player, in that he has a low post game, so he is likely able to play small ball 4 or out on the wing. Brown is a shooter, plain and simple, but that skill is essential for our offense to function properly.
Lee wouldn't have been able to give us minutes at the 4, and would have to earn his respect from the arc. I'm not sure shooting from range is going to be his calling card... but his wasn't even about that. It was about what Brandon wanted. He didn't want 5-10 mpg. He wants 20-30.
PizzaHutParkingLot
- Vodice, Croatia
Hope they’re either showing Zens 2026 Ben film or somehow getting him in the gym this offseason. That would be sick.
FightinIllini30
Future insider
Wow. I find this hard to believe but I will defer to your judgement. I actually really liked all of the minutes that Brandon Lee got. The Feliz comparisons were very accurate IMO
Fun fact:
Since Brad has been here, four times has a "9th man" appeared in the majority of conference games and averaged 9 or more mpg.
Jake in 2025
Adonis De La Rosa in 2019
Mark Smith and Greg Eboigbodin in 2018
I'd say probably not a coincidence that those are 3 of the 4 worst years of BU's tenure.
Since Brad has been here, four times has a "9th man" appeared in the majority of conference games and averaged 9 or more mpg.
Jake in 2025
Adonis De La Rosa in 2019
Mark Smith and Greg Eboigbodin in 2018
I'd say probably not a coincidence that those are 3 of the 4 worst years of BU's tenure.
Hope they’re either showing Zens 2026 Ben film or somehow getting him in the gym this offseason. That would be sick.
Bigtex
- DFW
late to the party
1) they aren't good shooters
2) significant role? 9/10 on the roster
3) What was the NIL offer?
Good for them an offer at another D1 school.
In the Mark Smith (17-18) year, DeMonte played the 9th most minutes. 10 guys played in at least 27 games and averaged over 10 mpg. Obviously, a team searching for an identity.
Last year the guy who played the 9th most minutes was Petrovic...(about 100 minutes total)
In the Ayo years and beyond, Jake Davis played the most minutes of the guys who had the 9th most in a given season. (Around 300 minutes) Only thre other guys played over 200. De la Rosa, Omar Payne, and DGL (Fr). (I'm not counting Skyy, who played the 9th most in his short tenure. Goode was 10th at about 150 min)
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
So if you exclude garbage time minutes, the 9th guy can expect to play 3-5 minutes per game. Pretty sure one of the freshman can fill that role.
Measuring by total minutes is tricky because there's so much early season garbage time built in. That's why, when I think about our "real" rotation, I tend to focus on what the rotation looks like in conference. But yeah, ^ that's all true.
I think sometimes people think that having a 9th man who is a key cog in the rotation is a sign of a roster's strength. But I'd argue more often it means that one / some of your top five players aren't good enough to stay on the floor. Kinda related to the football adage "If you have two quarterbacks, you have none."
You still need someone who will accept that role at a relatively low price point and won't cause locker room discontent.
The silly parts about this conversation is that Ty redshirted rather than take on that role in the past... We know how he feels about the 8th / 9th slot.
And even if stoj announced he was coming back tomorrow the message we've gotten from insiders is the staff wants to see the freshman over the summer and then consider an overseas add.
We've seen those overseas players typically come later in the summer anyways and that Illinois showing interest in players can create a bidding war...so the current approach seems awfully reasonable
The thing about thinking this is that neither Petro or Brandon Lee filled that role last year. Hence, in our game against Wisconsin, we were forced to play a 6-man team, with both of those guys playing 0 minutes.
Last year's team was very successful, but would prefer that part to get corrected. Those guys should be good enough to get into the game.
But the whole point is that you can't get starter/6th man level guys to come here for a role where you (a) play maybe 30 garbage time minutes the entire season if there are minimal/no injuries or (b) hope they can maybe grab a 5-10 minute role if in the small off chance there ARE significant injuries.
Nobody is signing up for that except your incoming freshmen who know they have some work cut out for them (even sophomore Brandon Lee doesn't want this role).
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