Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread

[Battle89]

Crazy that Purdue and Houston were 1-2.

1-2 in the rankings and 0-2 vs. Illinois!

 

[Battle89]

Purdue was pretty good. 30 wins, Conference tournament champs, E8 in the tournament, and an all time historic NCAA assists leader. Houston was no slouch either

 

[JKR]

Would you take that year right now for us next year?

Yep. We've only won 30 games twice.

 

[AirNeazy]

I wouldn’t think so, although admittedly, there is a portion of the Venn Diagram where there’s some intersection. Wade’s case will mostly hinge on the eligibility of players who’ve gone through the NBA draft and/or signed an NBA contract. That applies to none of our guys.

Having said that, I feel Wade and LSU may have a better than decent chance at winning any lawsuit. The amateur vs professional argument has already been blown up with the inclusion of former international pros. A good lawyer could argue both that there’s no distinct difference between Euro pros and NBA pros and that denying NBA pros a return to college could be considered restraint of trade. Of course, this would blow up college athletics as we know it, but that’s been the trend for quite a while now anyway.

Makes sense, I just saw the news today about the new potential eligibility requirements stating that you can't have ever accepted more than a 'minimal' amount of money to pay in a pro league and how it cast some doubt onto players in the grey area like Dame Sarr (which made me think of our guys)

 

[OB positive]

Well, 9th man’s value doesn’t quite have to do with a positional need, but more-so to add a body who, if thrown into a b10 game, won’t be a liability.

Here’s why the #9thman is important.

First off, as much as we love setting 200min as the limit for predicting players’ minutes… truth is it basically never turns out that way.

Here’s our total minutes played per game over the past 3 seasons among rotational players (what I’m labeling as “rotational” is basically having appeared in most games that season).

2024:

View attachment 50364

= 203.9 minutes total

2025:

View attachment 50365

= 206.4 minutes total

2026:

View attachment 50366

= 204.4 minutes total

So, let’s just say as a baseline it’ll be 204 available to distribute this season. My approximate guess at where things stand with the top 8:

Andrej - 32
David - 31
Vaaks - 30
Coleman - 27
Tomi - 27
Z - 18
Jake - 18
Morillo - 15

= 198

That leaves you with about 6 minutes left for the 9th man. As it stands, Brown or Zens would be the beneficiary of those minutes.

I think we need as good a 9th man as we can get because we are more than likely going to have to deal with illness or injuries. Don't want to be in the same situation as we were this year when we had multiple players down and Brad felt he only had seven players that were usable.

 

[ChiefGritty]

Lets see how it plays out.

Last year preseason AP Top 25:

1. Purdue - finished 6th in B1G
2. Houston - S16
3. Florida - R32
4. UConn - lost NC game
5. St John's - S16
6. Duke - E8
7. Michigan - NC
8. BYU - R64
9. Kentucky - R32
10. Texas Tech - R32

Only 2 or 3 of those teams did anything remotely noteworthy... and that is a preseason ranking from October (for reference, its currently May)

7 of those 10 (all of the top 7) wound up in the top 10 of the final AP poll both pre and post tournament, and Texas Tech lost their superstar to injury with whom they were very much in that mix, so the only two there that you could say were wrong were Kentucky and BYU.

"New-build NIL superteams under shaky coaches" is definitely the common theme of the modern day overrated team.

 

[NarrowJ]

I think we need as good a 9th man as we can get because we are more than likely going to have to deal with illness or injuries. Don't want to be in the same situation as we were this year when we had multiple players down and Brad felt he only had seven players that were usable.

I don't know why this has to be explained a million times but this is going to be the case for pretty much any team dealing with [multiple] injuries. You can't get rotational quality players to come sign for lowball NIL and be expected to play zero minutes the whole season in the case that there are minimal injuries.

Duke went to a 6 man rotation when they had guys injured
Texas Tech went to a 6/7 man rotation when Toppin went down
Michigan went to a 7 man rotation with Tschetter playing spot minutes after the Cason injury
UConn was playing 7 guys when they had injuries
Iowa St played 7 after Jefferson got injured
Alabama played 7 after Holloway was arrested
Gonzaga played 7 after Braden Huff was injured

 

[NarrowJ]

7 of those 10 (all of the top 7) wound up in the top 10 of the final AP poll both pre and post tournament, and Texas Tech lost their superstar to injury with whom they were very much in that mix, so the only two there that you could say were wrong were Kentucky and BYU.

"New-build NIL superteams under shaky coaches" is definitely the common theme of the modern day overrated team.

We can use different metrics and come up with slightly different results, but for the most part there isn't going to be much accuracy to be had trying to pinpoint a top 7 on May 22nd (was original point I wanted to make and then I think discussion got off track a bit).

 

[ChiefGritty]

We can use different metrics and come up with slightly different results, but for the most part there isn't going to be much accuracy to be had trying to pinpoint a top 7 on May 22nd (was original point I wanted to make and then I think discussion got off track a bit).

I guess I kind of disagree?

If the statement is that there's a sort of aristocracy coalescing at the top, I think I more or less agree with that. And I'm excited to be a part of it.

 

[NarrowJ]

I guess I kind of disagree?

If the statement is that there's a sort of aristocracy coalescing at the top, I think I more or less agree with that. And I'm excited to be a part of it.

Just kind of?

Do we think it’s easier to identify a top 7 now or (for example) in January?

 

[ChiefGritty]

Just kind of?

Do we think it’s easier to identify a top 7 now or (for example) in January?

I mean both have their problems, right?

If we struggle with our ultra-hard non-conference schedule and are unranked on January 1, are we dead and buried? Or will what we knew in May reassert itself?

I dunno, I don't really think this is that important of a debate, other than just identifying us as one of a group of programs who are just in really durably great shape looking toward next year. If 2026 Purdue is your floor, that's a heck of a floor.

 

[NarrowJ]

I mean both have their problems, right?

If we struggle with our ultra-hard non-conference schedule and are unranked on January 1, are we dead and buried? Or will what we knew in May reassert itself?

I dunno, I don't really think this is that important of a debate, other than just identifying us as one of a group of programs who are just in really durably great shape looking toward next year. If 2026 Purdue is your floor, that's a heck of a floor.

Original person I replied to said “definite top 7” which was what I had pushed back on. Now that the conversation has shifted to “is it as accurate as a preseason poll?” I can see my stance has certainly lost its luster.

Two of the F4 teams weren’t even in the top 12. Lack of tournament success is also evident within that preseason top 10.

So I was just saying it’s May and rosters aren’t even finalized. If Andrej does the unexpected and stays in the draft, are we still part of that top 7?

Anyway you’re right that it’s not a terribly important convo- just shooting the breeze on a Friday afternoon.