Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread
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USC's 9th man built the iron Man suit in a cave with a box of scraps
If I'm in the category of people grinding your gears (I know I did the other day, though today seems less contentious), I think you might be reading too much into what I'm saying.
Brad (and staff), has done a phenomenal job of getting surplus value above our freshman/portal ratings. But I think until we win a natty and/or are a 1-seed with some regularity, I will wonder what could be if we were getting surplus value on top of even higher-rated freshmen/transfers. It very well could be that NIL $ is the constraint though, so I don't hold that against Brad.
Hopefully this is the year that puts all that to rest.
I don't feel that being positive but bringing some perspective along with that positivity equates to "tearing down the team (I) root for."Figured wrong, I guess?
Vaaks is certainly our primary ball handler, Rice & Cox will likely share that role for USC.
I don't know how you came up with these completely arbitrary percentages, but Cox is certainly not 9th in their pecking order (which was the whole point) unless they plan to roll out a post player at point guard.
I can walk that back but he's very very good, as is Cox... that's the point I was making (but your semantic nitpick stands)
Dunno why it is the mission of the message board to tear down the team they root for and hoot and howl over the rest of the league... USC with the best roster in the B1G made me chuckle for sure.
There’s been a pretty extreme devils advocate movement with this whole 9th man thing that’s rather undeniable.
We’ve had a group who’s had to make sure everyone knows Michigan and Duke and Florida (and now USC) are positioned better than Illinois going into the season.
It’s just going to be the next checkmark in the very long list of things that this message board has been wrong about (Ben Humrichous, RayJ Dennis, etcetera).
If Jalen Cox is playing behind both the Ratliff twins then ironically, that means USC’s guard depth has fallen off a cliff.
Theres a long list of ways that the pessimists, the optimists, and the coaches have been wrong.
It's not an exact science. Ergo, debates.
Sure, but generally speaking this message board collectively freaks out about a lot of things that end up being nothingburgers.
This is one of those things. We can revisit in 10-11 months and see if I’m right but the track record is on my side.
The so called 9th man in actuality will be the new 6th man and the 8th man will become the 9th man
Collectively? Are there even 10 people expressing concern about the 9th man?
So yes, you're probably going to be "right" as will the 99% of this board that has refrained from comment.
Have you been here the last month or so? It’s literally the only thing being discussed.
Because one's a prospect ranking and the other is about how good a season you had.
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Except the topic has ZERO to do with Keaton.
It's super uncommon for someone to be rated as a top 15 high school player... while being ranked outside the t-100 nationally.
Totally fair question to dig into.
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Yes, I have. We have like three people concerned about the 9th man. About ten people arguing that it's not very important. And about 50 people making jokes about it. So there has been no collective concern.
Coleman and Zens both have that ability to lead their teams to championships. While Coleman is expected to do some big things for us Zens has that underrated Wagler possibility about him.
Simple answer: depth.
I think our starting unit is marginally better; perhaps definitively better.
However, USC's second unit is 5x ours. Our second unit is good enough to not be a negative, while their's is good enough to legitimately win them games.
When I look at our roster, I see very good retention and very good additions.... but only as far as the first 5 go.
Behind it, you need 4 guys who can give you minutes in SOME form. Things WON'T go perfectly as planned, weird stuff WILL happen. If you'd like to play 8, great. But you'd prefer to have 9 to play 8 (and history does show the 9th usually gets minutes in some limited capacity).
Unless Zens or Brown is better than expected, we just don't have that option.
I mean, let's be honest: if a Luke Goode type injury happens to one of our top 8 right before the season (doesn't have to be one of our stars), and we get notice they'll be out 'til mid January...
will anyone still feel remotely as comfortable with all the big games scheduled in the non-con?
When we have injuries, and lose games because of it... it'll absolutely be a big topic of conversation here IF no one outside our top 8 is good enough to check into the game and play minutes in small samples.
If they are, then it won't be. We're just gambling that one of the freshman are.
Big Jack
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No one deserves to have that comparison/burden placed on them, just because they’re ranked outside the top 100 and committed to Illinois.
Unfortunately, it’s what will be said about every under recruited kid who comes here.
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