Yes.
Let's see Coleman play against some college competition. Conference and quality non-con.
However I will be thrilled if you are right.
Illini Basketball 2026-2027
Let's see Coleman play against some college competition. Conference and quality non-con.
However I will be thrilled if you are right.
RabidDawgClassic
- Los Angeles, CA
Wait… is there a #8thman issue too???From Vaaks' quotes:
"We have six or seven more experienced players and many young players who are fighting for the eighth or ninth place on the team"
Can we get him to appear on this board and address the 9th man issue?
Noticed the chief in one frame of the crowd at the 4-second mark of the longer video, I knew deep down in my heart he wasn't gone, just somewhere else (for now...
)
It really tried to become a thing a few days ago when someone was wondering if Morillo could be as good as Justin Harmon.
Man is Vaaks is a good shooter
Fan Since '70
- OBS, Florida
Plummer hit .408 on 98 of 240 3pt shots in '21-22, but had 35 assists to 43 TO's and went undrafted
Wagler hit .397 on 87 of 219 3pt shots '25-26 but also had 157 assists to 66 TO's (and was a deservedly #5 lottery pick)
Vaaks could possibly outshoot them both and also get lots of assists and be a 1st round pick.
BTW, Jake Davis shot .406 from 3pt in '25-26 and was our 'Plummer' sharpshooter off the bench.
It’s highly, highly unlikely he “outshoots” Plummer. 3.0 threes per game at 41% is bonkers. He was a generational flamethrower (at least in terms of Illinois history).
I think Vaaks makes more 3s per game than Keaton, because he’ll take more attempts. Doubt he shoots Keaton’s percentage though.
Jake did it on 3.6 attempts per game. Plummer did it on 7.3 (and still shot a higher %).
We’ve had 4 guys in program history hit 90 threes in a season: Bradford (96), Dee Brown (99), Plummer (98), Luther Head (116).
Plummer: 40.8%
Head: 41.0%
Bradford: 41.5%
Dee: 43.4%
The caveat here is that 3pt distance was much more manageable when Bradford / Luther / Dee played — 19 ft 9 inches, compared to 22ft 2 inches.
Plummer: 40.8%
Head: 41.0%
Bradford: 41.5%
Dee: 43.4%
The caveat here is that 3pt distance was much more manageable when Bradford / Luther / Dee played — 19 ft 9 inches, compared to 22ft 2 inches.
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The real caveat is two of those guys played in one of the best college basketball offenses of all time in terms of getting open looks. Dee is my favorite illini ever he did nothing but hit wide open threes his third year to get that percentage. When he had to create his own shot the next year he couldn't throw it in the ocean.
I really genuinely like Justin Harmon. Seemed like a great teammate and I always thought he played hard. However, he really didn't produce outside of a solid run in January when TJ got suspended(which was nice) but he was basically invisible in March.
Feliz would be the bench guard I would love to have on the current roster.
To play devils advocate a bit though, Justin Harmon was still a 5th year player that averaged 14 on a very good Utah Valley team and he was awesome in the NIT(there is a lot of talent in the NIT despite all the jokes). He dropped 32 on New Mexico in that tourney that had Jamal Mashburn Jr, Jalean House, and Donovan Dent.
However, there is a huge difference between being an 18 year old freshman and a 23 year old senior(which is why you used to see a lot more mid major upsets when the small schools in March were full of 21-22 years old playing against power conference schools full of freshman and sophomores).
Morillo is a top 50ish recruit and so was Ty who didn't do much as a freshman. So I wouldn't necessarily even expect Morillo to give the production Harmon did.
Maybe he will, but top 50 guys aren't always ready to produce as freshman(some top 10 guys aren't).
Vaaks could match Plummer’s 3 point attempts, imo. He shot 8.4 at prov.
Will he shoot 41%? Absolutely not. But he doesn’t need to.
35-36% is more than enough to be a very good shooter at that volume.
Ty played almost 20 minutes per game as a freshman, you're just looking at his offensive production which we already know about. He played a good sized role on that team, which is what we should also expect Morillo to do (albeit in a different capacity; he'll probably be more involved offensively).
Morillo providing Harmon’s production as a freshman would be a home run.
the average height of last season's team was 6' 6.6", while the average height for the upcoming season is 6' 7.3".
OrangeBlue98
Iowa is not in a great spot right now (LvilleILL1)
- Des Moines, IA
If he’s not the best AD in the country, it doesn’t take long to call the roll of those better.
Ty Rodgers played as a freshman out of desperation because there were only 3 playable guys on the roster in Shannon, Mayer, and Coleman and one solid power conference depth guy in Dain.
He played hard which is more than a lot of guys that year but he would not have sniffed the court on a better team.
That team had Skyy Clark quit, Sincere Harris was unplayable offensively, Jayden Epps was terrible after November, RJ Melendez looked like he forgot how to play basketball that year, and Luke Goode missed basically the entire season with a broken foot.
Honestly looking back that roster now, it's a testament to Shannon and Mayer that they somehow managed a 5th play finish in the big10 and were ranked for a lot of that year.
That's a lot of stuff that, while some of it true and some of it not, in the end really doesn't address the point, which was that Morillo - as a top 50 recruit - is a fine option to play as 3rd guy off of the bench.
It is common as can be for great teams to have similarly ranked freshmen in their rotation. Not an oddity that should give Illinois fans 'big pause' as their top-ranked team goes into this coming season.
I'd joked about us going from dramatic #9thman dilemma to the even more catastrophic #8th man dilemma (can Morillo be as good as... gasp... Justin Harmon?)
Yet, here we are.