Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread
HUH
He's a mediocre Valley player. We are better than that. I said if he develops and if his brother wants him around, pretty logical.
He was 3rd team All Conference and runner up for Freshman of the Year.
That doesn’t sound like a “mediocre valley player” (rather a pretty good one).
I think the thought was he's probably overall a higher quality of player than, lets say, Jason Jakstys or Landon Davis (and perhaps Ethan Brown, but they're saying he is eventually going to be very good, so not sure about that one). The post I saw did say "I would take JT over several guys currently on the roster" which to me is a stretch. Several? I'm not swapping him for Morillo or Jake Davis or Big Z, just for example. JT put up 12 & 6 but did it on a bad team that finished barely above .500 in the MVC and lost by nearly double digits to the #341 KP team. His eFG% was barely above 40%.
Some of the players that get hyped up here from other teams boggles my mind... Jaland Lowe was a sub-40% eFG guy on a 17-15 Pitt team and was getting talked up here like he'd have led Kentucky to a F4 if not for his injury. If we had a guy like that coming in to Illinois there would be endless naysayers.
All that said, if it locks in little bro you do it in a heartbeat.
These were some of his statistical accomplishments from last season:
15th in the league in scoring average.
3rd in rebounds per game
15th in rebounds per game nationally amongst freshman
2nd in offensive rebounds per game
14th in FT percentage
9th in steals per game in conf. only games
2nd in the league in double doubles
His 139 made free throws was the most by a Valpo player in the last 9 years
His 223 rebounds on the season was the second most by a Valpo player ever
Keep in mind he was just a freshman. I don’t think he’s mediocre for a Valley player.
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We spent a lot of time this summer fretting over who the backup PF will be - our starting PF goes down with an injury. If we have the opportunity to bring in one of the top rebounders from the MVC, who's the brother of our highest priority recruit and we're actually debating if we would want him?
JT would be a great addition - for multiple reasons
JT would be a great addition - for multiple reasons
Eh, would rather Morillo or Big Z eat those minutes. JT and Morillo are about the same size anyway. If you just want a guy to come in for 3-5 minutes and rebound, I'm not sure that's a role JT wants (he played 28mpg last year).
People forget that guys like Ben and Jake came from very similar backgrounds (lower level, solid production) and worked themselves into quality pieces for us.
Can Brad find 2 of him?
Ben and Jake are shooters who fit our system, an undersized 4 (215lbs) who shoots 28% from three seems more than a bit out of place here. I doubt the rebounding would translate to Big Ten. Ben and Jake both immediately came in and played (Jake 10 mpg, Ben 25 mpg). Do we have a meaningful role available for a guy who is a slightly taller but less athletic Ty Rodgers that also isn't a ballhandler? I don't know where you put him / what you have him do. If he's just a filler for while Mirk is out, I doubt he sees that as worthwhile.
I think its hard to argue he's a great fit piece like Jake and Ben, but if we want to state the obvious (that he'd be coming here because of his brother) then it makes more sense.
Just skeptical of either (1) we have a role available for a player like him or let alone (2) he'd accept that role knowing it would be a small one.
Hopefully we all agree though that you take him in a heartbeat if it closes the deal with Brady.
I was the one that said several and yes several is generally a figure of speech but for sake of putting it out there.
I would without any doubt take him over Fagbemi, Landon Davis, and Jakstys. Probably taking him over Brown and then Zens more of a toss up. I really like Zens but still would probably take JT because he's proven he can be an impact player at the D1 level.
So 5 guys Id take him over(plus 1 open roster spot so maybe 6 if you count that over the flexibility of having that spot).
I did note that his efficiency needs to improve(which it did as the season went on) but if he does improve on that then he's going to get a lot of power conference interest next year. If he's ok with coming off the bench behind Mirk then he's a pretty great fit which lends credence to your point that he might not be interested in that role though I do think he plays enough on the perimeter that you could potentially play him next to Mirk too sometimes and be a 6th or 7th man(Physically he kind of reminds me of Malik Hall).
Averaged 12.5 pts, 6.8 rebounds, and 1.8 asts as a true freshman on .385/.282/.743. Though like I mentioned was significantly more efficient down the stretch and shot the 3 at a much better clip.
Is it reasonable that he could put up something along the lines of 15.1/5.2/3.9 on .436/.352/.824 as a sophomore?
I used those numbers because that was the junior season of everyones favorite Valley transfer Marcus Domask. The rebound numbers are probably lower than what JT can put up and the assists are probably higher but I think him putting up a similar stat line this year is well within the realm of outcomes for him.
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Z is a 5.
JT could play the 3 or the 4. The shooting concerns you have for him apply just as much to Morillo.
Oh, right on then. I was not even thinking about Fagbemi at all in this equation.
I may have gotten too wordy with previous replies, but I think it boils down to this: can he play well enough at this level to get the amount of playing time he'd need to be happy here?
Tend to think Marcus Domask is an exception to a rule that it generally takes a good year for a mid-major guy to acclimate to P4/5 basketball, but then again... if JT Pettigrew came here and a couple years from now is 2nd/3rd team All-B1G... that would just be shooting par at the Annual Brad Underwood Open.
Did you watch any Illinois games last year or only USC and UConn? Z played some with Tomi and I’d expect to see that even more this year, not just because Mirk is hobbled but they need to get him on the floor for more than 17-18 minutes a game. I wasn’t aware JT played the 3 at all, but if so, another 3 is the last thing we need.
We only played the twins together against teams with bad shooters and guys we could dork.
Against a team with good floor spacing, that lineup will get torched.
If it gets us his brother than I would take him in a heartbeat
Then you just don’t play them together against teams with good floor spacing, which is not very many teams at all.
Teams like Illinois that have 4 or 5 shooters on the floor at all times are very rare.
Yup, and that’s where the depth issues come in. We don’t have a PF on the roster to fill that void besides Mirk.
I don’t think Mirk misses significant time, but he’ll probably be unable to play huge minutes just coming back from a significant injury, so you’ll need to find that option. And if he does miss time, we basically have nobody for the position. It’s unfortunate.
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Can't speak for the full season but KP shows him at the 4 69% of the last 5 games of the season and at the 5 6% of the time.
Depth issues?
Ah, that's pretty cool. I should just go ahead and pay the $24.99 or whatever it is.
DICKnaggie
- Champaign
Not much talk about the shift from Europe. Obviously there are some (ongoing) legal conversations but our pivot this years seems notable and a topic of conversation. What are folks thinking?
Noblesville Illini
- Nappanee, IN
Our AD is a sharp attorney. Our coaches know what the boots on the ground are saying in Europe. We are in tight with the biggest agent in the Balkans. Guess the pivot was pretty obvious I am thinking.
But a lot of that is based on size on the roster. Valpo like a lot of mid majors doesn't have a ton of size so a 6'8 Pettigrew will naturally play the 4 and even some small ball 5.
Not trying to keep bringing him up but Domask played the 4 at SIU(big part of why he was so good in the post). Or with ISU last year Ty Pence was kind of their 4 or teams like Miami (OH).
Or at the power conference level Alex Karaban technically was a 4 but he was also just a versatile wing.
If you watch Valpo and Pettigrew play. He's kind of a combo wing/forward. Good athlete, good size and can dribble. The jumpshot looks like it should become at least average as a catch and shoot guy. I think he could become a Malik Hall type of big wing that can play both the 3 and 4.
Obviously, there would be a lot of moving pieces and we would have to see how the roster shakes out but I think the question isn't if we would take JT. It's if JT would be open to coming here and potentially taking a bench role somewhere between 6-8.
I think we just didn’t need to go that route this year
Note: the below ignores overtime
They played 100 minutes together and were +45. They played the most against Wisconsin (+6 in 22min), Nebraska (+8 in 12min), and MSU (+/- 0 in 10.5min). Michigan (-9 in 2:49) and Rutgers (-5 in 1:41) were their only bad games.
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