Recent content by EliteIllini

Will be pulling for RJ. No hard feelings. The sad reality is he was only coming back if he was going to start, and if he was starting, we wouldn't be the team we want to be next year.

This board is Groundhog Day every March and April now. Two years ago it was "How are we going to replace our ACs?" "is Kofi going to come back? Is he really gonna follow our ACs to UK?" "Are RJ and Podz gonna make it to campus?" "The sky is falling!". Kofi came back, we found great replacement...

With what we've already seen from Ty with Team USA, it's clear we are loaded 1-4. Add a veteran PG for stability or Nance (which appears unlikely). Don't see adding an old school 5 moving the needle in any regard. Might only bog us down. Even Brad mentioned in that Katz interview that Hawk...

Reunite the Nance family and TA. Bring Malachi Smith home. Call it a day. Everybody wins. We continue momentum and definitively solidify our program post-Ayo/Kofi. Nance gets to train with TA. Smith gets to play on the big stage and hang a B10 banner for his home state. Current roster gets to...

I don't want to see Hawk leave. Everyone loves the good 4-year development story. He has great upside and unique talent when he's on. With that said, this isn't your mama's college basketball. With the bag grab of NIL and the transfer portal, you can't sit back and slowly rebuild. Need to answer...

Two cents is Kofi is back. You don't announce the decision date and create the lead up if you're about to South Beach the fan base. Seems like a great NIL play for one more year. Regardless, wish him the best. All-time great!

I hate seeing Belo leave as much as the next guy, but losing him isn't devastating. At his best, he was truly spectacular. At his worst, he totally disrupted the offense. He will always hold a special place in our hearts, but we shouldn't let nostalgia from a solid 6-7 game run last season for a...

Anyone looking ahead to next year and speculating needs to take a step back and remember how unexpectedly things can play out. This time last year, our next season looked bleak. Ayo leaving, Kofi most likely leaving, and Trent/DaMonte probably moving on. What happened since then? Belo came on...

Being in the NBA alone with his ties to Jamaica and the money he could make through that is worth several times more than any school could ever promise him. It's about development the next year. Plain and simple.

This board has so many betas it's nauseating. We are coming off a #1 seed. We have a tourney roster now with upside. A new, rising AC that absolutely bleeds Orange and Blue. Went punch for punch with a blue blood for our old ACs. An AD that actually gets IT. We are consistently on recruits'...

I agree people are overreacting, but I don't believe the frustration stems from "any one recruit". The frustration is the culmination of several recruiting battles lost over the last couple years. Losing out on Garcia stings, but the guy passed on the blue bloods already once. Hard to do it...

Didn't their governor sign an executive order last week?

With our incredibly more impressive alumni, I don't get how Kofi couldn't make more $$$ with NIL from Illinois than Kentucky. Do we not have one mega fan? Unwillingness to play dirty in the past is one thing, but now that it's legal I don't see how we couldn't match UK bag for bag. On top of...

UK is 100% an easier recruiting job for an assistant coach. More banners (that are more recent), greater NBA-talent, more resources, and a university administration more willing to play ball. Just being rational. OA and Cal had the #1 recruiting classes from 2009 to 2013. Losing OA and Chin...

Man, the way some of you guys talk about OA and Chin, I am surprised the rest of these college basketball programs survived not having them. Guess what? Losing assistants is part of the business when you have a thriving program. It hurts, but it's not the end of the world. Our program was in...