Recent content by I lost Kofi's blue binder

Totally get it. But another way of looking at it—and I think the fairer, less orange-colored glasses way to look at it, since a star wing was the biggest hole on the roster and the chief focus of the offseason—is that you’d be filling a star’s slot with your third-best transfer. Which isn’t great.

Lathon is solid, but man, it’s quite a fall from “proven high-major producer” to “second-best player on a low-major.” Everyone was excited when it appeared close to a sure thing Illinois would get the former as its star wing. Now the mere suggestion that the latter would be disappointing summons...

If he returns to college, fully expecting another “he was asking for too much” clunker.

I’ve been very critical of Illinois’ offseason so far, and this is a reeeaaaalllyy bad take.

Great! So was Aday Mara, and he was terrible last season. Hard to say how Ivisic will translate…hopefully well. Which is something of a theme with this roster full of complementary pieces. Lots of hope, not a ton of concrete success to draw on. It has been interesting to watch the takes change...

Putting aside the comparison, why shouldn't we expect to rinse and repeat the same thing that has happened every time Illinois zeroes in on a high-impact player? 1. Signs are positive 2. Signs are positive 3. Signs are positive 4. Other teams might be involved but Illinois is in a good spot 5...

Watkins, Kelly… decent players on absolutely awful teams. Extremely disappointing if that’s the best Illinois can do. But that’s what you get if you repeatedly refuse to pay top dollar for top talent. I still see a team chock full of third options. It’s fair to say “this price is unreasonable”...

Probably a "Demin or portal SG" situation, as opposed to both (resource limitations would be my guess). Whatever the reasoning, if "Demin or portal SG, not both" is the case and the staff has a high-impact SG ready to commit now, they need to pull the trigger. Absolutely cannot get left at the...

It’s tempting to believe that Demin will be on next year’s team, but having a hard time getting there after RayJ, Storr, and not even getting Jones into the portal. Hope this time can be different—can’t argue with the talent.

Have had the same thought, and the answer appears to be “yes.”

Trending toward being a 10ish seed quality of roster if no Demin, top wing, or top SG. Have to wonder who all the money went to if they aren’t leading contenders for any of the top options left in the portal.

A team with second weekend aspirations having that top four is, well, not actually a team with second weekend aspirations. It’s possible that a few European players could be major contributors but recent history is not promising in that respect.

The best wings have all gone elsewhere or never entered the portal at all, the search for a combo guard seems to have… ended?, and now the staff is apparently looking to Europe to fill holes. That worked out very poorly for UCLA last season. The roster is essentially a bunch of third and fourth...

Man, I appreciate trying to operate with a positive outlook, but I think it’s well within reasonable to express the opinion that an 11 ppg A-10 transfer would be a profoundly disappointing solution to the hole at wing. Have to imagine that’s not where the staff envisions him—though I’m having...

They're ranked that high largely because of the volume of transfers, not because the transfers themselves are established high-level players (other than Boswell). Definitely still need a star... or two.