Recent content by IllinitripleJ

He's a better shot blocker than Mara but has skills. Tough loss for Cincinnati but I assume it was all about NIL. Morez's spot looks to taken by 5* freshman Quinn Costello, a Burger Boy and top 20 recruit. Costello is skilled and 6'10'. If they get the forward from Wake Forest they might be even...

Why exactly did the Bulls give up on Ayo?

Duke looks like they will have the most stacked roster since Kentucky 2014-2015. Not sure how you keep 11 top players happy.

The "Blue Blood" status pertains more to football than basketball. In basketball it has more to do with who is the coach. What was Duke before Coach K? Certainly not a blue blood. Good program but not comparable to North Carolina. Eventually under Coach K they passed North Carolina.

Then why not transfer to Michigan? Florida? UConn? I don't think he will be content carrying Rippley's bags. And Duke has Isaiah Evans & Dame Sarr returning to play the big guard position.

I am assuming Blackwell is going to Duke but why? Duke is returning Caleb Foster & Cayden Boozer, two top guards. In addition, they are bringing in one of the top high school guards this year in Deron Rippley. In fact Rippley is so good he won the Morgan Wootton award for top high school player...

And also Anthony Davis from Chicago. Bruce Weber was the first one in on Davis and if the Illini had gotten him in 2011 who is to say how long Weber would have kept coaching at Illinois. But there was 100,000 reasons why Davis signed with Kentucky and led them to their last national championship...

Was Brandon Lee pushed out by the staff to free up his scholarship (Like a former coach at Indiana was known for)? Or did he leave on his own as he thought he wasn't as good as the incoming freshmen and he didn't want to warm the bench? Seems strange that the portal is getting ready to close and...

What teams are interested in him? He's had severe leg injuries and has not played in two years.

Maybe we can then poach Michigan assistant coach Michael Boyton? I was disappointed Illinois did not try harder in getting Lendeborg last year considering both Lendeborg and & Antigua have Dominican background. Maybe though Orlando & Brad told Lendeborg he was ready for the NBA and to go pro.

I really thought we could have won it it in either/both 1984-1985 and 1985-1986. But Efrem Winters was never the same after his leg injury. Roy Tarpley, who became a top player for Michigan in 1984-1985 and 1085-1986, was not as good as Efrem before Efrem's injury and both of them came out of...

How many coaching staffs can claim they took a player outside of the top 100 incoming freshmen and in 8 months he became a top 7 pick in the NBA draft? I hope Brad and his staff brings this up for every player they recruit. Especially guards.

Maybe we can still convince Sarr to come to Illinois and to play him at guard. If Sarr wants to be a small forward, would Illinois be interested in him? Or is Duke all in in paying Sarr big NIL money.

Illinois was in on Sarr before he choose Duke. If Blackwell does commit to Duke, any chance the Illini can secure Sarr? Sarr has to be impressed by what our staff did with Wagler this year.

Why is Duke even bothering with Blackwell? They have guards Caleb Foster, Dame Sarr and Cayden Boozer returning for next year. They were ranked numbers 17, 81 and 19 coming out of high school. Sarr will be possibly the best defensive guard in the country next year. Plus Duke is bring in two top...