Former Illini in College Hoops

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#826      
JMO on transfer decisions

PODS - home run, got playing time and did very well. With Skyy departing mid season and injuries he may have seen more playing time at Illinois

Tevia - home run, got playing time and did well

Jacob - double, got to attend legendary basketball school and play in ACC.

Everybody else - single - got a chance to play somewhere else with varying results.
 
#827      
End of season update on the Illini diaspora

Jacob Grandison - Duke (6th year) appeared in all 34 games, starting 0 and averaging 16.0 minutes per game (8th most), averaged 4.4 points on .537 TS%, 2.1 rebounds and 1.4 assists, along with 0.4 steals and 0.1 blocks. solid 4.3 Box Plus Minus. Duke finishes 26-8 (14-6) and then won the ACC Tournament. They will be a 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament, making Grandison the only former Illini that will appear in the Big Dance and he will look to close out his college career on a high note.

Tevian Jones - Southern Utah (5th year) appeared and started in 33 games (with 1 game missed) and averaged a team high 33.5 minutes per game. He was his team's leading scorer at 17.6 PPG on .558 TS% (overall career is a .541 TS%), along with 4.4 rebounds, 1.3 assists, 1.2 steals and 0.1 blocks against 2.2 turnovers. Southern Utah finishes 22-12 (12-6) and fell short in the WAC Conference Tournament Championship Game to end their chances of a bid (after his heroic 4-point play sent them to the championship game). Jones finished 1st team All-WAC in what was a very strong last season for the former Illini, who made the most of his COVID eligible year.

Omar Payne - Jacksonville (Sr.) appeared in 25 games and started 9 (with 4 games missed) and averaged 17.0 minutes per game. He averaged 4.8 points per game on a team best .604 TS%, 3.2 rebounds, 0.5 assists, 0.3 steals and 1.0 blocks per game. Jacksonville finishes 13-16 (6-12) and failed to qualify for the Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament. He should have one more year of eligibility due to COVID.

Jermaine Hamlin - Eastern Illinois (Sr.) appeared in 27 games and started 2 (with 4 games missed) and only averaged 9.3 minutes per game. He averaged 3.1 points per game on .518 TS%, 2.0 rebounds, 0.0 assists (recorded 1 all season), 0.1 steals and 0.7 blocks. Eastern Illinois finishes a lowly 9-22 (5-13) to come in last place and failing to qualify for the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament. Hamlin should have one more year of eligibility due to COVID.

Benjamin Bosmans-Verdonck - South Carolina (r-Jr.) appeared in 31 games and started 14 (with 1 game missed) and averaged 14.9 minutes per game. He only averaged 1.9 points per game on a very poor .436 TS%, 3.1 rebounds, 1.1 assists, 0.4 steals and 0.2 blocks. South Carolina finishes a lowly 11-21 (4-14) and were eliminated in the first round of the SEC Tournament. Based on both a Redshirt year and the COVID year, he should have two more years of eligibility.

Andre Curbelo - St. John's (Jr.) appeared in 26 games and started 16 (with 7 games missed due to a combo of injury, suspension and coach's decision) and averaged 27.3 minutes per game. He averaged 9.6 points per game on a poor .468 TS%, a team leading 4.3 assists against 2.7 turnovers, 2.8 rebounds, 2.0 steals and 0.2 blocks. St. John's finishes 18-15 (7-13) and was eliminated in the Quarterfinals of the Big East Tournament. Curbelo will have two more years of eligibility due to COVID. Most concerning is that he's now had issues with two separate coaching staffs, and has already used his "free transfer" last season. St. John's fired coach Mike Anderson, so he will likely have to make nice with whomever they bring in.

Adam Miller - LSU (r-So.) appeared and started in all 33 games and averaged a team high 33.0 minutes per game. He averaged 11.5 points per game on a poor .486 TS%, 1.7 assists against 2.1 turnovers, 2.3 rebounds, 0.8 steals and 0.2 blocks. Very tough season for LSU in the wake of Will Wade's dismissal and mass exodus of players last season as they finish 14-19 (2-16) to come in last place in the SEC and were eliminated in the second round of the SEC Tournament. Miller has had some bad luck since making the USA Roster for the 2021 U-19 FIBA World Cup where he tore his ACL and missed all of 2021-22 and then with Will Wade's dismissal saw the coach and team he joined leave in mass. He has three more years of eligibility due to both COVID and a redshirt season.

Brandin Podziemski - Santa Clara (So.) appeared and started in 31 games (with 1 game missed) and averaged a team high 35.9 minutes per game. He averaged a team high 19.9 points per game on an impressive .604 TS%, which included a WCC-best 43.6 % on 5.8 three point attempts per game. He averaged 3.5 assists against 2.2 turnovers, 8.8 rebounds per game (WCC-best), 1.8 steals and 0.5 blocks. Santa Clara finishes 23-9 (11-5) and were eliminated in the Quarterfinals of the WCC Tournament. They qualified for the NIT as a 6 seed where they will play Sam Houston on Wednesday. Podziemski 2nd in the WCC in Player Efficiency Rating, 2nd in Win Shares and 1st in Box Plus/Minus. Podziemski was named 1st Team All-WCC and alongside Gonzaga's Drew Timme was honored as the Co-Player of the Year in the Conference. He has found his way onto some Mock NBA Draft Boards as a 2nd round pick. Once the season is over, he will have a decision to make regarding his future, but he has 2 remaining years of eligibility if he chooses to remain in school.
You forgot Skyy Clark. He’s “playing” in March Madness as well!

Video Games Friends GIF by The Office
 
#828      
I think you can still like the head coach while questioning decisions that were made by the coaching staff, that's the point of these discussions/forums!

A consistent defense of the coaching staff by saying the many talent evaluators/scouts are way off on him (given he is projected early second round in many mocks) and our coaching staff's evaluation of him is still on point (i.e., can't play defense, not athletic, etc) seems to be drinking too much Orange Kool-Aid related to talent identification. I believe the point of the post you responded to was that some people blindly defend every decision made by their team/staff, and that it is ok to criticize the staff while also believing they are great coaches.

Framed like that, I'm sure we all agree.
 
#831      
lol, dude come on, Melendez played 21 MPG and shot 25 % from three. Podz was Co-WCC player of the year, he would absolutely be playing like 30 mpg.

We don't even have a significantly better offense than Santa Clara...

KenPom Adjusted Offense:

Illinois - 64th

Santa Clara - 70th

15 MPG, dude, that's just haterade. There is not a SINGLE team in the country where Podz isn't playing more than that, let alone our projected 8 seed of a team, lol.
Offense is 50% of the game. RJ had some kinks to work through but he did several other things without the ball the Podz can't. I'm glad it's working out for Podz but the 2 conferences aren't the same hence the at large bids.
 
#832      
Offense is 50% of the game. RJ had some kinks to work through but he did several other things without the ball the Podz can't. I'm glad it's working out for Podz but the 2 conferences aren't the same hence the at large bids.
Individual players effect offense more than defense. And RJ isn't exactly a defensive stalwart.

I'm sure if you asked neutral fans which one they'd rather have 99.99999 % of fans would take Podz with a 0.000001 % margin of error.
 
#833      
You absolutely cannot diminish the fact that Podz seemingly has blasted past the guys that were crushing him in practice last year (ref Illini0440 comment).

He is lighting it up in the eyes of NBA scouts....below #20 draft pick forecast...

 
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#834      
I know many of you follow Podz, Miller, 'Belo, etc. for a variety of reasons, i.e. watched him since high school, former Illini, any number of reasons. Personally, I don't have to interest or the bandwidth to follow anything other than the team we have (and sometimes the team we're gonna have).

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It greatly depends on the specific player and the specific situation for me. But I certainly understand that sentiment at times.

Sometimes I simply don’t follow them afterwards. But I won’t use a voodoo doll
on them unless they go to Michigan. (Being a fan of anything isn’t exactly the most rational activity…amirite?)

In the case of Podz I applaud the kid for improving his skills like he did. Good for him. I sincerely mean that. It didn’t work out here for whatever reason…stuff happens.

I think there would have been some games
where he would have hit some big shots and made some plays no doubt. Would he have
played enough defense for Underwood to constitute more playing time? Possibly. Probably SOME…(Plummer, Mayer at times)…that will never be determined
…so what…stuff happens…ya win some ya lose some…it ain’t no thing

I’ve said it before; I’ll say it again: I don’t blame our staff for leaning on our veterans. Podz(like seemingly everybody else) wanted to be a Big deal right away…and apparently he just wasn’t ready. I’m not gonna take anything away from what he was able to accomplish this season however…and not that anyone else has said that either.
 
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#835      
JMO on transfer decisions

PODS - home run, got playing time and did very well. With Skyy departing mid season and injuries he may have seen more playing time at Illinois

Tevian - home run, got playing time and did well

Jacob - double, got to attend legendary basketball school and play in ACC.

Everybody else - single - got a chance to play somewhere else with varying results.
That's a generous single in some cases. Adam Miller to me is more a caught looking after fouling the second strike off his instep.
 
#837      
That's a generous single in some cases. Adam Miller to me is more a caught looking after fouling the second strike off his instep.
Adam made a poor choice of schools (Will Wade NCAA probation) and then was unlucky with the injury. LSU was terrible this year but Adam was used like RJ on offense Stand in the corner and watch others play. Andre had similar minor role in offense.

Both would have improved more under Brad's tough love at Illinois. While Brad is hard on his players he is also very loyal to them.

We really could have used Miller's shooting and Andre's playmaking this year. Both played better defense than their replacements (MM and Skyy).
 
#840      
Ladies and gentlemen! In a shocker, I welcome Skyy Clark to this thread!

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Please go to Michigan. You’ll fit in nicely with their program for many reasons. So thankful this is done. The suspense was killing me thinking the “personal reasons” were actually personal reasons and he would return. /s

It is a shame with this kid/his camp. But this is not one I will root for as the whole thing was pure selfishness on their part.

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Looks like he now has a visit lined up with Louisville. On3 transfer portal is predicting Lousiville, as most here have also suggested as his likely landing spot. Interesting thing is On3 lists NIL value, which I'm assuming they either got from what he was paid here (if so, a valuable lesson learned for future NIL negotiations), or what Lousiville is willing to pay him there.
 
#841      

chrisRunner7

Spokane, WA
Looks like he now has a visit lined up with Louisville. On3 transfer portal is predicting Lousiville, as most here have also suggested as his likely landing spot. Interesting thing is On3 lists NIL value, which I'm assuming they either got from what he was paid here (if so, a valuable lesson learned for future NIL negotiations), or what Lousiville is willing to pay him there.
The On3 website says that their NIL Valuation is an algorithm that looks at stats, social media followers, etc. and isn't purporting to say what athletes actually received in NIL money.

While the algorithm includes deal data, it does not act as a tracker of the value of NIL deals athletes have completed to date, nor does it set an athlete’s NIL valuation for their entire career.
 
#842      
Adam made a poor choice of schools (Will Wade NCAA probation) and then was unlucky with the injury. LSU was terrible this year but Adam was used like RJ on offense Stand in the corner and watch others play. Andre had similar minor role in offense.

Both would have improved more under Brad's tough love at Illinois. While Brad is hard on his players he is also very loyal to them.

We really could have used Miller's shooting and Andre's playmaking this year. Both played better defense than their replacements (MM and Skyy).
Re: AM. He had the reputation coming in as a shooter but has yet to crack 35% from 3 for a year shooting a decent volume.

He also struggled to finish around the basket when he was here. I’m sorry for his injury but I’m sure that hasn’t helped with his finishing ability and his 2 pt % this year seems to reflect that.

He was turning into a very good defender here but I don’t know that he would have ever risen to an all BIG type player his ranking would have suggested. Think you can find guys who can do everything that he can do who are 6’5+. In fact we have a bunch on the team right now and lost one because we couldn’t guarantee a bigger role (Podz).

I will root for Miller but not sure he moves the needle a ton.
 
#843      

Big Jack

Decatur
Did I hear right that Adam Miller is in the portal again? Isn't there a one time limit?
 
#847      

Mr. Tibbs

southeast DuPage
Did I hear right that Adam Miller is in the portal again? Isn't there a one time limit?
in theory, if you havent graduated , you get one transfer without a mandated sit out year unless you are given a waiver.
who knows how the NCAA rules on these . my guess is he finagles a waiver, cuz I doubt he's graduating after 3 years
 
#848      

AyoDos11

Southern Illinois
Santa Clara loses to Sam Houston in the NIT 58 to 56. Podz had 18 pts on 7-15 FG along with 6 rebounds and 7 assists.
 
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