Are you hearing scouting reports on him or just predicting from what you've heard in the past?
Illinois Basketball 2016-2017
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Are you hearing scouting reports on him or just predicting from what you've heard in the past?
IllinoisFan733
- Chicago
Yah... what are we going to do with all of these talented players!!! We should Crean some of them.
It will be nice to have a deep team after last year's injury fiasco.
Deleted member 16340
D
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I can see a few guys with issues recently coming back with a vengeance. Dee working with Tate & TeJon has to pay dividends...
Joel Goodson
- ties will be resolved
Yah... what are we going to do with all of these talented players!!! We should Crean some of them.
It will be nice to have a deep team after last year's injury fiasco.
Yes, it will be great. Probably belongs in the recruiting thread, but with our 2 deep underclassmen 2s and 3s, and Pickett and other wings in the 17s, Matthews isn't exactly a must have. After familiarizing himself with our roster, wouldn't surprise me at all if he seeks a better fit.
IlliniDent
- Chicago, IL
Pickett I see as a RS candidate and we don't have any other 17 wings signed up yet so if Groce is worried about those players committing then Matthews would be a solid addition. However, he is in no way a must have as you said. It would be nice to add some class balance too with a 3rd year guy who would be a member of the 16 class essentially. Idk, was initially all in on it but now would be fine with it either way it worked out.
Agreed. If Kipper proved anything in high school, he's got intangibles to boot. He knows a thing or two about winning games.
I saw him as a Junior in the Ohio HS tourney (Big Schools) and he was absolutely awesome. Named unanimous MVP of tourney. High motor all the time. In an interview after the game I read that he always wants to guard the opponents best player.
For the Tulane people, he had originally committed to XU but backed out the next a.m. Also Butler was hard after him and as previously mentioned tOSU wanted him but took Mitchell and Grandstaff instead.
I don't understand the #270 rating, but others said he was way underrated. BTW, he was the leading rebounder on that good AAU team also.
And oh, how can we forget the practice reports.
We'll see.
Is Kipper finally the true underrated diamond in the rough we think everyone else is? I think we have guys who have outplayed or will outplay a low ish ranking but Kipper feels more like that true diamond right now. I mean he seems to have it all. I guess we shall see.
Jon Rothstein @JonRothstein 23m23 minutes ago
Iowa's Peter Jok will return to school for his senior season, source told @CBSSports.
Iowa's Peter Jok will return to school for his senior season, source told @CBSSports.
That would be great. What jump-started Michigan's resurgence was landing Tim Hardaway Jr (#166 in 2010 final composite rankings) and Trey Burke (#93 in 2011). Then they landed a monster class in 2012 with two five-stars in Glen Robinson Jr. and Mitch McGary, but what actually put them over the top was the rest of the class outperforming their rankings: Nick Stauskas (#82), Spike Albrecht (#171), and Caris Levert (#215).
Lucas and Nichols playing like top-100 guys over the course of their careers would change everything.
Next Wednesday, May 25th will be the last day to withdraw from the draft. I think we'll see a lot of names coming back.
Let's all take a deep breath and lower our expectations a bit. It wasn't that long ago that people on this board were marveling at the athleticism of Mike Davis and predicting that he would be in the NBA after just a couple of years in college. While Davis turned out to be a decent player for the Illini, he never was the beast/stud that many thought he would be.
IllinoisFan733
- Chicago
Hopefully most of Kentucky. Assuming Murray, Skal, and Ulis are gone. CM is transferring, and Poythress was the lone senior.
That's 5 spots, and they have a recruiting class of 6 already committed. And they were still trying to land Bolden before he chose Duke. They will have to figure out who they don't want. :thumb:
Fair point, but in defense of kipper, coming in to college I think he had more strength (or at least outward appearance of muscle) than Davis ever did. That kid was a bean pole from my recollection
So now that we have decisions on most of the questions to our roster, I've been thinking of how it can fit together and what situational lineups we can put on the court. I also like to give each unit nicknames. Here's what I got:
STARTERS (Shockwave Package): Abrams, Coleman-Lands, Hill, Finke, Thorne
SUB UNIT (Falco Package): Lucas/Tate, Jordan, Williams/Nichols, Black, Morgan
DEFENSIVE STOPPERS (Gridlock Package): Abrams, Nichols, Williams, Black, Thorne
HANDLING/PRESS-BREAK (Cipher Package): Abrams, Lucas, Coleman-Lands, Hill, Finke
3-POINT/SMALL BALL (Suicide Squad *JCL = Deadshot): Abrams, Coleman-Lands, Jordan, Hill, Finke
REBOUNDING/BIG UNIT (Krakatoa Package): Abrams, Nichols, Hill/Williams, Black, Thorne
ATHLETIC UNIT (Speedforce Package): Tate, Nichols, Williams, Black, Finke
*Notes*
I think Finke will start most of the season because Black will have to earn his way back into the rotation after missing the first 6 games. With Finke getting the first crack, it's his starting spot until someone outplays him.
Nichols & Williams will be an interesting battle for court time. Every description of the two on the court seems to be similar, though I'm not sure if Kipper will be more 2/3 or 3/4. I tend to give DJ the edge because of his experience from last year.
Morgan doesn't have any one outstanding trait so it's hard to get him on lists like these, but he'll see decent floor time.
I only made full a 3 pt lineup because cloning technology doesn't work yet and JCL is too valuable to be a scientific guinea pig.
Anyone want to humor me and come up with other lineup/nickname combos, or give insight to these lineups?
STARTERS (Shockwave Package): Abrams, Coleman-Lands, Hill, Finke, Thorne
SUB UNIT (Falco Package): Lucas/Tate, Jordan, Williams/Nichols, Black, Morgan
DEFENSIVE STOPPERS (Gridlock Package): Abrams, Nichols, Williams, Black, Thorne
HANDLING/PRESS-BREAK (Cipher Package): Abrams, Lucas, Coleman-Lands, Hill, Finke
3-POINT/SMALL BALL (Suicide Squad *JCL = Deadshot): Abrams, Coleman-Lands, Jordan, Hill, Finke
REBOUNDING/BIG UNIT (Krakatoa Package): Abrams, Nichols, Hill/Williams, Black, Thorne
ATHLETIC UNIT (Speedforce Package): Tate, Nichols, Williams, Black, Finke
*Notes*
I think Finke will start most of the season because Black will have to earn his way back into the rotation after missing the first 6 games. With Finke getting the first crack, it's his starting spot until someone outplays him.
Nichols & Williams will be an interesting battle for court time. Every description of the two on the court seems to be similar, though I'm not sure if Kipper will be more 2/3 or 3/4. I tend to give DJ the edge because of his experience from last year.
Morgan doesn't have any one outstanding trait so it's hard to get him on lists like these, but he'll see decent floor time.
I only made full a 3 pt lineup because cloning technology doesn't work yet and JCL is too valuable to be a scientific guinea pig.
Anyone want to humor me and come up with other lineup/nickname combos, or give insight to these lineups?
Tell me what you guys think. Over or under...
-Malcolm Hill 20 ppg-
I think the last Illini to average 20 was Brian Cook. I think Malcolm is more than capable but I have to imagine that guys like Abrams, Thorne, Black/Finke, and Coleman-Lands are going to get their fair share of shots. But then again, maybe (hopefully) there's more second chance opportunities with Thorne and Black back.
Side note: Donnie Freeman has the school record at 27.8 ppg but I don't think that'll be touched any time soon.
-Malcolm Hill 20 ppg-
I think the last Illini to average 20 was Brian Cook. I think Malcolm is more than capable but I have to imagine that guys like Abrams, Thorne, Black/Finke, and Coleman-Lands are going to get their fair share of shots. But then again, maybe (hopefully) there's more second chance opportunities with Thorne and Black back.
Side note: Donnie Freeman has the school record at 27.8 ppg but I don't think that'll be touched any time soon.
I think Hill is more than capable of averaging 20+ but with all the guys around him he probably wont. Nor should he need to.
icengineer
- Southern Illinois
My prediction of Hill's scoring avg is 19.3.
Improved PG play by Abrams, Tate, and Lucas would lead one to think that Hill could average 20+. However, I will say this about his ppg average: If he averages less than 20ppg, we will have more wins. This speaks more to increased contributions from the rest of the team. I would assume an improved JCL, DJW, Tate, Finke, and Morgan would mean less available points as would a healthy Abrams, Black, and Thorne. If you add Nunn and Nichols then I don't see Hill averaging 20ppg. I just want to see his 3pt percentage improve and continue to play his all around game.
Still can't figure out why anyone would pick SKal in top 10 (I know..."potential", but I don't see him as a top 10 at this stage)
I think he'll flirt with averaging 20. It's possible he distributes more which is fine but there was a stretch of 15 or so games this year where he was averaging that. He'll have the most 20+ and 30+ games in the conference again, most total points scored, all that good stuff. We won't see that again for a long time. He will go down as one of my all time favorites.
Under. Last year we were heavily dependent on scoring by MH as a direct result of offensive deficiencies. Malcolm can be a better player this year, but improvement should not be directly correlated with scoring, just becoming a better all around player and team leader.
I think Jok will be the scoring leader in the conference and it's not because Hill isn't capable of doing that, but because it shouldn't be necessary. If anything, I wouldn't be surprised to see his scoring go down slightly or stay roughly the same, if we're as balanced as we should be.
I was thinking the same exact thing...You guys are way more into this but my guesses for points per game
TA: 9
JCL: 11
MH: 15
LB: 10 (Yes I think he ends up starting)
MT: 10
You know what...what I look at that it really seems horrible, doesn't it?
Offensively was not our problem last year. Defensively and rebounding margin were some of the worst in the history of the program. So unless the returning players have learned how to correct those 2 areas, we will need to hope that the new players (Black, Thorne, Nichols & Lucas) can. That defense and rebounding were painful to watch last year, plus too many guys taking plays off.
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