I am tired of people being so negative about Illini sports. I have been a fan for 56 years and seen the good and bad but I still haven't gave up on them. Give the coaches a chance and quit crying about what was was and not what it can be.
Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread (August 2018)
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Definitely. And I'll concede all of it, as well as the fact that posters are here to talk about the program, voice their opinions, etc.. But the thing that really matters won't be seriously discussed for at least several more seasons.
This one is debatable. We lost Black early (went pro). It's not like he was a grad transfer out as I've got to believe there would have been a lot of interest in him. Hard to fault Underwood here.
The only other player that landed at a P5 program was Mark Smith and the jury remains out on whether or not he'll become a good player.
Finke certainly qualifies as a good player, although even as a fifth year player I'm not certain he would have started anywhere else in the B10.
I'm in the camp that we needed turnover. Nothing against the players --in fact, I thought we had a good set of guys. But for whatever reason, there just wasn't much buy-in or ability to run Underwood's system. There are many coaching stories out there where it took a couple seasons for the culture to stick. I think we're going through that now, and hope we look back and see it was worth sticking it out. I'm going to keep the bar pretty low this season. I think we have a couple guys that can compete, but we'll struggle with being too reliant on freshman.
Henson, you missed the NCAA the first five years and six of the first seven as head coach of the Illini.
Of course only 32 teams made the tournament in Henson's early years and the B10 was allowed no more than two teams. Lou finished above .500 in each of the years that you mentioned, but one, and would likely have made the tournament in those years if the current format had been in use.
Don't be so sure, both Ray Rice and Aaron Cosby won most improved in their sit-out year
Huh... I must have missed the memo where all the recruits who left were package-deal leaving the Illini.
I definitely feel we would be significantly better if our roster this coming year was:
1) Trent
2) Kipper
3) Tevian
4) Andres
5) Ayo
6) DaMonte
7) Higgs
8) AJ
9) Kane
10) Black
11) Finke
12) Ebo
Hey, I'll even leave an empty scholarship for good measure... you can add one more.
mhuml32
- Cincinnati, OH
I'm not speaking to the overall message from the previous poster, but the last time Illinois basketball went 14-18, the roster included Sergio, Bradford, Lucas Johnson, Krupalija, and Robert Archibald. It's possible to have a bad overall team and good overall players/potential.
I like that we get the last visit! Hopefully he makes it.
I don't want to get caught up in a discussion about the kids themselves. I won't claim to know anything about team chemistry and don't have anything bad to say about their effort level or anything like that, and I generally think that it's a bad practice when fans go there.
What I am concerned with is whether or not Illinois has players who can contribute meaningfully to a team that will make the NCAA tournament. That is my one and only yardstick (until , and it's my expectation that we should be looking to that as our primary measure of whether or not this team is performing as it should. That's why I'm writing off some players who, yes, could play for a ninth-place B1G squad. Even if they could contribute to a team more than an incoming freshman, I don't consider it worth the opportunity cost of bringing in someone potentially better to keep someone around who can't get us to that level.
So, yes, Lucas could have slotted in for Andrew Dakich at OSU last season and probably given them a similar performance. Dakich only played 8 mpg or so, and was clearly a weak link there. Lucas turned the ball over way too much, can't shoot, and his foul rate betrayed a weakness on the ball defensively. Maybe he would have progressed, but he had a long way to go.
Finke did some useful things, but among them were neither rebounding nor defending the post, and he was frankly bad at both. And as to his turnover rate, he didn't create any plays beyond the shots he took, so the low figure there would be expected. I honestly think his warts would keep him from the rotation for most competitive teams.
I could be wrong about Mark Smith and he's got a long way to go, but his performance against better competition was not good. I'm not sure I see it with him, to be honest. He might be a contributor two years from now, but that's two years from now.
Ebo was the toughest pill for me to swallow and I think he can be pretty productive, if one-dimensional. I also think that he had valid personal reasons for leaving that didn't relate to the program or the coaching staff, though we'll never know that for sure. I do think that his loss hurt, though.
I'd like to aim higher than what those guys bring to the table, even if it means a short-term setback or two. If you think that these were vital pieces to a winning team, we're probably not gonna agree on how much losing them hurt. I'm more concerned about who's coming in, to be honest with you.
If he makes it out of Columbus and Columbia a free man, I'll dare to dream a little.
Weird to see Liddell news in this thread
Mizzou, package deal. Anyways,
How soon can we make this the official motto of the Groce era?
KrushCow31
Former Krush Cow
- Chicago, IL
The lack of a new line for the Illini official made me think he only had 4 and we got screwed. What a rush.
Oh, snap, we're last visit.
Which required a major infusion of 3 McD AAs (Frankie, Cook, Marcus) to start the ascend, a surprisingly large infusion of top talent even for the best recruiting standards at the time.
Deleted member 643761
D
Guest
Hope we save an official for him.
Last scheduled visit. Can't remember the last player to commit to his fifth visited school.
A better scenario in terms of probable success for us is to get the weekend after mizzou and cancel the rest.
FeelYourPaign
- So Cal
Perhaps we're using the word evaluate differently, but I fully expect Whitman to evaluate BU every year. I expect a conversation about results, about the process by which those results were achieved, the staff that helped or did not help to achieve them, prognostications and goals for the coming year, etc. If my $3 million per year employee isn't up to that, I expect him to resign (he won't, but I expect it).
However, I don't expect to hear about any part of the above conversation. I, as a member of the public, expect Josh to give the coach and staff his support and enthusiasm, no matter what the private conversation was like.
Especially with such big gap between the first 2 visits and the last 3.
mhuml32
- Cincinnati, OH
Completely agree, but wasn't the original argument. You can have a handful of good players on a bad team. Each of those guys became vital rotation players on a very successful team, even though they originally resided on a 14-18 team.
I agree, but IMO quite many teams could be able to claim the same if they could add such a large number of top talent to their roster.
If all of those had stayed do you think we get Kane?Huh... I must have missed the memo where all the recruits who left were package-deal leaving the Illini.
I definitely feel we would be significantly better if our roster this coming year was:
1) Trent
2) Kipper
3) Tevian
4) Andres
5) Ayo
6) DaMonte
7) Higgs
8) AJ
9) Kane
10) Black
11) Finke
12) Ebo
Hey, I'll even leave an empty scholarship for good measure... you can add one more.
Joel Goodson
- respect my decision™
+infinity
If he doesn't commit to OSU or Miznoz, think we have a fighting chance. Definitely feel we have a much better chance than I felt a few months ago (which was almost nil). disclaimer: no solid info, just gut instinct.
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