The staff also needed to re-recruit Damonte and Trent. They also brought in Ebo and Smith very late. We desparately needed Tilmon like we now need Okoro. Mav Morgan was the last high school center recruited by Groce. Needed a large PF or center in the years he landed DJ, AJ,JCL,Kipper, and TJL. Basically went 3 years without getting a big out of high school. This staff Can't do this.
Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread (January-February 2018)
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The staff also needed to re-recruit Damonte and Trent. They also brought in Ebo and Smith very late. We desparately needed Tilmon like we now need Okoro. Mav Morgan was the last high school center recruited by Groce. Needed a large PF or center in the years he landed DJ, AJ,JCL,Kipper, and TJL. Basically went 3 years without getting a big out of high school. This staff Can't do this.
icengineer
- Southern Illinois
Yep, made that drive twice over the holidays. I'll sure be glad when the construction is finished!
If we can get Okoro, and Ebo keeps improving at the rate he's going we'll have no problem getting bigs in a few years!
They have not done a fantastic job. That is not true. They have done a good job, primarily getting Ayo through a strong pre-existing relationship with Chin, but have had problems recruiting in the frontcourt, especially in the post.
We still need to significantly upgrade the talent level from the last 12 years. The myth that we have had good talent and all we needed was a competent coach has fallen flat on its face. Underwood is a competent coach, yet the talent is obviously not there, so his success will ultimately depend on recruiting, taking recruiting a few notches above.
People are coming back to reality on this as well. As said in previous posts, before season started I had looked at the season prediction poll. Almost 75% expected to make the NCAA tournament. Of course, that percentage started to drop once we started playing. Now, revisionist theory has taken over, "we all knew this season would be a struggle, 'some people' were just unrealistic." Well... that "some people" represented a pretty big portion of the fan base
Bottom line, and I have sounded as a broken record for many years, we do not have the horses in this race yet, we need a talent infusion to consistently compete with the upper echelon of the B1G, which IMO has some of the best coaches, and that pool of coaches has even gotten better, despite the loss of Bo.
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I’m surprised how little patience we have as a whole. Let Underwood do his job. This is a process that takes time. I know....other teams have Freshmen, but not this many getting quality minutes.
Most fans aren’t going to enjoy the amount of time it is going to take to right the ship. If you can’t see the progress (albeit slow), check back in 2019. That’s when Underwood’s team will be a.) on the court and b.) more fully developed.
Most fans aren’t going to enjoy the amount of time it is going to take to right the ship. If you can’t see the progress (albeit slow), check back in 2019. That’s when Underwood’s team will be a.) on the court and b.) more fully developed.
"Fantastic" would include a big, but they have done better than I expected under the program's circumstances (Smith, Ayo). And it's a little premature to say for sure, but it looks like Ebo might be a diamond in the rough.
But nah, I'm going to echo that they have done well, but not fantastic. Remember the THT debacle?
IlliniDent
- Chicago, IL
Pretty sure the THT debacle was a lot more complex than people realize. Anyway, the real flaw was not getting a big for next year.
Deleted member 631370
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Getting Ayo and Mark Smith in a 8-month span is definitely a beautiful thing. Though as the season has showed w/ Smith......hype at the HS level doesn't automatically translate to the college game quickly. I'm still high on his future here, but we need a heck of a lot more than what we're getting.
Recruiting is as much about roster management as it is compiling stud players. It's great that BU has gotten us some great guards, but we are going nowhere without significant help in the front court and preferably, some outside shooters.
Absent that, it's really hard to call our recruiting "fantastic" at this point. Had we gotten Nolley and a solid big, I probably would agree with you. But we're not there, yet.
Where on earth did you hear that recruiting was one of their primary strengths? Coaching, Yes! Recruiting, considered potentially BU's biggest weakness.
Recruit, Recruit, Recruit need to lock up down state and than hold our own in Chicago. So far Underwood has one good recruiting class and an elite recruit a nice start but to get back to the tournament and the top half of the Big 10 he is going to have to get some help upfront and do it relatively quickly. The longer we are out of the tourney the harder it is going to be to recruit the players we need to turn the program around. That is not negativity that is just the way it is. I think Underwood has done a nice job so far but unfortunately fair or not he needs to get us into the tourney next year or the falling year at the latest or he is going to struggle to get high end players
Not sure how current or legit ESPN Top 2018 Centers are...but Flo and Valdir are both on there and several other like Keita? not committed as of yet...
Would we not need to be on EVERY one of them trying to get a commit? Maybe we are and it is all silent?
Doumbia, Keita, Thamba, Manuel, hell even the kid from LaLu is listed with no commitment?
http://www.espn.com/college-sports/...gs/_/position/center/class/2018/view/position
Devonire Glass from Simeon as a PF?
Betting we ONLY go with experience to fill last 2 slots...still say add Trice/Taylor to Ayo or the B1G and then go!
Would we not need to be on EVERY one of them trying to get a commit? Maybe we are and it is all silent?
Doumbia, Keita, Thamba, Manuel, hell even the kid from LaLu is listed with no commitment?
http://www.espn.com/college-sports/...gs/_/position/center/class/2018/view/position
Devonire Glass from Simeon as a PF?
Betting we ONLY go with experience to fill last 2 slots...still say add Trice/Taylor to Ayo or the B1G and then go!
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Disagree with their assessment. I think he's a whale of a coach. He wasn't that great of a recruiter until he got to Maryland and had the full force of UA behind him (relative cool factor not imply he's dirty).
Deleted member 631370
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Agree.
Next year is probably the most important season Illinois basketball has had in ages. New coaches often have a honeymoon period early which is attractive to recruits -- come in and help build the program back, get immediate PT, etc.
Lose next season, and suddenly things get pretty dark around here.
Personally, i think we'll be a much better team, but how good we are will depend on how we address the biggest holes on our roster. It's all about recruiting at this point. Unless we add big men to Ayo, the 2018 class is woefully incomplete.
+1 2 Big men would be even better
Program has been dumpster fire for close to 10 years. Staff has done a fantastic job getting higher quality talent to come here. Hopefully they do that for a few years and then we move to the 4/5* level consistently.
See above for why people might think differently. It's that or a reason I prefer not to psycho analyze.
See above for why people might think differently. It's that or a reason I prefer not to psycho analyze.
It's simple, Liddell, Okoro, and Whitney change this program. Land them and it is just a matter of time until we are a real team again. 2 out of 3 would probably do it too.
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mhuml32
- Cincinnati, OH
Well if the 2 were Liddell and Whitney, we'd still have a hole at the 5 spot, but we'd be very strong everywhere else.
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I wish people would stop giving this staff credit for landing Trent. It’s just silly. I look forward to being on the receiving end of a ton of angry shots now, and a handful of +1’s
You do realize that Underwood was recruiting Trent while at SFA right?
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This is the second or third time I’ve seen this. Is this a possibility? I get how you can play around with credits at a private/charter/prep/Home school. As a teacher in a regular school, I don’t see how this could be done so quickly unless he wouldn’t be here in June, which to me would make it pointless, or he has been working on senior level courses online in his free time, which would seem limited. Unless he came into high school with certain core credits that put him a head of schedule. That would make the most sense because he wouldn’t have to rush a years worth of credits into the next few months.
So Underwood lost Tilmon but didn’t keep Trent? (Or DMW?)
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