Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread (May-June 2018)

[t7nich]

Which Malik will the staff be going after?

http://www.news-gazette.com/sports/illini-sports/2018-05-08/scouring-the-transfer-market.html

 

[stuemke5]

Announcing on Friday, from what I've gathered.

That’s what I have been told as well.

 

[JFGsCoffeeMug]

That’s what I have been told as well.

So no visit is pretty bad news for us then.

 

[afpharmdawg]

I have a serious question. How many players do we need in the front court for balance? There are 5 positions on the floor, 3 if you're Alabama. 13 scholarship slots. We have at the 4 and 5-Ebo, Kane, Giorgi, and Kipper if one counts him. That leaves 9 for 1-3 at 3 each. I know positionless ball.

 

[Spoon House]

So no visit is pretty bad news for us then.

The fat lady has already sung.

 

[stuemke5]

So no visit is pretty bad news for us then.

Yeah it’s pretty bad. Hearing it may be Monday now for an announcement.

 

[Greensboro]

I really believe we'll be incrementally better, but Black was a big loss, and we're relying on some undeveloped bigs. Gonna be a rough season IMHO.

agree on the rough season, not convinced we will be even incrementally better next year. We are likely a season away from even getting to an acceptable level down low

 

[ChiefIllini]

Guess I should preface this with the fact I dont think this is even remotely a make or break year upcoming for Underwood, but I think we will learn a lot whether or not we can win with a small ball lineup. Regardless of whether or not Ebo or Kane step up, one of them almost certainly has to be on the floor at all times. That leaves 4 spots for a team that essentially has not other quality tall guys. Who takes over at the 4 for Kipper? Positionless aside, somebodies gotta defend 6'8", 6'9"+ PF's on the other team.

I dont see Giorgi making a quality impact, but the way it stands now, hes probably gotta play non-insignificant numbers. Not sure how we go into the season without another forward pickup, whether its another lottery ticket, or a 5th year.

 

[t7nich]

I have a serious question. How many players do we need in the front court for balance? There are 5 positions on the floor, 3 if you're Alabama. 13 scholarship slots. We have at the 4 and 5-Ebo, Kane, Giorgi, and Kipper if one counts him. That leaves 9 for 1-3 at 3 each. I know positionless ball.

Tevian is 6-7 and will get minutes at the 4 spot

 

[Deleted member 645583]

While we wait for Okoro decision let me ask this:

Yes, the state of Oregon must be a beautiful place and yes, Oregon University sounds like it has beautifull sports facilities.

But how do you rate Illinois as far as facilities are concerned?

I've always been impressed by Assembly Hall/State Farm. What a thrill entering that hallowed place - and the upgrade!

Turn on those orange and blue lights! Especially when recruits visit.

I agree with other posters that even if Okoro goes west we still have a pretty good 2018 recruiting class. A few diamonds in the rough?

 

[Peoria Illini]

Like I've said before, I hope Okoro reconsiders and chooses Illinois.

But we need to have players that are committed to building something here and can handle Underwood's coaching style. I don't think he is for everyone, and I'm definitely okay with that. I think he's a very solid Xs and Os coach and can push players to their best.

If Champaign isn't for Okoro, then so be it. Bring guys in that want to play for the Orange and Blue and that love this school.

 

[ChiefIllini]

Obviously I love SFC. The upgrades have helped make it a good looking arena. I would say it, for a P6 arena, is probably slightly above average. Of course, when it's full and full of emotions, not sure theres many arenas I'd rather be. I would imagine Oregon's is nicer (they have a pretty interesting court design, at the very least). Likewise with training facilities. Eugene is also a much nicer looking town than CU, at least in my opinion, though downtown Champaign is extremely nice. Now, academics wise, UIUC blows Oregon away, especially in Comp Sci/Engineering.


Wildly guessing, doubt any of the above played into Okoro's decision. I believe play style, roster makeup, and coaching were most likely the largest factors. If playing time was really important, you cant tell me Okoro wouldn't be wearing orange and blue next year. Altman just pitched better.

 

[Greensboro]

I have a serious question. How many players do we need in the front court for balance? There are 5 positions on the floor, 3 if you're Alabama. 13 scholarship slots. We have at the 4 and 5-Ebo, Kane, Giorgi, and Kipper if one counts him. That leaves 9 for 1-3 at 3 each. I know positionless ball.

IMO, go back a couple years and we had Mav, Thorne hurt, Black hurt, Finke as RS Freshman and Hill playing some 4 out of necessity ...4 wasn't enough, partly quality, partly injuries

go back a few more years to Hill's freshman year, we had Ekey, Egwu, Mav, and Colbert, that wasn't enough & a large part of it was Mav & Colbert weren't ready + Egwu was able to play a lot of minutes that we probably don't have this year

Ideally I would like to have 2 more, however, at this point it is as much about quality as quantity, we bring in someone else at Matic's level last year and it doesn't help this year at all.

We hope Greg/Kane can hold down the 5, but that is far from certain, I personally don't expect Georgi to be ready to contribute next year. Kipper likely plays a lot of 4, it is nice to have that option, but there is a difference between choosing to play Kipper at the 4 because of match-ups and having to play Kipper at the 4. We probably have to play Kipper at the 4, that doesn't make him a big.

 

[Newman]

go back a few more years to Hill's freshman year, we had Ekey, Egwu, Mav, and Colbert, that wasn't enough & a large part of it was Mav & Colbert weren't ready + Egwu was able to play a lot of minutes that we probably don't have this year

I would argue that the frontcourt was fine and that we were inconsistent in the backcourt.

 

[Greensboro]

So no visit is pretty bad news for us then.

I think we make too much of the last visit, correlation is not equal to causation. Same thing with Crystal Balls, which encourages a guess even if the experts don't know, Oregon would be the best guess if you thought they were 34%, Illinois 33%, Purdue 33%, now not sure you would move from Purdue pick at 33% to Oregon at 34% because of point system, but that is a different discussion.
He has seen the campus enough that a visit probably isn't going to make the difference. That said, what you are hearing here, twitter, and listening to Werner podcast from yesterday there is enough smoke to know he is a heavy Oregon lean to an Oregon lock. Could someone change his mind yet, sure, see THT & Nolley. If he changed his mind, might he come for a visit, sure. Has he been quiet enough that people are parsing words a bit too much, always.

Bottom line IMO... When the homers like Piper think it is Oregon, cue up the dumb/dumber GIF of "there is a chance". We are down to recruiting is fluid & the fluid part needs to be in our favor, ie, not PU, or not someone new (Xavier Simpson style).

 

[Johnny Lawrence]

Ridiculous. First Kane is a fairly athletic big man who runs the floor well an does pretty much all his damage within 8 feet of the rim, while Thon Maker is an uber athletic freak with a 3pt shot. Second it's pointless to throw out NBA comparisons without actually comparing the part of the game you think is similar. Its very hard to project how a player will handle the jump up in competition and its effect on playing style. Making ludicrous comparisons to top NBA players without qualifiers only serves to inflate expectations.

With that being said I hope he does end up playing like Thon

Pretty Women premiere, March 1990

Julia Roberts: "Tell me one person who it's worked out for.”

Kit: “What, you want me to name someone? You want like a name? Oh, God, the pressure of a name... I got it. Cindaf*ckin'rella.”

disaacso storming out of the theater: "Making ludicrous comparisons to top prostitutes without qualifiers only serves to inflate expectations! "

 

[FC Illiniman]

Yeah it’s pretty bad. Hearing it may be Monday now for an announcement.

Okay thanks, but still waiting, not hearing anything else, we still need one big, too many fouls to give we will need 1 more , so we wait. opcorn:opcorn:opcorn:

 

[TheGMan]

Obviously he is moving his announcement to Monday because he is gonna visit one last time over the weekend.

(I don't actually think this is the case.)

 

[Greensboro]

I would argue that the frontcourt was fine and that we were inconsistent in the backcourt.

I guess it is all relative, but looked up the stats for reference...I think Egwu being able to play almost 30 minutes/game covered some of our big play, but I don't think either Mav or Colbert should have seen the floor if we had another choice. With Ekey/Hill all we had was a stretch 4 option, we played better later in the season as Hill/Nunn took over minutes, but to me having to play Hill/Ekey at the 4 was a problem and no credible back up for Egwu was a problem, so I'm fine with saying we were inconsistent in the backcourt, but I still think we were short at bigs and that wasn't fine. Throw in an injury to Egwu & the wheels would have fallen off.
Rayvonte Rice 35 32.7 15.9
Tracy Abrams 35 30.1 10.7
Joseph Bertrand 35 25.1 8.5
Jon Ekey ........35 26.1 7.3
Nnanna Egwu 35 29.7 6.9
Kendrick Nunn 35 19.5 6.2
Malcolm Hill 35 14.1 4.4
Jaylon Tate 33 12.2 1.8
Mav Morgan 35 7.1 1.5
Austin Colbert 22 5.5 1.3
Mike La Tulip 12 3.7 0.9
Totals ........35 -- 64

 

[tpbradley]

But if it is Monday, Stu, he could conceivably pop over tomorrow or this weekend for a day visit. I assume that finals period is happening now or is going to start next week (it has been 12 years since I took my last undergrad final at Illinois). If finals period starts next week, maybe he wants to sneak in without much fanfare, visit for a day, and commit before next week starts?

The above is simply a plausible yet highly unlikely scenario based on what little we have to go that is in our favour. I am sure it is as bad as you said, but the longer that I do not hear anything, the longer the fire on the candle still burns remains...albeit very close to the end of the wick.

Not knowing if there are any restrictions regarding an in-home visit, I'm surprised BU & Co. are not making a last ditch pitch. I guess that no mention of anything basically means that his decision is already set. Time to move on!

 

[Greensboro]

But if it is Monday, Stu, he could conceivably pop over tomorrow or this weekend for a day visit. I assume that finals period is happening now or is going to start next week (it has been 12 years since I took my last undergrad final at Illinois). If finals period starts next week, maybe he wants to sneak in without much fanfare, visit for a day, and commit before next week starts?

The above is simply a plausible yet highly unlikely scenario based on what little we have to go that is in our favour. I am sure it is as bad as you said, but the longer that I do not hear anything, the longer the fire on the candle still burns remains...albeit very close to the end of the wick.

Who are you trying to convince, you just want Stu to tell you there is a chance. There is a chance, it just is a poor one at this point. I don't think getting him on campus is key, getting him on campus is a sign that he may have opened the door to Illinois and something has changed. Sure if we get him on campus it gives us another chance to pitch the program, but we have made enough pitches over the last year that one more is unlikely to change his mind.

Sure, at this point the longer it goes the better our chances because it is more time for him to change his mind or a sign that he hasn't completely decided.

It seems pretty obvious he is at a minimum a heavy Oregon lean, and our chances are somewhere between slim and none...but stuff happens and until he announces there is always a chance, but no sane person is betting on us.

 

[Greensboro]

Not knowing if there are any restrictions regarding an in-home visit, I'm surprised BU & Co. are not making a last ditch pitch. I guess that no mention of anything basically means that his decision is already set. Time to move on!

Werner's Podcast of yesterday's radio show implied they are still trying

 

[afpharmdawg]

Tevian is 6-7 and will get minutes at the 4 spot

good point

 

[Calvin]

I have a serious question. How many players do we need in the front court for balance? There are 5 positions on the floor, 3 if you're Alabama. 13 scholarship slots. We have at the 4 and 5-Ebo, Kane, Giorgi, and Kipper if one counts him. That leaves 9 for 1-3 at 3 each. I know positionless ball.

There's no perfect answer to this question, but I'll lay out some considerations:

* Match-ups matter. Especially defensively. You have flexibility with what you do on offense more than defense. Length also matters, but giving up 4+ inches is a lot in the post.
* Young bigs get into foul trouble. As young as we are, I'm not expecting any of these guys to be averaging a lot of minutes. A fifth year guy could help a lot, but I don't know that we have anyone we're seriously considering.
* System and aggressiveness matter as well. Our bread and butter last year was fouling, sadly. More fouls mean you need more bodies.
* Conceptually, I'd say we only need 1 true center, with a backup, and a guy further down the bench for games where we run into trouble of have an injury. The current roster probably has 3 guys that could be pressed into service as a center, but we're soooo young there that we will suffer for it.
* That said, offensively we need a guy who can hit a jumper from the elbow and space the paint for attacking the rim. The more you pull guys away from the basket, the more space you have for cutters.

In terms of just bodies, I think we're low, but not critical by any means. The problem is development/experience.

 

[KnoxIllini2]

but no sane person is betting on us.