TownieMatt
CU Expat
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They've also signed Christian Negron and Cameron Krutwig for next year, who are really good gets. Moser has done really well on the recruiting trail lately.
Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread (November-December 2016)
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They've also signed Christian Negron and Cameron Krutwig for next year, who are really good gets. Moser has done really well on the recruiting trail lately.
Re: whether we've got too many guards/wings.
We would have taken Goodwin in this class in a heartbeat. In fact, he was going to be the "glue" guy that provided grit, toughness, will to win, etc. etc. Many on this board were pretty upset we didn't land him, myself included.
For all that toughness, grit, will to win, etc., Smith just beat Goodwin's team. And also took Goodwin to the woodshed in the process. To me this is a no brainer!
We would have taken Goodwin in this class in a heartbeat. In fact, he was going to be the "glue" guy that provided grit, toughness, will to win, etc. etc. Many on this board were pretty upset we didn't land him, myself included.
For all that toughness, grit, will to win, etc., Smith just beat Goodwin's team. And also took Goodwin to the woodshed in the process. To me this is a no brainer!
Isaiah Coleman Lands has an offer from Loyola too.
No joke, if they somehow ended up with ICL, Smith, and Bruninga to go along with Chastain, Negron, and Krutwig, that's a potential 28-win team in the MVC. Doubt it happens, but it would be fun to see.
Villanova is also coached by one of the best basketball coaches in the world, regardless of level. Now, I'm not suggesting anything...just stating a fact
Hard to believe a player of that quality only has a few mid major offers. Normally I don't like to judge a player based off of highlights, but given that those were taken from just a few games really shows that he can play at a high level consistently.
I am also in the camp that we should recruit as much talent as we can to give ourselves the best chance of having multiple players who pan out. As of right now, I would even go as far as to say that Smith looks more college ready than any of our current recruits. For sure Pickett, DMW has shown inconsistencies similar to DJW, Tilmon will take time to adjust as a big ie. conditioning and foul trouble, and maybe Frazier who may need to bulk up.
From that short video I saw everything that I needed to see from a player to project them as a quality B1G player. I say we offer ASAP, before he starts seeing bigger offers!
I am also in the camp that we should recruit as much talent as we can to give ourselves the best chance of having multiple players who pan out. As of right now, I would even go as far as to say that Smith looks more college ready than any of our current recruits. For sure Pickett, DMW has shown inconsistencies similar to DJW, Tilmon will take time to adjust as a big ie. conditioning and foul trouble, and maybe Frazier who may need to bulk up.
From that short video I saw everything that I needed to see from a player to project them as a quality B1G player. I say we offer ASAP, before he starts seeing bigger offers!
Serious Late
- Peoria via Denver via Ann Arbor via Albuquerque vi
Very well. Starting at UMass, getting 77% of the minutes at his position, elite steal rate, above average assist rate with a below average turnover rate. Some of those stats (looking at you steals) impacted by some weak competition, but he has had some nice games against better competition as well. Had double digit games against three out of four top 100 teams they have played: Providence (20), UCF (16), Mississippi (18). He had 6 against Temple.
UMass seems pretty bad overall, but folks there gotta be pleased with Pipkins so far.
Mark Smith reminds me of an Andre Miller (Utah, NBA PG) and Demitri McCamey type of PG. I think he is closer to 6'3 than 6'5, but bottom line he has good college size for both PG or SG. In the game against Athloff, he played PG for his team and drove the ball most of the time. Didn't shoot much, but has a nice touch from FT and 3 pt range. Do we offer? Unless we are so solid with a top tier 2018 PG, I say we offer. Kid plays smart and like others have mention may have more of a complete game than other recruits.
Goodwin IMHO doesn't appear to be a PG in any sense of the word right now, doesn't have PG instincts or handles. Like others have mentioned let them settle it out at Ubben. Matching a PG like Smith with a Combo guard like Damonte could be fun, both have good size and athleticism. Add another PG like Frazier or TJL and we no longer have a squad that can be pressed and can have dribbling/assist/shooting as a strength.
Goodwin IMHO doesn't appear to be a PG in any sense of the word right now, doesn't have PG instincts or handles. Like others have mentioned let them settle it out at Ubben. Matching a PG like Smith with a Combo guard like Damonte could be fun, both have good size and athleticism. Add another PG like Frazier or TJL and we no longer have a squad that can be pressed and can have dribbling/assist/shooting as a strength.
Serious Late
- Peoria via Denver via Ann Arbor via Albuquerque vi
How about late recruit Patrick Beverly, Weber got on him late and wanted him bad. Who would of thought that Beverly would of had a longer NBA career than Dee Brown, Frank Williams, and Luther Head. Or McCamey and Brandon Paul.
OK just rewatched highlights, offer the kid.
Luwane Pipkins is averaging 11.8 points, 3.5 rebounds, 2.9 assists, and is second in the NCAA in steals at an insane 3.4 per game. He is shooting poorly, but I'd say he's having quite a RS freshman year at UMASS.
Just for fun, other past "it recruits" - some summer, some HS season; this list is just for polarizing recruits that started under the radar and then gained a vocal bandwagon, only to sign with other schools when it felt like Illinois may have been able to lock them up if they'd put on the full court press.
Charlie Moore - Cal: 17.6 ppg, 1.9 reb, 3.0 ast, 1.6 stl, 44.7% 3pt
Marcus Lovett - SJU: 18.8 ppg, 4.1 reb, 3.9 ast, 0.8 stl, 44.4% 3pt
Glynn Watson - NEB: 12.4 ppg, 3.4 ast, 2.8 ast, 2.1 stl, 33.3% 3pt
Maurice Watson - Creighton (Boston U transfer): 13.1 ppg, 2.3 reb, 9.1 ast (1st in NCAA), 1.6 stl, 56.3% 3pt
Steve Taylor - Toledo (via Marquette): 16.8 ppg, 11.8 reb (4th in NCAA), 3.9 ast, 0.6 blk
Ben Moore - SMU: 11.8 ppg, 7.6 reb, 1.9 ast, 0.9 blk, 52.2% fg
Obviously, Tyler Ulis was a guy lots of people were banging the drum for, but since he's in the NBA now it doesn't make sense to include him. Likewise, people were talking about VanVleet his senior year (and his freshman year - he looked promising and then fell off the map for awhile), but since he's in the League I left him off. Lots of the kids on this list had red flags or there were mitigating factors, so I don't really blame the staff. However, if we had any of them on this year's team it would make a world of difference.
I still don't understand that recruitment...
I'm with you. Didn't Groce make an in home with Watson?? I can't help but think that Nunn and Watson Jr would have made us a darkhorse for the B1G title.
My memory could serve me wrong about this, but I believe Watson was playing third fiddle in the Brunson/Evans recruitments. Groce felt like we were in a fantastic position to sign at least one of the two, and didn't want to scare off either of them by signing Watson. In hindsight it seems like a no brainer to go with him I agree, but at the time Evans and Elijah Thomas, the two texas best friends "were going to be Illini"
It is not so much that Weber got on Beverley late, but more the fact that his family (based on their own admission) would not cooperate with UI academic staff. People knew of Beverley's talents, but there were academic concerns. His family wanted an offer without UI academic staff evaluating his transcripts.
Charlie Moore and Lovett are leading their teams in scoring.
Woah, did not realize Charlie Moore was Cal's stud or that Lovett was SJU's. We definitely could have had one
Serious Late
- Peoria via Denver via Ann Arbor via Albuquerque vi
We were recruiting Watson, he was the kind of infusion of talent we needed at the PG position whether Brunson/Evans signed or not. The information available at the time was that Illinois canceled a visit from Watson in order to make an in-home visit with Carlton Bragg. Personally, I never felt we were in the serious discussion for Bragg (regardless of how much message boards tried to talk us into the discussion), so putting off making a serious push for Watson for the sake of chasing a dream in Bragg was a major ding in the Groce armor for me.
Now they could have already known from the Watson camp that he was going to Creighton or something of that nature, but nothing along those lines was ever made public.
Not sure some of the above names met the same Loyalty hysteria as say, Pipkins and Lovett. I'm pretty sure Watson was our Plan C at best.
Not at the same level.
Woah, did not realize Charlie Moore was Cal's stud or that Lovett was SJU's. We definitely could have had one
Couldn't get Lovett into school.
SJU is horrible, by the way.
While that's certainly true, each of those guys was part of a conversation around how aggressively we should recruit them. Each had at least some message board hype. Just saying that if you add Mo Watson and Ben Moore to our current roster, we're probably a S16 contender. Hindsight is 20/20.
@ASlater247
Illini 5Jeremiah Tillman of East St. Louis has trimmed down & been very active down low. Scratching the surface of his upside #CityofPalms
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