Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread (October 2017)

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#904      

Takeittothehoop

T
Takeittothehoop
The Illini roster is pretty loaded 1 and 2 spots. Ayo has always been the most important recruit. BU could go to a 3 guard starting line-up ,especially if he lands a tall guard like Ayo. I would be most happy adding Ayo and a couple of bigs. Although, I do think the staff would really like to add one true wing player like the Finnish kid or Tim Finke. Anyone have any inside on Finke's recruitment? If all else fails, with the current NCAA scandal unfolding, we will certainly see more decommits. Coach Walker has great connections in the STL area and it wouldn't surprise me to see us competitive in a Ramey recruitment. If we get an Ayo or Ramey, let's find a big.
 
#905      

EJ33

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San Francisco
EJ33
miketherevelator said:
Yeah, amazing that Mike reported that the day he was at Curie for a football game and talked to Mike Oliver. I said then what you're saying now and everybody chose to believe the Swami who was up in arms about it and immediately contacted Nolley who said I don't talk to anybody at Cure. Yeah right.
I get that people on here don't like Mike, and he'll take a poke at Illinois now and then but he doesn't make stuff up to do it. He also said kids will tell people what they want to hear. We have seen that play out over and over but we still believe the kids when they blow smoke.
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Yep. O'brien told us, Henricksen told us, Werner told us, Piper told us, Crystal Ball told us, his comments yesterday told us, and the fact that he was announcing while at Georgia told us.

Here's some advice for people re: Ayo. He might come here, but I wouldn't believe anything more than that. The lack of recruiting momentum is going to be a very strong sell against us at the end and why I think he'll ultimately end up somewhere else.

There's no quick rebuild here and Underwood is going to have to prove something on the court. I think he can do that.
 
#907      

Deleted member 631370

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Guest
Deleted member 631370
EJ33 said:
Yep. O'brien told us, Henricksen told us, Werner told us, Piper told us, Crystal Ball told us, his comments yesterday told us, and the fact that he was announcing while at Georgia told us.

Here's some advice for people re: Ayo. He might come here, but I wouldn't believe anything more than that. The lack of recruiting momentum is going to be a very strong sell against us at the end and why I think he'll ultimately end up somewhere else.

There's no quick rebuild here and Underwood is going to have to prove something on the court. I think he can do that.
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Agree on all points.

The Chin Coleman connection keeps us in play for Ayo, but beyond that, there is really no good reason to feel confident about that recruitment. None.

We're going to have to win games first, and I think we'll do that. It'll just make the rebuild a bit slower.
 
#908      

afpharmdawg

A
Colorado Springs
afpharmdawg
Now that we Vessel and are recruiting a guy from Finland, we may get help from the Russians with this, Should we learn to speak European? :D
 
#909      

NBB1979

NBB1979
UIUCFAN1
Springfield, IL
NBB1979
foby said:
Ryan Evan‏ @ACIlliniRyan
Been confirmed: #illini will be hosting '18 6'6 Elite scorer Elias Valtonen from Helsinki,Finland middle of next week. Obviously a big deal


I know how some feel about the source, but just giving you the info.
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I asked about him after Kisunas committed to UConn - he was a flash in the pan here one day - but has some VERY good highlight reels

*cue the "who doesn't have a good highlight reel" rebuttal.

That said - I really wanted Nolley - this one hurts!
 
#910      

Obelix

Obelix
Obelix
afpharmdawg said:
Now that we Vessel and are recruiting a guy from Finland, we may get help from the Russians with this, Should we learn to speak European? :D
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#912      

USAFILLINI

USAFILLINI
Florida
USAFILLINI
AYOs mom put out a tweet saying the jake guy has nothing to do with AYOs recruitment and won't in the future either.

Looks like the guy might have gotten ahead of himself and burnt some bridges....
 
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#913      

BananaShampoo

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Captain 'Paign
Phoenix, AZ
BananaShampoo
NBB1979 said:
I asked about him after Kisunas committed to UConn - he was a flash in the pan here one day - but has some VERY good highlight reels

*cue the "who doesn't have a good highlight reel" rebuttal.

That said - I really wanted Nolley - this one hurts!
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Of all the Euros we were after I liked Valtonen the most, and said as much way back when his name first came up. An article stated if they ranked Euro players he'd be in the Top 50 to 75 range. That's around where Noley is, too, correct? He's between Arizona State and us, and he's visiting both, with Illinois getting the last visit. He'd be one heck of a "consolation" prize. I like our chances.
 
#914      

Calvin

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Calvin
Henson71 said:
This has been one of the worse strings of recruiting losses that I can remember.
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Not even close.

But I agree it's been demoralizing. We've missed on a series of fringe top-100 players with good fit, that seemed potentially undervalued.

I think we were all following recruiting a bit closer because while our rational sides knew about the headwinds - slow program decline under Weber/Groce, a string of recent NCAA misses under Groce, the Evans thing creating uncertainty, a recent coaching change...we were still hoping this staff could create enough buzz to overcome that and land priority guys quickly.
 
#918      

BWilson25

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The A
BWilson25
He's from frigid, long months of darkness ,Finland.

I feel good about ASU's chances
 
#919      

Deleted member 4333

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Guest
Deleted member 4333
How about Tim Finke as a preferred walk-on? ☺

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk
 
#921      

Adnarel

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Adnarel
He's from frigid, long months of darkness, Finland. Central Illinois will feel just like home.
 
#922      

Deleted member 10676

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Guest
Deleted member 10676
USAFILLINI said:
AYOs mom put out a tweet saying the jake guy has nothing to do with AYOs recruitment and won't in the future either.

Looks like the guy might have gotten ahead of himself and burnt some bridges....
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I see he deleted his apology too. Been a bad morning for Jake.
 
#924      

Deleted member 631370

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Guest
Deleted member 631370
BananaShampoo said:
Of all the Euros we were after I liked Valtonen the most, and said as much way back when his name first came up. An article stated if they ranked Euro players he'd be in the Top 50 to 75 range. That's around where Noley is, too, correct? He's between Arizona State and us, and he's visiting both, with Illinois getting the last visit. He'd be one heck of a "consolation" prize. I like our chances.
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Yep, he sounds like a really good prospect. Would be a very good get.

Now, I have no idea why Illinois and ASU are his schools. Maybe he didn't get a lot of looks by other schools, but these two really made an impression? Clearly geography has nothing to do with it.

On the surface, I'd say yes.....we should stand a good chance against ASU. We clearly have a better program and more to offer in basketball. But who knows. Has Bobby Hurley been on him for a while?
 
#925      

illini80

illini80
Forgottonia
illini80
Obviously I could be all wrong, but an early Ayo commitment has always seemed like it would have/could have made a huge difference in how all this played out.
 
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