Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread (September 2016)
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If the Universe shines upon the Illini and we land both Wilkes and Kiir, I'm putting my dancing pants on, and partying like it's NYE, Burning Man, and Halloween all rolled into one.
Lawyered.
Enjoy the peace
blackdog
- Champaign
He's talking UCLA here but there was a discussion not long ago about how much a strength coach could impact a recruitment.
Quote:
“I’m really looking forward to getting to know the staff more. I think I know a lot of the staff but I don’t know if I know every single person," said Wilkes. "I want to really see the playing style and get to meet the strength coach and different people and get a feel for it.”
"He's talking UCLA here but there was a discussion not long ago about how much a strength coach could impact a recruitment. "
Yes, I was the one that recommended it and felt it would be important especially to a player like Wilkes. Wilkes is a long athlete who IMHO has NBA written all over him except he needs to get stronger. But there are a couple of our "more respected" posters who ridiculed the idea. Stating "we are in big trouble if we need to introduce him to our strength coach". When I post something it comes from years of playing basketball in Chicago against MCAA type players and following the recruiting of Illinois and DePaul BB since 1983. But once again there are a couple of posters here who lick their chops to set-up straw man arguments to make themselves look like expert analysis.
“I’m really looking forward to getting to know the staff more. I think I know a lot of the staff but I don’t know if I know every single person," said Wilkes. "I want to really see the playing style and get to meet the strength coach and different people and get a feel for it.”
"He's talking UCLA here but there was a discussion not long ago about how much a strength coach could impact a recruitment. "
Yes, I was the one that recommended it and felt it would be important especially to a player like Wilkes. Wilkes is a long athlete who IMHO has NBA written all over him except he needs to get stronger. But there are a couple of our "more respected" posters who ridiculed the idea. Stating "we are in big trouble if we need to introduce him to our strength coach". When I post something it comes from years of playing basketball in Chicago against MCAA type players and following the recruiting of Illinois and DePaul BB since 1983. But once again there are a couple of posters here who lick their chops to set-up straw man arguments to make themselves look like expert analysis.
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And the recruits also say how important the architecture (Maggette) or engineering program is. They say alot of things.
FWIW I'm not saying the strength coach doesn't matter, but it's far down the list IMO.
I agree with what your saying . for a kid like Wilkes who wants to be 1 and done he can compare what improvements guys have made in a year at each school it might be what push's him to make his mind up. It really doesn't matter what school he goes to if he is a nba talent. it matter more how much he improves his stock
This is very sensible if he's trying to be one and done. It might help our case that fletch has only been here about a year, yet the obvious improvements in every aspect are so drastic. Even just differences in the pictures from April until he released new ones a few weeks ago. If he's trying to be one and done, and IF AND ONLY IF, he's going to make getting stronger one of his top priorities to be league ready, we're in a good spot.
All that said, I've still never met a high school basketball player who is just dying to weight train. And that includes me in school and I absolutely love lifting now, and the next level players I've been fortunate enough to coach. .
Once again creating straw man arguments or going off topic to discredit a post. I specifically mentioned Wilkes and the strength coach a month ago. You stated it wasn't important, "not one of the top 50 things recuits look into". Weight training has become ever more important to increase strength, speed, explosiveness, jumping, injury prevention, etc.. It is part of the core training regimen for college and pro players. Now Wilkes himself has said he wants to meet and talk to the strength coach, imagine that.
My thought on strength coach comment is he probably hadn't paid much attention, but we made a strong enough pitch on strength training that we at least got is attention & he is taking that question to the rest of the OVs.
Yeah, you're not kidding.
Jeff Borzello @jeffborzello 15h15 hours ago
Four-star center Victor Uyaelunmo will announce his decision on Friday. He's down to Vanderbilt, USC and Tennessee.
Four-star center Victor Uyaelunmo will announce his decision on Friday. He's down to Vanderbilt, USC and Tennessee.
Joel Goodson
- ties will be resolved
This. And that is a really good thing. College is simply a stepping stone to The League for guys like Wilkes. Evidently, he's aware that he has to work hard on his physical attributes in order to best position himself. Our players' progress under Fletch has been eye popping.
Joel Goodson
- ties will be resolved
Loving that we get Kiir in for an OV soon. Hope Groce closes. Think we have a good shot here. Love his ceiling.
Article on Kiir, sorry if already posted, but I had not read it before.
http://pickandroll.com.au/illinois-vcu-lead-chase-mayan-kiir/
Mike
C-U Townie
The vertical jump is A significant factor in the ceiling of of player. Our guys are jumping like 4-4.5" higher in a single season on average, with some guys up 7"...Hill, Aaron, and Nichols are flying. UIBB now suddenly having a killer program to radically augment a player's athleticism should be a big selling point.
You take every advantage you can get with recruiting. Showing exceptional results with your current conditioning program is worth noting.
IIRC, Deron made a big leap (literally) with his offseason training going into his junior year, including a big gain in his vertical. That had tangible results in getting off his shot, driving the lane, etc., which then translated into his draft stock.
Deron's work ethic was exceptional, and his offseason the year after his jaw was broken reflected that --but the point remains that strength and conditioning is part of what helps players get to the league.
I really hope Hill gets drafted. Not just for Hill's sake and because I'm rooting for him, but because we need to build some credibility with player development. I don't think he needs to improve his stock all that much to do it, either.
I agree with all of your post, just a clarification on your last statement. Probably true for 2nd round, but 1st round will be much tougher.
I think the increased vertical is really going to impact Hill's game. The biggest hole I saw in his game last year was inability to finish when a guy was in his face. You saw a lot of "flailing" layups where he tried to draw fouls rather than going above his opponent to finish strong at the rim.
We better hope that Wilkes takes all his planned visits, because if he suddenly stops, it will not be Illinois. I believe I had mentioned before but I had talked to a coach on the AAU circuit and his statement was that Wilkes will definitely take his visit to IU. That was before he started taking visits. Without much clarification, I took that statement to mean that IU led in that recruitment at that time.
My guess, independent of his statements, is that IU will roll the red carpet on his visit. Wilkes is fully aware that IU is indeed recruiting other players at the position. Assuming that IU does not accept another highly regarded player at SF before his visit (my guess is they will not), they will make a big push for him to commit, pretty much say "we are 100% on you, you are the top priority, you decide to commit right now, we stop recruiting everyone else at that position."
So IMO it will be a huge test what Wilkes does on and after his IU visit.
Hill is fundamentally strong but he lacks the quickness/athleticism at the position for a 1st round pick right now. Those two elements extend way beyond vertical leap and strength/conditioning.
Hill has to prove that he can regularly take good defenders 1-on-1 with the ball in his hands. Hill developed an often used step-back move to compensate for his lack of quickness in that area, that has been effective. But there have been a few times with a good defender on him that he has been called for an arm push off trying to create space. The step back move is fine for a player as fundamentally strong as Hill in college, but NBA scouts want to see more improvements in the aforementioned areas. JMO.
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