Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread (Week of April 1st, 2021)

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#151      
illini27jake
the juiceman cometh said:
Shooting more 3s is a good idea if it will improve your scoring efficiency. We were the #8 most efficient offense according to Kenpom. A large part of that was Kofi's 65% fg%. You'd need to shoot 43% from 3 to match that efficiency. As a team we shot 55% from 2, and 37% from 3. That makes the 3pt shot slightly more effective if we could take more without lowering it (at 55% for 2, break even is 36.7%). However with higher volume that probably means less selective shots which almost certainly means lowering our 3pt%.

So essentially it looks like we struck a pretty efficient balance between 2pt and 3pt shooting, given our personnel. If Kofi leaves, we probably should shoot more 3s though.
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Coaching was able to hide alot of the teams flaws (Lack of 3pt shooting, Ayo heavily relying on going right, Curbelo not being able to shoot) for most of the year but Loyola took full advantage of them. Part of Kofi getting doubled or tripled is his fault as he needs to improve his passing but could you imagine how dominant he could be with shooting around him.
 
#152      
TCTORNADO
illini27jake said:
Coaching was able to hide alot of the teams flaws (Lack of 3pt shooting, Ayo heavily relying on going right, Curbelo not being able to shoot) for most of the year but Loyola took full advantage of them. Part of Kofi getting doubled or tripled is his fault as he needs to improve his passing but could you imagine how dominant he could be with shooting around him.
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NBA knock on Kofi is can't or won't pass and no shot.
 
#153      
illini27jake
TCTORNADO said:
NBA knock on Kofi is can't or won't pass and no shot.
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Yeah hopefully its one of his main focuses to improve on. Comparing his hands at the beginning of the season where it seemed like he couldn't catch anything to the end of the year where it seemed like he caught everything thrown at him gives me hope.
 
#155      
Chieeeeffffff
I11ini82 said:
If Melendez and Goode were so "lethal" they would be ranked quite a bit higher than they are. They're solid pieces but they're not going to replace what we're losing NEXT YEAR.

Our volume was lower than other teams because not many other teams had 7 foot tall monsters scoring almost 20 ppg in the post or All-American guards extremely capable of finishing at the rim the way Ayo was who also averaged 20 ppg.

We could have had Corey Bradford and Sean Harrington out there (or take your pick of favorite Illini 3 point shooters) and we still wouldn't have taken a high volume of shots from outside.
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Melendez and Goode are top 100 guys and risers on most national recruiting lists. They are elite shooters and still have other aspects of their game they need to develop—both these things can be true. I believe Wieskamp was rated outside the top 50. Was he not a “lethal” shooter coming in? He sure lit it up as a freshman. Maybe one or both of Goode will play a key role next year, maybe they won’t, but to act like it’s impossible belies what we’ve actually seen in the B10 with other “non blue chip” recruits.

Re: your last argument—if we had shooters as good (based on volume and percentage) as Harrington and Bradford, you’d better believe there would be an uptick in long distance shots. One thing both those guys had in common: quick releases. Come on now.
 
#156      
EyeoftheIllini
Against the field, the Illini actually shot the 3 well. According to stats I’m looking at they were tied for 31st in 3-pt shooting percentage, and the only power 5 teams that shot better than Illinois were Baylor, Iowa, UM. Oregon, FSU and Virginia. Other tourney teams that shot better are Colgate, Liberty and Oral Roberts. Now the Illinois did rank 245th in 3-pt FG made per game, so as someone mentioned shooters with length should help with getting up more shots (and making more hopefully). I thought the big weakness was guys who could create their own shots — especially late in shot clock and going to hoop. Ayo could do it. Curbelo could too to some extent, but not sure I’d call it a strength yet. Though as he gets stronger it could be. That’s the big difference I’ve noticed between the Illini and most of teams in Elite Eight — better at getting wings/guards into paint and to the rim.
 
#159      
Oranges
I11ini82 said:
Did they double and triple team Kofi because they knew he wasn't going to pass or because we couldn't shoot 3s?

I would argue it's the former. It seems to me like you are saying it was the latter.
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I think the answer is both

Edit: not saying we were a bad 3 point shooting team either, but we lagged behind the other top teams and it showed.
 
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#163      
JJE
I have to wonder if one of the strategies going forward is to sign players in the transfer portal because they will have used their one time transfer waiver, making them less likely to try to transfer again. Kind of a backdoor way of making sure the guys you sign have to think twice about leaving.
 
#164      
Deleted member 29907
Goode and Melendez will have to be able to play good D to see the floor. Lets not forget that is what keeps most talented newbies' time limited.
AM and AC were pretty unique in how quickly they were able to adapt and stay on the floor for a coach who values D.
 
#165      
Deleted member 747671
JJE said:
I have to wonder if one of the strategies going forward is to sign players in the transfer portal because they will have used their one time transfer waiver, making them less likely to try to transfer again. Kind of a backdoor way of making sure the guys you sign have to think twice about leaving.
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It's going to be interesting to see how those classic long, drawn-out, twist-and-turn big recruitments are handled from here on out. Like, you're still going to have to be in them to be looked at positively, in the event that prospect ends up eventually transferring, but you can't spend as much time wasting through those if you can get a similar prospect through a few weeks of recruiting in the portal.
 
#166      
illini27jake
Certainly showed for Michigan against UCLA lol. That was brutal to watch

Gonzaga also has shot 20 3s in every tournament game, Illinois shot about 20 3s in the 2 games combined.
 
#168      
LIfan
Oregon’s Chandler Lawson enters transfer portal. We can use him bigtime!!
 
#169      
sinmyp1
I11ini82 said:
Exactly. The issue had nothing to do with us not having shooters to burn a double team. It was our players knowing how to get us in a position to burn a double team, which likely falls on the coaches.
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Loyla watched the MSU game,
 
#171      
altenberger22
I11ini82 said:
For comparison:

Gonzaga: 30 games, 520 3-point shots, 36.5%
Illinois: 31 games, 524 3-point shots, 37.6%

I don't see anyone clamoring for Gonzaga to be shooting more 3 pointers. They have the most efficient offense in the country.
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Great stat comparison!!
 
#172      
CV Illini
Travis1173 said:
I’ll let you guys know what I hear. I’m not a Memphis insider, but a buddy plays poker with some local Memphis radio guys.
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dog poker GIF
 
#173      
CubsIlliniFan
I11ini82 said:
Man, if you're going to just ignore statistics, have at it.

Goode, Melendez, Hutch, Hawkins and guys we don't even have are going to be better than Ayo, Miller, Da'monte, and Frazier. Got it. That seems sound and logical.
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We are talking about outside shooting and the facts are that we had very slow delivery shooters with limited length. Half the time when Williams got the ball when open, he had to pass it as the defender covered him back up by the time he was ready to shoot. We are going to have more length which means quicker releases and will be able to shoot over defenders. When we played teams like Maryland and Baylor which both had length, we could not get our offense going. But we will need to wait and see on who else will be coming.
 
#175      
CubsIlliniFan
Chieeeeffffff said:
Melendez and Goode are top 100 guys and risers on most national recruiting lists. They are elite shooters and still have other aspects of their game they need to develop—both these things can be true. I believe Wieskamp was rated outside the top 50. Was he not a “lethal” shooter coming in? He sure lit it up as a freshman. Maybe one or both of Goode will play a key role next year, maybe they won’t, but to act like it’s impossible belies what we’ve actually seen in the B10 with other “non blue chip” recruits.

Re: your last argument—if we had shooters as good (based on volume and percentage) as Harrington and Bradford, you’d better believe there would be an uptick in long distance shots. One thing both those guys had in common: quick releases. Come on now.
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Our three point shooters had slow triggers as you make the point and which I have been saying. Not to knock any player here but teams dropped off Williams a lot which is why he did have a good percentage when he shot the ball. But he had to have time to shoot and defenders knew exactly how much to fall off so they can get back to defending him. I just am in the camp that believes we will be much more of a threat from 3 which will open the middle more. BU is coveting wings 6-6 and up for a reason.
 
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