Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread

[Chieeeeffffff]

1) Brad et al. have earned well beyond the benefit of the doubt.

2) Sophomores Epps and Harris will be good to very good backcourt players that would not be bumped from starting/the rotation arbitrarily.

3) Is shooting something that one can improve? Of course. But why take that risk when you can raid the transfer portal or recruit proven shooters (Boswell) to try and get what you need when you need it? Plummer won’t be the last unreal shooter we get from the portal and his success story is the proof of concept we can sell seasoned transfers in the portal.

4) Do not underestimate the impact the Adam Miller saga had on this recruitment. The program is in a position where it doesn’t need to make promises to attract top talent and win.

Onward and upward.

 

[Joel Goodson]

1) Brad et al. have earned well beyond the benefit of the doubt.

2) Sophomores Epps and Harris will be good to very good backcourt players that would not be bumped from starting/the rotation arbitrarily.

3) Is shooting something that one can improve? Of course. But why take that risk when you can raid the transfer portal or recruit proven shooters (Boswell) to try and get what you need when you need it? Plummer won’t be the last unreal shooter we get from the portal and his success story is the proof of concept we can sell seasoned transfers in the portal.

4) Do not underestimate the impact the Adam Miller saga had on this recruitment. The program is in a position where it doesn’t need to make promises to attract top talent and win.

Onward and upward.

+infinity

well put

 

[pruman91]

I fear we may regret this one-but all trust in BU and co.

DB , your opinion please on ..............

Are the Fears family wanting a guarantee of starting day 1...................?
We pulled back mainly because of Fears shooting concerns ..................?
We are in better shape with Boswell than reported ....................................?
Ames just ""fits "" better..........................................................................................?

Inquiring minds want to know.........................
asking again for myself .....................................

 

[217sports]

Gotta consider that it's pretty darn early to be taking a '23. It almost has to be a no-brainer. Fears isn't that (which doesn't mean there's no risk). Personally, I'd take that risk (and I don't know a thimble-full of what Underwood knows).

BTW, who are we basing that Fears isn’t good anymore on? Just posters here? I personally haven’t seen any national sites bash him (I could be wrong) and obviously he still had plenty of suitors. His HS season seems to be going well.. just curious

 

[pruman91]

Passing on Fears is absolutely 100% the right call.

What happened to scUM this year scares the hell out of me -- all these ballyhooed freshman recruits, but they can't shoot the 3 and aren't great on defense yet still want the tons of playing time they were promised. And so a supposedly top-5 team talent-wise with a great coach has mediocre offense and defense as well as terrible chemistry and great unhappiness, and they might not even make the tourney.

Fears is ringing all those same alarm bells. Hard pass, good luck at State.

 

[Ga65]

1) Brad et al. have earned well beyond the benefit of the doubt.

2) Sophomores Epps and Harris will be good to very good backcourt players that would not be bumped from starting/the rotation arbitrarily.

3) Is shooting something that one can improve? Of course. But why take that risk when you can raid the transfer portal or recruit proven shooters (Boswell) to try and get what you need when you need it? Plummer won’t be the last unreal shooter we get from the portal and his success story is the proof of concept we can sell seasoned transfers in the portal.

4) Do not underestimate the impact the Adam Miller saga had on this recruitment. The program is in a position where it doesn’t need to make promises to attract top talent and win.

Onward and upward.

At this point I would assume Belo will be back for two years and Epps will be the backup PG and Podz and Harris complete the 1-2 rotation.

 

[BashCtIllini]

Passing on Fears is absolutely 100% the right call.

Well this is going a bit too far.

It's not like Fears is a bad player. To me it's not his poor outside shooting, it's the fact that he is also not an above to rim athlete. Ayo was not much of a shooter as a Fr. either, but he was 6'5". That allowed him to be great going to the rim. When his shooting came around, obviously good things happened.

With all three of our 2023 PG targets not being tall, that adds in more risk. If you can't shoot and can't score at the rim, then you are a distributor. Fine, a skilled distributor is very valuable, but if you have other options that can bring more to the table, you focus there.

I think ideally for the staff, Fears would wait and we'd have more time to determine who is the best fit. However, when Fears and Boswell's dads were together on the radio, I didn't get the feeling that Boswell's dad was terribly interested in both players going to Illinois. It's possible the staff knows this and thinks Ames is as good or better than Fears and he gives them more time to work on Boswell.

In the end, Fears is a good player. The timing and skillset just didn't fit. I will say, this is the first time I can think of Illinois passing on a highly rated local recruit because of fit. Typically it has been take the guy and try to fit a square peg into a round hole. That at least is a positive in my view.

 

[Joel Goodson]

BTW, who are we basing that Fears isn’t good anymore on? Just posters here? I personally haven’t seen any national sites bash him (I could be wrong) and obviously he still had plenty of suitors. His HS season seems to be going well.. just curious

Nobody is saying Fears isn't good. What some people are saying is that he's not good enough to be a take at this time. FWLIW, I agree with that, considering our roster and other options available.

 

[Haha]

Honestly it’s he’s to say. The cool thing is Kofi is gonna have a choice to keep making top money here and probably end up with every record we have if he plays one more year. He’s in a good spot. Lol

What if he stays two more years?

 

[BashCtIllini]

BTW, who are we basing that Fears isn’t good anymore on? Just posters here? I personally haven’t seen any national sites bash him (I could be wrong) and obviously he still had plenty of suitors. His HS season seems to be going well.. just curious

HOME

www.theseasonticket.com

If these AAU stats are correct, and it is a little weird because they list Brad Beal Elite as 30-7 but only have stats for Fears for 11 games. That said, the stats they have are 1-6 from 3, 16.7%. You could say 6 shots, these stats don't seem right, but they have him as 18-48 FGs, 37.5%. So my read is he's not a good shooter from deep, so he just doesn't shoot 3s much. 16-23 a solid 69.6% for FTs. Then they have him as 3.1 apg and 2.3 topg.

Nothing there makes you think, wow we need this guy. It is important to know he was playing up on the 17u team. So younger than many of his opponents, and he is said to be a strong defender.

Sadly I can't find stats on Ames or Boswell. But I did just read that in early December Ames scored 30 hitting 7 threes in a game.

 

[Poe's Law]

CBs all MSU. If he’s good enough for Izzo… (also that will help him hold his ranking one would think)

Trust Brad, just really hope we’re not looking at another Evans/Brunson situation. Atleast there’s a third solid option with Ames

I’d settle for an Ayo/THT situation though.

 

[lblesy]

I feel as though this whole situation is being read incorrectly. It doesn't matter if Fears is a top 30 player for one reason. He is not left-handed. Brad obviously feels someone like Dai Dai can bring a lot more to the table solely due to his left-handedness.

 

[Mike55]

Passing on Fears is absolutely 100% the right call.

What happened to Michigan this year scares the hell out of me -- all these ballyhooed freshman recruits, but they can't shoot the 3 and aren't great on defense yet still want the tons of playing time they were promised. And so a supposedly top-5 team talent-wise with a great coach has mediocre offense and defense as well as terrible chemistry and great unhappiness, and they might not even make the tourney.

Fears is ringing all those same alarm bells. Hard pass, good luck at State.

great post

 

[sacraig]

Passing on Fears is absolutely 100% the right call.

What happened to Michigan this year scares the hell out of me -- all these ballyhooed freshman recruits, but they can't shoot the 3 and aren't great on defense yet still want the tons of playing time they were promised. And so a supposedly top-5 team talent-wise with a great coach has mediocre offense and defense as well as terrible chemistry and great unhappiness, and they might not even make the tourney.

Fears is ringing all those same alarm bells. Hard pass, good luck at State.

Let's not get too carried away, here.

 

[skyIdub]

We've listened to BU tell us who he wants for 4 years. Long, athletic shooters. Of course you take a couple solid 6' PG's when opportunity calls for it....but we have those already.
BU and Co. decided to move on from Fears, and I'm more than ok with that. No ill will towards Fears or his dad.
Square peg, round hole. I like what I see recruiting-wise near term...and the future with the AC's in house now.

 

[BashCtIllini]

 

[skyIdub]

Let's not get too carried away, here.

Hmmm...now where have I seen the "great recruiter, can't coach" before?? Lemme think....

Now I remember!

 

[mhuml32]

Passing on Fears is absolutely 100% the right call.

What happened to Michigan this year scares the hell out of me -- all these ballyhooed freshman recruits, but they can't shoot the 3 and aren't great on defense yet still want the tons of playing time they were promised. And so a supposedly top-5 team talent-wise with a great coach has mediocre offense and defense as well as terrible chemistry and great unhappiness, and they might not even make the tourney.

Fears is ringing all those same alarm bells. Hard pass, good luck at State.

I don't think the Michigan situation is the same as pulling the trigger on a single recruit. Underwood is making a decision (or Fears made the best decision for himself) that will lead to future decisions regarding the 2023 and roster construction.


The UM strategy is really interesting to me. Michigan decided to follow the path of Duke/UK and bring in a number of highly-regarded prospects in the same class in hopes of overwhelming talent being their strategy for yearly success. Calipari had immediate success with this strategy after the NBA instituted the one-and-done rule and he was the only coach for years who had interest in that version of long-term roster construction (also one of the few who could attract the necessary recruits to implement it). Coach K was stubborn for a while but then succumbed, pursuing the same strategy starting in 2014 (Okafor - Tyus Jones - Winslow - Allen) leading to more success for Duke right when Kentucky was starting to crest. Now you are seeing more coaches that are able to cluster top recruits in the same class (Juwan at UM, Penny at Memphis, Oats(!) at Bama, Altman at Oregon), making this strategy more difficult. This has created a more difficult path to the best runs that UK (09-17) and Duke (16-20) enjoyed. It also has lowered the floor for these programs (both missed last year's postseason) because of wild swings in recruiting cycles and missing targets means you get the 90th best prospect instead of the 9th. Also creates some interesting game theory: it's an excellent strategy if only 1-2 programs can attract and actively recruiting only top-20 prospects but it can become a spectacular failure if 4-6 programs are trying that strategy.

Self has probably maintained the best blend throughout this team, as Kansas always has a top recruit or two in each class mixed with players who will stick around for 3-4 years. Underwood also is probably aiming for something similar, as going after Boswell and mixing him with more long-term prospects is going to avoid the bottoming-out.

 

[mhuml32]

I feel as though this whole situation is being read incorrectly. It doesn't matter if Fears is a top 30 player for one reason. He is not left-handed. Brad obviously feels someone like Dai Dai can bring a lot more to the table solely due to his left-handedness.

 

[billybaroo]

Yes please.

 

[DB11Headband]

DB , your opinion please on ..............

Are the Fears family wanting a guarantee of starting day 1...................?
We pulled back mainly because of Fears shooting concerns ..................?
We are in better shape with Boswell than reported ....................................?
Ames just ""fits "" better..........................................................................................?

Inquiring minds want to know.........................
asking again for myself .....................................

-Fears camp has some Adam Miller-like ”asks” for his Freshman year. This went a long way in pushing the staff away. They don’t like his fit on the roster moving forward. Not sure I totally agree-can never have enough capable guards, regardless of shooting shortcomings. But we don’t need a kid jumping ship if he is not going to be playing as much as desired Freshman year (starter type minutes).
-We are going to have to beat out the Big Dogs for Boswell. I am not very optimistic, but as of today we couldn’t be in a better position.
-The staff likes Ames a lot. I could certainly see him being ranked higher than Fears in the next refresh.

 

[BashCtIllini]

-Fears camp has some Adam Miller-like ”asks” for his Freshman year. This went a long way in pushing the staff away. They don’t like his fit on the roster moving forward. Not sure I totally agree-can never have enough capable guards, regardless of shooting shortcomings. But we don’t need a kid jumping ship if he is not going to be playing as much as desired Freshman year (starter type minutes).
-We are going to have to beat out the Big Dogs for Boswell. I am not very optimistic, but as of today we couldn’t be in a better position.
-The staff likes Ames a lot. I could certainly see him being ranked higher than Fears in the next refresh.

I just did a quick internet review of Fears and Ames.

What you consistently hear about Fears is toughness, intelligence, floor general. What you consistently hear about Ames is creativity, speed, and step back shooting.

When you watch Fears vids, you see a strong player getting into the lane and some inventive passing. When you watch Ames videos, you see a little bit of everything (except stellar defense from opponents).

From my perspective, very limited though it may be, Ames is my preferred player. Another thing you see in Ames' videos that you don't see in Fears', a lot of other Illini targets. To me, that helps push Ames over the edge.

 

[pruman91]

-Fears camp has some Adam Miller-like ”asks” for his Freshman year. This went a long way in pushing the staff away. They don’t like his fit on the roster moving forward. Not sure I totally agree-can never have enough capable guards, regardless of shooting shortcomings. But we don’t need a kid jumping ship if he is not going to be playing as much as desired Freshman year (starter type minutes).
-We are going to have to beat out the Big Dogs for Boswell. I am not very optimistic, but as of today we couldn’t be in a better position.
-The staff likes Ames a lot. I could certainly see him being ranked higher than Fears in the next refresh.

 

[KevinC]

His skillset is best as a 4 which isn't a perimeter position. That doesn't preclude him from popping out and taking a 3 pt shot or handling at times. But he needs to work on his outside shot and stop over-handling the ball.

The kid's had a couple games with double-digit rebounds for goods sake.

But BU always seems to play him up top or in the corner. There might be a reason for that.

 

[Indy Illini Fan]

-Fears camp has some Adam Miller-like ”asks” for his Freshman year. This went a long way in pushing the staff away. They don’t like his fit on the roster moving forward. Not sure I totally agree-can never have enough capable guards, regardless of shooting shortcomings. But we don’t need a kid jumping ship if he is not going to be playing as much as desired Freshman year (starter type minutes).
-We are going to have to beat out the Big Dogs for Boswell. I am not very optimistic, but as of today we couldn’t be in a better position.
-The staff likes Ames a lot. I could certainly see him being ranked higher than Fears in the next refresh.

- The asks from his camp really frustrated BU & staff.
- The sharks are going to start circling for Boswell. The good news is that we’re going to be one of them … NIL will play a big role.
- Ames > Fears in the staffs mind. TA putting in work for him. If we wind up with Boswell, or Ames I don’t think anyone can complain. You just can’t afford to miss on both.