Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread

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#53      
Don't believe there were any U of I engineers on the first two. Our guys can fix those problems.
Every read the back story on this one? The lead architect was forced to design the Deathstar by the Empire who were holding his family hostage. He had to find a fatal flaw that he could slip by everyone else, and then get a copy of the plans and the flaw back to the rebels. This was high quality work.

This really is in one of the Star Wars books.
 
#54      
Every read the back story on this one? The lead architect was forced to design the Deathstar by the Empire who were holding his family hostage. He had to find a fatal flaw that he could slip by everyone else, and then get a copy of the plans and the flaw back to the rebels. This was high quality work.

This really is in one of the Star Wars books.
You are a rogue one.
 
#55      

The Galloping Ghost

Washington, DC
giphy-2.gif
 
#56      

skyIdub

Winged Warrior
#66      
Under prior coaches losing Bass and Storr would have wiped out our recruiting class for the year. I like how our program was able to replace them with Epps, Harr is and Rodgers. Getting a Michigan native like Rodgers who 's HS coach is UM grad is huge. I will never forget the Jon Scheyer fiasco where Weber's brother was his HS coach, we were in NCAA finals game and he still went to Duke.

Losing all three assistants could have been devestating . Reloading with Chester, Tim and Geof is looking good!
 
#67      

Joel Goodson

respect my decision™
Under prior coaches losing Bass and Storr would have wiped out our recruiting class for the year. I like how our program was able to replace them with Epps, Harr is and Rodgers. Getting a Michigan native like Rodgers who 's HS coach is UM grad is huge. I will never forget the Jon Scheyer fiasco where Weber's brother was his HS coach, we were in NCAA finals game and he still went to Duke.

Losing all three assistants could have been devestating . Reloading with Chester, Tim and Geof is looking good!
I get your point, but Scheyer's dream school was Duke and nothing was going to change that.
 
#69      
Coming off one of the best Illini seasons ever Weber lost Gordon, and couldn't sign D Rose or Scheyer.

Brad does not make excuses. He never stops recruiting and always has a backup plan. He also appears to be very good at evaluating talent.
 
#70      
Coming off one of the best Illini seasons ever Weber lost Gordon, and couldn't sign D Rose or Scheyer.

Brad does not make excuses. He never stops recruiting and always has a backup plan. He also appears to be very good at evaluating talent.
It's interesting you say this because for the life of me I can't figure out who the staff's "backup plan" to Boswell is. Yeah we're after Ames but he's really a combo, which is why the staff likes him alongside a True PG like Fears or Boswell. All indications are that Ames is leaning heavily toward IL and my "insider" tells me that Boz is ours "IF" he doesn't get a last minute blue blood offer (we'll see if that's true).

But we haven't hosted any other true PGs in 2023 (other than Joey Brown who joined Xavier Booker last season). Sure we've offered several like Wesley Yates, Chuck Bailey, Khoi Thurman, Marvel Allen, Jeremiah Johnson, Dalen Davis, Caleb Foster etc. but haven't heard a word about any having real interest in IL

I've gotta assume that if we miss on Boz then the plan is to wait and see with Belo and then hit the portal. Currently we've only offered 3 PGs in the 2024 class (David Castillo, ZZ Clark..Skyy's brother, and Curtis Givens). KJ Windham doesn't have an offer but has also unofficially visited
 
#71      
It's interesting you say this because for the life of me I can't figure out who the staff's "backup plan" to Boswell is. Yeah we're after Ames but he's really a combo, which is why the staff likes him alongside a True PG like Fears or Boswell. All indications are that Ames is leaning heavily toward IL and my "insider" tells me that Boz is ours "IF" he doesn't get a last minute blue blood offer (we'll see if that's true).

But we haven't hosted any other true PGs in 2023 (other than Joey Brown who joined Xavier Booker last season). Sure we've offered several like Wesley Yates, Chuck Bailey, Khoi Thurman, Marvel Allen, Jeremiah Johnson, Dalen Davis, Caleb Foster etc. but haven't heard a word about any having real interest in IL

I've gotta assume that if we miss on Boz then the plan is to wait and see with Belo and then hit the portal. Currently we've only offered 3 PGs in the 2024 class (David Castillo, ZZ Clark..Skyy's brother, and Curtis Givens). KJ Windham doesn't have an offer but has also unofficially visited
Just like we weren't talking about Podz or RJ until the weeks before they committed, Brad & Co. likely have some backup PGs in mind. 2023 fall signing day is a long way from now.

Some thought the sky was falling when we lost Storr. Some even proclaimed him a "surefire top 50 recruit". Look how that turned out, and I would consider Epps, Sincere, and Rodgers a major upgrade.
 
#72      
We have Epps coming in next year who is combo guard. Belo will probably(?) stay another year due to the injury.

It was interesting that we appeared to be Fears favorite but he ended up at Lansing. I would love to hear what really happened.

We are talking about 2023 so there are probably late bloomers that we are tracking plus the dreaded transfer portal.

This year we are lucky Trent came back as nobody anticipated Curbelo's injury. Who knows if Adam stayed he might have had a chance to play some PG, they are letting DaMonte play PG a lot of the time. I suspect if Trent had not returned Brad would have picked up a pg in the portal.

It is also possible Brad feels Pods can play some PG. I am intrigued with RJ - he has a nice handle, imagine a 6'7" PG feeding our bigs!
 
#73      
It was also his father's dream school. There was no way we were getting him. Part of successful recruiting is knowing when to move on to your next target. BU seems to handle these situations well. Weber didn't - he just pouted to the media.
And blamed us fans. Essentially said we wouldn't have been happy with some players so he passed on them.

Somehow in that convoluted thinking we ended up with Michael Orris instead of Fred VanVleet.
 
#74      
We have Epps coming in next year who is combo guard. Belo will probably(?) stay another year due to the injury.

It was interesting that we appeared to be Fears favorite but he ended up at Lansing. I would love to hear what really happened.

We are talking about 2023 so there are probably late bloomers that we are tracking plus the dreaded transfer portal.

This year we are lucky Trent came back as nobody anticipated Curbelo's injury. Who knows if Adam stayed he might have had a chance to play some PG, they are letting DaMonte play PG a lot of the time. I suspect if Trent had not returned Brand would have picked up a pg in the portal.
The staff passed on Fears. He wanted some guarantees that Brad wasn't prepared to provide so Brad moved on. Gotta assume MSU provided said guarantees
 
#75      
Izzo would make guarantees that Underwood would not - WOW.

Brad has shown - unlike his predecessors he recruits the entire country. I miss the 89 Flying Illini with its all Illinois roster but times have changed.

Our current diversity is amazing. Instead of being limited to 10-20 possible div 1 players from IL we are recruiting a pool of several hundred. More work but definitely worth it.

Kofi Jamaica/NY
Curbello PR/NY
Grandison CA
DaMonte IL
Plummer PR

Hawkins CA
Payne FL
Goode IN
Melendez FL
Pods WI
BBV Belgium
Lieb IL

incoming

Harris OH
Epps VA
Rodgers MI
 
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