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Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread
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I was refuting the claim that Kofi does not raise the ceilings of offenses, which he clearly does. Obviously aside from shooting and passing, Kofi has extremely good off-ball skills including offensive rebounding, play finishing, and rim gravity. A lot of you seem to be conflating floor raising vs ceiling raising. I agree that Kofi's limitations in shooting and on-ball passing can make the offense stagnant IF the offense is being ran through him on-ball, i.e. a detriment to his floor raising skill. I could care less what unnamed coaches have to say, when you have a player that is a 99th percentile finisher at the rim on massive volume, even more so when playing off the ball, an elite offensive rebounder, and someone who commands the attention of defenses better than almost anyone else, you can stack talent around that and see elite results.
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Just logging in after a Sunday with family things and some golf thinking there might be 2-3 pages on this thread on a slow weekend instead of the usual 15-plus ....and here we are at 10 and counting. Impressive
I don't think people realize how important it is to stretch the floor. Kofi was a monster in the paint, but the downside was he was always in the paint. Meaning his defender was also always in the paint. Then when you factor in he was routinely double teamed, there were 2 guys with their eyes on the paint. Really hard to drive when the opponents C is camped in the paint and another guy was cheating down.
We will have much more versatility, because we can bring a big man out on the perimeter and open the lane up for drives. When every player is a threat to drive and shoot, from the inside and the outside, you become much harder to guard. Last year, if Kofi was farther than 10 ft from the hoop, you didn't really have to guard him. You didn't really have to worry about Trent or Plummer driving, and you didn't have to worry too much about Damonte taking a shot.
Now, you will have to guard Dainja and Coleman outside or they will take the shot, they also have the ability to drive, not sure what we'll get in the paint though. Skyy, Epps, RJ, and Rodgers will drive on you or shoot it. Goode may be a bit more 1 dimensional. but if he can get that 3 pt % around 40%, at 6'7", no one will care.
We will just give opponents more to worry about and prepare for. If we can get another big guy that can play defense and score in the paint, and another multidimensional wing, I don't see why we can't compete for a title next season. Every team is in flux. Michigan is coached by Juwan Howard, maybe, and Purdue, Wisconsin, Iowa, Ohio State lost a ton. Conference is up for grabs.
If James Brown is interested in Illinois, is he just waiting to see how high his stock rises? Or just doesn't want to commit since it's so far away and a lot can change?
Yea he’s been pretty good. Still hasn’t made it past the second round of the tournament with 2 AA on the same team. Not trying to dog coach but he’s got something to prove. B10 champs great, Final four.. greatness.
Carlos helped lead Curie to the CPL Championship game against Whitney Young. Notably beating Simeon along the way. He’s a pretty good finisher at the rim, but struggles with his outside shot. He’s a good kid. Still maturing tho.
Every kid takes their recruitment differently. Some like to get it out of the way others don’t. Most of the time this is the only time they get attention and pub like this. Kids like to drag that out as long as possible.
What’s the word on Emoni Bates?
Same as it was all last week. Illinois wants no part of that
Damn.. think he’ll end up in the B1G?
Possibly. A couple schools have scholarship problems though
the national
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I saw the video going around. In this day and age, everything you do is caught on camera. Wasn't that way in my younger days thankfully. I do think it shows a lack of maturity and coping skills. But that's to be expected to a certain point with young people. Right is right, and wrong is wrong. I believe there should be consequences for your actions. I also believe that he will learn from this incident and continue to mature as a person. These young athletes put in a lot of hard work educationally, athletically, and behaviorally! So this seems to be something out of character. Kids are gonna make mistakes along the way. I'd be more concerned with a pattern of behavior and poor choices. Just my opinion.
Like to add Chester Frazier 11. And Nnanna Egwu 11 to this roster. Two defensive stoppers with experience. Then I’m all in on us being BIG champs or at least competing for it.
I live half way around the world and love the fact that I can keep up with Illini news on this board. Thank you to all of you. Insiders, outsiders, lurkers, and even the people I disagree with. Thanks a ton!
Saw the DJ Wagner punch video. Was after the game outside the arena, ppl trying to hold him back, was determined to go punch the guy and start a fight.
That's kinda like fight club rule number 1.
I feel that a lot of this speculation depends on who we can find to play the 5. Right now we really don't have a true 5. Dain and Hawk can play the 5 but really are more of a 4. We need to wait and see if we can add a piece to match up against the Edeys, Williams, and Dickinson's in the B10.
Joel Goodson
- respect my decision™
I would like to know who those coaches were that would rather face us this past year with Kofi then without him! I think it's a bit of hyperbole now that he's leaving the natural tendency is to point out the positives rather than dwell on the obvious negatives for losing a first team AA - that somehow we're more dangerous or have more upside without him. Last year we had spot up shooters and nobody who can really drive and finish at the rim (one of our glaring weaknesses), so Kofi was not "holding anyone back" and we were clearly a much better team with Kofi last year.
The only argument would be for next years team, where we won't have nearly as good of 3 point shooters and will have more slashers that can get to the rim, maybe we have more fluidity on offense without Kofi? I think we would have been better with him of course - who doesn't want an option that shoots 60% from the field and forces defenses to collapse on him leaving 3 point shooters wide open? But the point is valid next years team will not have been able to take advantage of that as much as last years
RedRocksIllini
- Morrison, CO
You actually from Fulton, IL?
Yes I am.
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