Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread

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#603      
We will. Focus is on retaining guys now.

Ty, Sencire, Moretti, and Luke will all be back for sure.
I think Shannon comes back and Coleman stays in the draft (again needs to play out).
RJ will be back most likely, but need to have conversations.
Dain and Epps both will take conversations. Think 1/2 will be back but we will see.

Need to add a vet point, a couple of wing shooters, and a big. Staff will be acting quickly

I'm surprised to hear both Dain and Epps need convos...Dain had a rough last half of the year, but without him the bigman cupboard is very very bare.

And I would assume Epps is almost guaranteed a starters spot... just a rough year for him? Health concerns? It would be tough to lose both of them.

But hey...its the wild west...they all could leave...
 
#604      
We will. Focus is on retaining guys now.

Ty, Sencire, Moretti, and Luke will all be back for sure.
I think Shannon comes back and Coleman stays in the draft (again needs to play out).
RJ will be back most likely, but need to have conversations.
Dain and Epps both will take conversations. Think 1/2 will be back but we will see.

Need to add a vet point, a couple of wing shooters, and a big. Staff will be acting quickly
Curious why Epps wouldn't be solid on coming back. Ended with a starting role and basically a primary scorer before the concussion. Not a fan of the practice work effort and defense forward expectations?
 
#606      
Curious why Epps wouldn't be solid on coming back. Ended with a starting role and basically a primary scorer before the concussion. Not a fan of the practice work effort and defense forward expectations?
Seemed like he bristled several times when BU was coaching him up. Maybe that's part of the issue. If so, have to side with BU in this case. FR gotta be coachable. But I could be completely off base too. Just something I noticed a few times.
 
#607      

BlindLoyalty

FartNoiseMotivation
We really can’t continue to churn over an entire roster.

Keeping Epps and Dain is really important for continuity, imo.
Underwood spent almost 20 years at JC & Western Illinois. Churning rosters is in his DNA. With Underwood + the portal +NIL we will be building teams each year, not a program.
 
#610      

DICKnaggie

Champaign
Curious why Epps wouldn't be solid on coming back. Ended with a starting role and basically a primary scorer before the concussion. Not a fan of the practice work effort and defense forward expectations?
My guess is NIL money and more playing time. Everyone thinks they are a star. Comparing themselves to each other for $ and time on court. It's kind of the way things are evolving, isn't it? That combined with relative lack of success this year makes kids want to see if the grass is greener.
 
#611      

Dee_4_Three_83

Mahomet, IL
We will. Focus is on retaining guys now.

Ty, Sencire, Moretti, and Luke will all be back for sure.
I think Shannon comes back and Coleman stays in the draft (again needs to play out).
RJ will be back most likely, but need to have conversations.
Dain and Epps both will take conversations. Think 1/2 will be back but we will see.

Need to add a vet point, a couple of wing shooters, and a big. Staff will be acting quickly
christmas vacation GIF
 
#612      
My guess is NIL money and more playing time. Everyone thinks they are a star. Comparing themselves to each other for $ and time on court. It's kind of the way things are evolving, isn't it? That combined with relative lack of success this year makes kids want to see if the grass is greener.
From Epps' observable behavior of bumping Brad in a timeout and refusing to go back into a game, it seems like he's not getting along with the coach. That's a guess though.
 
#614      
Curious why Epps wouldn't be solid on coming back. Ended with a starting role and basically a primary scorer before the concussion. Not a fan of the practice work effort and defense forward expectations?
My uninformed guess is that the conversation is about how he’ll be used. Minutes are just part of the equation. For some reason I’m not sure he loved his role. Hawk, Rodgers, and then Shannon and Mayer sometimes initiating the offense put him in a role he might not have liked. But what do I know.
 
#615      
Well I will go ahead and be the Brad apologist for his lack of tourney success so far.

We have a sample size of 3. 2/3 of the years we got an absolutely horrendous draw.

If you look at the top final KenPom rankings for 21 and 22 it also provides and NCAAT seed. At the very top you see lots of 1/2/3s of course but there were a couple of “one of these is not like the others” seeds. And Illinois drew both in the round of 32. If we had faced Houston or Loyola in the S16 and lost I think there’s a different narrative out there.

This year Brad brought in 2 hired guns from the portal out of necessity and we were preseason 33 KenPom and ended the season at 33, which puts us right on the 8/9 line. And even if we managed to exceed expectations any seed 6 or lower is an uphill battle to get to the S16.

This year I think we learned that roster continuity counts for a lot. Northwestern has been a bottom feeder but their backcourt stuck together and they kicked our *** 3 of the 4 halves we played them. Penn state had an old core and supplemented with senior transfers. Etc.

Hopefully we can keep most of the roster together and reset next year. Think the frosh and sophs both have a lot of potential.
 
#616      
My uninformed guess is that the conversation is about how he’ll be used. Minutes are just part of the equation. For some reason I’m not sure he loved his role. Hawk, Rodgers, and then Shannon and Mayer sometimes initiating the offense put him in a role he might not have liked. But what do I know.
No more, no less than the rest of us. We're all floating in the same boat.
 
#618      
We will. Focus is on retaining guys now.

Ty, Sencire, Moretti, and Luke will all be back for sure.
I think Shannon comes back and Coleman stays in the draft (again needs to play out).
RJ will be back most likely, but need to have conversations.
Dain and Epps both will take conversations. Think 1/2 will be back but we will see.

Need to add a vet point, a couple of wing shooters, and a big. Staff will be acting quickly
To me RJ coming back would be far more important than returning Epps. If Shannon returns too even better. Quite frankly, if Epps doesn't want to return after starting as a Fr. I'll help you pack kid.

Would really like to bring Dain back though. If he can limit fouling and improve FTs, he's a monster. Both are common issues with young bigs.

I've never been a Hawkins fan....I'll just leave it at that
 
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#619      
Curious why Epps wouldn't be solid on coming back. Ended with a starting role and basically a primary scorer before the concussion. Not a fan of the practice work effort and defense forward expectations?
A few weeks ago an insider from another program (Arizona) told me Epps was pretty unhappy and looking around. He didn't go into any more details but said that it was more likely than not he would not return. I didn't know what to think as he was given a starting spot and getting a lot more playing time but sadly, based on what our insiders are saying, it looks like his info wasn't far off. Really unfortunate... Dain possibly not coming back surprises me though.
 
#621      
We will. Focus is on retaining guys now.

Ty, Sencire, Moretti, and Luke will all be back for sure.
I think Shannon comes back and Coleman stays in the draft (again needs to play out).
RJ will be back most likely, but need to have conversations.
Dain and Epps both will take conversations. Think 1/2 will be back but we will see.

Need to add a vet point, a couple of wing shooters, and a big. Staff will be acting quickly
Why would Epps leave? There is such a massive opportunity here.
 
#623      
Why would Epps leave? There is such a massive opportunity here.

He clearly doesn’t get along with Brad. I agree it’s a huge mistake to transfer from here given the opportunity but such is life these days with the portal.

Kind of reminds me of the Rocket Watts situation at MSU. I thought he was a solid player and fit into the Izzo mold perfectly but he clearly didn’t like Izzo. Transferred to Mississippi state and then transferred again once more.
 
#625      
We will. Focus is on retaining guys now.

Ty, Sencire, Moretti, and Luke will all be back for sure.
I think Shannon comes back and Coleman stays in the draft (again needs to play out).
RJ will be back most likely, but need to have conversations.
Dain and Epps both will take conversations. Think 1/2 will be back but we will see.

Need to add a vet point, a couple of wing shooters, and a big. Staff will be acting quickly
I know we're thin at the "big" especially of Hawkins stays in the draft, but Dain has some serious defensive shortcomings. A lot of the issues with guards torching us this year was the result of his poor execution on help/recover on the high pick & roll. Not saying I want him to go but he would definitely need to improve on that end if next year's team is going to be any good.
 
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