When it's a "mystery" player - that's a red flag right off the bat.
Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread
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Chuck Nuggets
Dip your nuggets in my staff source sauce.
AKA, people who watch college basketball, and know that a team without a real PG is a loser's gamble.
If Williams is healthy and can still guard like a !!!!! I am on board!
Thank you. Good info.
There is a difference between only having freshman PGs and having Williams, Harmon, DGL, and possibly still adding a grad transfer. Just because Skyy struggled doe not mean DGL can't do ok in the pre conference play and do better than others last season. The difference is we have some experience and if DGL pops that would be awesome but if he doesn't we have others that will do the job. Its going to be interesting after what happened with Podz if someone like DGL or others may get some more minutes in pre conference games we are winning. Offensively DGL does have some athleticism and skill.
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There was one team in the F4 last year that had a player average as many assists as Jeremiah Williams.
I know Williams is a point guard, but that’s tough putting everything on him.
But if there are no other decent pg options out there I’m all for Reeves coming aboard. If Williams can’t go throw Ty in there. Would at least be entertaining.
IF J Williams is 100% healthy next year, he can be a good PG with the players we have around him. And eligible of course.
Williams is a PG.
If we can land Reeves it’s hard to classify the offseason as anything but a success, even if I’m not a huge fan of the fit. That’s 3 NBA-level talents with a lot of experience under their belt plus a few more proven D1 guys. There’ll be enough talent on the team to win a whole lotta games. But if we don’t bring in Reeves and the roster stays as is… man what a massive downgrade from RayJ to the current PG rotation. (Mentioning Reeves alongside the RayJ recruitment as imo there’s no chance we get Reeves with RayJ, not enough NIL money nor scoring opportunities to go around.)
Sammy the chucker
You are really stretching your credibility here. You’ve chosen the three best years of Illinois basketball in the past 18 years to say the program has stagnated. That defies all logic. Perhaps if you would’ve said “we took a slight downward turn last year after two outstanding seasons” your point would’ve held water. You were spot on on your other assessments in that post, you were just way off on that one.
I think everybody would be more than fine with a pre injury Williams. Just have some question as to where he is at health wise.
Would love to hear about that.
Otherwise we go PG by committee and we we still be pretty good. Top 26 right now per Torvik.
Get Reeves and we will be very dangerous as long as we can figure out how to keep TOs low, run a very basic serviceable PnR, and some end of shot clock set in half court like we did with Ayo.
And yet still are a bazillion miles from being able to effectively coach & manage a Div 1 college bball team.
"I'm not a Div 1 head coach, but I did watch UNC vs Duke last night"
I just think it's funny when people say "well no team's ever had success without a great point guard!"
It would've taken five seconds to go look at last year's Final Four rosters and see that isn't really true.
I'd like to get a great point guard, for sure, but in fact most of the teams who had lots of tournament success last year DIDN'T have an elite point guard.
This is really what I worry about. In the past, boosters and donors had influence but ultimately the performance of a coach and his future with his program would be judged by professionals who are smart enough to realize that 188 non-NCAA tournament games tell you a lot more than five tournament games. With the growing influence of NIL and the need to keep those dollars flowing, more and more power is in the hands of guys who aren't bright enough (or maybe just patient enough) to grasp that. Hoping we don't kick the guy to the curb over a bad game or two in March.
So I arguably have the least substantive analytical basketball mind in this forum, but it feels somewhat logical that while an Achilles injury may not be minor for any basketball player that for someone we are presumably looking to be a floor leader and distributor with an occasional shot as opposed to a slasher such an injury is far less irrecoverable.
No?
If Indy disagrees I’ll go back to largely providing snark at an approximately 60% success rate. (Which would get you into the hall of fame in just about any sport…. Just sayin).
Heard Piper say on his radio show that Buie is a brother of Taylor Battle and that Taylor is an assistant coach at Northwestern. So no.
You need a capable PG, not necessarily a great one. Williams, if healthy and eligible, can definitely be that. Only thing concerning looking at his #s, is FT shooting.
Oh I agree with you. He’s coming off a major injury. Just saying he is a PG.
A bunch of wings and mobile bigs with weak point guard play. That should be ok, right?
Seven times in my lifetime Illinois has won two or more games in the NCAA tournament. Twice with Bruce Douglas at point guard, twice with Frank Williams at point guard, twice with Deron Williams and/or Dee Brown at point guard.
The other one had a defensive small forward playing out of position at point guard. That team also had several guys who could handle the ball, including a slick passing point guard that came off the bench.
Having an elite point guard is not required for post season success, but it helps.
The other one had a defensive small forward playing out of position at point guard. That team also had several guys who could handle the ball, including a slick passing point guard that came off the bench.
Having an elite point guard is not required for post season success, but it helps.
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If we get Reeves and can put Domask who shot nearly 40 percent as the guy defenses focused to stop at SIU and for this team he will most certainly not be the oppositions key focus then call me excited! Domask can shoot and was the focus of defenses at SIU and he hit shots at a high level. Here he will get much better looks especailly if we add Reeves and if TSJ and others drive and are doubled. If TSJ has two 40 percent shooters and he can improve at hitting the open man if he is doubled then look out! If domask is a catch and shoot guy i would not be shocked if he is the B10s top three point shooter percentage wise. He has a great stroke. We did not have shooters like Reeves n Domask that last season. Its been a while since we ever had 2 guys that can hit 40 percent or even better! If we land Reeves too our opposing teams better not leave them open and TSJ or Ty driving can get them the rock. Imo passubg on the move is one thing if TSJ improves he will be a first round pick.
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Chuck Nuggets
Dip your nuggets in my staff source sauce.
Interesting. Is he healthy and ready to play? Because we desperately need a point guard.
Chuck Nuggets
Dip your nuggets in my staff source sauce.
Makes you wonder why Dennis was such a high priority.
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