Joel Goodson
- respect my decision™
Jeremiah (younger bro) is the fast track kid
Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread
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Jeremiah (younger bro) is the fast track kid
Is there a reason for that? If his bro is killin it there, why would he go to an in-conference foe?
skyIdub
Winged Warrior
My memory has taken some shrapnel since then, but I seem to recall several places had him borderline 3-4.
Either way, it's more fun to think he was a 3 star that transformed in to All Star!
I may be wrong, Joel, but I thought Action Jackson was referring to Jeremy. Oh well, they're both outstanding talents. Hope we get at least one of them.
This statement is not helping your argument. Weber got guys that recruiting services liked (9 - 4* recruits in his last 4 recruiting classes)
Bruce Weber signed guys like (Rivals)
2009 - Brandon Paul 4*
- D.J. Richardson 4*
2010 - Jereme Richmond 4*
- Meyers Leonard 4*
- Crandall Head 4*
2011 - Mike Shaw 4*
- Mycheal Henry 4*
- Nnanna Egwu 4*
- Tracy Abrams 4*
DB11Headband
- Chicago Burbs
I’ve compared Jase to Bradley before-I think their style of play/build is extremely similar. Not saying Jase will be Bradley (needless to say we’d all be thrilled if he turned into that), but the potential is there.
GrayGhost77
- Centennial, CO
Some peeps on here be trippin'. If somebody told me we might have a potential 4 man class for '24 of Morez, JJ, Butler, and Fears I'd be giddy as a schoolgirl. That's two borderline 5 stars and two high upside developmental pieces at positions of need. Also likely a Top 5 rated recruiting class should it come to fruition.
Eh, personally I think Brad's recruiting has been really solid, and it is really the overall roster turnover along with last year's turmoil and missing out on RayJ that has people in knots over recruiting. Let's just for the second ignore this past year (I'll get to it soon) and take it entirely out of the question. Basically, Brad has recruited the following:
2022: Skyy (#34), Jayden (#51), Ty (#55), Sencire (#96)- 4 4stars, and Mayer, TSJ, and Dain who were also all 4stars out of high school
2021: Podz (#72), RJ (#124), Goode (#143), 2 4stars and 1 3 stars, and Plummer and Omar
2020: Miller (#35), Curbelo (#61), CoHawk (#185), Lieb (NR), 2 4 stars, 1 3 star, and 1NR, and Grandison and Hutcherson
Overall, that's solid recruiting by any standard. In 3 years he picked up 7 top 100 recruits and multiple high value transfers. Now let's look at this past year's recruiting:
2023: Hansberry (#61), DGL (#143), Perrin (NR), Moretti (NR), 1 4star, 2 3star, and 1NR, and Guerrier, Harmon, and Domask, all considered 4star transfers
If we look at 2023 objectively, it's not all that different than 2021 with higher rated transfers. Now let's look at 2024:
2024: Morez (#35), Fears (#43), Jakstys (#110), Jase (#162)
If we were to get Fears, that would on paper be a better recruiting class than 2020, which had the looks of being a very very strong one. So recruiting clearly hasn't gone in the tank. So what's the real issue?
And the answer to that is two things: Results and Retention. Looking back at that recruiting, we have failed to retain (some by choice, some not) the following recruits: Skyy (#34), Miller (#35), Jayden (#51), Curbelo (#61), Podz (#72), and RJ (#124). So of the 7 Top 100 recruits he's signed the past 3 years, he was only able to retain 2 of them. Now combine that with last year's chemistry, leadership, and teamwork issues by bringing in some poor locker room guys, and missing out on a big name transfer PG this season, and we've put a bow on the issue.
Overall, Brad's recruiting has been quite quite good , but his ability to retain those recruits along with his more recent poor vetting of character has been the issue. Getting upset about taking a 3star like Jase is like being upset we ever offered CoHawk, Goode, or DGL. Seems silly to me without getting a chance to see him don the jersey. The real question is if Brad does get Fears, whether he can retain him, or retain Ty, Sencire, Amani, and Morez? Because recent history suggests at least 2 of those 5 are walking out the door this year. And that's something that needs to be fixed, stat.
The missing piece on the Ayo/Kofi teams was not TSJ is was shooting.
Kofi was getting triple teamed because they could never put enough shooting on the floor.
Completely different recruiting environment with the NIL and transfer portal.
Honestly, feel like their are benefits to getting slightly lower ranked kids that are willing to sit and develop for a year or two versus some 50-100 ranked kids that want immediate playing time and transfer if they don't get it.
I think you want to go get the top end players that can make an impact immediately or get the type of prospect that is willing to earn their minutes. Then add as much proven talent as you can in the portal.
Govoner Vaugn Fan
- New Orleans
I remember DWill as being "the second best player on his HS team".
To be completely fair Wright had a very good college career. Williams was just special.
Also, Dwill wasn't flashy and just made everyone around him better to the point where he flew under the radar. Evan at Illinois I think a lot of people in the time period would have said Dee was better.
Don't agree with this at all, mainly because it is not accurate.
Ayo's last year Damonte shot 55% from 3. No idea how it happened, but it did. Grandison shot 42%, Trent shot 36%, even Miller shot 34%. And of course, Ayo himself shot 39%.
Kofi's last year had Plummer and Grandison shooting 41%, Goode shot 37%, Trent dropped to 33%.
For a team, I'd call that pretty dang good shooting. Ayo's final year we had 339 attempts taken by guys shooting 36% or better from 3. Kofi's final year it was 417 3s taken by guys shooting 37% or better. Now compare that to last year. Best 3pt shooter on the team was Goode at 42% but only on 19 attempts. Besides Goode, our top shooter was Skyy at 33.3%. So Goode's 19 attempts were the only shots taken by someone shooting over 36% or 37% from 3.
To me, if we had EJ Liddell, which I was kinda amazed we missed on him, to Ohio State of all places. Best friend committed to play football, wide open spot for him, and he chooses to play for Holtmann coming off an 8th place Big Ten finish. If we had Ayo, Kofi, and Liddell to go with Trent and Freshmen Curbelo, especially if Damonte still had his anomaly 3pt season. I don't know who beats that team?
And part of the reason Kofi got swarmed, especially by Loyola, is because people knew he couldn't pass out of it. Kofi never average a single assist per game his entire career. 22 assists for the entire season was his high water mark. When you think about that, it's coaching malpractice to not get him better than that. True, he was able to power through and score plenty, but it was also his achille's heel, and it cost us dearly against Loyola.
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That’s Wright….I’m not sure who Evan at Illinois is though.
Morez is a 5-star and I shall not be convinced otherwise.
I realize rankings are out of fashion, but Fears and Morez would seemingly be our best ranked pair in a class since Jereme and Meyers back in 2010.
You'd know better than I whether those rankings are deserved, but at face value, "solid" feels like an undersell.
My preference, like BU, is an old team. Frosh need to be able to shoot and defend before getting more than 10 min. per game. Recruiting poor FF shooters is a no start for me....but we have three of them who I really like so I am a bit hypocritical in that regard. Unless they are a sure fire NBA talent, I would look any recruit in the eye and ask if they are willing to work both on the floor and in the classroom to get a degree....not doing that is not serving them as a coach/mentor.
Are you insinuating these players camps had more of an issue with chin or his affiliations with MIF more than actual other prized recruits associated with MIF???
Any word on Butler's shooting percentages?
He does not look like a Big Ten level athlete to me. But neither was Sean Harrington. A 40% 3pt shooter is a weapon. Is this kid good enough to do that?
He does not look like a Big Ten level athlete to me. But neither was Sean Harrington. A 40% 3pt shooter is a weapon. Is this kid good enough to do that?
I won’t get into specific details … But TJ originally committed to DePaul and to a Meanstreets guys in TA when we supposedly had MIFs guy on staff … That meant we get Ayo, TJ, THT, and Whitney … Chin went 1/4 … It was embarrassing when we lost TJ to freaking DePaul … Brad was livid …
As for THT … He wanted to come … Brad wanted him to come … He committed on his visit … It was a done deal … He was coming … Was gonna wear 25 … The whole deal … The summer “issues” were solved … Until someone said something they should not have in front of someone who was not supposed to know … And everything fell apart …
Whitney went to UK … So like Brad somewhat understood it and he obviously got terrible advice and didn’t pan out … But again … The deal was we got him too … And we didn’t …
And don’t even get me started on Michael Foster and how Chin screwed that one up as well …
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We had a bass; it wasn't a keeper.
Lots of carping in this pond.
It was less of an issue for most of the season Ayo's final season but Damonte was shooting on super low volume. However, the main 3pt shooters were Miller and Frazier with Frazier being streaky and Miller getting cold towards the end of the season.
Kofi's final year the shooting was atrocious and he was often on the floor with both Hawkins and Damonte at the same time. Grandson got in January, Frazier was inconsistent, and Goode was a freshman that only got 9 mins a game. Plummer could shoot but couldn't play defense.
In the tournament, Houston was triple teaming Kofi because they didn't have to guard Williams or Hawkins plus they sagged off Curbelo in the 1st half. Once Grandson got hurt the offense tanked.
My bad. Meant to say even at Illinois most people considered Dee the star while Deron was really the guy that made the team go.
I don’t put a lot of stock in rankings. But I do put stock in high major offers. And the fact that a bunch of high majors saw Butler a lot more than we did, but didn’t offer, is concerning to me. We’ll see.
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