I think it's pretty awesome that we have a head coach that has had the amount of success and makes the amount of money that coach Underwood has that is hungry enough to be willing to go all the way to eastern Europe to check out a potential recruit. I think that mentality alone should tell us that the future is bright. Furthermore if he's willing to do all that you have to think it's someone that has NBA talent. It's not gonna be some scrub that doesn't make a difference.
Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread
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Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Maybe, but the point is monumentally impressive things like an Elite Eight appearance and multiple Big Ten titles in just a few years carry less weight than recruiting misses, lol…
I'm doin my part, how about you?
While of course I want to win... count me in the club that is losing interest in the direction of college basketball. I've been a diehard fan all my life, but the fact that we may only have 2 returning players next year makes it really hard to invest as much as a fan.
1 what?
Is that 5 open scholly's right now? Holy cow!!
After all this talk about wanting a proven rim protector when the portal season opened up, if we wind up with a frail, unproven Euro guy that’s likely to bolt after one year as our 5… it might be justified to start fully leaning into the “very realistic chance we’re mediocre next year” crowd. Can’t just throw $1M at a star (who we might not even get) and expect it to stick with a thousand project pieces around him
So 4 more adds?
Backup/project guard, starter guard, wing, and 5?
Backup/project guard, starter guard, wing, and 5?
Go ahead and laugh, but I actually thought with a couple of years with Fletch, he might have been a decent player.Where's Samba Kane when you need him? /s Remember squinting at his film trying to convince myself he was the uber athletic rimrunner we needed.
LOL, that's who I meant.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Sure, but it had to go this way, it's not like we had an experienced and talented true center returning for next year that was begging for us to invest in him and offered the opportunity to focus our portal resources elsewhere....
Almost a clean slate.
4* if Ben Hummus is an Illini like people are saying he is
only 2 guards on the roster now, Boswell and DGL
skyIdub
Winged Warrior
Which is I am confused to the decision by Dain to leave? Maybe he felt Brad would bench him again
It will be interesting when the dust clears to see what we end up with versus others in our conference. UCLA, USC, Michigan, and Indiana have had a pretty darn good success rate in the portal. Plus, Rutgers has a great recruiting class coming in. I can't wait to see how we end up.
Joel Goodson
- ties will be resolved
the sky is falling, but meanwhile:
2. Ty and DGL.
Very odd to have a mass exodus following an elite 8 run and when The coach raved all season long about how much he loves the team and the guys in the locker room
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
To leave any silly arguments about Creaning aside, our staff did not feel confident going into next season with Dainja, Hansberry, Harris, and Goode as core primary players. Not confident enough to prioritize them in a financial and roster planning sense.
I understand why they felt that way in each case, but it also reflected a very high degree of confidence in terms of what was possible in the portal.
We could have kept all of those guys. It would mean we're pretty much done with the team we've got here, but we COULD have gone that route.
If that winds up looking like it would have been the better decision, we need to learn from that. I trust we will.
(Leaving the Chester stuff and the Goode/Indiana stuff out of it, we also just could have aggressively locked up Dainja as a star centerpiece of the team. I know and understand the disagreement on that point, but that's what I would have done as I said at the time.)
How it’s looking, Luke should have stuck around for minutes. We really need to start adding bodies. We can’t even practice at this point.
Dain - playing time reduced in 5 out offense. big Memphis $$$
Luke - Indiana kid. Finally got offer to wear red and white.
Nico - might not be big enough to play in B10. Going back to Italy?
Sencire - following Chester
Amani - following Chester
The portal is brutal but it is the new way of college basketball. Our elite 8 run does not happen without Marcus, Quincy and Justin.
Luke - Indiana kid. Finally got offer to wear red and white.
Nico - might not be big enough to play in B10. Going back to Italy?
Sencire - following Chester
Amani - following Chester
The portal is brutal but it is the new way of college basketball. Our elite 8 run does not happen without Marcus, Quincy and Justin.
redwingillini11
White and Sixth
- North Aurora
Lol Nico has always been a non-factor to me. But what is the plan???? Where are we going to get an entire new roster from??
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