Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread

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#303      

Illini92and96

Illini92and96
Austin, TX
Illini92and96
ChiefGritty said:
Our list seems stuffed to the gills with guys like this, true bigs who would be undersized as centers. Any insight on the staff's thinking there? Is Kaluma and Humrichous a functional frontcourt?

Who is guarding all these ogres the Big Ten keeps recruiting? Kaluma is super similar to Guerrier who was never asked to take those assignments.
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I salute you and everyone that is dedicated to spelling Humariches name correctly. I need to add it to auto correct.
 
#304      

Illwinsagain

Illwinsagain
Cary, IL
Illwinsagain
DAM1298 said:
Big Z is Zvonimir Ivisic. Played for Kentucky last year and is following Cal to Arkansas.

His twin brother is Tomislav Ivisic. 7-foot Croatian. Soft touch, can pass and shoot.
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Can he play D? Looks big and fluid enough. I saw a couple of blocks in the video and liked that he blocked to a teammate, instead of sending to the 5th row.
 
#307      

ChiefGritty

ChiefGritty
Chicago, IL
ChiefGritty
AirNeazy said:
people screaming the sky was falling over missing out on one PG target
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I don't want to litigate this to death, but I just want to emphasize a factual issue here.

BU stated repeatedly and publicly that an experienced point guard was target #1 in the portal last offseason, we looked at a number of different players, zeroed in on RayJ and dedicated big NIL resources to pursue him, and the timing of it going wrong meant we didn't just lose him, we missed out on ALL point guard targets.

We left the #1 position we were looking for completely unfilled. It was neither Underwood nor Domask's intention for him to fulfill that role not only when he committed but even when we began last season.

When exactly any fan should have been optimistic or pessimistic is a matter of opinion, whatever, who cares. But it is a fact that the roster construction did not go according to the clearly and publicly expressed plan and required on the fly reshuffling of players into unfamiliar roles during the middle of the season.

I think it's better analysis to be impressed by that on the fly reshuffling than to ret-con the roster building into somehow having been a brilliant pre-existing plan. If it was all exactly as we wanted ahead of time, why were we going so hard for RayJ? Why was Domask playing off the ball to start the year?
 
#308      

Fighter of the Nightman

Fighter of the Nightman
Chicago, IL
Fighter of the Nightman
Illwinsagain said:
If that is all we are going against, we have one thing that they do not. A chance to be a legend! We hadn't won in over 100 years and never won the NCAA tourney. Those other schools, he would just be another. Plus, we got Fletch and OA, help him prepare even better! How's that for a case?
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I know a lot of fans would roll their eyes at this "selling point" of ours and just assume the Blue Bloods can get whomever they want ... but if I were a recruit, there would be a serious appeal to being an Ayo type that *stays home* and/or brings a program back to prominence. Great players make it in the NBA regardless of where they went to school, so if you believe in your skills to a sufficient level, you don't "need" a Blue Blood to go pro. The drop-off in fan support and facilities is actually pretty negligible from a Kansas/Kentucky to an Illinois/Arkansas or whatever ... you won't feel like you are playing on some "smaller stage," and you might actually feel like your PERSONAL stage is a lot brighter.

I understand certain schools can offer crazy NIL that I would certainly be tempted to take if I were that age, but let's assume for a second that I am a stud recruit with offers from all the big dogs, and the non-Blue Bloods were offering competitive NIL. Personally, if I am originally from Phoenix, Chicago, DC, Detroit, etc .... I am going to Arizona, Illinois, Maryland, MSU, etc. instead of a Blue Blood. JMO.
 
#309      

jamarvelous31

jamarvelous31
jamarvelous31
TheGMan said:
Who is Big Z's brother? (I don't even know who Big Z is, to be honest)
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I think I solved it

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#310      

AirNeazy

AirNeazy
AirNeazy
CoachHooleyHoo said:
For the 938th time, it worked out primarily b/c of excellent coaching adjustment but that doesn't mean the concern wasn't justified. It's like if you dare question anything you're a hater. That's just dumb.
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Of course simply questioning the staff/program doesn't make you a hater by any means.

But the people who were saying that we weren't even going to be a tourney team/the staff completely failed in the offseason due to one miss were obviously not justified in the slightest.

The point is to win games, can't fault the staff for not having some idealized version of a roster if they go ahead and have a great season regardless.....it's ultimately irrelevant at that point anyways. Flip side of that is that even if we have some incredible offseason *on paper*, I'd wait to sing praises until after the games have actually been played (see the 2022 season).
 
#311      

Florida_Illini

F
Florida_Illini
ptgrd23 said:
If Ty wants to stay on the floor vs 5's in drop coverage he needs to be a threat to score. We cannot play 4 on 5. They are leaving him wide open. A reliable free throw line jumper or 3 point shot would solve the problem. Either would work. Since he needs to be around the lane to get offense rebounds I would work on a medium range jumper as it is an easier shot. Nobody complained about the analytics of Marcus scoring 16 ppg at 50% rate in the lane.
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Totally agree with this. I understand everyone's perspective about the ideal offense being threes and at the bucket. What I was trying to express was we have a great asset in Ty who does everything right except shoot the ball - how do we maximize his effectiveness? It's a stretch turning him into a 3pt shooter. In my opinion he could double his court time by becoming a threat in the mid range and with a solid floater.
 
#322      

AirNeazy

AirNeazy
AirNeazy
ChiefGritty said:
I don't want to litigate this to death, but I just want to emphasize a factual issue here.

BU stated repeatedly and publicly that an experienced point guard was target #1 in the portal last offseason, we looked at a number of different players, zeroed in on RayJ and dedicated big NIL resources to pursue him, and the timing of it going wrong meant we didn't just lose him, we missed out on ALL point guard targets.

We left the #1 position we were looking for completely unfilled. It was neither Underwood nor Domask's intention for him to fulfill that role not only when he committed but even when we began last season.

When exactly any fan should have been optimistic or pessimistic is a matter of opinion, whatever, who cares. But it is a fact that the roster construction did not go according to the clearly and publicly expressed plan and required on the fly reshuffling of players into unfamiliar roles during the middle of the season.

I think it's better analysis to be impressed by that on the fly reshuffling than to ret-con the roster building into somehow having been a brilliant pre-existing plan. If it was all exactly as we wanted ahead of time, why were we going so hard for RayJ? Why was Domask playing off the ball to start the year?
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Nobody is saying that our brilliant plan from the get go was to miss out on Ray J. We wanted him bad, put all our chips in, and lost. It happens and that's CBB recruiting for ya.

What I'm saying is the insane bellyaching (i.e We're going to be in the B1G basement, won't even make the NIT, we're not capitalizing on winning the conference, we're on a downward trajectory) from people (I remember your posts acutely, you had one of the bigger meltdowns I've seen on the board in awhile) wasn't fair to the staff then and it's not going to be fair when we inevitably miss out on some of our next batch of top targets in the future.

Brad and Co have shown that more often than not they'll put a competitive product on the floor one way or another, they've earned at least the benefit of the doubt IMO.
 
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