Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread

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#251      
HailtotheChief
PepeSilvia said:
Humrichous has basically been Guerrier but without any of the athleticism, rebounding ability, or toughness.

And Guerrier even shot the ball better last year.
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Did you look at the box score last game or watch it? Ben rebounded., he had as many as Rez in 7 more minutes because Rez couldnt avoid fouling, Ben played booty ball. Shot as well as anyone and defended without fouling. If we start Rez and Tomi then Ben should come off the bench in favor of Will but Ben has a role, defends without fouling, which is a lot to ask of even smaller players that we saw try vs Maryland and Ben has become a scape goat. Ben has played pretty well the last couple games. It's some others turning the ball over, taking far more missed threes, missing FTs, and rebounding less that have caused our recent struggles with Tomi out. Rez and Ben are not the cause of our recent issues winning games. Turnovers and poor choices are. Ben and Rez have both been playing better it's just Will is future a pro, playing great and should play over Ben. That doesn't mean Ben sucks. He doesn't. Rez, Tomi, and Will just need more minutes and we need a likely overmatched Ben behind our bigs because we lack depth to defend bigs in the post. That's not Ben's fault. It's Brad's fir not having a big body like Somerville from Peoria or Dain to go to off the bench instead of a 6'10" 210lb kid that would struggle.
 
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#253      
ChiTown
A lot of people keep saying Rez couldn’t stay out of foul trouble, but it does come with the territory of playing a freshman big that’s physical

with a paint defensive presence.Sometimes he does commit dumb fouls but I for one appreciate his physicality,paint presence and rim

protection when he’s in the game. He’s a freshman and there’s going to be growing pains but I do value he’s physical paint presence.
 
#255      
Battle89
Combo said:
Everyone on last year's team was cheaper than almost everyone on this year's team.
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Much of that is due to our choices, of course, but I think YOY comparisons are of limited value here. You had Argentina-like inflation in the NIL market that offseason. We went from laughing at Storr wanting $750K-$1M to a month later Coleman getting $2M.

In other words, even if all else (performance) was equal, I would expect almost everyone to cost significantly more this year. Just hurts more because performance is decidedly NOT equal this year.
 
#256      
TheodoreRex
Are these kids legit clueless and oblivious to how they are actually playing? Like how does Ben watch film and think... I should be getting more playing time and more shots? Numbers don't lie Ben, you're a mid major player that at most should be a high major 10 minute guy.
 
#257      
JBfor3
Any chance KJ decides to come back? If somehow you returned WR, KJ, Tomi and Morez, that team would be elite next year. Fill in a couple of shooters around them and that team is preseason top 10.
 
#258      
TheodoreRex
LvilleILL1 said:
The scheme is fine, the staff missed on a couple of evals it seems. I do agree with them needing to stop chucking so many threes, they need to recruit better shooters in the offseason if they want to do that next year
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Here's my critique of scheme- It would work if we were actually a good shooting team- but we aren't, so I see two major issues with our staff:
1) Their evaluations on individual players and offseason workouts was that we would be an excellent shooting team-They clearly got this eval wrong.
2) Now that we have AMPLE data to prove we aren't a good shooting team, darn near bottom of the NCAA, YOU HAVE TO CHANGE YOUR OFFENSIVE APPROACH.
After the 2nd half of OSU I think many of us got a bit excited because we saw what this team could be if we stop shooting 3's and attack the hoop. Unbeknownst to us, our coaching staff didn't see the same thing and game-planned against Rutgers to fire away again. At some point we have to start playing to our strengths and our coaching staff isn't currently putting players in a spot to succeed.

My frustration with Underwood is that I don't think he has an overwhelming strength: He is a solid-to very good talent evaluator and pretty good at team building, development and generally changing culture.
-He isn't an elite recruiter (he's very good and good at development)
-He isn't an elite X's and O's guy (he's average at best... In game especially)

To win the in the NCAA at the highest level a coach often has to be elite at either recruiting or coaching. And I don't see him as either of those two things. So we need staff members that can fill in the gaps with X's & O's and he just simply hasn't done that recently.

Also, while Underwood gets credit for adapting his approach based on his roster- I feel like Underwood has been a bit bi-polar with his team building. I mean seriously, how would you define our team's identity throughout his time here? I can do that to some degree in individual years but collectively our identity keeps changing. At some point you have to pick an identity and consistently recruit to that. Just my opinion.
 
#259      
jacekpardol
NarrowJ said:
That's typically what it takes, yeah. Look at all of the top teams each year and they usually have a guy, sometimes two, on those top 2 or 3 AA teams.

Duke? Flagg
Auburn? Broome
Tennessee? Lanier, Zeigler
Florida? Clayton
Alabama? Sears
Purdue? Smith
Iowa St? Gilbert, C.Jones
Marquette? K.Jones

Then remember back to the last time prior to Kofi/Ayo/TSJ that we were really, really good? We had THREE.
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I agree. Brad and all most all programs need one AA type player to have high level success. We've seen that this year. When KJ is playing like one we look great - when he's not - were pretty putrid. This is not only NCAA it's modern basketball. You need that superstar on the court.
 
#262      
Germanboxers
skyIdub said:
Jfc. Ben Humrichous is a mid major player getting overpaid to suck on a mediocre B1G team.

He needs to stfu stfd and accept the role that he shot himself into.

I’ve seen enough. He has no business on a (what was) B1G contender.

We could have kept Luke for probably less money and promoted program commitment and FamILLy.

I’m so over this “elite” shooting bullsh$t.
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Fixed it for you.

Now that that is fixed, I would caution all against blaming our 3pt shooting on our poor performances. These guys are not competing, really competing. Throwing up 3's when we're clearly not able to make them at a good enough clip seems to me to be indicative of a team looking for a "homerun"...an easier path to winning the game, borne of "hope" rather than competitive spirit.

I'm saddened by it. They have demonstrated they can win big games when the shot isn't falling and THAT team looks completely different than the team we have been seeing in recent losses. That team competed! That team problem-solved while on the court. That team had a will to win. This team is a team that wants to win (I assume)...but only if they don't have to work too hard or too smart. Throw up a 3...maybe we'll get lucky and squeak by for a win. *sigh*
 
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#265      
thefalcon5
ironhand said:
I saw Morez make 3s in high school last year. I think we might be underestimating him in that area.
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Kofi also shot 3s in practice. Doesn’t mean either is/was good enough to make them in game.

I think if Morez had even a yellow light to shoot a three, he had some looks this year that he would’ve taken.
 
#266      
jumpingjack
ironhand said:
I saw Morez make 3s in high school last year. I think we might be underestimating him in that area.
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thefalcon5 said:
Kofi also shot 3s in practice. Doesn’t mean either is/was good enough to make them in game.

I think if Morez had even a yellow light to shoot a three, he had some looks this year that he would’ve taken.
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I think it's less a matter of whether he can shoot and how much you lose on the offensive glass when he's 30 feet away. It would be great to see him hit one...if we can ever put a team under the dirt first.
 
#268      
PizzaHutParkingLot
Will Smith Wow GIF by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon

woops, wrong thread
 
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#270      
Emerson Bigguns
ironhand said:
I saw Morez make 3s in high school last year. I think we might be underestimating him in that area.
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I don't think we need to encourage more guys to take 3's...
Forget the 3's for a while.... We need to focus on getting everyone healthy and playing defense for 40 minutes. We are 1-6 when the other team scores 80 or more. Tennessee is the only game we've lost in which we gave up less than 80.
80 points is the magic number.
 
#273      
derrick6
I’m going on record to say the decision making of KB is a big part of a few of our losses, more than Hum.

KB needs to be more decisive and in control both on offense and defense. His defense is elite. At times. But recently when looking for that stop he looks overmatched. I think it’s asking too much of him on offense that’s affecting his defense, and we all know his problems there.

KJ has hurt us badly with his turnovers. Lately, it’s been the step back 3’s, but that’s his game. Getting stripped and dribbling off the foot can’t happen.

When so many are struggling, especially at the point guard position, you get a very volatile product.

Hum having to create for himself points to a failure at our point guard spot. We will continue to struggle and lose until that is fixed.
 
#274      
Yes33
LvilleILL1 said:
The scheme is fine, the staff missed on a couple of evals it seems. I do agree with them needing to stop chucking so many threes, they need to recruit better shooters in the offseason if they want to do that next year
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What about the scheme do you like? Picks you can drive a truck thru? Double teams off of pick and rolls? Contested shots? How about some back cuts. Low post kick outs, and etc. Watch UConn offense for reference and others. The names change but our offensive issues remain the same. Take super athlete Shannon out and booty ball last year and same thing.
 
#275      
NarrowJ
Yes33 said:
What about the scheme do you like? Picks you can drive a truck thru? Double teams off of pick and rolls? Contested shots? How about some back cuts. Low post kick outs, and etc. Watch UConn offense for reference and others. The names change but our offensive issues remain the same. Take super athlete Shannon out and booty ball last year and same thing.
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I happen to think the issues on offense this year are drastically different than in years prior.

Also, are you saying the offense was bad last year? I wasn't following your last sentence, but might've misunderstood.
 
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