sacraig
- The desert
So would I. And also if not for my utter lack of talent at basketball.
Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread
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Actually both point to poor chemistry.
My sarcasm detector was going full blast after the second sentence...
Me at the end of the post...
Me at the end of the post...
skyIdub
"I can't tell you. Secret."
ptgrd23
- orange county CA
I am not worried about next season - we need to finish this one strong!
Employees (NIL recipients) should be discrete if looking for new jobs while still employed at current school.
With Morez going down we really need Tre this season. Hopefully he can bounce back to being significant contributor.
JMO - NIL contracts should have clause that if player chooses to redshirt then contract is terminated.
Employees (NIL recipients) should be discrete if looking for new jobs while still employed at current school.
With Morez going down we really need Tre this season. Hopefully he can bounce back to being significant contributor.
JMO - NIL contracts should have clause that if player chooses to redshirt then contract is terminated.
sacraig
- The desert
I'm a big MJ fan. IMO, they need to do whatever it takes to keep him$$$$$. You can't let an in-state player who's been committed since his sophomore year in HS get away. Would not be a good look.
I've started to wonder how much time and effort is being put into portal scouting now. I remember last year Underwood being unhappy about the transfer portal season being open during the NCAA tournament.
Trying to get a good read on the huge number of players that will be in the portal in a handful of days in early April seems impossible. Yet diverting a lot of staff time to online scouting during this part of the season seems like a tough demand too.
Trying to get a good read on the huge number of players that will be in the portal in a handful of days in early April seems impossible. Yet diverting a lot of staff time to online scouting during this part of the season seems like a tough demand too.
I think we saw last night what MJ means to the team. Obviously, Tomi isn't close to 100% either but watching us get killed on the boards was pretty jarring. Morez will be an All B1G type player soon enough. Possibly next year. He has a chance to be an Oscar T. type dude. He is already a 16 & 14 guy per 40 minutes...
Do what you have to do to keep him and Tomi happy, and the rest will take care of itself.
They also play great together both offensively and defensively.
Not sure why Jaksty would transfer. He knew coming in what the plan was for him. Unless he just does not like being at Illinois in general, I’d be surprised if he leaves after this year. Feeling like Tre might be closer to gone than “not sure.” Ben is probably the same.
I would be happy with that. next question is who do you pour your resources into saving from your "not sure" line:
DGL - easy choice but really not sure its in his best interest to stay
Tre - Brad is a stubborn dude and I think he sees it. Don't think he should spend a lot of time working at a future here. He's playing for portal visibility from now on.
Ben - He's a good kid but this just isn't the right place for him. maybe a middle tier Big East team if he really wants to end on a power 5 team?
and Ty - If only he could see that we were going to start running an offense again and he had value here without being a pure shooter..
I hope this is the most pessimistic thing I say the rest of the day. But I’m thinking all 3 of your unsures are gone.
Like others have said I just hope we can keep Tomi & Rez. Jake is a decent role player…I hope he sticks around.
One guy the staff needs to look at is Jack Daugherty from Illinois State. Dropped 25 points and hit 7-10 from 3 against Bradley tonight. Great shooter but needs to improve a bit on defense.
Be careful of that. I have a feeling the staff will be diagnosed with a case of Humrich-itis after this season. The cure is you better do in-depth analysis and homework.
I am with you. Still hoping we can get Sincere back!!
Decent player but we will aim higher
You mean like a Ben Humrichous type player?
RichardKeenesCousin
Richard Keene's Cousin
Sounds good. My current theory is that, for the coming offseason, we should really try aim much higher and get 1 or 2 legit star hoopers through the portal instead of trying to accumulate a bunch of super talented depth. (That doesn't mean we don't need any sort of depth, as this year obviously shows, but I also think we are seeing again that Brad's rotations will shrink as the year goes, so it just makes more sense to be top-heavy talent-wise to me)
What I'm hoping for is basically a returning core of Tomi and Morez, add in 1 or hopefully 2 experienced stars (1 of which is hopefully your primary point guard), and then fill the bench with Jake Davis type players of varying sizes (including the actual Jake Davis, too - really hope we keep him)
Oh, and I would also want to keep at least 1 of DGL or Boswell, but in terms of priority I'd actually put that below keeping Tomi, Morez and Jake.
I would also take Ben back if he would be willing to come off the bench as a backup stretch 4, but I'm not optimistic he'd be interested in that.
I think it's unlikely we will see a major offensive shift from the coaching staff next year - It seems that it's much more likely to see an assistant hire that will be defensive-minded, because I think Brad will look at the metrics and say that our offense is still pretty good despite some of our issues this year and not change much. And if that is indeed the case, then I would lean in to that with our personnel. When our offense is clicking we look great, but when it breaks down, we resort to hero ball, and so I think we should prioritize getting a couple of heroes that can play in iso if needed.
Also, I think I'd prefer no more 1 and done point guards. KJ has been super fun most of the time and I look forward to seeing the player he grows into some day, but for point guards in the future I'd prefer to get either: (1) a proven veteran that can get their own shot if need be, or (2) I'm willing to tolerate a young player that makes more mistakes, but I want that player for multiple years in return so that they can grow into a player like scenario (1).
Here's a way-too-early hypothetical: (just ignore if you're the type that hates this sort of thing)
-Tomi
-Morez
-Stud wing or maybe someone like Sarr or Costanza if we get both of them? Not sure if they'd be starter-caliber players out of the gate, but could possibly work if we just need them to play hard, make shots and be athletic.
-DGL. (If we can keep him. I suppose it could be Boswell here too if he stays, if he can find his 3 pt shot again somehow.)
-stud point guard - this is probably the biggest add/target of the offseason, I'd imagine - would lean heavily on this guy.
-Jake
-Defensive-oriented backup 5
-Ben or similar shooting-oriented backup 4
-backup wing - could be the remainder of Sarr/Costanza or just use Jake in this role if we don't get both
-Lee/Wagler in spot guard minutes. I've heard one might redshirt, so maybe just 1 of them - probably depends on whether we get both Costanza and Sarr or if we get a starter-caliber transfer wing.
Some things the staff will have to think about if some of the rumblings are true. If you have a chance to bring Big Z in, how do you do that and keep Morez happy? Gonna be a really interesting offseason. They will do whatever it takes to retain Morez and Tomi. I think 3ish more guys outside of those two come back but I could not tell you who right now.
Should be extremely easy for the staff. If Tomi's brother wants to come here, you go to Morez and ask if he has any problem with it. If he even has 1% of hesitation you tell Z "sorry, we're good".
sacraig
- The desert
They could start by playing Morez more if/when he returns.
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