Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread

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#2,626      
RichardKeenesCousin
Dbell1981 said:
What happens if Ben comes back and shoots 45% from 3? Will everyone still hate the young man for Brad wanting him back?
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If that happens we will ask you to post “what if the Illini win the national championship?” That will really put your new superpower to the test!!!! Then we take over the world. Just you and me.
 
#2,627      
illini510
CoalCity said:
Man I hate the idea of losing Tre. I think his game really came around after his sickness/benching/ whatever it was got resolved.
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We can replace Tre. Losing Morez is the way bigger loss. He could be a Caleb Swanigan type of player.

As for Tre, he's been to 3 schools in 3 years. The loyalty is not quite there with that kid, especially in this case given he's with a much more stable program than his last two stops. I'm pretty sure the turning point could've been when he was not playing much/at all during that stretch of games in February. Either that or he's getting a bigger bag of money elsewhere.

This is why I was pissed off at the beginning of the year when Brad did not prioritize loyalty with Ty Rodgers. He went with a guy who ends up leaving the program after one year. That's what Brad gets for not choosing loyalty
 
#2,630      
RowdyFromRow22
The frequency of turnover is beyond concerning. Control the things we can control and the other things will minimize.
Honest reflection and responsibility needs to weigh on Brad and Josh. Outside of OA and Geoff, seek options, quickly.

As a fan, losing Morez hurts more for the idea of what we want every top in-state to be. Commit early, grow a large fan supporting, and we argue with others about when we should retire their jersey or build a statue.
The hurt doesn’t come from the talent or potential lost. Ability is replacement level, the idea of Morez being the next poster boy/legend.. that hurts.

Tre.. replacement level talent. Thought he showed many times to be one of the few giving a !!!!, but going to be 4th school in 4 years… patterns matter.

Also.. random thought… why should anyone buy anything jerseys or !!!! from NIL stores when it’s useless in a year?
 
#2,631      
The Galloping Ghost
I'm sorry for being a broken record, but man, this sucks. The thing that elevated college basketball from simply an inferior version of the NBA to something special was watching young players grow over time into hopefully better players and better people. There was beauty in the adversity and it kept you caring. Even when you were going through a down season or getting beat by 43 points on national tv to the most annoying freaking team in the country, you could dream about how these guys would learn and grow from this experience and it'd just make the next season that much sweeter. That's gone. Now it's just random dudes, playing worse basketball, who might wear your team's jersey for one full season, if you're lucky. The special sauce that made this that much more worth it is gone.

And yeah, I'll keep cheering for whatever random guy happens to be in the jersey at the start of next year, but the second the season goes sideways, it's time to check out. Goodness knows the players we rented for that season will.
 
#2,632      
NarrowJ
The constant insistence on replacing an assistant coach who has ran a top 3 offense last year and a top 15 offense this year because he is the son of the coach is silly to me

Why isn't this focus placed on the defensive mastermind who gave us the 80th ranked D last year and 40th ranked D this year?
 
#2,634      
Captain 14
illiram said:
Ok this is becoming a joke. How long until college basketball becomes the NBA, and people stop watching? The NBA became a snoozefest, and we sadly aren't far behind. No one is acting quickly enough to establish some rules, parameters, contracts, etc. to stop this nonsense. If i was age 18-23, I would take the money also if someone threw a 7 figure amount at me. Anyone in their right mind would. The NCAA is and always has been a disgrace, and it continues to show. The leadership punts on hard issues, and looks the other way.
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Tournament TV ratings are at multi-decades high...which is unfortunate
 
#2,635      
PasadenaIllini
Maybe because we're hearing that he's running off our best players? Maybe because the philosophy of jacking as many 3's as possible with a team that wasn't good at shooting them didn't lead to enough wins?
 
#2,637      
Mapman
In my experience, promoting or hiring people that are not qualified is demoralizing to the team, doesn’t matter if it is at a Fortune 500 company or a basketball team. When you combine it with a leader who doesn’t differentiate himself very well, you get what we see.
IMO, coaches need to stand out in the following ways (elite coaches will have multiple qualities):
1. X’s & O’s
2. Relationship builder/recruiting
3. Legacy/legend
4. Money maker (booster relationships)
5. Elite talent evaluator (coaches and players)

Where does Brad stand out? He was one Michigan denied acceptance and one phone call from another coach/tv host about booty ball from a ho-hum season last year, IMO.
 
#2,639      
Se Il Illini
PIT_ILL said:
Was that thing firing his son because that's a bit unrealistic. Problem is they want to run a pro offense with only shooting 3s or lay ups. That is not Tre's game.

I get the analytics on 3 or short two but sometimes you gotta just play to strengths and take what the defense gives you. NCAA is not NBA no matter how much you want it to be.
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If you want to run a pro offense with only shooting three's and lay ups, they need to recruit more pros.
 
#2,640      
Illini2010-11
Indy Illini Fan said:
Solution …

View attachment 40976
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Well, Brad is firmly placing himself on a warm (hot even) seat, if this is in fact the case. I am close to the point of wanting Brad to take a different coaching job if he is insistent on keeping his son and Hamer on the coaching staff (especially the latter). The defense is clearly broken, and given the money spent, it is unacceptable to have a video coordinator running the defensive show. If the defense was better the last two seasons, maybe I would feel different. Tyler might very well become a good coach down the road, but he needs to get that high quality experience elsewhere, IMO.

This is beyond ridiculous if both are still in their positions next year (unless it is with Brad elsewhere).
 
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#2,641      
altgeld88
Curbelo Fanboy said:
We feel like about 2008 under Weber atm. U can see the writing on the wall that Ubdwrwood isn’t gonna be much longer for the job. And he is nowhere near the game coach Bruce was.

Fan base and $ could turn on him completely in short order.
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Well, we were 16-19 in '08 and #51 on Pomeroy. The best he had us from '07 through '12 was #18 (9 seed) and #25 (5 seed) and we weren't even in the tourney two of those six seasons.

22-13 and #17 this season and people are very unhappy. #35/9 is the worst he has done since '20, and that was with the Monster Energy Drinks lineup. Bruce couldn't recruit talent to compete at the top of the league consistently, which meant that his game coaching was of limited use. BU is tied with Painter for most BT wins over past five seasons, I believe.

Indy and the other insiders noted last weekend that they saw fire in BU that had been lacking during the season. Who knows what's going on with him? I'm frustrated with the churn and the bizarre assistant coach sitch but we're in a much better place now than then.

Let's hope that he will learn and adapt again. I recall after his first season he realized that his offensive scheme wasn't working, he hired NBA consultants, retooled, and the positive effect was dramatic. The market (for NIL $$) will make clear whether or not he's on a short leash.
 
#2,642      
BalloonsTheElephant
Brad can win the news cycle by firing Hamer. It's basically a PR strategy at this point.

Not happy about basically starting over again. KB and Tomi are a good start. At this point, we will just have to see how the roster fills out.

There's no way to spin that losing Morez and Tre but keeping Ben and Ty is anything but a downgrade. Ben csn be a guy, but he's not a starter and Ty is just a defense/energy guy with an even more limited offensive skill set than Morez

Maybe Morez got a big offer and tons of promises to be developed and be a focal point at times in the offense, but obviously he didn't trust the staff well enough to think they'd follow through.
 
#2,643      
Dbell1981
Future Insider said:
That is a possibility. Give him a year with Fletch and a role coming off the bench and I’m ok with that.
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Look, I get it. When he was bricking I was yelling to get him out of the game as well. 😆 Alot of his shots were right there though and rimmed out. He has a good stroke. Coach sees something in him. Seems like an all in kinda guy. I agree, Morez should have been starting and Ben should have been coming off the bench. I think Morez would have gotten in enough foul trouble to get Ben minutes as well. Underwood crapped the bed with the Morez situation no doubt. Too late to turn back now. Let's get some upperclassmen transfers like Gurrier and Plummer. Looks good on paper but I'm sick of the 9 guys that "could" be starters. I want a starting 5 you know, a solid 6 man and some ROLE players! Can't promise 9 guys they will get starter minutes. That is a PROBLEM.
 
#2,644      
Illinicpa14
illini510 said:
We can replace Tre. Losing Morez is the way bigger loss. He could be a Caleb Swanigan type of player.

As for Tre, he's been to 3 schools in 3 years. The loyalty is not quite there with that kid, especially in this case given he's with a much more stable program than his last two stops. I'm pretty sure the turning point could've been when he was not playing much/at all during that stretch of games in February. Either that or he's getting a bigger bag of money elsewhere.

This is why I was pissed off at the beginning of the year when Brad did not prioritize loyalty with Ty Rodgers. He went with a guy who ends up leaving the program after one year. That's what Brad gets for not choosing loyalty
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This where I’m at with all of these.

Whether it’s the player wanting the most money, a different role, or truly the coach stuff talked about, it’s still under the umbrella of Brads program.

He chose to bring in guys with that background. For all the “culture” test stuff that gets brought up on the telecast, clearly we’re missing something in the full end to end process of recruit, develop, retain.

I just compare this right now to Bret where somehow we’re keeping 18 starters who probably all could land in different spots, more storied programs, or more dollars. Clearly there is a way of continuity in this era and we haven’t found it on the basketball side.
 
#2,645      
ginabackes00
DICKnaggie said:
The stuff flying around out there regarding Tyler and interactions with DGL and Tre are pretty wild. We have a major PR problem that points to some really serious culture issues.
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I’ve seen this floating around and curious to know more. If there are issues with Tyler and his relationships, then Josh needs to step in and force the changes.

I’d assume there are end of year conversations with players for Josh to have a good pulse on what is going on.
 
#2,646      
TheodoreRex
ALL WE NEEDED IN THE OFFSEASON WAS CONTINUITY... Goodness flippin gracious, it wasn't that hard of a task Underwood.. Your damn stubborness, which at this point is arrogant hubris is costing us the one thing we needed in the offseason.

I can already see the excuses start with Underwood next season- well, we have a lot of new pieces that we need to gel, it'll take us some time, we can't do this over night, we don't have a lot of experience playing together, we are still figuring out what works best for the pieces we have. blah blah blah blah blah. This is your fault Underwood. I'm so over it.
 
#2,647      
Illini1985
Meh...sucks to see players transfer out, but I'm not gonna get worked up about it. I just view it as free agency, you will always lose players and some will be a surprise, but that's to be expected.

What is imparative is are we replacing the talent loss? Losing Morez and Tre sucks, but it's not like they are irreplaceable.

Don't agree with all the doomsday commentary, just excited to see who we can replace the outgoing talent with.
 
#2,648      
Iloveorangekoolaid
I hope people are now joining me on my season grade of a D. No banners. No second weekend. No guarantees that anyone important returns. Honestly other programs in the conference have to laugh about the video where Brad says we’re the toughest team. Everyday guys is complete trash at this point. Illi-bleeping-nois. Kylan and Tomi really need to come back to have anything to build upon.
 
#2,650      
illinoispeak
NoDetails said:
1. Boswell
2. Conwell
3. Dix
4. Sarr
5. Tomi

6. Ty
7. Humer
8. Jake Davis

This fits what Underwood / Tyler want and believe from an offensive perspective. It makes sense with shooting and positional size. Which Underwood constantly says. I don’t hate it at all. Defense is a worry but we will see.
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Who's our backup bigs?
And 6"6 at the 4, ehh idk about that.
 
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