Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread

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#601      
t-bone
crickets GIF
 
#603      
mhuml32
Indy Illini Fan said:
I wanted him last year … Many people said he wouldn’t be good enough …

Sure could’ve used him off the bench … Not a 3 point shooter but we don’t need him to be …

I want him again this year …

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Marcus Hill - Texas A&M Aggies Guard - ESPN

View the profile of Texas A&M Aggies Guard Marcus Hill on ESPN. Get the latest news, live stats and game highlights.
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Gross. This guy was one of the worst defenders in the ACC. He hustles but he was isolated a lot in a bad ACC, so he would be hunted in every conference game. If you are an awful defender AND you can't shoot...


If I had a goal for this transfer portal it's for the staff to bring in players that have already proven they can shoot, not wish casting for significant improvement.
 
#604      
Altuve27
ILFaninFL said:
Did he get McDonalds there too?
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I will not allow the continued besmirching of McDonald’s! Have you had their pancake breakfast? Spectacular! If Dix doesn’t want to be in the program after that magical experience he has bigger problems than basketball!!! 😂
 
#605      
HereSoIDontGetFined
ejam21 said:
Not only that, but calling a kid who:

shoots above D1 avg
Made more 3s in a season in the Underwood era than all but TSJ, Trent (bested this season 2/5 times), Plummer, Matt mayer
Was 15th in an 18 team conference in 3s made

a derogatory name about shooting is asinine. Was he below what we thought by a few % yes (i was expecting 37-38% as i just dont see maintaining 40% moving from evansville to b10).....but objectively the kid isnt really a bricklayer. Like come on yall.

Come to illinois and hit 63 threes and some dudes who would have be wheezing after 2 mins of a YMCA pickup game will make fun of your name. LOL
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The sad part here is that we have a ton of pining for Storr, who is worse statistically in almost every area than Ben.

That Kansas team desperately needed a third scorer and he wasn't even a good fifth option, was underwater on A/T ratio, and barely saw a rebound. Dude is hero ball incarnate and would be a net negative. Kansas fans are absolutely over him. If we take him, I assume it's because his value has dropped so low as to get desperate. I would then weep for this next season.

I think Ben had the ability to score in the midrange and never really got permission to do so. We saw a couple of games where he struggled and got in rhythm by just hitting a runner or pull-up in the lane. That's not really on him, and we relied on him to be one-dimensional.

Defensively, he struggles. No doubt. He also works his !!! off. So, it's hard to be upset with him. For fans, the grass always seems greener on the other rosters.
 
#607      
RollChief
21ChampaignSt said:
Maybe? This could be a case where stats don't tell the whole story.

In the two years we hung banners, we returned more than 50% of our minutes.
In our two more middling years, we returned less than 20% of our minutes.

That doesnt really bother me. I would absolutely sign up for a championship season every other year. On average, that's a really really good program.

But we're now about to enter our second consecutive year and third in four years with suboptimal continuity. More often than not, we're not putting ourselves in the best position to be successful.

So, we either don't value continuity or we aren't good at it. Both are problems, IMO. And both are fixable.
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I know winning is the key benchmark, but just to play devil's advocate here; in one of our "middling" years of 2024-2025, we're set to finish 17th in Kenpom, which is essentially in the top 5% of all of college basketball. Still not great, but IMO not worth the 5-alarm fire sentiment some are showing here.

In terms of continuity, I don't think next year can be completely written off as suboptimal yet. If we return Boswell, Ivisic, DGL (sounds like its not likely), Humrichhouse, and Jake Davis, this would be 52% continuity, around 20% above average. Take out DGL, this is 44.6%. If you add Ty back in (on the off chance he stays), this is another 11% back in (although this would be an astrick). Even if you only keep Bam and Tomi, this is 27% continuity, which is 6% below average, but this is coming off a year where you're sending 2 players to the draft.

All I'm saying is if we're being conservative and looking at the data objectively, our continuity will definitely be better than last year, and at worst case suboptimal but best case as of now still well above NCAA average.
 
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#608      
sacraig
sharpshot16 said:
100% spot on with this one Indy.

Storr would be the bargain of the 2025 portal...when comparing upside vs. cost.

I'd take him.
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Using some of the leftovers in that Kansas bag to pay his own way at another school?
 
#611      
Second place is 1st loser
sharpshot16 said:
It's a money thing - Will returning means mid 2 mil hit to our line. Sarr is high 1s, borderline 2 with Duke pushing for him. Tomi & Kylan will command 7 figures as well. Just not enough to fill out a roster unfortunately.

We are deep but not Arkansas, IU, Kansas deep.
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I thought we were top 10 in the country in NIL money? I'm being sarcastic, but the point does stand. Teams with "elite" resources have the ability to get that done. I'm not saying that we'd ever attempt it, but if that mix was Brad's wish....a top 10 resourced program gives the option. All I heard last year was how upset the donors were. Well, squash the All Freshmen roster BS and let's win a Big Ten Championship. Pony up!
 
#612      
Joel Goodson
RockfordIllini said:
Agree. I understand the staff are highly paid, but I don’t envy them in this environment. Impossible to know what to do. For instance, we clearly recruited over Ty with Tre, and both had 2 years of eligibility remaining. And while it stinks and is brutal, in a vacuum you probably make that move if you’re trying to put out the best team possible. But how much do you lose from a culture/continuity perspective swapping in a brand new guy for someone who is in year 3 of your system? And of course we now know Tre is out the door after one year and pretty good chance we lose Ty too. But also can’t be shocking a guy who’s on his third school in 3 years decides to portal.

Really tough to thread the needle between talent maximization and continuity. And plus you can’t even bank on continuity anyway. I know this occurred before all of the portal madness, but I wonder if Ace broke/hardened Brad. Built a relationship with that kid since 8th grade probably, clearly there was some kind of promise about starting that was kept despite Ace not always being deserving of a spot, and he leaves after one year anyways. Would probably make me cynical and just go out and accumulate as much talent as possible too.
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no idea about the Ace conjecture, but fully agree on your other points
 
#620      
RabidDawgClassic
NashvILLe05 said:
@Indy Illini Fan - does this seam realistic?

Sounds like Tomi and Big Z will test NBA draft waters. Could we lock Tomi in so he doesn’t portal while doing that? Also, could we still pull off Big Z?

I like those 2 with Kylan and Sarr, assuming we can lock him down. Get a grizzled PG starter and some veteran high/mid-major guys to fill out the roster, all JR and SR guys.
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The thing to remember is, since there can’t actually be any “pay for play” deals, there’s no way to lock anyone in and keeping them out of the portal. Indy or the others might be able to clarify this more, but it’s my understanding that NIL deals are essentially “good faith, trust me” agreements.
 
#622      
genxrex
Second place is 1st loser said:
I thought we were top 10 in the country in NIL money? I'm being sarcastic, but the point does stand. Teams with "elite" resources have the ability to get that done. I'm not saying that we'd ever attempt it, but if that mix was Brad's wish....a top 10 resourced program gives the option. All I heard last year was how upset the donors were. Well, squash the All Freshmen roster BS and let's win a Big Ten Championship. Pony up!
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I get being frugal and getting value, but in the way we go about things, like misleading/low balling Coleman, it doesn't feel like we even have top 20 money.
 
#623      
IlliniFan42
Just like last year, no Storr! He has yet to pick a team that makes it out of the first round. Don't put that on us.
 
#625      
RabidDawgClassic
statefarm said:
Now I see why Jay Wright and Coach K checked out when they saw what was coming. Lots of sleazy promises on both sides for a one night stand (one year equivalent of college hoops). It should be no surprise that Rick Pittino, Bail and Cal didn't mind hanging around a little longer. I get the "fairness" of it all but it doesn't need to be my hard earned tax dollars funding theseo brief non-academic careers (tuition, room/board, travel, team expenses) in addition to the "nightly rate" they get thru NIL.
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Unless you’re donating to ICON your hard earned tax dollars aren’t funding any of this. The athletic department is self funding.
 
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