Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread

[RabidDawgClassic]

Beilema is holding on to his key players and actually has some stay at IL versus going pro. This gives IL Football continuity and culture.

Underwood has to do a major overhaul every season due to significant attrition. Hoops has little continuity, Underwood has to attempt to re-instill culture every year and has coaches who do not know how to do that (excluding OA & Alexander). EDG is lacking at the moment.

Been over to the football board lately?

 

[Trueblue777]

Florida...Clayton should have been top 100

On that theme so should have Wagler. The kid can play.

 

[Illiniindian]

I think Brad has plenty of NIL to compete. Painter seems to be doing fine at Purdue. Did Florida spend more on this years team than the Illini did on theirs? Or Houston?

I'm actually pretty interested to see how this years portal season ends up turning out. I haven't seen a team that I think has had a truly great portal and created a superteam so it's not like the blue bloods are going to be unbeatable.

Even BYU still looks pretty beatable despite dropping some bags.

Obviously the revenue sharing thing and other NCAA stuff could change things but it seems like enough schools are spending big right now that a lot of talent is spreading out throughout the power conferences instead of seeing all the top guys go to a few schools.

Agree, but this off season feels like the flood gates have opened. There is enough talent out there for Brad to get his players. But as we are now in a world of yearly roster changes, I do think NIL will impact coach’s tenure.

 

[Jhlcjcos]

With Sarr and two complimentary pieces your expectations seem too high or at the very least sweet 16 seems to be the cieling.
What happened to getting two big splash pieces out of the portal?
Was the cost for players this year misjudged?

 

[the juiceman cometh]

NO ONE has the drawing power that the insiders claim we have. No one has the financial firepower to win the bidding for their 3rd top target who is the 1st top target of somebody else because the gaps just aren't that big.

Louisville has nabbed 3 of the top portal guys. I have a hard time believing whoever was Louisville's #3 target between Wooley, Conwell, and McKneely wasn't someone else's top target. Michigan has signed 4 highly rated portal guys, as has Kentucky. Duke has 4 incoming Freshmen that surely cost more in NIL than most of our portal targets.

I agree there's likely a large pack of programs with similar NIL and we are in that pack. But ahead of that pack there does appear to be another small group of teams with exactly the kind of NIL firepower you claim nobody has.

 

[bleedorange and blue]

Funny

 

[PepeSilvia]

Louisville has nabbed 3 of the top portal guys. I have a hard time believing whoever was Louisville's #3 target between Wooley, Conwell, and McKneely wasn't someone else's top target. Michigan has signed 4 highly rated portal guys, as has Kentucky. Duke has 4 incoming Freshmen that surely cost more in NIL than most of our portal targets.

I agree there's likely a large pack of programs with similar NIL and we are in that pack. But ahead of that pack there does appear to be another small group of teams with exactly the kind of NIL firepower you claim nobody has.

I don't think anyone is disagreeing that your blue bloods have more money than most schools. Honestly that's been a thing for a while and why you see 5 stars riding the bench at schools like Duke or Kentucky.

I think you're overestimating some of those schools portal hauls tbh. Also, teams not returning as much will obviously have more money free for the portal.

Louisville has the best get imo and I think they benefitted from getting commits early and likely got good value on those guys. They got 3 very good guards imo.

Is Michigan's haul really that good? They got a big fish in Yaxel, a promising guy in Morez, a role player in Mara(Big Z is a better get here), and Cadeau who is an ok guard but small and can't shoot.

Same thing with Kentucky(though they likely have money to add more). They got the big get in Quantaince, an inefficient volume scorer in Lowe, a role player at Tulane in Kam Williams(I do think he has good upside), and a role player from Bama in Dioubate.

Honestly I'm not super high on our off-season yet but if they can real in two blue chip type guys like Sarr and someone else I think it's a better off-season than a lot of the schools you mentioned. Honestly, if you just added Sarr I think that's compatible to Michigan with Sarr vs Yaxel, Mirk vs Morez, and Big Z vs Mara. If you can add Sarr and Jamir Watkins or Stojakovic youre probably a top 5ish roster.

 

[HereSoIDontGetFined]

Bielema is building a much more solid foundation on the football side than what Underwood has done on the hoops side. Yes, Underwood has had more success, but the tides they are changin. Look at last year and what is being forecast for the coming year between the two programs. I'd put Bielema's Citrus Bowl win at least at par with Underwood's Elite 8 (then blowout loss to UConn).

Look at the coaches Bielema has brought in top-to-bottom compared with Underwood, who now has 2 top AC's but after that it sub-standard.

Beilema is holding on to his key players and actually has some stay at IL versus going pro. This gives IL Football continuity and culture.

Underwood has to do a major overhaul every season due to significant attrition. Hoops has little continuity, Underwood has to attempt to re-instill culture every year and has coaches who do not know how to do that (excluding OA & Alexander). EDG is lacking at the moment.

Not sure if you've been paying attention, but this is not just an Underwood problem in CBB today.

Even with a coaching change, it's wild that IU returns no players. Scott Drew is refilling his whole roster. Izzo just saw Tre Holloman - a guy who was believed to bleed Spartan green - leave the program, completely mystifying their fans.

Compared to some programs, what Underwood will return is actually pretty successful.