Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread

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#576      
the juiceman cometh
By the way:

The speed with which this board went from "is Dame Sarr good enough" to "Dame Sarr, you're our only hope," to a mix of "we are doomed!" and "why were we even going after Dame Sarr anyway?" is really impressive. Good job everyone!

Chef Cooking GIF by The Bear
 
#577      
USAFILLINI
Take a look at last year’s messaging from certain insiders during our missed opportunities, then compare it to what’s being circulated now. Some insiders are calling it out, but many still aren’t noticing the pattern.
 
#578      
ColSLU69
Boswell, Swope, Lee
K Davis, Miller, Wagler
Watkins, Rodgers, J Davis
Mirkovic, Humrichous, Jakstys
T Ivisc, Z Ivisic
 
#579      
Rap47
Reading all of Indi's post I find it hard to believe Illinois is anywhere near the top in NIL money.
 
#580      
RockfordIllini
Fanview said:
If true that we're not pushing for Sarr, not sure why that sounds crazy to people.

He'd be a freshmen that we'd be betting on as our star

Did I want him? Yes. But if I’m the coaching staff exploring all options, I’d definitely be hesitant to bank on a freshman—especially one who might stay in the draft anyway.
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Yes. I’m wondering if when we first started pursuing him we saw him maybe as a $1M ish, second or third banana Will type roster spot (easy to forget Will spent most of the season coming off the bench). But with his great play his stock and price shot up dramatically to the point where he’s now a $2-3M player, and for that money he would have to be our first banana. And I’m all good with us not paying any frosh not named Cooper Flagg our first banana money.

I realize we had injuries and schematic issues on defense. But I also think a big reason we wound up on the 6 line is we had to ride the roller coaster of youth. If we went all in on Sarr as our alpha, pretty good chance we ride a similar coaster and wind up with a similar seed, and lose in the round of 32.
 
#581      
Fanview
the juiceman cometh said:
The speed with which this board went from "is Dame Sarr good enough" to "Dame Sarr, you're our only hope," to a mix of "we are doomed!" and "why were we even going after Dame Sarr anyway?" is really impressive. Good job everyone!
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Agreed. Not everything has to be so black/white (e.g. "Dame didn't want us" or "Brad didn't want Dame")

Fans assume prospects are option 1,2, and 3. When often it's probably 1A, 1B, 1C. And staffs put out feelers and probably fluctuate on who they think they should take too. Not to mention the fact we don't have transparency on who they are pursuing/back-channeling and the staff's ultimate goals/budget constraints. Things change.
 
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#584      
ImGonnaBeILL
Any highly touted acquisition wouldn't play over Humbrickhouse anyway. Lost Chicago w/o Anderson.

Program is in a great place. The frosting on the cake will be Ivisic Bros decommitting and entering the portal......... 😙

At least we've got Shauna and Bret
 
#586      
HailtotheChief
Illiniforlife said:
Well, at least Watkins will fit in with the rest of the team in being bad 3-point shooters. Can't wait to watch us jack them up again and miss them again.
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Really, what's good? Big Z was 39% and although Tomi wasn't great l, he was playing hurt and can shoot! They both are good shooters and over 7ft and will space the floor for Watkins and Boz! Above 35% isn't a bad 3 pt shooter. A bad one is not allowed to shoot or below 30%.
 
#587      
csd
Indy Illini Fan said:
If the expectations for the program are competing for Big Ten & National Championships year in and year out … Which Josh Whitman will tell you is the expectation …

Are we meeting expectations or not ?

Last years team … Not good enough …

So far this off season … Not good enough …
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I am sure it is his desire to win Big Ten & National Championships year in and year out but if it was his expectation Brad would have been fired tears ago.
 
#588      
HensonHall71
HereSoIDontGetFined said:
One would think this to be logical; however, as I look on the mock draft, the first player drafted from this year's national champion is the 20th pick, while Rutgers has two picks in the top 4.

I don't think it matters much where you are.
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You are making a different point than I was - I agree with you, team success is of little interest to NBA scouts. But, where you play does matter a lot - how the coaching staff puts you in a position to succeed etc. This year was a perfect example - we put the ball in KJ's hands, gave him a pick and pop big man to work with and it showed off his P&R game perfectly, he's now going to be a lottery pick. Egor for example, BYU stopped running the offense through him and they started to win more, but he didn't improve his draft stock this year.

So, you have to look at what the team will be around you, how you will be used and what is in your best interests. Some teams will be better for that than others. If your goal is to play one year and go to the draft, it's critical you make the right choice with a coaching staff you can trust.
 
#591      
Mapman
It’s interesting how similar all of this is to real estate.
1. Time kills deals
2. Don’t get in a bidding war if you don’t have the stomach for it
3. Don’t negotiate against yourself
4. Sometimes you have to overpay to get what you want

What is even more scary is where NIL is going to go next year…at some point the ceiling has to be met, right?
 
#592      
thefalcon5
illini011 said:
My only issue with him is that he’s a terrible 3 point shooter
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33% on decent volume is far from terrible.

Also have to know he was by far the best piece on that FSU roster, drawing the most attention. Maybe that doesn’t change here but even so, an important note.
 
#593      
RollChief
Going back to the ecomonics discussion from a few days ago, I wonder what the net economic effect of a bunch of presumably working-aged people sitting in a college basketball chatroom for an entire Wednesday afternoon is...

Season 3 Nbc GIF by Manifest
 
#595      
nichi
FI_8905 said:
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but there's been a whisper campaign against Illinois basketball for a while now. Makes it tough to gain traction with top recruits and transfers. Not impossible, but harder than it should be. Donor fatigue also a factor. The landscape isn't what many fans want it to be or have been told that it is by the sycophants. That's just the truth.
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History repeats itself. It's probably actually been worse. We/they need to fight back.
 
#596      
the juiceman cometh
jacekpardol said:
That's what I'm saying the vibe has changed so much. I don't know if it's NIL or something else. Just a few years ago we were monsters in recruiting with guys like Orlando, Chin and Tim landing multiple top 30 kids - year after year, then we were killing it in the portal landing both TSJ and Mayer in the same class. I was watching national guys in the scene and when Illinois hoped on a player they all took it seriously - "look out for Illinois" now when Illinois is "on" a player it's not even taken seriously. Long gone are the days when it was echoed that "If Brad usually wants someone - he gets them." Maybe I'm snake bitten from Weber and Groce because myself and a few other were the quiet voice that expressed concerns when things started trending badly and were constantly shot down. Something changed - maybe it's the whispers some of the ex-players who are coming at the program about how playing time has been distrubuted the past years and the changes to the staff.

Now we have fan putting lipstick on a pig. See numerous posts from last season how Carey Booth and Humrichous will be on NBA radars. Or how our 150th rated player is a "diamond in the rough" - very Weberesque type of cope.

I agree - it feels like we may have peaked. I hope I'm wrong.
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Or like just last offseason when we brought in our two highest rated recruits in the 247-era?
 
#598      
dainjazoner
currently the only guy who can seal a deal in north america is OA. geoff is good for overseas.

tyler and hamer recruiting is just laughable
 
#600      
Illinirog70
In my 65 years of following Illini sports, I have learned not to fret over "losing" any player, either via transfer or by them not joining the beloved, after indications that they may do so. I've learned to say "Next!"

Its the players who arrive on campus and contribute during their time in Champaign that I value, and our coaches ability to meld a competitive team out of who shows up.

I trust Underwood's ability to land sufficiently-talented players to field a good Big Ten team and then coach them up to be representatives of our school that we can be proud of. The same is true of Bielema...
We WILL field good (if not great) teams next year in both football and basketball, despite the loss of Johnson, McCray and others. And we haven't even talked about the contributions by the Freshmen!

One thing is sure-- just because you throw a bunch of money at a player doesn't make him one iota better; in fact, make make him WORSE!

NEXT!
 
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