skyIdub
Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread
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robertgoulet
IL Board Resident Crooner
- Austin, TX
Perfectly happy being the program that is great at cultivating relationships with HS talent, doesn't hit on much, but is able to get them when they transfer bc of the relationships built. Let the other schools develop them.
I wouldn’t hate it if we didn’t take a top 40 kid this year. My understanding is those level of kids are still commanding significant resources, and I’m not sure committing those resources to an 18/19 YO frosh and riding the inevitable highs and lows is the best use of those resources. I would prefer we spend the bulk of our resources on proven players in the portal and/or Euros as I just think that approach has a better hit rate.
I’m not saying taking a top 40 kid should be verboten, but i think hesitation at throwing a big bag at an incoming frosh is a good rule of thumb. It needs to be the right fit at the right price.
I’m not saying taking a top 40 kid should be verboten, but i think hesitation at throwing a big bag at an incoming frosh is a good rule of thumb. It needs to be the right fit at the right price.
I don't think there are very many people wanting to build with a core of freshmen, its just the rather small (but loud) group that only shows up to post something when we miss on a recruit and the argument is always "well it worked this *one time* so it will definitely work all the time"
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Fair, and I will say too that the landscape in CBB recruiting has shifted so dramatically in just the last 3-4 years it’s hard to keep up.
It wasn’t that long ago that hs recruiting was the lifeblood of your program. We lived and died with every recruitment, and consistently missing on top 40 kids would be a bright red flashing warning light for the long term viability for both your coach and your program. We may have won a natty if we could have landed EJ Liddell. John Groce might still be here if he had landed any of Quentin Snyder, Jalen Brunson, or Juwan Evans, etc.
So it’s hard realizing we don’t live in that world anymore when that was our world for so long, but that’s the case now. HS recruiting is mostly an afterthought for me at this point. With our track record and, probably more importantly our resources at this point, we will bring in good players.
I do, I have a difficult time connecting with an entire team from Europe. It seems that's us, moving forward. I can't believe we have 2 kids Hamer recruited from Rolla, Mo. And Iowa, that Illinois State wouldn't recruit. The 1 ranked player in Illinois we've forgotten about and the Pt. Guard from Whitney Young is gonna be a baller for Tennessee. We shall see, but I'm not excited about recruiting and roster construction every single year. Underwood may love it, but without a culture, we aren't going anywhere. Building a culture/ identity is huge. It cannot be done in 3 months. Rick Barners, Matt Painter, have a solid roster and get 3 or 4 transfers is about right.
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What are you basing this on?
There aren't many high major teams that return more minutes than we do this year so that criticism isn't as applicable as it was in years past. I hope we've turned a corner and the seasons with 90% roster turnover are behind us.
Beyond that, what we're seeing is that it really only makes sense to recruit two types of freshman; instant impact borderline 1ND guys or lower ranked players who are fine with developing for a year or two before getting a regular spot in the rotation.
The guys in the middle will be in the transfer portal in a couple years and we can recruit them at that point if it makes sense.
I don't necessarily like it but that's how it is.
RabidDawgClassic
- Los Angeles, CA
That sounds like a Jamie problem, Jamie.
I think their is an element that people have forgot about recruiting the top 40 types.
Regardless of how hard it feels to retain them from year 1 to 2. It's still a hell of a lot cheaper to retain your own players than to get them out of the portal. It's also significantly easier to retain a player already on roster.
I know it doesn't FEEL that way cause of guys like Morez or others we have seen walk.
Top 40 Freshmen also make up the heavy majority of draft picks who. So if continuing to put people in the league is a goal...
Didn’t you know? 4 guys = entire team
Joel Goodson
- it's all ball bearings, nowadays
the Jervis era is ova. can't wait for the hot takes
Who cares… we have two 4 star freshman …. one might be 5 star level. Portal… get older proven players! Recruitment does not mean what it once did! Not worried! We keep finding players! Sure it is nice to have some young talent (if they stay)….never a deal breaker.
It really doesn't matter my opinion or yours about how to construct a roster and what "works". But if the staff targets someone in high school or the portal, then we can pretty much assume that they believe it will "work".
You can tell that the recruiting paradigm has shifted by the fact that this is only page 5 in a thread that is 17 days old... Between March and June this place is insane, but then it chills out significantly. Wasn't the case just a couple of years ago.
........
And how does one construct a roster worthy of winning at the highest level? Short of grossly overbidding on players?
Thank you, Captain Obvious lol
However, just because they target a single freshman does not mean they want to field a team with six of them (was the point of my post, responding to the person who had wrote that they weren't sure about recruiting a lot of freshmen in the current landscape/environment)
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Underwood is beginning to burn American recruits.. this won't end well unless he wins a natty with European players....
His quotes, his roster, etc.. There has yet to be an Illini coach who has been successful with out a Chicago born player on the roaster.. .TSJ being the most recent with E8.
Not uneasy yet.. but I have to be honest.. that thought is starting to creep in.. I guess we will see this season.. He wins and no one will say a thing.
Much ado about nothing. He had no problem getting a commitment from Fears until he wanted to reclassify. Underwood strategy is not to overpay for high school players. That strategy has worked so far but he can always overpay for proven older college players in the future.
Then Fears chose Oklahoma and noone ever has heard anything from him since.
The End.
Joel Goodson
- it's all ball bearings, nowadays
please tell us uninformed folk why Jervis dropped us
I’ll say this: being beholden to high school kids outside the top 20ish doesn’t seem like a good idea moving forward.
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