Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread
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13 stayed at their school who came back to college ball.
Vs.
10 transferred.
Only numbers that matter.
The 17 pros have nothing to do with my original statement.
Overwhelming majority? No but Majority, nonetheless.
Though the 17 who went Pro (2 Illini) are just as important as bringing back a returner. That's what gets talent into your program. Even in 2025 when you pay players...
Lastly, I appreciate your use of Bubbles.
I was expecting higher % honestly who stayed. In part, because the Top 40 is full of dudes who went to blue bloods and could be afforded for a second year. However, there are the Boogie Flands/Jayden Quaintenance types who will be hired guns for as long as they play college ball. (Just my opinion)
You said you thought the “overwhelming majority” stayed, when in fact 70% did not stay
You couldn’t even be bothered to look it up, a couple of us were nice enough to do that task for you, and you were wrong
This isn’t disputable lol
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BrownTown said:
Morez sure. But how many Top 40 returners left their original team? I'd bet the overwhelming majority stayed.
It literally says "but how many Top 40 returners left their original team".
What do you think I meant by 'returners'?
Someone who went to the NBA? I'm shocked someone has worse reading comprehension then me on here. I'm clearly talking about percentage of players who returned to college basketball who either transferred or went back to their original school.
Edit: Let me be a good sport and walk back part of this… I did glaze over the word “returners” so technically I am wrong
So not overwhelming majority but yes barely more than half
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How can you not understand that the pool of people is 23 out of 40?
The 17 who go pro DO NOT RETURN to college. I mentioned this the post before.
13 stayed
10 transferred
Yes I missed that and said as much
So we were both a little wrong lol
Though I do feel the fact that many of these top 40 kids go pro after a single ho-hum season should be a very relevant part of the discussion
I agree. You can still utilize them when selling your league track record to recruits.
Cal had that crazy stretch of Lottery picks. It certainly wasn't always an instance where the player had achieved Soo much at the college level vice the immeasurables.
I agree, I like good players wherever they're from. And Tomi was one of my favorite players last year, as was KJ.
But also schools with top 40 '24 recruits went an average of 22-13 last year.
Theres so much more that goes into a winning team than a top 40 kid (unless you're Duke and have 6 of them).
Yes 22-13 certainly isn’t the kind of season we strive for, and that average is propped up hugely by Duke’s 6 guys…
Go down the top 40 list and after the first several guys theres just so many kids who likely cost a lot of money yet were underwhelming from a production standpoint
If you can afford a Cooper Flagg or an AJ Dybansta, go for it.. but outside of that it’s a real mixed bag…. the portal and Euro markets are full of older, more experienced players who are also far removed from AAU ball where winning is secondary to marketing yourself
I don’t want to ignore freshmen, you just have to make sure you get the right ones. I think it was Al McGuire who famously said the best thing about freshmen is they become sophomores (though nowadays with the portal it’s like 5x less likely those freshmen actually do become sophomores for you)
It's team average not player avr, so just one entry for DOOK.
I think we saw every bit of the top 40 experience last year:
-KJ & Will were equal parts brilliant & inconsistent. Aka freshmen.
-Tre White believed he shouldve had a bigger role and transferred to his 4th school (7th including highschool).
-Morez as a 7th man had to be carefully managed, wasn't, and left for more $ in a messy fashion.
Last years team wasn't the most frustrating team under Brad (thank you Matthew Mayer), but it was up there specifically because how young & talented the roster was.
I thought we were discussing Top 40 recruits and their tendency to stick around > 1 year
You really spun off into unrelated complaint mode there lol
Eh I’m probably just tired
Edit: I did like the word choice “carefully managed” ha
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I love the top 40 route. We don't win 20 games last year without Will and KJ.
I love seeing the flashes and the progress throughout the season. The lows are rough but the upside makes it worth it for me. The emotion and love for the team CAN be so much greater as well compared to the multiple transfer or Euro route who more realistically see it as another stop in a career journey in basketball. Think to Will crying his eyes out in the loss to UK.
I love rooting for them as they progress through the league (NBA product is absolutely boring to me nowadays so I just follow our Alum).
NOT ACCUSING OR INSINUATING THAT THIS IS HAPPENING THIS YEAR.
BUT....
Are Euros/highly paid transfers on their 2nd or 3rd stop as willing to play hurt? Note I said hurt, not injured.
We've been tremendously blessed not to have a year that the heavy transfer/new player thing didn't blow up on us like most teams in similar paths have had. Though 22-23 was darn close if Mayer didn't go nuclear a couple times down the stretch so we could make the tourney.
I hear you on a lot of points
I keep thinking of our best season in 20 years being a team made up of transfers TSJ, Domask, Guerrier, Dainja, etc and Hawkins
This whole Euro thing we are fairly new to, so we will see what happens- we know Tomi is pretty good and you seem to be a KJ fan as well so track record is decent thus far
I do love Tomi's game. I was trying to manifest his brother coming here as well on the board last year. Something about college sports makes you feel a lot closer to the players so a human interest story like that (being thousands of miles away from home and reuniting with your brother). Is Soo cool to see even if it doesn't work out on the court as well as we all would hope.
And I can certainly handle the transfers. Just like that augmented with some top high school route guys.
It's fun to watch the guys grow and progress. Part of college sports is your not just watching a finished product so to speak. The ups and downs and breakout players make it soo entertaining to me --along with slightly less 3s than the NBA game.
Ha I don't think "it's hard to retain top 40 kids" and "here are 4 examples of IL's top 40 kids no longer with the program that provided unique challenges" is particularly off topic?I thought we were discussing Top 40 recruits and their tendency to stick around > 1 year
You really spun off into unrelated complaint mode there lol
Eh I’m probably just tired
Edit: I did like the word choice “carefully managed” ha
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It seems to me that Brad is looking for specific HS kids and will move away from projects. It seems we are going to build from the portal with proven talent but grad at top 40 kid who will most be here a year. We are heavy in the European market so we can get talent there with our results with KJ and both Ivicic brothers.
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