Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread

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#251      
2qtslow
The almost complete lack of continuity from one year to the next is what bothers me the most. It gets harder to cheer for the Illini when you are constantly asking yourself who you are looking at from one play to the next.

How do you fix that? Take away NIL and all of the other rights that the players fought so hard to win. I sure as heck ain't gonna advocate doing that.

So... I am gonna try to get over it, but I still don't like it. It is a problem without a solution.
 
#252      
Oracle21
the juiceman cometh said:
Again, I am sorry you're having this problem. Since the level of play does not matter to you, perhaps drop down a level and root for Illinois State? I don't think they have any international players, and only 4 or 5 transfers, so it should be a relatively safe space for you? Or drop down to DIII and root for Illinois Wesleyan? No transfers as far as I can tell. Very traditional. In fact, the kind of team that would not have looked out of place in the 1930s.
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Or I’ll just be envious of Purdue fans that get to watch what I wish Illinois had in terms of building a team of guys you can be attached too. UConn too.

There’s ways to be good AND endear yourself to fans of non-laundry
 
#254      
Oracle21
thefalcon5 said:
I still think this whole debate comes down to this: unless you’re apart of the small group of exceptions (Purdue and who else?) in this day and age you cannot win at the highest level without dipping into what is considered non traditional recruiting.
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UConn, Duke, Purdue all manage to be pretty good and not give off the vibe of a “rent a team for a year”.
 
#255      
RichardKeenesCousin
RollChief said:
I feel like this argument is getting pedantic...

I really like where college basketball is right now because I'm a huge college basketball fan and I have the time and the desire to make it a hobby that I stay on top of. That's why I'm here responding on this board like all of you.

With that said, I understand at least a part of what @Oracle21 is saying, that the interest might be lost on people who don't pay as much attention because they lose some level of recognition year over year.

More globally, I think the whole argument is probably more subjective than it's being made out to be and more about conservatism and enjoying the sport a certain way vs being okay with adopting and buying into the new landscape as a fan. Sometimes change is tough to stomach, Oracle definitely got a lot of enjoyment about watching Illinois players from a time period and lens that may become less frequent in a certain way. I think feeling a certain way about that doesn't make them less of an Illini fan or mean they have a problem.

With that said, I fully agree that the roster creativity is really cool to watch and is definitely a benefit for a lot of people, most notably opportunistic players but also coaches and fans who are willing to accept (and enjoy) the changing landscape.

There's my Switzerland take that no one asked for.
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Pop Tv GIF by Schitt's Creek
 
#256      
logjam
Oracle21 said:
Or I’ll just be envious of Purdue fans that get to watch what I wish Illinois had in terms of building a team of guys you can be attached too. UConn too.

There’s ways to be good AND endear yourself to fans of non-laundry
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Our football team is a great example of that...
 
#257      
Iamgroot
Quick question for you'll does this new rule allowing g league players to come back and play college help spread more talent across the ncaa where there could be more competitive games where teams that aren't like the dukes of the world where they got 5 burger boys a year will this help spread more talent across the board or will it continually be the rich get richer?
 
#258      
EmeraldCityIllini
Oracle21 said:
UConn, Duke, Purdue all manage to be pretty good and not give off the vibe of a “rent a team for a year”.
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UConn title team of Diarra, Spencer, Newton, and Calcaterra were all transfers.

And I feel like Duke’s one and done stuff make them seem like the ultimate rent a player for a year team.

Don’t disagree on Purdue though. That said, I’m not sure we’d be jealous of that if they were merely just a good team.
 
#259      
21ChampaignSt
As it pertains to recruiting, I'm way more apathetic than I've ever been, especially regarding high school recruitments. We'll get who we get. We'll be good. They'll leave in a couple years for one reason or another and I'll have little emotional attachment to any player on our team.

It has nothing to do with where the players come from though. It has everything to do with NIL and the transfer portal. I didn't like Trent any less than DMW because Trent was from Florida and DMW was from Peoria.

I liked both because they committed here at a time when players actually committed to a coach or a school and not just the largest paycheck. I liked both because they stayed with us for five years even though they didn't have to. As a fan, it is a bummer that so many players are just mercenaries now.

But when we're in the throes of a game, I never ever find myself thinking - gosh, this would be better if Tomi was from Decatur.
 
#261      
NarrowJ
Oracle21 said:
UConn, Duke, Purdue all manage to be pretty good and not give off the vibe of a “rent a team for a year”.
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UConn has Dwayne Koroma (Germany), Jacob Furphy (Tasmania), Rrezon Elezaj (Turkey), Eric Reibe (Germany), Uros Paunovic (Serbia). That's 5 foreign players. They also have 4 transfers. They just won two NCs with a transfer from East Carolina as their best player.

Duke, speaking of a team that churns players every year, has Dame Sarr (Italy) & Ifeanyi Ufochukwu (Nigeria). We returned 45% of player minutes this season, Duke returned 24% of player minutes this season. They were also 345th in the country in returning minutes the year prior.

Purdue has Omer Mayer (Isreal) & Oscar Cluff (Australia). They've retained important pieces, but have lost some too (Gillis to Duke, hilariously enough as well as Colvin, Berg, Newman & Waddell. Their turn to roster churn will be this season as the big 3 graduate.
 
#263      
ColSLU69
I'm still very interested in high school recruitments. The competition aspect of recruiting is very interesting to me. But I understand that it's a lot less important now with the recruitment of foreign players expanding, and the plethora of transfers via the portal.

Illinois presently has commitments from two high school players in the Class of 2026: 6'4" 180-pound Guard Ethan Brown of Rolla (MO) High School, and 6'8" 210-pound Forward Landon Davis of Northwest High School (Waukee, IA). They seem like players who are willing to develop at Illinois and will stay with the team for more than one or two seasons. I suppose it's unknown how many open roster spots and scholarships the Illini will have available for the 26-27 season. It seems like Brown and Davis will have spots open for them with the departures of Kylan Boswell, and probably Ben Humrichous. Former walk-on AJ Redd, now holding a scholarship, will also be departing after this season. And, depending on how well they perform this season, players like Andrej Stojakovic an/or Tomislav Ivisic could enter the 2026 NBA Draft and leave for greener pastures. Similarly, some players could be unhappy with their playing time this season and choose to move on to another college program. But none of us at this point can accurately predict exactly how many players will be leaving after this season, and how many openings/scholarships will be available next season.

I for one would be very happy if the Illini could add two more high schoolers... 6'4" 190-pound Guard Jasiah Jervis and 6'7" 210-pound Forward Alex Constanza... to its Class of 2026. I think that both players would be perfect fits with Illinois. And I think there's a chance that neither will be a one-and-done player for Illinois. However, both players might perceive themselves to be that good, and they would expect to be paid accordingly. There's the rub. Illinois typically needs money to also retain certain players on the roster. And it also usually needs money to pay for quality transfer players. Putting too much money into freshmen like Jervis and Constanza might prevent the Illini from retaining certain players and/or landing a quality transfer or two. Balancing the team's needs within a limited (albeit healthy) budget is an extremely difficult job for our coaching staff. But I think that the staff has handled this task very well. So, I will not second guess the staff's decisions. Instead, I look forward to watching how all of this unfolds, while hoping for the very best results and continued Illini success.
 
#264      
Rebounding Dog
21ChampaignSt said:
As it pertains to recruiting, I'm way more apathetic than I've ever been, especially regarding high school recruitments. We'll get who we get. We'll be good. They'll leave in a couple years for one reason or another and I'll have little emotional attachment to any player on our team.

It has nothing to do with where the players come from though. It has everything to do with NIL and the transfer portal. I didn't like Trent any less than DMW because Trent was from Florida and DMW was from Peoria.

I liked both because they committed here at a time when players actually committed to a coach or a school and not just the largest paycheck. I liked both because they stayed with us for five years even though they didn't have to. As a fan, it is a bummer that so many players are just mercenaries now.

But when we're in the throes of a game, I never ever find myself thinking - gosh, this would be better if Tomi was from Decatur.
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I live in Decatur… hell yes Tomi is 2x as good if he came from my backyard🤓
Ok… I can be real! Different times now… each year is finding the best players you can afford or recruit.
Hope is you retain players and find others for those that leave!
Any instate player that we get and becomes special is a bonus! Roll with changes! REO said it!
 
#266      
the juiceman cometh
Iamgroot said:
Quick question for you'll does this new rule allowing g league players to come back and play college help spread more talent across the ncaa where there could be more competitive games where teams that aren't like the dukes of the world where they got 5 burger boys a year will this help spread more talent across the board or will it continually be the rich get richer?
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Apparently this new approach is that, of you haven't gone through the draft process, you can go from G league to college if you're within 5 years of high school. So, my question is, with G League Ignite not being a thing anymore, how common is this going to be? It seems like this just may be a path for former G League Ignite players who failed to break into the league, and once those guys are beyond the 5 years we'll rarely see this used.
 
#267      
Oracle21
EmeraldCityIllini said:
UConn title team of Diarra, Spencer, Newton, and Calcaterra were all transfers.

And I feel like Duke’s one and done stuff make them seem like the ultimate rent a player for a year team.

Don’t disagree on Purdue though. That said, I’m not sure we’d be jealous of that if they were merely just a good team.
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UConn’s very best players were all recruited out of HS. Newton’s the only transfer that even made a difference there.

Look at 2022-23 roster top scorer:
Sanogo- 16.7 PPG (JR…HS recruit)
Hawkins- 16.2 PPG (SO…HS recruit)
Newton- 10.1 PPG (SR…transfer)
Karaban- 9.3 PPG (FR)
Klingan- 6.9 PPG (FR)
Jackson- 6.7 PPG (FR)

5/6 are NBA players. 4/5 were HS recruits.

2023-24. They did use Newton/Spencsr quite a bit. However, the best players on the team were Castle/Klingan- two HS recruits. And 6 of their top 9 were still recruited out of HS.
 
#268      
jamarvelous31
Oracle21 said:
UConn’s very best players were all recruited out of HS. Newton’s the only transfer that even made a difference there.

Look at 2022-23 roster top scorer:
Sanogo- 16.7 PPG (JR…HS recruit)
Hawkins- 16.2 PPG (SO…HS recruit)
Newton- 10.1 PPG (SR…transfer)
Karaban- 9.3 PPG (FR)
Klingan- 6.9 PPG (FR)
Jackson- 6.7 PPG (FR)

5/6 are NBA players. 4/5 were HS recruits.

2023-24. They did use Newton/Spencsr quite a bit. However, the best players on the team were Castle/Klingan- two HS recruits. And 6 of their top 9 were still recruited out of HS.
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Is your point that Illinois should follow this?

UConn has won 6 championships since 99, IL has made it to 1 final 4 in that time.

They have had access to a distinctly different talent pool than Illinois.
 
#269      
NarrowJ
If you took the current top 15 players from Illinois and made that your roster, you might go 0-20 in conference play

It makes me sad too, but it is what it is and if you want to win games you have to stay out in front of all of the changes to recruiting and player eligibility
 
#270      
Navy_illini
When NCAA players make more than pros in the NBA it makes sense that players who are good but not able to make an NBA roster would want to still make really good money
 
#274      
Oracle21
jamarvelous31 said:
They have had access to a distinctly different talent pool than Illinois.
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With NIL and Big 10 Rev Share, the playing field has been significantly leveled to where prestige isn’t the main factor in guys choosing which college to go for. It’s $$$$.

A couple comments in this thread said relying on veteran transfers and Euro pros is the only way to win. It’s not. You can still go get the best HS players and get it done like Duke does. Or develop program guys like Purdue that have tons of continuity. Or both that UConn does.
 
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