Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread

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#808      
ChiefGritty
sacraig said:
Honestly, I felt a little bad making this joke. I am just glad that gone are the days that our fanbase clamored for that level of player out of desperation.
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Chastain was a bit later but Bocot was in that zone, pre-Snacks Weber was a tale of recruiting failure that sounds like a tall tale in retrospect. It was all too real.

"Dunigan and Humphrey to Oregon" walked so "Lol, sure, Will Riley too, why not" could run.
 
#809      
IlliniCaboose
I can't believe I'm blanking on this pivotal piece of illini recruiting lore but who was flames crossover guy who looked like Jim Halpert?
 
#810      
Altuve27
A Final Four appearance certainly wouldn’t hurt our available resources so let’s do that.
 
#811      
Illini2010-11
Fly Illini Fly! said:
Here we go again with your mega-essays to Indy lol — which you spent at all summer.

Perhaps it’s too early to know any of those questions? Also, what do truly think of the probabilities of garnering a quality response time after time with your repeated paper long questioning?
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Three short paragraphs containing seven buried questions is rather impressive, considering responses would require longer responses. Personally I read that post and thought:

Confused Always Sunny GIF by It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
 
#812      
Big Jack
Fly Illini Fly! said:
Here we go again with your mega-essays to Indy lol — which you spent at all summer.

Perhaps it’s too early to know any of those questions? Also, what do truly think of the probabilities of garnering a quality response time after time with your repeated paper long questioning?
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Mean Seth Meyers GIF by Late Night with Seth Meyers
 
#813      
Scoregasm
I wonder if it's both or none with the brothers or if only one would stay. If Mirkovic is still here, only one of Tomi or Z is going to start. Though obviously both would play a lot.
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Mirk and Z seem tight if you have been observing them after games.....may mean nothing when the negotiations begin...🤷‍♂️
 
#814      
Illiniguy13
sacraig said:
Honestly, I felt a little bad making this joke. I am just glad that gone are the days that our fanbase clamored for that level of player out of desperation.
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I don’t know why, but I was looking back at very old recruiting & postgame forums circa 2018 and boy, it was an awful blast from the past…long gone are the days of discussions around Anthony Higgs & Samba Kane. We’ve come a LONG way
 
#816      
Username
Indy Illini Fan said:
One to watch for us … Bench piece … ELITE defensively …

www.espn.com

Miles Byrd - San Diego State Aztecs Guard - ESPN

View the profile of San Diego State Aztecs Guard Miles Byrd on ESPN. Get the latest news, live stats and game highlights.
www.espn.com www.espn.com
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I hope all the players that are considering us - especially when transferring up from lower levels - are watching JD and even Hummer to a lesser extent. Come in, work hard, embrace and sustain the culture and there are significant minutes available - even if you're not a superstar. I have to think that JD is in line for a nice NIL bump next year.
 
#817      
The Galloping Ghost
Illiniguy13 said:
I don’t know why, but I was looking back at very old recruiting & postgame forums circa 2018 and boy, it was an awful blast from the past…long gone are the days of discussions around Anthony Higgs & Samba Kane. We’ve come a LONG way
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Inarguably, my worst take from this time on this site was freaking out when Greg Eboigbodin transferred because I was scared we wouldn't have any height on the 2018-19 team. Remember Brad saying something to the effect that he might be the tallest person in the locker room lol? Little did I know Giorgi would walk in and have a stellar freshman year, and just one year later, everything was about to change for the better.

Edit:
ChiefGritty said:
The (justified!) meltdown when we lost Greg Eboigbodin
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LOL I was writing my response when you posted this and didn't hit refresh to see it. Man, those were dark times. Never gonna forget them.
 
#820      
EyeoftheIllini
Indy Illini Fan said:
One to watch for us … Bench piece … ELITE defensively …

www.espn.com

Miles Byrd - San Diego State Aztecs Guard - ESPN

View the profile of San Diego State Aztecs Guard Miles Byrd on ESPN. Get the latest news, live stats and game highlights.
www.espn.com www.espn.com
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He’s got some dog in him. Saw him against UNLV at the end of the season. Didn’t score much if I’m remembering correctly, but had 3 blocks and 3 steals.
 
#823      
ChiefGritty
The Galloping Ghost said:
I was scared we wouldn't have any height on the 2018-19 team. Remember Brad saying something to the effect that he might be the tallest person in the locker room lol? Little did I know Giorgi would walk in and have a stellar freshman year, and just one year later, everything was about to change for the better.
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And we knew we were playing what was at that time an unprecedentedly difficult non-conference schedule that year and had what seemed like, correctly, a basically helplessly young and overmatched team to face it, even with the fun Giorgi breakout. The 21 losses that season remain the most in the century-plus history of this program. At one point Brad reached 19-32 (5-21 B1G) at Illinois.

The Lovie bubble was also collapsing at this time, to give an indication of the mood, PLUS we comprehensively struck out in the fall 2018 recruiting season in a way that was just Groundhog Day for the previous decade-plus. Illini athletics were circling the drain in a way that I really feared was irreversible in that moment.

The way legends get written, those were the fires into which Ayo, Trent, Da'Monte, Feliz, Alan Griffin & Co were forged. And we absolutely grew that season, not looking better, not optimism and moral victories, we WON games, beating a couple of ranked teams, there were sprouts of recovery.

But was it actually failure and desperation that made willing to do whatever it took to sign Kofi Cockburn as the last opportunity on the board in January, which meant forcing a wholesale change of philosophy from BU, ripping up the system that had dominated with at SFA and sending him on a journey of flexibility and reinvention that is the actual reason we've come so far?

I think it's usually wrong to ever say it's 100% the former kind of story or 100% the latter.
 
#825      
ChiefGritty
ChiefGritty said:
And we knew we were playing what was at that time an unprecedentedly difficult non-conference schedule that year and had what seemed like, correctly, a basically helplessly young and overmatched team to face it, even with the fun Giorgi breakout. The 21 losses that season remain the most in the century-plus history of this program. At one point Brad reached 19-32 (5-21 B1G) at Illinois.

The Lovie bubble was also collapsing at this time, to give an indication of the mood, PLUS we comprehensively struck out in the fall 2018 recruiting season in a way that was just Groundhog Day for the previous decade-plus. Illini athletics were circling the drain in a way that I really feared was irreversible in that moment.

The way legends get written, those were the fires into which Ayo, Trent, Da'Monte, Feliz, Alan Griffin & Co were forged. And we absolutely grew that season, not looking better, not optimism and moral victories, we WON games, beating a couple of ranked teams, there were sprouts of recovery.

But was it actually failure and desperation that made willing to do whatever it took to sign Kofi Cockburn as the last opportunity on the board in January, which meant forcing a wholesale change of philosophy from BU, ripping up the system that had dominated with at SFA and sending him on a journey of flexibility and reinvention that is the actual reason we've come so far?

I think it's usually wrong to ever say it's 100% the former kind of story or 100% the latter.
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Just a little fun fact to add onto this I just saw.

On Kofi's official visit in late December, having just missed out on EJ Liddell, Drew Timme, Oscar Tshiebwe and of course Terrence Shannon, he was at SFC for a game in which we lost a cupcake buy game in overtime to KenPom #162 and dropped to 4-9 on the season.

The opponent? Florida Atlantic, with first year head coach Dusty May.
 
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