illinifan31
Former Krush Cow
- South Bend, IN
State of college basketball these days
Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread
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Because making the league is no guarantee
I think we need to pony up what he made last year - asking him to take a pay cut is not valuing him and he could easily get it in the market given how he finished the year- he was a big part of us winning in the tournament.
The sell to him is he can make more money coming back than being a second round pick and next years draft is much weaker - so come back, be more featured next year and be a first round pick with a guaranteed contract - that has to make sense to Peja and his team. In terms of portal - does he really want to try his 4th school in 4 years not knowing how he would fit with a new team/system. It seems he would have everything in front of him here.
Balkans are 2mil this year
Between the money he made this year and Peja's nearly $100 million in career earnings, he can probably afford to bet on himself.
But that being said, this just feels to me like a situation where he enters the portal and declares, gets NBA feedback and decides to come back to college. Unfortunately that probably means he "comes back" to an entirely different program as I do not get the sense we will wait for him.
Irvin is a basketball coaching legend in Chicago, Illinois
FWIW in the corporate world, if i am not expecting my employer to fire me, I would expect to have at least inflation-adjusted increase of my comp if there's no bonus, regardless of performance.
Fair. His dad made $100M in the league. I think making an extra mil or two now at age 22 means a lot less than building a career in Europe if that’s where his career takes him.
Staj right now reminds me of Morez, Mara, and Cadeau prior to the Michigan title year. They show flashes of immense potential. But lack consistency of output. His year two at Illini with better shooting and passing puts him in All B1G conversation. Maybe not All American (that’s probably Mirk’s spot).
Try Ivan Renkovic.
Nothing would surprise me regarding our roster for next year. I am sure the core players have discussed running it back. In the end, Stoj will still be an illini. Wagler seems like a kid that loves college basketball. Hopefully he is not ready to make that jump and wants a national championship.
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There is a lot of money, but...still haven't given up on retaining Wagler. And they obviously want to bring back Tomi, Z, and Mirk and add more from the portal.
I don't think Stojakvic's NBA feedback will be all that great, so we shall see.
Inflation also hits the portal my friend. If you get a 15% bump in portal money, but the cost of a high level kid goes up 17%.....it's a problem. That's just the cost of living. When it goes up, your salary doesn't go as far. Shop elsewhere if you don't like the cost.
So you are saying someone just threw a wrench in the machine... que The Joker
I have followed the mock drafts very closely; Stojakovic is on zero of them. He is on some top-100 boards in the 70-80 range. I could see a team taking a chance on him due to name and positional size, but he will be spending all his time in the G League, which would blow. I ain't him, but if it were me, I would come back and try to work into the 1st round conversation (which I think he could).
I trust our staff. But this Wagler stuff seems far fetched.
Then again, everything about the kid has been far fetched
Then again, everything about the kid has been far fetched
RichardKeenesCousin
Richard Keene's Cousin
I can't imagine it being great. Shooting is sub-par for the league, saw the turnovers in game driving to the basket. Hope we get him back at the right price but definitely needs to tune up some things if he wants to get a shot at carving out a career in the association
madillini4
Ozamataz Buckshank
- Millywaukee
The NBA is an incredibly difficult league to flourish in. Look at how many prospects never make it in the NBA. Terrence Shannon can’t even get meaningful tick and he’s twice the player Andrej is, and I’m not trying to knock how good andrej is, it’s just the truth. Andrej can’t shoot, you have to be an at least respectable shooter to make it. I still think Shannon can be good in the NBA, fwiw.
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Not sure why people are super worried about Morillos 3 point shooting. Plenty of time to work on it. Still think he will be 6th man or getting a large chunk of starting minutes. He's a 6’7” point guard that is around 210 without off-season with fletch yet lol we need size and a mismatch at point. If Keaton wasn’t 6’6” he wouldn’t be getting lottery picks predictions. Michigan won this year because of their athleticism and size not because they could hit a million threes.
I don't understand why Keaton would come back to college at all. He will be a top 10 pick for sure and arguably a top 5 pick. It makes zero sense for him to come back to college. He has nothing to prove at all.
They aren't giving up on Wagler? He'd be insane to not take lottery money, unless he's getting word that his stock isn't what we think it is. There is zero benefit for him to come back. He's going to roll the dice for what? I'd love to hear the rationale.
You’re a hell of a lot smarter than me, but Wagler isn’t realistically considering returning is he? That just wouldn’t make sense on any level.
As for Stojakovic, there is pretty close to 0 chance he gets positive NBA feedback. He can’t shoot. That’s a pretty bad skill to suck at.
What I could see is him portalling and going somewhere else, to the highest bidder.
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So with Wagler in play we have $ issues but without Wagler we have a ton?
Will we wait?
I don't think he ends up getting in the first round, and probably wouldn't be drafted at all, but I get why he'd give it a shot. You have to have confidence to play at this level, and they obviously know of examples of guys like Cedric Coward who almost exactly a year ago ESPN's mock draft had near the end of the 2nd round (https://www.on3.com/pro/news/2025-n...ck-after-national-championship-march-madness/), then over the course of the draft process saw his stock rise like crazy and ended up as the #11 pick. Again, don't think that happens to Stoj, but it doesn't matter what I think, it matters what he thinks, and like I said these guys have to believe in themselves to do what they do.
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