Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread

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#201      
Illini 993
What an irrational and distorted market this has become, where players who wouldn’t come close to being a NBA lottery pick can command the salary of a top 10 pick, in a league that plays less than half the number of games and maybe has 30% of the revenues.

Schools really need to rethink their failed strategy of avoiding designation of the athletes as employees; either collective bargaining or bankrupting athletic programs are the only two endpoints I see to this salary escalation.
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How would NIL spending impact the university's bottom line at all, let alone bankrupt it? NIL comes from individual donors, not the athletic department.
 
#205      
RockfordIllini
So if in fact it’s true there is no offer the table as of yet from Duke, I think we should start reaching out to other lead guards. To me that says that Blackwell isn’t 100% sold on us, which is fine. But we have amazing and very lucrative opportunity. Someone will want it. We need to create urgent and leverage. Otherwise feels like we are negotiating against ourselves at this point.
 
#206      
ttlong5
RockfordIllini said:
So if in fact it’s true there is no offer the table as of yet from Duke, I think we should start reaching out to other lead guards. To me that says that Blackwell isn’t 100% sold on us, which is fine. But we have amazing and very lucrative opportunity. Someone will want it. We need to create urgent and leverage. Otherwise feels like we are negotiating against ourselves at this point.
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FWIW, Duke insiders believe that Blackwell may be waiting for Foster to officially enter the portal and Evans to declare for the draft. Who knows.
 
#208      
WxIllini
Might want to try Dulcolax....guaranteed BOOM
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That kind of BOOM sounds like a 48-hour hostage situation with a roll of 2-ply. In that case, I tend to prefer Miralax.
 
#209      
lstewart53x3
RockfordIllini said:
So if in fact it’s true there is no offer the table as of yet from Duke, I think we should start reaching out to other lead guards. To me that says that Blackwell isn’t 100% sold on us, which is fine. But we have amazing and very lucrative opportunity. Someone will want it. We need to create urgent and leverage. Otherwise feels like we are negotiating against ourselves at this point.
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We’re in late stage negotiations with our top priority in the portal, but yes, let’s pretend like we don’t even want him. That should help.
 
#210      
PrandonBaul
Altuve27 said:
One more note on why retaining Andrej is important: Trotter mentions in his podcast with Werner that there just aren’t many great options to fill Stojakovic’s position. He mentioned a handful of names he was underwhelmed by. He talked about how that year 2 jump for a transfer is a real thing, and that there is a high probability Illinois would be getting a better version of AS next season.

Isaac then talked about how this is where you really have to weigh what you value as you construct your roster. He stated Illinois undoubtedly wants to retain Mirk and Tomi. If they were to spend big money on Blackwell, then does Andrej’s price tag fit with your roster build?

Tough decisions to be made. It was a very interesting discussion.
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I'd like to know the odds for Andrej to win B1G POTY next year. I truly think that is in the realm of possibility. He will be a monster.
 
#211      
tmasta346
CoachHooleyHoo said:
This is really weird to me. Why would Diebler be on the hot seat. Went 8-3 when he took over from Holtman, then 17-15 in his first year, & 21-13 with tough loss in the tourney in his 2nd year. Not only that, he's a good coach. I'm not a Buckeye fan in the slightest, but I just don't see how he's on the hot seat.
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Their bitter rival to the north just showed you don't really need time to build a program.
 
#212      
AirTran
NarrowJ said:
Just because our budget increased doesn’t mean everyone else’s remained the same. Adding a few million doesn’t suddenly vault us into top 5-10 NIL.
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Sweet 16 roster spend (2025 - 26)
(1) Duke $12mm (2) Arkansas $11.50mm (3) St. John's $10.5mm (4) Michigan $10.5mm
(5) Arizona $9.5mm (6) Tennessee $9.5mm (7) UCONN $9.5mm (8) Illinois $9mm
(9) Purdue $8.75mm (10) MSU $8.5mm (11) Houston $8.5mm (12) Iowa State $8.25mm
(13) Texas $7.5mm (14) Alabama $5mm (15) Nebraska $4.5mm (16) Iowa ???

Kentucky $20mm BYU $13mm

Keep in mind Illinois was in the top 3 in Men's basketball revenue in 2025 - 26 (Over $30mm) so first some of the numbers getting thrown around aren't making alot of sense. (2) Illinois can compete.
 
#213      
Illini2010-11
RockfordIllini said:
So if in fact it’s true there is no offer the table as of yet from Duke, I think we should start reaching out to other lead guards. To me that says that Blackwell isn’t 100% sold on us, which is fine. But we have amazing and very lucrative opportunity. Someone will want it. We need to create urgent and leverage. Otherwise feels like we are negotiating against ourselves at this point.
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Do you really think the staff does not have backup plans in place? Blackwell has only officially been in the portal for less than 24 hours.

This is a big decision for the young man. It is not like he is dragging us along at this point. He is probably checking all boxes in a big decision.
 
#214      
NarrowJ
AirTran said:
Sweet 16 roster spend (2025 - 26)
(1) Duke $12mm (2) Arkansas $11.50mm (3) St. John's $10.5mm (4) Michigan $10.5mm
(5) Arizona $9.5mm (6) Tennessee $9.5mm (7) UCONN $9.5mm (8) Illinois $9mm
(9) Purdue $8.75mm (10) MSU $8.5mm (11) Houston $8.5mm (12) Iowa State $8.25mm
(13) Texas $7.5mm (14) Alabama $5mm (15) Nebraska $4.5mm (16) Iowa ???

Kentucky $20mm BYU $13mm

Keep in mind Illinois was in the top 3 in Men's basketball revenue in 2025 - 26 (Over $30mm) so first some of the numbers getting thrown around aren't making alot of sense. (2) Illinois can compete.
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Source for these numbers?
 
#215      
Illinialldayeveryday
RockfordIllini said:
So if in fact it’s true there is no offer the table as of yet from Duke, I think we should start reaching out to other lead guards. To me that says that Blackwell isn’t 100% sold on us, which is fine. But we have amazing and very lucrative opportunity. Someone will want it. We need to create urgent and leverage. Otherwise feels like we are negotiating against ourselves at this point.
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Its a top 5 portal player. He would be dumb to just say yes to anybody right away.
 
#216      
joeybcrazy13
So if in fact it’s true there is no offer the table as of yet from Duke, I think we should start reaching out to other lead guards. To me that says that Blackwell isn’t 100% sold on us, which is fine. But we have amazing and very lucrative opportunity. Someone will want it. We need to create urgent and leverage. Otherwise feels like we are negotiating against ourselves at this point.
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And it begins...lol
GIF by moodman

Moving Friends Tv GIF
 
#217      
Frank
I'd like to know the odds for Andrej to win B1G POTY next year. I truly think that is in the realm of possibility. He will be a monster.
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I became a little worried Drej wasn’t long for the Illini when BU made it a point to reference Drej coming to Illinois to win (and succeeding at that) during both the FF postgame locker room talk and later to reporters. Felt like an early beginning of the hard sell to get him back, knowing he had one eye already on the door. One of those, “out of all the guys here, I’m singling you out because I value you,” type of statement. I’m not sure why but it made me brace for him potentially leaving (more so than the usual amount of “who knows” that comes with the portal age).

I hope he’s back. I think we could be a huge part of next year’s team and be our 1A/1B scorer, much more so than this year with Wagler’s emergence. I just won’t be surprised if he is indeed gone.
 
#218      
Illwinsagain
RockfordIllini said:
So if in fact it’s true there is no offer the table as of yet from Duke, I think we should start reaching out to other lead guards. To me that says that Blackwell isn’t 100% sold on us, which is fine. But we have amazing and very lucrative opportunity. Someone will want it. We need to create urgent and leverage. Otherwise feels like we are negotiating against ourselves at this point.
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Or, he has already decided to join the beloved and he has no reason to seek out an offer from other suiters.
 
#219      
hangdog
Or, he has already decided to join the beloved and he has no reason to seek out an offer from other suiters.
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Or he is maximizing his ILL offer to then take to the Blueblood in hopes of them matching it.
 
#224      
jsmoke2215
I’m starting to think our team is busy watching the Masters and has forgotten to enter the portal paperwork

Maybe it’s just me
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Generation Z kids don't care about golf lol
 
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