Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread

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#1,228      
If the Illini get Blackwell, my defense concerns will easily be overcome with the offense possibility. Brad could just go Tark the Shark at Vegas route and just plan to outscore everyone.
 
#1,229      
This was NOT a universal sentiment on Loyalty a month ago! Glad people are coming around.

Vaaks, Blackwell, and Coleman…

ALL shoot it off the dribble well. Absolute cheat code when you can’t switch/help because Illini has too much size, passing, and shooting. Loving the vision right now
I hope Mirk, Tomi, and BigZ realize having these men will absolutely make their job's easier. Many of teams have had 3 to 5 players being drafted and making millions. They all don't have to score 20 per game. Scouts see it! Vaaks will need to learn how to play Defense and I believe Coach absolutely told him this. Andre can go to another level in this lineup and playing defense. If he wants to be a top 15 pick in 2027 or make a additional 1 or 2 million transferring a 4th time. We shall see. I hope Ty Rodgers stays and explodes after 2 years of sitting! I will close with, if Mirk gets busy on his core and lateral quickness he can handle point forward and be a 1st rounder. Fletcher has some molding to do!
 
#1,231      
And where did Blackwell’s father play college basketball?

IMG_6711.jpeg
Dad is on the right.
 
#1,234      
Fair enough. English sucks worse. And Cooley’s average at best and a serious A-hole.

I still don’t get the randomness of Cooley’s comment. I assume he was telling Jalen Epps what he thought be wanted to hear; publicly? Preposterous comment for a number of reasons.
Pardon me…”Jaden” Epps*
 
#1,236      
With how much talent we have, I’m fine with it being a 7ppg bench piece if we miss on Blackwell. All it’d mean is more opportunity for Tomi, Mirk, Andrej, Stefan.
 
#1,237      
Mirk would be crazy to ever leave Illinois. That kid is going to be both a legend on the court and off. The guy is a walking comedy show. He is sort of Georgi on steroids.
 
#1,238      
I havent had the chance to make the money these kids can acquire so it is impossible for me to judge but if his explanation for leaving WISCO was wanting to go somehwere he can win a natty going to UCLA would just be funny tbh
 
#1,240      
I’m only taking pure stats/production. Not how they do it. Vaaks of course is more similar in playing style to KJ. I’m not arguing how they play. I’m talking about what shots you’d expect them to shoot on offense, and who they can guard, whether they can switch on defense. I hope we get Blackwell bc I don’t see how this works:

1- Vaaks
2- Davis
3- Stojakovic
4- Mirkovic
5- Tomi

You need someone that can guard an opposing team’s PG.
You are of the opinion that neither Quentin Coleman or Lucas Morillo are going to be able to play defense? You're also assuming Ty Rodgers is gone, correct? Otherwise we are going to be in a 10 man rotation. I doubt that. BTW Andrej played alot of 1 and 2 MTM last year.
 
#1,241      
That's a VERY nice win!

Again, how about our retention? Newbies are great, but if we're starting over.....kind of a bummer. Who's in and who's out? Do we have a guess?
I hope, REALLY hope this doesn't mean Stoyakovich is planning to enter the portal. If we keep him, along with the Ivisic brothers and Mirkovic we're going to be an extremely dangerous team next year. The only downside is we'll have a lot of talent on a deep bench. Look what happened with Petrovic.
 
#1,243      
Vaaks looks like a high volume 3 point shooter to me but not much else. I think with the amount of 3s point makes IL is losing (Wagler and Ben), this guy definitely helps replace those. I think he looks like a big upgrade over Ben.

Brad said he loves coaching Euros so getting this guy isn’t surprising. He’s already gonna be 21 before next season starts
Huh
 
#1,245      
Taking a quick look at 247’s 2027 top 100 high school players, 6’ Jaxon Davis is the only Chicago area (Gurnee) player on that list. Chicago is not producing the talent they did in years past, or they are playing elsewhere (high school BB factory schools). I’m sure Brad would have no problem taking a quick PG with length out of Chicago if there was an opportunity.
 
#1,246      
Indy, is someone like Juke Harris commanding a $4-4.5m offer? Are prices that wild?
 
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