Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread

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#227      
RandyfromTuscola
I'm having a hard time thinking where all these minutes are going to go and if we get the retention we want, plus another transfer, why would our freshmen want to come here. I know it's the world we live in and people get recruited over, but we have 2 freshman (Morillo and Coleman) who people seem to be pretty high on, and there's still 2 other freshmen. I think the team chemistry was pretty good this year and there wasn't a lot of public discontent for guys who didn't play, but if our retention is what everyone seems to think it will be, we are going to have 3-4 guys who could be rotation guys most years filling the Brandon Lee role and never seeing the floor in relevant games.

If we win a national title, then its all worth it, but still feels like we have too many guys
 
#228      
Fly Illini Fly!
Indy Illini Fan said:
He’s not coming here to sit … But minutes are earned in the summer and in practice …

Petro wasn’t coming here to sit either … Best players play …
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Plus, there's nothing wrong with being an elite 6th man on a title contender. See Trey Mckinney for referencing.

Winning cures.

Start or off the bench .... I'd expect QC to play alot.
 
#229      
IlliniwekKDR
Curbelo Fanboy said:
TBH I'd like to see us be able to play faster at times. One adjustment Brad made in the elite 8 game at half time was we did play a bit faster in the 2nd half vs the first. Nothing crazy but just a little quicker. I think that helped force our urgency & eventually wore Iowa down.

Nothing crazy & you can't argue with this year's results but being able to go fast/slow as the situation dictates is a nice tactic to use.
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Spongebob Squarepants Laughing GIF
 
#231      
ChiefGritty
Fly Illini Fly! said:
Plus, there's nothing wrong with being an elite 6th man on a title contender. See Trey Mckinney for referencing.

Winning cures.

Start or off the bench .... I'd expect QC to play alot.
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Between QC and Vaaks one is going to have to be the starting facilitator and the other will have to be the microwave bench mob scorer.

That might change game by game, but the latter role is probably more "fun" (and better suits a freshman, stereotypically)
 
#233      
jmw
Sounds like we can go ahead and consider this offseason complete. Should we discuss who transfers in to replace Tomi in 27/28 to go along with Vaaks/QC/Morillo/Mirk?
 
#234      
TheOx76
If Jake stays, I think he begins the season as a starter. Brad trusts him and I think his minutes, at least in the early season, are pretty high. Of course players will fight it out and he may be down to 15 mpg later on which would be a great development. That means the freshman or transfers have eaten into his minutes. But to think he falls out of the rotation after being in the program for 3 years is just flat out fantasy.
 
#236      
TheOx76
Fly Illini Fly! said:
Who said that?
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There was talk about him falling to the 10th man off the bench which would essentially be minimal play time
Maybe I read into some comments too literally saying if we get another portal player that Jake may transfer as they wouldn’t want to be 10th on the depth chart. Sorry, I didn’t respond to the original message
 
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#237      
jamarvelous31
Have our intentions to sign Blackwell (or another quality guard) not been made known to the players? I mean it’s basically public info that we are going to do that.

Edit: Regardless of 9th man at Illinois vs 9th man at Kennesaw State, I would still refuse to believe some our players thought we’d not fill out the roster
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This is just silly man. There is an easy to comprehend difference between 'filling out the roster' and retaining Andrej, signing a top 30 recruit, a all big east freshman and an all big ten player at their position.

Beyond that, it was abstract until now and now it's reality for young dudes to get once in a lifetime paychecks, they're 18 & 21 years old respectively, and there are real offers for presumably more money than a 9th guy will get as teams get desperate to fill out their rosters with quality players. Just ask Morez the difference between when he signed his deal end of season and the end of portal season.

So posing the question to someone who isn't intentionally being obtuse: is there any risk to losing Morillo/Jake based on the vibes from end of year meetings and the new signings?
 
#238      
BuckDitkis
I need #TheRetention or Blackwell today to soften the blow of losing Lopati
 
#242      
sulli
lstewart53x3 said:
I don’t know, man. Keaton’s usage was high, but not that high:

View attachment 49653

Nick Boyd’s for reference:

View attachment 49652

And Tomi’s usage didn’t drop that much (2026):

View attachment 49654

Vs 2025:

View attachment 49655

We might not have run that as much offense through Tomi, but we did run a whole lot of offense through Mirk whose usage was even higher last year than Tomi’s was in 2025 + Andrej had decently high usage as well, both of whom appear to be back next year.

In a world where we replace Keaton with Vaaks and Boswell with Blackwell, while keeping the rest of the rotation relatively similar, does that really need to change our pace of play all that much?
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The offensive rebounding skewed our stats a lot. It made our offensive efficiency look much higher and our pace look much lower than it was.

Not saying we were fast or not efficient, but we were a rare combo of very good first shot efficiency with incredible offensive rebounding, which made our efficiency including 2nd (and 3rd) shots incredible. It also made for very long possessions since we'd shoot with 8 seconds left then get 15 more seconds often.
 
#244      
Kernal12
I would pay good money to watch the scrimmages this summer. If we retain all of the guys we want to retain, and add Blackwell, our second unit is probably a bubble tournament team. We all have expectations about who will start, but I think guys like Coleman and Morillo will really push the older guys for minutes.
 
#250      
Emerson Bigguns
RollChief said:
It seems like Brad and co have put the team in a really good position to make a case that any person on the roster has a fair shake at minutes, and have also made a case that you don't need to be a starter to have a serious impact on the team (see: Andrej Stojakovic coming off the bench and averaging 26 minutes and 14 points in a final four run, Will Riley coming off the bench for most the season and getting drafted in the first round, etc.). "Next Man Up" is a bit of a cliche, but the winning strategy over the last four years hasn't been a secret and has rewarded players who come in, adopt it, and make a consistent impact.

Further, on the point of team cliches, Brad and co seem to have also done a miraculous job comparatively of recruiting guys that are somewhat ego-less, and play for the "name on the front of the jersey", and proven that team success also leads to individual success ("rising tide lifts all boats", another cliche for ya).

I have no idea what is going to happen with Jake Davis this offseason, but you can create some implications/comparisons for him with others over the past few years. IMO, he comps really well with Jacob Grandison and Luke Goode. If I'm Jake Davis, do I want to go try my luck at a different high-caliber team to see if I can crack the rotation (the Grandison track)? Or do I want to go play for a bottom-half B1G or other P5 team that I may have more resonance with, and make more of an impact on, but ultimately will not see a F4 again?

If I'm Jake Davis, and I already have a noted leadership position and have become a stalwart for the culture, and I've started on a F4 roster with said team, it seems like a strong case can be made for coming back and competing for a rotation/role position again, and reap the rewards of a team with already one of the highest ceilings in CBB (assuming he has a good idea of who is staying and going, and the money is equivalent).
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Jake always seems like the forgotten guy this time of year, because he doesn't do anything eye-popping. He just shows up, competes his tail off and knocks down open 3's. If he is trying to carve out a role, it's because we are overwhelmingly good.

These freshmen better show up ready to compete. Jake doesn't take plays off and doesn't make mistakes.
 
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