Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread

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#601      
Dr Copejam
LvilleILL1 said:
I don't know when, but I would expect some fantastic news on several guys in the next day or two.
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denzel washington GIF
 
#610      
Kendall Gill’s Uncle
Janssen said:
We need a shutdown defender on the perimeter that can get to the basket, make FT’s and won’t turn the ball over! Am I asking for toooooo much here?
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MJ only played 3 seasons at UNC, so he has eligibility left. Nothing but positives for both sides in that move.

Adds veteran presence, he’s a proven winner and EDG, wouldn’t need much NIL, and he gets to play for the same school as his sons.
 
#611      
BuckDitkis
Oh and don’t forget UCLA is hosting former 5 star guard Matt Able for a visit today …

For the EXACT role Blackwell would have …

Hmmmmm … 🤔
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So what I’m hearing is Blackwell by the end of the day. Fabulous.
 
#612      
RimPressure
Oh and don’t forget UCLA is hosting former 5 star guard Matt Able for a visit today …

For the EXACT role Blackwell would have …

Hmmmmm … 🤔
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I thought Blackwell was at UCLA today? Would the visits overlap? I get having multiple guys for the same spot visit but doing it on the same day seems odd to me.
 
#613      
BretMyBeachHouse
NarrowJ said:
B1G commits in last 12ish hours:

Markus Burton (G, Notre Dame) commits to Indiana
Robert Jennings (F, Oklahoma St) commits to Maryland
Jack Karasinski (F, Bellarmine) commits to Northwestern
Brant Byers (F, Miami OH) commits to Penn State

docs.google.com

B1G Roster Tracker

docs.google.com docs.google.com
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Congrats to IU. Burton has missed the tournament the last 3 years. He'll fit right in.
 
#615      
ChiefGritty
Combo said:
Vaaks looks like a floor general to me. Similarities to KJ and Keaton (not saying he'll be as good).
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KJ AST% - 26.0
Wagler AST% - 23.2
Vaaks AST% - 18.1

And KJ and Wagler are lengthier guards, but Vaaks is just a little bit taller and thicker and stiffer (behave, people), less of a lead guard's body.

Vaaks is kind of a cross between KJ and Evansville Humrichous. Really nice addition, and he alleviates our distribution questions, but he doesn't solve them.
 
#617      
Mobi
MJ only played 3 seasons at UNC, so he has eligibility left. Nothing but positives for both sides in that move.

Adds veteran presence, he’s a proven winner and EDG, wouldn’t need much NIL, and he gets to play for the same school as his sons.
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I bet he still beats 50% of the players in the league. 🤣🤣🤣
 
#618      
63 Split
I found BW generally honorable, until he threw his players under the bus at the end (IIRC it was the Purdue game in February 2012 when he did this, which was the final straw as far as I was concerned.) He's an awkward guy, and as many have noted over the years, he also pursued certain players (e.g., Richmond) that didn't fit his system or coaching vibe. Accordingly, he didn't do his job well in that respect. And his teams gradually became painful to watch. 38-33, say no more.

Agree…his kryptonite was his awkward personality/style. He lacked the charisma of a Bill Self or other big-time coaches, and even after the street cred he got from the 04/05 run, certain key recruits simply turned away… so he was never able to ride the crest of that run. He wasn’t a bad coach, but also wasn’t a great coach. I liked the guy, but I’d give him a B- and maybe even a C-, given the way it all ended up.
 
#620      
From the cheap seats
BrownTown said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/2044076231692313013

What could have been if Bill Self stayed….

I mean…sanctions, obviously. But it would have been a lot of fun up until that!
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I may be able to shed some light on the search that ended up with Bruce. The Illini had the slush fund penalty way back when…then the Deon scam/lie, but still penalized. There was palpable fear inside the athletic department that the NCAA might wield the threatened “death penalty” for a third violation. There was the thought that the NCAA had it in for the U of I. And not only for basketball. There is some evidence that was true. They went for a squeaky (no pun intended) clean guy who had Big Ten experience sitting by Keady and who has resurrected the program at SIU and took them to the S16.
No more Bruce posts from me, I promise. The future is just too bright.
 
#621      
RimPressure
ChiefGritty said:
KJ AST% - 26.0
Wagler AST% - 23.2
Vaaks AST% - 18.1

And KJ and Wagler are lengthier guards, but Vaaks is just a little bit taller and thicker and stiffer (behave, people), less of a lead guard's body.

Vaaks is kind of a cross between KJ and Evansville Humrichous. Really nice addition, and he alleviates our distribution questions, but he doesn't solve them.
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#622      
ChiefGritty
Curbelo Fanboy said:
A better summary of that period has probably never been written before your words. I'll always remember parts of Bruce fondly. He did do a wonderful job with that 04-05 team.

BUT (and it's a big BUT), by 2007 it had become obvious that the talent drop off was significant & he couldn't "coach em up" well enough to cover for that. In January 2007, Ohio State with Oden & Conley came calling to Assembly Hall & not only did they beat us, we frankly looked like we didn't belong on the floor with them. It was a 20 plus point complete beatdown. There was no shame in losing that game, but that one was the cold water in the face moment. We hadn't been beaten at home like that in a solid seven or more years by then. And one could tell looking at the roster that it wasn't going back to the glory days any time soon.

Bruce (like Groce) is best suited for a mid major level job. Recruited guys that fit his system & could coach them within that system to win lots of games against teams of similar talent levels. To win at the level expected at Illinois required (at that time) a few elite level dudes that neither one showed the consistent ability to attract. Yes Bruce left some good talent behind but it was 6/7 seed type of talent at max. Nowhere near the level needed to get back to the elite 8/final 4 type of level.
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That's crazy, that's such a burned in memory for me too. An Xmas break game if I recall correctly, and I'd driven down from the burbs and was in normal people seats rather than the student section. And yeah, we just were not playing the same sport as those guys, there had been a changing of the guard in the Big Ten.

And the thing about Bruce being suited for a mid-major job (or maybe it would be more accurate to say a scrappy ankle-biter major conference job like a Colorado or a Boston College or something) is that while everybody would say he got way more out of his 08-09 team with Chet and Trent Meacham and Mike Davis than Thad Matta would have, Matta got way more out of Oden and Conley than Bruce would have. He just wasn't able to take that star quality and guide it into big time winners, the only time he ever did that was with guys who someone else had already taught to play and win together.

From the cheap seats said:
I may be able to shed some light on the search that ended up with Bruce. The Illini had the slush fund penalty way back when…then the Deon scam/lie, but still penalized. There was palpable fear inside the athletic department that the NCAA might wield the threatened “death penalty” for a third violation. There was the thought that the NCAA had it in for the U of I. And not only for basketball. There is some evidence that was true. They went for a squeaky (no pun intended) clean guy who had Big Ten experience sitting by Keady and who has resurrected the program at SIU and took them to the S16.
No more Bruce posts from me, I promise. The future is just too bright.
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Loren Tate is a saint of a man and literally the nicest and coolest guy you will ever meet on the Illini media scene, but his and his buddy Guenther's ghost stories around this stuff were always ludicrous and burned the athletic department to wet, salted ashes before Josh Whitman came to build it back up.
 
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