Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread
Wait…aren’t we bringing back 5 of our top 8 players from last year?
We will not be relying on any freshman to “carry the team.” We have 4 seniors and one of the best returning sophomores in the country to do that. The freshmen just need to do their jobs.
Our fanbase has some truly weird fans. We got basically everything we wanted this offseason and people still not happy.
We were literally Final Four good last year without Blackwell.
I guess the point is that it’s unlikely.
For anything in life - you’re always going to be able to point to an exception and say it happened. Keaton was an exception. Generational exception.
Those statistics between Vaaks and Coleman - it’s unlikely. That’s all.
Is anybody questioning he is good? I penciled him in for at least 20mpg even if Blackwell were to come. The kid is fantastic and I love Vaaks game too but this team has a chance to be generationally good and is not missing much. Backcourt depth may now be an issue as it was last season. And I'm in the camp that Vaaks/Coleman could easily be as good as WaglerBoswell.
Vaaks is way closer to being a PG than Blackwell.
You also wonder if Andrej and/or Coleman would be here next year if we were getting Blackwell (I'm not saying that's the case, but it seems like a possibility)
I still think Cox would be a great pickup.
Sometimes Illini fans are crazy, I love our fan base but we literally have a top 5 team. People believed that Petro was going to be our number 1 guard option this year and then Keaton broke out and Petro couldn’t even get minutes. We have zero clue what’s going to happen this year but our core group came back, we should be very happy. We are in the mix for the top spot at #1 already. Keaton was incredible but man, without Mirk we aren’t even close to the same team.
I guess pre-season top 5 at minimum doesn’t stand out?
I’m with @LvilleILL1… y’all crazy to throw this kind of shade after the $15 mil spend, huge retention, great success in the portal with Vaaks, and really good freshman coming in.
I get this may not be popular on an Illini message board but
I can understand some posters frustration going from “money is no object” and trying to sign arguably the best player in the portal to our current roster to being told we might not add anyone else except a backup guard
Can't do this an entire offseason (again) after we just spent 15+ million on this roster.
I still think we are a top 5 team regardless, and people are going to be dramatic, but I see both sides
It's almost like there's a reason people are saying next year's draft is going to be weak
I’ll believe it when I see it.
Until then - absolutely no way, especially thinking that going into the season.
This is a good point. Fewer and fewer 5th year plus guys left. Things are more diluted now as the covid year glut continues to filter out. It does feel like NIL has made redshirts a lot more popular though too?
pruman91
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I can't with some that think this team right now as it stands is blahhh.
I think we are already better than last years team and im not really sure its close.
Vaaks can flat out stroke it...we didnt have that this year. Yes, Keaton was very good, but not the pure shot Vaaks is from anywhere on the court.
Coleman will be better than Bam by end of the year.
AS/Z/T/Mirk all one more year in the program, typically players improve number 15-20% each year and have chemistry
Throw in Jake Davis bangin baseline 3s to spread the floor.
Morillo is pure gravy and he looks really really skilled for a true freshman.
I watched a lot of video of Wagler last year and thought he could be a 10 ppg type freshman. Coleman and Morillo both look better on film than wagler did, IMO. Chew on that a bit.
Can only feed so many mouths and we have enough to be excited about! Enjoy it!
I think we are already better than last years team and im not really sure its close.
Vaaks can flat out stroke it...we didnt have that this year. Yes, Keaton was very good, but not the pure shot Vaaks is from anywhere on the court.
Coleman will be better than Bam by end of the year.
AS/Z/T/Mirk all one more year in the program, typically players improve number 15-20% each year and have chemistry
Throw in Jake Davis bangin baseline 3s to spread the floor.
Morillo is pure gravy and he looks really really skilled for a true freshman.
I watched a lot of video of Wagler last year and thought he could be a 10 ppg type freshman. Coleman and Morillo both look better on film than wagler did, IMO. Chew on that a bit.
Can only feed so many mouths and we have enough to be excited about! Enjoy it!
We are going to count on one freshman to be a starter and at least one more to be a rotation piece off the bench. That's definitely riskier than just needing one or two to be bench guys. I think this staff has earned our trust at this point, but I still would've preferred getting Blackwell to build a super team. I fully admit to being greedy
LadyLoyalty
- Indian Wells, CA
Why is that riskier? Freshman are on a team for a reason, to come in and compete for playing time. There's nothing riskier about that. If they are good enough to play they will. Look at the Final Four teams, all had at least 1 freshman key contributor. In the case of Arizona they had 3 starting and UConn had 1 starting and another key reserve.We are going to count on one freshman to be a starter and at least one more to be a rotation piece off the bench. That's definitely riskier than just needing one or two to be bench guys. I think this staff has earned our trust at this point, but I still would've preferred getting Blackwell to build a super team. I fully admit to being greedy
Also we aren't done yet. We're probably going to add depth piece.
Dee_4_Three_83
- Mahomet, IL
Let's take a look at the top 5 pre-season (AP) and National Champions that year for the last 4 seasons:
TL;DR- The National Champion has not been a top 5 team preseason the past 4 seasons. Just a little perspective for those that are feeling like not adding Blackwell dooms our chances.
2022-2023
1. North Carolina (didn't make tournament)
2. Gonzaga
3. Houston
4. Kentucky
5. Baylor/Kansas
National Champion: UConn (unranked)
2023-2024
1. Kansas
2. Duke
3. Purdue
4. Michigan State
5. Marquette
National Champion: UConn (#6)
2024-2025
1. Kansas
2. Alabama
3. UConn
4. Houston
5. Iowa State
National Champion: Florida (#21)
2025-2026
1. Purdue
2. Houston
3. Florida
4. UConn
5. St. John's
National Champion: Michigan (#7)
TL;DR- The National Champion has not been a top 5 team preseason the past 4 seasons. Just a little perspective for those that are feeling like not adding Blackwell dooms our chances.
2022-2023
1. North Carolina (didn't make tournament)
2. Gonzaga
3. Houston
4. Kentucky
5. Baylor/Kansas
National Champion: UConn (unranked)
2023-2024
1. Kansas
2. Duke
3. Purdue
4. Michigan State
5. Marquette
National Champion: UConn (#6)
2024-2025
1. Kansas
2. Alabama
3. UConn
4. Houston
5. Iowa State
National Champion: Florida (#21)
2025-2026
1. Purdue
2. Houston
3. Florida
4. UConn
5. St. John's
National Champion: Michigan (#7)
True, but other teams will add big pieces, while we appear to be finished. That will change these really early preseason rankings.
Which I don't care about -- whether we're ranked #2 or #7, we should be a very good team.
And I would say that’s a bit overhyped. Top 10 for sure which is amazing. I truly don’t see this as a top 3 team.
It's probably just because we saw how unbelievably talented Michigan was this year- arguably the most talented team I can recall in college ball for a while. It's for me not to think about us needing to be better than them.. Even if that's not realistically how good we need to be.