Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread
I’m just looking forward to more posters insisting this is overly optimistic mental gymnastics post Blackwell-whif
I think what people are really trying to say is this: last year, Tomi looked like a shell of himself. He did improve as the season went on, but he was still stuck in a shooting slump. Big Z was flat‑out bad over the second half of the year. Andrej also struggled for most of the season—he didn’t really show up until the tournament, and even then, he still doesn’t shoot it well.
If you look at Mirk’s numbers against top‑level competition, he hasn’t been very good at all. That means he’s going to have to make a significant jump for this team to reach its potential. On top of that, we lost our best player—Keaton—who essentially won us two or three games by himself. We also lost another secondary ball handler.
To think that Coleman is going to step in and immediately replace Keaton is unrealistic. Expecting him to be Keaton—or even Boswell—is a stretch, especially considering Boswell wasn’t consistently that good himself. Vaaks is a very good offensive player, but he’s a major liability defensively.
Because of all of that, I don’t think it’s crazy to say there are a lot of question marks with this team. It’s far from a foregone conclusion that we’re going to be great next year.
To be fair, we’ve had freshman as key contributors most years with underwood.
Ayo
Kofi
Miller/Curbelo
Epps/Clark/Ty/Harris
KJ/Riley/Morez
Wagler/Mirk
I hear you on this, but we’re not wanting to land Blackwell because it’ll make us preseason #1 per se. We want Blackwell so we can become borderline unstoppable, overwhelm teams with depth and talent, and intimidate everyone in our path lol. To kind of reach that Michigan tier from this last season. I don’t think we should avoid Blackwell to make sure we avoid preseason #1 lol.
To be fair, they got the “be on the roster one year” part correct lmao
With all due respect, I'll side with the opinions of people who cover the entire sport rather than a fan of one team lol.
mhuml32
Gesture of Northern Aggression
I promise you he will not be as good as Keaton. We either live in a simulation or this staff got a copy of Gray's Sports Almanac if this situation happened twice to the same program, let alone in back-to-back years.
Where did you get the impression they backed off Blackwell? He is choosing a different path. He was definitely Plan A, but as far as Plan B’s go, it’s pretty dang spectacular.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
What team has a decidedly better roster right now? We’ve relied on freshmen just about every year, as do most teams.
Coleman and Morillo are the kind of prospects we used to pray for. They don’t have to be Keaton. If they can play like freshman Ayo, Adam Miller, Curbelo, Jacucionis, Riley, that kid who went to Michigan…I forget his name… they can fit in just fine.
I mean it's possible. I keep saying this but no one saw what Wagler did coming. It's not some farfetched take that he comes in and really takes off. Look I love Keaton and what he did last year but we got stop acting like no one will ever eclipse his productivity from last year. Is it likely to happen? I would say no but I don't know that for sure and neither do you. No one does. Did you think anyone at this time last year would eclipse Riley or KJ? No you didn't.
Keaton’s senior year he won the state championship and was 59% 45% and 83% in The same categories and Mr Basketball. . We all saw what happened his freshman year
He’s been out in LA working out. Easy visit to UCLA.
Who ya got?
this literally sums it up best
.No one is complaining that we’re gonna be “bad” without Blackwell. We’re gonna be awesome.This level of retention WITH talent accrual and minimal portal attrition is unprecedented in the portal era.
But I think it’s fair that people are disappointed that we’re unlikely to land Blackwell, given what the potential could have been. Repeating a final four is ridiculously hard. The closer you can be to “inevitable” (2024 UConn, 2026 Michigan), the more comfortable this forum will be.
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Also, the point about Illinois being 2nd tier is a valid one. Illinois made the Final Four this year, which was great! But, they weren't really a final four team all season. With a week to go in the regular season most were worried they'd lose in the 2nd round. I don't think Michigan fans were worried about that this year. We weren't worried about that in 2005. That's the difference. Having said that, it's more fun to root for guys that stuck around than hired guns. And the team will certainly be good next year. We could be the 15th best team next year without Blackwell. We could be the 1st. We could also be 15th WITH blackwell. I think he is very good but he isn't Yaxel. I don't even think he is as good as TSJ was.i mean this as a genuine clarification, not disagreeing (especially with an insider) , but perhaps @wncillini was getting at… instead of “one of the best” wouldn’t we have been THE best with Blackwell? And would go from “can win a title” to “even more likely to win a title?”
I mean they have a ton of retention and I think they are already preseason top 5 and realistically probably 3 with the current roster.
And I agree with your assessment with the current talent levels for the rest of college basketball with what they are returning and their portal classes.
Which is why I think it's so important to just go all in and spend now because I don't know if there will ever be a better chance to win that first national championship.
If Blackwell is wavering at potentially getting fewer shots with the amount of talent then pivot and go get a Paul Mcneil or Alex Wilkins(looks like UK), or even a Brycen Blaine type guard. Or if we have that money reach back out to Mirko/euro and try to get an Adam Atanma or a different euro guard.
Once again….money and PT not the issue with Blackwell. His agent is in his ear about usage here. @LvilleILL1 god bless you lol
I agree with that, but you feel a lot more comfortable with another veteran guard who can handle it and create some. And I’m in total agreement on Cox, at the very least he’d be a good off the bench guard. An injury to either Vaaks or Coleman and we’re in trouble
Literally argued Vaaks will have more "productivity" than Keaton next year.
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RabidDawgClassic
- Los Angeles, CA
Well… he was kinda right.
There are question marks w/o a doubt. The optimistic predictions are assuming that guys will make a big jump. What that's possible, it's far from a guarantee. Heck, I'd be happy if Tomi just "reverted" to how he was his first season.
That said, I think we have a legit shot to get back to the FF.
These are the same players that needed Keaton on the court for 40 minutes a game for things to run well. I’m not saying the new players can’t fill that role I’m just saying it’s a giant unknown.