Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread

#276      
PleaseMakeABowlGame
Birdus said:
Not concerned about Blackwell. After reading all the posts concerning Quinton and Vaaks, I went in and watched a lot of their tape and came to the conclusion that I am absolutely STOKED for next year. Quinton is absolutely a baller. Vaaks played on a cruddy team. For Vaaks, if he continues to grow on defense, he could work his way into the lottery next year. He is an offensive MACHINE and will be a stud. He is more athletic than I thought and has good handles. He doesn't turn the ball over like K.J did and from my view is a better shooter. An offseason with Fletch will do him wonders.
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The problem isn’t Vaaks or Coleman. It’s that we have an extremely light 2nd-unit/bench which provides us very little insurance and no wiggle room.

I can’t find it, but there was a comment earlier basically saying: if we got someone like Adam Miller, would it really make you feel THAT much better. My answer would be an absolute yes.

We need a playable guard off the bench.
 
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#277      
PapaKvells
March2TheArch said:
We have a ton of promising freshmen coming in. Hope one of them breaks out. Mirk and Wagler will forever be remembered as one of our best frosh classes. I know some others came in more heralded. But in terms of output, maybe have to go back to Dee and Deron? But they didn’t drive the team to a Final Four in 2003 with a senior Brian Cook.

Mirk and Wagler GOAT’ed.
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What’s crazy is that was just after a year when we had two one-and-done first round picks in Riley and KJ.
 
#278      
hoopsfan47
mysterio2525 said:
seems like nobody feels they are the leader for Blackwell
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Somewhat interesting.

Now imagine a panel of 5 wise, sage, retired big time college coaches choosing a home for his last collegiate season for him. If you were staking your life on their decision, would you pick any other than Illinois?

However, there are a myriad of influencers selling some very shiney bottles of snake oil.

We truly have no idea what parameters must be met....and they seem to change daily...although that may not be the case. Bottom line at this point is that he may not fit the culture of an unselfish team that only wants to win. But who knows? That also may not be the case.

Maybe this will be another rare case where he ends up at a school not yet mentioned for about half what he could have had. And that also may not be the case.
 
#280      
ColSLU69
Altuve27 said:
150 people here have discussed this, but I really wish they were more active in finding another guard. A little more depth at that position would help. As 500 people before me have stated, a 3 and D type guy would be ideal.
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Here are a couple of possibilities that may not have been mentioned earlier. 6'4" sophomore PG Christian Bliss (Delaware). He averaged 16.7/5.2/5.9 while shooting 42.4/39.3/84.8 this past season. And 6'3" Junior PG Tylen Riley ((San Jose State). He averaged 15.0/3.9/4.4 this past season.
 
#282      
IlliniHardwood
PepeSilvia said:
Matt Mayer was good. It's not his fault that he was forced to operate in a role and take tough shots because he they had no guards on the roster.

Skyy Clark quit in December, Jayden Epps got progressively worse and then basically quit on the team towards the end, Sincere Harris was atrocious on offense.

That team was basically entirely Shannon and Mayer. Coleman was not good that year, Melendez sucked, Ty was a freshman, and so on.

Mayer would have been a monster if you put him in the Guerrier role the next year or if he got to play with as the 4 next to Kofi.
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I could not disagree more with this assessment of Mayer. Regardless of whether he was playing his ideal position or not, he could have had far better shot selection. I don't think there has ever been more contested step back 3s attempted in the history of basketball. To be fair, there was no cohesiveness with that team. But, by the same token, he was a major reason for the lack of cohesion because he was only looking to get his shot.
 
#284      
ColSLU69
SescIllini said:
I agree, for having a high PPG, he looks to be a pass first guy. Has upper level speed/quickness, not a 3 point shooter. But his midrange is solid which will give us a player to use the space the 3 point shooters give us. He would be the guard to take on the Fears/Boyds/Dents of college bball. Seems very EDG.
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Agree on Cox! But he did make 36.5% of his 3-pointers last season, albeit not on the highest volume. I'm hearing that Cox is visiting Kentucky. So, he might be asking for more than Illinois is willing to pay for him? I also like that Cox played under Coach Crocker at Dayton. I imagine Coach knows Cox's character quite well.
 
#285      
ColSLU69
SescIllini said:
Attended the Portsmouth Invitational, a player out of Georgia Tech Kowacie Reeves looks like the portal type that might still be out there. 6-7 jumper, shooter, athletic...possibly under the radar. He was playing against AJ Storr, today looked to be the better NBA prospect. Never heard of him, is McLain out of NC State similar? I think we can move Andrej to shooting guard if Vaaks is the PG, add a good athletic shooting wing.
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6'5" sophomore SG Paul McNeil Jr (NC State) would also be a nice addition, and keep Stojakovic at SF.
 
#288      
Altuve27
ColSLU69 said:
Here are a couple of possibilities that may not have been mentioned earlier. 6'4" sophomore PG Christian Bliss (Delaware). He averaged 16.7/5.2/5.9 while shooting 42.4/39.3/84.8 this past season. And 6'3" Junior PG Tylen Riley ((San Jose State). He averaged 15.0/3.9/4.4 this past season.
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I like both of the guys you mentioned. There are a number of quality options I would be exploring. You are 1 injury away from the guard rotation being uncomfortably light. Brad sure as hell knows more about the roster than I do.

I just feel like we need one more guard. John Blackwell is FAR from the only really good guard available.
 
#289      
Det_Illini_fan
ColSLU69 said:
Agree on Cox! But he did make 36.5% of his 3-pointers last season, albeit not on the highest volume. I'm hearing that Cox is visiting Kentucky. So, he might be asking for more than Illinois is willing to pay for him? I also like that Cox played under Coach Crocker at Dayton. I imagine Coach knows Cox's character quite well.
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I think the word a couple days ago was that he was asking for an astronomical bag; way more than he’s worth. But I could be misremembering the intel.
 
#290      
Illinifan533
IlliniHardwood said:
I could not disagree more with this assessment of Mayer. Regardless of whether he was playing his ideal position or not, he could have had far better shot selection. I don't think there has ever been more contested step back 3s attempted in the history of basketball. To be fair, there was no cohesiveness with that team. But, by the same token, he was a major reason for the lack of cohesion because he was only looking to get his shot.
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The sequence that summed up the Matthew Mayer experience was during the game at Purdue. Illini battling from behind all game and they have the ball with Coleman Hawkins dribbling the ball. Mayer keeps calling for the ball but Coleman keeps waving him off. As was common that year nobody else was moving on offense so Coleman finally relents with the shot clock winding down and Mayer bricks yet another 3 on a play that wasn’t ran properly. Hard to think of an Illini player I was gladder to see gone than him. Best part about that season was it taught Brad a lot about the type of guys he needed.
 
#291      
Muskie
Hearing Duke for Blackwell, but things can change with that group.
 
#292      
SescIllini
Jaylon Cox seems to have a lot of what the team doesn't have, yet seems like a great glue EDG. BU and asst. always have a depth chart of recruits would think he is on the list. BU always seems to over recruit, believe we have at least one more portal acquisition.
 
#296      
rtbritt
ColSLU69 said:
Agree on Cox! But he did make 36.5% of his 3-pointers last season, albeit not on the highest volume. I'm hearing that Cox is visiting Kentucky. So, he might be asking for more than Illinois is willing to pay for him? I also like that Cox played under Coach Crocker at Dayton. I imagine Coach knows Cox's character quite well.
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Fair to say he isn’t a 3 pt shooter. Percentage isn’t much of an indicator when so few are taken, imo.
 
#298      
wncillini
WxIllini said:
Blackwell goes live on instagram for 0.2 seconds to say he’s still undecided… what a troll 😂😂
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Wonder if teams are losing interest as they are putting their energy elsewhere and he's trying to keep the interest up so "UCLA" has to bid against somebody.
 
#299      
Illiniforlife
If Blackwell goes to UCLA, they are going to be stacked. I would have them and Michigan ahead of us. I think we would be number 3 in big ten and for sure finish top 4 or 5
 
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