Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread
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I like this nuanced take.
I would LOVE for Coleman, Morillo, and Brown to make the conference season rotation with double digit minutes per game.
They’ll get back Fland, Condon, and Chinyelu.
If they get 2/3 of Anderson / Milan M / Hugh … that’s a team that could totally tear through the season.
Which is the reason Ty entered the transfer portal in the first place,relax people we be good regardless.
Me too and the encouraging hope is that combined they can give us 10-15 points. I don't think it would be a stretch to figure our other four starters along with Davis can give us 60 to 70 a game With our pace of play, if it stays close to the same, averaging 70 -85 points a game will win us a lot games again.
YupSo two of their starting 5 have a combined 5 starts with Hines never starting a game but somehow their starting 5 'appears to be better than ours'
And until we beat them its us who have something to prove not them.
drsmitty74
- Rochester
Agree. Especially right out of the garden.
I mean I see the flashes of potential. However, imagine a Morez Johnson or a Michigan State paint defender waiting for him at the cup.
I scrubbed the opening part of the video. Handle/possession of the ball was shaky. Athleticism was below average to average for high major standards. We have a spot up shooter in Jake. We need guys who can get paint touches and kick. We had Keaton, Mirk, and Boz last year. Dre struggled. And Ben/Jake rarely dribbled.
Some muted optimism would serve for this team.
I hope Vaaks and Coleman can stay healthy. Our backcourt players who can dribble, pass, penetrate at a B1G level for what we know today are mainly our projected starters and Morillo. But Morillo will also be needed for depth at 3/4.
Vaaks / Coleman / Mirk will handle most of the initiation of offense and general ball handling. Have to hope Morillo can back those guys up whatever position he’s subbed in for 1-4.
Z backs up Tomi.
Jake backs up Dre.
I see us with an 8-man rotation.
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I would love one more reliable ball handler OR a poor poor man’s Morez for squad depth.
It is way too difficult project Brown, Jakstys, Davis, or Zens being meaningful contributors based on publicly available info.
Sadly true contenders have to be playing for the 1 seed from day 1. This means staying ranked in the AP Top 6 pretty much all year.
We have some tough non-conference games with UConn (neutral), @ Texas Tech, Missouri (neutral). Maybe one more tourney level team the way Brad likes to schedule.
We can’t really afford to lose more than 1 non-con knowing how brutal the B1G is every year.
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Carpe Diem. You need 1 more IMPACT guard or forward to cement preseason #1.
The TIME is now.
We lose the twins and Dre. Vaaks and Coleman (ala KJ and Will) could go to the NBA in a weaker draft. Think Mirk will be our Karaban. But 2027-28 could be more of a rebuild than reload unlike this year.
Reality and how this system works isn't being accepted by those who refuse common sense. You have to treat a 5 star guard like a transfer. I'm guessing he wasn't cheap and I'm also sure there were assurances, which is why he waited so long the sign. If we would have taken on a huge name, Coleman bails. I'll take my chances on the kid recruited that had the second highest rating for us EVER, right behind Will Riley. I'd rather go this route with a kid we can develop (and return in 2027) vs a portal senior that we have absolutely no clue will be a fit.... especially if they want to dominate the ball.
A backup PG, in some capacity, would be a nice add, but would be almost be impossible the get in the portal. Who's going to transfer to be the 9th man?
LOL at Yup. That's all you got. Ok?
Nope. Two their starters have no starting experience. So those two automatically elevate them even though they don't have the experience of being starters. That makes no sense. I need to see it from those two and right now I have nothing to go by. I love how some of you make leaps and bounds for other teams but have problems doing that for your own team. Hmmm interesting. There starting 5 isn't better than ours.
And just because we haven't beat them means nothing. Every thing starts over next season.
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Yeah that would be pretty rough for everyone.
Jeez Christian Anderson will enter the portal and we’re not even going to try?
Pin this. People are upset that we don't have a plug n play backup. Where would you EVER find a kid that is 100% ready to roll and is willing to be buried on the back end of the rotation. If Morillo and Coleman pans out how the staff believes they will....now you e transferred into a situation with not one guaranteed minute. You're Lee or Petrovic. The rise of Wagler was the end of both of those guys on our roster. Minutes were zero and they got recruited over again. It's the way the recruiting game is now played.
Might be overdosing on cottage cheese and it’s messing up their mental state of mind.
Who said that?
Points per possession is what ultimately matters.
This past year, we scored 1.249 points per possession (1st in the country) ... on 65.7 possessions per 40 minutes.
1.249 x 65.7 = 82.1 points per 40 minutes.
Now... 65.7 poss per 40 is very slow (ranked in the 300s nationally). The more we up our pace, the more points we'll need to score to maintain our efficiency from last season.
I don't eat cottage cheese but because it's a long time till next season starts I will ask. After seeing so many people mention tomatoes and pepper or what not, has anyone tried it on pizza ? If so was it thin crust or thick crust? I feel if we can combine our usual pizza debate, with the cottage cheese debate we could easily get through the rest of April 
Three things
1. Vaaks was such an amazing get, especially so early in the process.
2. A little Russian dressing on cottage cheese, BUT then use it as a dip for unseasoned PORK RINDS. Good high protein midday snack with a crunch!
3. Yesterday I played an online ranked game of MLB the show. My opponent was named the “Fighting Mirkovic’s”. I mercy ruled him in the 4th inning.
1. Vaaks was such an amazing get, especially so early in the process.
2. A little Russian dressing on cottage cheese, BUT then use it as a dip for unseasoned PORK RINDS. Good high protein midday snack with a crunch!
3. Yesterday I played an online ranked game of MLB the show. My opponent was named the “Fighting Mirkovic’s”. I mercy ruled him in the 4th inning.
Where does he slot in? Do you think ANYONE on our roster signed up to buy buried in a depth chart? Coleman is the second best recruit that we've EVER had. Yes, like....EVER. Better than Ayo, better than Kofi....all of them, but Riley. How are you going to assure that kid major, game changing PT if you add a guy who demands the ball? How do you know that Anderson and Drej can share the ball. Drej didn't come back to be a second option. This isn't a flipping video game, where locker rooms and cohesion don't matter. They do.
Mark me down for the 5 star that could be here for multiple years. Heck, he could be a 1 and done and off to the NBA.
We have a LOT of highly paid players, with two of the preps amongst them, Coleman being the biggest nut.
Last year, we thought Petrovic was the PG that was the go to.....until he got here. Then, a pretty good freshman showed up. We can't fill the roster with 100% transfers. It's an awful move. We need guys who can step up in 2027, when we will lose a TOOON.
Edit: Ultimately, as we know, whoever plays defense and rebounds the ball at a high rate will get the minutes. Therefore.....let it play out.
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If you eliminate inefficiencies throughout th season it definitely improve your record and seed. However teams wins championships by imposing their will on the other team. When we played Michigan last year, Duke the year before, and UConn the year before that it was like a big brother toying with his little brother. Whenever they decided they wanted to do something there wasn't anything we could do to stop it. We want to do that we are going to have be just effective on defense as we are offense. We haven't shown we can do that yet.
My problem will never be not going after Anderson. However, we do have enough to convince a proven mid major guard for a 15mpg role on a title contender.
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