Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread

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#376      
Illinirog70
If Morillo is currently 6'7" and 215 lbs it isn't unreasonable to think that he could be 225 lbs by the start of the season. I thought I saw somewhere that he is still growing in height also. Anyway, those figures are probably not far off from what 4's are in the big 10. For example:
As of the 2024-25 and 2025-26 seasons, Purdue forward Trey Kaufman-Renn's physical measurements are generally listed as 6'9" and 230–240 lbs.
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UM...no he needs a year of fletching and needs to harden the same weight to improve his quickness. He's a point guard of the future, not a power forward!
 
#377      
foby
Fly Illini Fly! said:
Legitimately stumbled upon this post while looking through the threads … and all the gifs that followed 😂

View attachment 49990
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This site is nothing if not entertaining.

Star Trek Wow GIF
 
#378      
Illini2010-11
theNewGuy said:
Thoughts:
I am disappointed in not pursuing blackwell.
I think there is a big difference between championship favorite and championship contender.
The last 3 or so years there has been a "super tier" of teams that the champion has come from. And granted, we are discussing the preseason expectations with fully completed seasons of basketball.
BUT, I will say it is disappointing to hear that a player that will vault us into that top tier, who insiders were saying that we had a really good chance of landing, along with all the retention, is now all of the sudden unnecessary. Could it cause ripples in the team? Sure, but I think with all these guys coming back, they want to win. and they didn't have a problem when a top150 freshman became the show.
I (and most people who are disappointed) are not saying Coleman can't be a star on this team.
I (and most people who are disappointed) are not saying we can't win a championship.
But when we were served with, "we can a championship favorite with blackwell", to we have all the pieces we need, it just seems... odd
Winning a national championships is one of the hardest trophies to win, why not go all in when you have such a good culture.

(also what is up with "adding a piece later", when brad wants everyone on campus as soon as possible? doesn't make much sense to me.)

and this isn't a shot at you insiders, I appreciate everything yall do. I think some of the things yall were putting in here hyped this board up to a point where it is championship or bust
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Is that what happened? I thought we were heavily involved but his team was getting in his ear that his utilization would not be used well at Illinois for his future purposes. That served as a major red flag. It seems that Blackwell's team has him chasing top dollar and location where he can have ball in hands all the time. We are not the place for him then.

I, of course, would think that he would be a major asset to the team, but if the advice he is getting is that he will not see correct utilization at Illinois (i.e., ball in hand/shots here), then we may dodge a bullet in that respect.
 
#379      
jdogggg
Bootheel Illini said:
Hope Coleman can transition from a small private school in St. Louis County, MO to the BIG. The change in completion will be a huge change for him. Being Wagler 2.0 would be like finding 2 needles in 2 haystacks or discovering 2 matching snowflakes. Sure hope he is IT. Wagler has certainly spoiled us.
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… his school was ranked 4th in the country and played a national schedule. He averaged more than 30 a game in the city of palms classic, which is the most prestigious high school tournament in the country… lol his high school faced high level competition
 
#380      
wncillini
Loyalty is so back. If we were told this would be the squad 2 weeks ago everyone would be ecstatic.

Some of you are delusional with this depth concern. Brad and Co. have clearly decided on how they want to build a roster and that starts with retaining your best talent, which costs $$$$. Then fill the gaps with talented freshmen that fit our style of play who are cheaper than portal guys.

Even if we have the additional $$ to add another experienced guard, we'd then have to sell them on taking 15-20 min/game in a reduced usage. What player would want that?

Werner described this perfectly in the pod from Friday when Drej announced.
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I think some of us are trying to figure out how we got from a to c in about 4 hours on the day dre announced.

A...all signs good on Blackwell. He's so important to the success of this team we are willing to pay him more than anyone on our roster by a large amount. However if he leaves the staff has great pivots.

B...Blackwell isnt coming

C...Nevermind, there are no pivots and we never needed him anyway.
 
#381      
HailtotheChief
80'sIllini said:
If Morillo is currently 6'7" and 215 lbs it isn't unreasonable to think that he could be 225 lbs by the start of the season. I thought I saw somewhere that he is still growing in height also. Anyway, those figures are probably not far off from what 4's are in the big 10. For example:
As of the 2024-25 and 2025-26 seasons, Purdue forward Trey Kaufman-Renn's physical measurements are generally listed as 6'9" and 230–240 lbs.
Click to expand...
He already put on 25 this season. He is listed at 6'7" 180 on 247 but im sure he is bigger. Now your implying he is here to play a 6'7" version of TKR? Do you actually think he came to Illinois to play the 4? I dont. If you do fine. Odds are if Jason is healthy enough to play entering his 3rd season he will be behind Z at 6'10 or 11 and likely 260lbs. He is still likely just a redshirt/medical redshirt freshman. I do think we add someone for Bens role. At least i hope we do.
 
#382      
illini0440
I haven’t read everything the last 24/48 hours….so I don’t know who said Blackwell was unnecessary. Did the staff want Blackwell yes, do they still want him yes, but not at the cost of potentially causing issues with returning players and with Blackwell being finicky on his usage here. We’re still getting a top 5 roster next year as has been pointed out. You return I think it’s around 65% of your production from a final 4 team….you add a piece in Vaaks that imo keeps the offense potential in the top 3 in the country. Show me a team that’s 10 deep…kids have to want to come here for the role you guys are clamoring about…not many kids out there that want that.
 
#389      
Det_Illini_fan
theNewGuy said:
Thoughts:
I am disappointed in not pursuing blackwell.
I think there is a big difference between championship favorite and championship contender.
The last 3 or so years there has been a "super tier" of teams that the champion has come from. And granted, we are discussing the preseason expectations with fully completed seasons of basketball.
BUT, I will say it is disappointing to hear that a player that will vault us into that top tier, who insiders were saying that we had a really good chance of landing, along with all the retention, is now all of the sudden unnecessary. Could it cause ripples in the team? Sure, but I think with all these guys coming back, they want to win. and they didn't have a problem when a top150 freshman became the show.
I (and most people who are disappointed) are not saying Coleman can't be a star on this team.
I (and most people who are disappointed) are not saying we can't win a championship.
But when we were served with, "we can a championship favorite with blackwell", to we have all the pieces we need, it just seems... odd
Winning a national championships is one of the hardest trophies to win, why not go all in when you have such a good culture.

(also what is up with "adding a piece later", when brad wants everyone on campus as soon as possible? doesn't make much sense to me.)

and this isn't a shot at you insiders, I appreciate everything yall do. I think some of the things yall were putting in here hyped this board up to a point where it is championship or bust
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Summed up very well. I find it strange that people are viewing this as “no one can ever be happy,” or being crazy and asking for too much trying to “build an NBA team on a college budget,” when a matter of less than a week ago that was very much the conversations we were having.

No one is saying this team won’t be great. It’s just a team that has a chance at a title, when there are realistic pieces (or were once realistic; which if no longer it might help to know to swallow) that place them in that favorites group instead.
 
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#391      
wpr
Combo said:
Why stop at just one inch? I mean didn't Rodman grow 7 inches after high school?
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David Robinson grew during his time at the U.S. Naval Academy, starting as a 6'7" freshman and growing to roughly 7'0" by the time he graduated.
A.I assisted.
 
#393      
Fly Illini Fly!
Another player hoping the 5 for 5 rule hits soon.
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I personally would not be opposed to it getting passed. Yes Purdue could be good — however, with Boswell, we’re better and could beat absolutely anyone.
 
#394      
80'sIllini
ColSLU69 said:
I'd like to see the Illini add players for the last two open roster spots. And these are my 2 specific suggestions via the transfer portal.6'3", 190-pound, junior PG Tylen Riley (Tulsa) and 6'10", 210-pound, senior PF Kyle Evans (UC Irvine). [If they are still available in the portal.]

Tylen Riley played his first 2 years at Cal Baptist. He played last year for Tulsa, a team that lost by 6 points to Auburn in the championship game of the NIT. Riley made the All-Tournament Team for the NIT. For the season, Riley averaged 15.0/3.9/4.4 while shooting 44.8/38.9/87.1 for Tulsa. Those numbers show he is a decent rebounding guard (which Brad likes), and a very good 3-point shooter (which the Illinois offense always needs), while averaging 15 points/game... all in 27.7 minutes/game. I think that a player like Riley, who has worked his way up the collegiate basketball ladder, would love the opportunity to play for a championship caliber team like Illinois, and earn more NIL money than he's previously been paid at Cal Baptist or Tulsa. I also think that Tylen could easily play 15 minutes/game for the Illini next season (maybe more if injuries to Vaaks and/or Coleman) without upsetting the apple cart of playing time for the other guards on the roster. I'd envision Vaaks and Coleman as starting guards for the Illini next season, with Riley and Morillo coming off the bench as very solid backups.

Kyle Evans was at Colorado State his first 2 seasons (including a RS year). He played the last 2 seasons at UC Irvine. Last season, Evans averaged 12.1/8.7/0.9 while shooting 62.0/20.0/78.8 for UCI. Those numbers show that he is a very good rebounder, with a great FG percentage (I assume that's lots of shots/dunks in the paint), but not a very good 3-point shooter (on a minimum number of attempts). He's also a very good FT shooter for a big man. Evans played 28.6 minutes/game this past season. I think that Evans could average 10-12 minutes/game for Illinois (more if Mirk is injured or sick). Based on where he's played, I think that Evans would like to play a role on a championship caliber team like Illinois, all while getting paid more NIL money at IL than he's been paid at his previous two stops.

I'm guessing that Illinois could pay BOTH Riley AND Evans for far LESS than it was willing to pay for ONE player, namely John Blackwell.

I'd really like to see a roster including Tomi/Z, Mirk/Evans, Andrej/Jake, Coleman/Morillo, and Vaaks/Riley. Yes, I know that's 10 players. And that Brad only plays an 8-to-9-man rotation. But that roster provides solid depth at all 5 positions on the court, particularly important in case of injuries/illness, which WILL happen at points in the upcoming season. And like other posters have noted, that type of depth, and a deeper rotation, really paid off for Michigan this past season. I also think that there would still be some minutes available for developing players like Ethan Brown and Jason Jakstys... especially in our blowout wins!
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Good post.
What's not talked about much is that having 10 solid players capable of playing meaningful minutes makes for more competitive and game-like scrimmages during practices which can only help players improve more readily. With only 8 guys, or even 9 who are game ready, scrimmages have less resemblance to an actual game.
 
#396      
okrush
So true. I love upper classman Chester Frazier, but he played 13 minutes a game on that team backing up Dee Brown and had an effective field goal percentage of 21.9%.
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We had a lot of hope for Brian Randle and Rich McBride but neither surpassed being a role player.
 
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