Program is going in the right direction but still a lot of room for growth. Hard to compete yearly for championships if we can only max out at 1 top recruit per team before they bolt.
Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
One the one hand: agreed, this is the correct read of the situation.
On the other hand, the correctly analyzed primary ballhandler/offense initiator on May 1 of the offseason:
2022-23: Skyy Clark
2023-24: RayJ Dennis
2024-25: Kylan Boswell
2025-26: Mihailo Petrovic
The ACTUAL primary ballhandler/offense initiator come the heat of conference season
2022-23: Epps/Mayer
2023-24: Marcus Domask
2024-25: Kasparas Jakucionis
2025-26: Keaton Wagler
What other teams have done this? We're one of the very few teams in the portal era to return almost all of our core players from a Final 4 roster. It's much easier to sell an experienced player on coming to a team and earning his minutes when the entire roster is new.
So the primary ballhandler has ended up being a taller, non-traditional point guard that can get their own buckets. Which is exactly what Vaaks looks to be.. So you could argue that Brad is just cutting out the wasted time on trying to fit a true point guard into his system.
Edit: I didn't even notice RayJ at first. IDK if a joke but it made me chuckle.
Last edited:
This should be pinned to the top of the page!?!
And 2022 was Andre Curbelo... who looked a shell of himself for most of the year due to concussions.
There's a video floating around from some years back. I believe it was high school but maybe a small college and it went something like this.
A bunch of recruiters spoke about why students should join their specific branch of the military; free education, easy path to skills, etc.
Then a marine recruiter got up and basically said a bunch of reasons you shouldn't join the marines; harder, you may be asked to die, worse pay and conditions, etc.
When all was said and done the Marines had a long recruiting line and the others didn't. I think Brad not promising playing time is a good policy. Its probably also easier to recruit the marine type attitude right out of high school than transfer portal guys. We need to keep improving our prep recruiting. Transfer guys have already preselected themselves to be either money or playing time chasers instead of winning team chasers.
Anyone trying to measure teams at this point, especially placing “Super Team” labels on them, is likely to be extremely wrong.
Look at last year’s preseason AP poll:
Michigan and Arizona “Super Teams” were ranked 7th and 13th
The top 3 (Purdue, Florida, Houston) didn’t even make it past the S16
So if it’s that difficult to know which teams will be dominant and which teams won’t in November, then what sense is there to start assigning Super Team labels in freaking April?
Look at last year’s preseason AP poll:
Michigan and Arizona “Super Teams” were ranked 7th and 13th
The top 3 (Purdue, Florida, Houston) didn’t even make it past the S16
So if it’s that difficult to know which teams will be dominant and which teams won’t in November, then what sense is there to start assigning Super Team labels in freaking April?
I'm not sure where you are going with this - if it's "no one here knows who are PG will be by the end of the season logic"
Skyy Clark was absolutely our PG that season and would have been until the end of the season, but he quit the team - Epps was a forced pivot
Ray J never committed here
KJ was absolutely the PG from the moment he committed here - Kylan was never going to be the lead on ball guard
Last year is the only year that we pivoted to another PG because someone else emerged, which is what I think you are going for here
Most years, you can count on Duke, Florida, Uconn to be at or near the top. They are multiple champions and it feels like everyone else is chasing them. We have raised our level within range of these talented teams and that makes me feel very good. There will always be the Sarr's & Storr's & Blackwell's etc. The good thing is that coach Brad is now recruiting and portaling top notch talent. The reason why is simple. We win and have NBA talent going through the pipeline. If we continue this, the five star guards will continue to sign on and this will breed more success. The arrow is pointing up!
I wouldn't label anyone a superteam preseason; however, I also wouldn't assume that NO ONE will be a super team when we get down to it (and yes, Illinois is certainly a possibility).
Yup. I think the staff has the opinion Vaaks could handle a larger workload, but it will be his first year being asked to be the primary ball handler. It was largely others who were bringing the ball up for Providence
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Different people are different.
But one way they've done it (read: Indiana and Kentucky) is create a big expensive mess that doesn't fit together as a basketball team.
Related, but slightly different: hedonic adaptation
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
Two stars in the Ubben firmament are worth one John in the (Black) well.
Last edited:
Then they made the right decision. No question.
IlliniwekKDR
- Colorado Springs, CO
Whenever I'm having a great day this week, I just spend a few minutes reading this forum so all the insanity and anxiety in my life comes rushing back. It's a refreshing way to keep things balanced.
At this point, probably will just wait for the portal to officially close today.
Exactly. The portal era in the short term at least seems to point teams are getting better at the top not worse. There will be teams as good as Duke, Michigan, and Arizona this year, including maybe those very teams themselves. Hoping the top teams revert back to the pack with zero teams rising to the top and everyone in the top 10 having an equal shot isnt at all realistic.
In fact what looks like is happening is because there was so much draft talent this year then next, many guys are skipping the draft for another year of college hoping b to cash in next draft. So the gap n perceived talent between the two years has closed.
Last edited:
1. Mirk
2. Tomi
3. Drej
4. Coleman
5. Vaaks
6. Jake
7. Big Z
8. Morillo
9. Brown
I get why you don't want to count Brown but for the same reason you don't count him, people on here were not counting Wagler and Davis. Which brings us down to 8 being the rotation in most people's minds last year at this time. Don't believe me? Here's what the discourse was like:
RabidDawgClassic
- Los Angeles, CA
The last 15 days on the Loyalty board.
INSIDERS: We’ve got money and we’re going hard after Vaaks and Blackwell. It looks promising. But retention is the top priority.
LOYALTY: Yay! Superteam!
INSIDERS: Boom! We got Vaaks!
LOYALTY: Yay! Superteam!
INSIDERS: Pushing very hard for Blackwell. We’ve got the money. But retention first.
LOYALTY: Yay! Superteam!
INSIDERS: Boom! The “Triplets” are back! Ironing out details with Andrej. Blackwell still in the mix.
LOYALTY: Yay! Superteam!
INSIDERS: Boom! Andrej’s back!
LOYALTY: Yay! Superteam!
INSIDERS: Looks like we’re out of the Blackwell sweepstakes. I’m guessing you can figure out why.
LOYALTY: What?!? Why?!?
INSIDERS: Come on. Figure it out.
LOYALTY: ???
INSIDERS: Think about it.
LOYALTY: ???????
INSIDERS: ((sigh)) Blackwell backed off the day Andrej returned? Get it?
LOYALTY: So we’re broke?!?!
INSIDERS: ((sigh)) No… money is not a problem.
LOYALTY: So we’re just sitting on a pile of money?!? Can’t the coaches count???
INSIDERS: Yes, they can count. We’ll likely add more. Just not right away.
LOYALTY: So we’re gonna go into the season only eight deep?
INSIDERS: No, I said… ((facepalm)) ((sigh)). All is fine.
LOYALTY: I know what that means! All is NOT fine! PANIC!!! PANIC!!!
INSIDERS: Relax! Look… the staff knows who they want and what they’re looking for.
LOYALTY: Okay then… here’s a list of 40 players, all of whom would be a good fit and are desperately needed.
INSIDERS: You’re not gonna get any of those guys to come in and play backup to the backup.
LOYALTY: But you promised us a superteam!!!
INSIDERS: I’m getting too old for this sh*t.
INSIDERS: We’ve got money and we’re going hard after Vaaks and Blackwell. It looks promising. But retention is the top priority.
LOYALTY: Yay! Superteam!
INSIDERS: Boom! We got Vaaks!
LOYALTY: Yay! Superteam!
INSIDERS: Pushing very hard for Blackwell. We’ve got the money. But retention first.
LOYALTY: Yay! Superteam!
INSIDERS: Boom! The “Triplets” are back! Ironing out details with Andrej. Blackwell still in the mix.
LOYALTY: Yay! Superteam!
INSIDERS: Boom! Andrej’s back!
LOYALTY: Yay! Superteam!
INSIDERS: Looks like we’re out of the Blackwell sweepstakes. I’m guessing you can figure out why.
LOYALTY: What?!? Why?!?
INSIDERS: Come on. Figure it out.
LOYALTY: ???
INSIDERS: Think about it.
LOYALTY: ???????
INSIDERS: ((sigh)) Blackwell backed off the day Andrej returned? Get it?
LOYALTY: So we’re broke?!?!
INSIDERS: ((sigh)) No… money is not a problem.
LOYALTY: So we’re just sitting on a pile of money?!? Can’t the coaches count???
INSIDERS: Yes, they can count. We’ll likely add more. Just not right away.
LOYALTY: So we’re gonna go into the season only eight deep?
INSIDERS: No, I said… ((facepalm)) ((sigh)). All is fine.
LOYALTY: I know what that means! All is NOT fine! PANIC!!! PANIC!!!
INSIDERS: Relax! Look… the staff knows who they want and what they’re looking for.
LOYALTY: Okay then… here’s a list of 40 players, all of whom would be a good fit and are desperately needed.
INSIDERS: You’re not gonna get any of those guys to come in and play backup to the backup.
LOYALTY: But you promised us a superteam!!!
INSIDERS: I’m getting too old for this sh*t.
pruman91
- interviewing new NL's daily....I really really am