Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread

[CHILI1992]

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!

 

[PleaseMakeABowlGame]

Maybe fourth in the big ten… Illinois is going to struggle to guard athletic, physical PG/SGs man…

We said this all year until the Houston game.

Fact is... alot of the guys we label "athletic, quick, etc" are just Fears, Smith, Dent, Thornton on and on.

Best players in the country. Those guys are going to have good games. They're very good players.

 

[Illiniam1984]

Maybe fourth in the big ten… Illinois is going to struggle to guard athletic, physical PG/SGs man…

 

[illiniguy24]

Maybe fourth in the big ten… Illinois is going to struggle to guard athletic, physical PG/SGs man…

 

[millineum]

Agree. Has BU ever done anything else? For whom has he ever overpaid?. Maybe Petrovic, but what was he paid? You want to play for the Illini, you play for the Fighting Illini and not for your bank account or the name on the back. Not sure anyone who ever did that has any regrets.

Underwood's playbook for dealing with the portal and NIL should be the lawbook for college hoops. Players love playing in the program because the best players get the minutes and no one is guaranteed anything. And yet, regardless of court time, they all seem to love being a part of the team success....the way it should be.

Definitely petrovic. But can’t hit on them all

 

[millineum]

If Blackwell got 5 million I wonder what Acuff got.

 

[foby]

Maybe fourth in the big ten… Illinois is going to struggle to guard athletic, physical PG/SGs man…

Hottest take since "Unplayable Andrej".

 

[mysterio2525]

Hottest take since "Unplayable Andrej".

what if unplayable andrej was very specific to only the very first 4 minutes of the game.... then extremely playable the rest of the game. that person was a prophet!

ok maybe not but it's fun in hindsight

 

[Mobi]

UCLA and Louisville put all their eggs into the Blackwell basket.

They are in deep trouble now, exactly why Illinois pursued and closed on Vaaks and QC.

One of them is going to be in trouble. Maybe both if Blackwell comes to ILL.

 

[SoILL_INI]

Maybe fourth in the big ten… Illinois is going to struggle to guard athletic, physical PG/SGs man…

 

[illiniguy24]

Agree. Has BU ever done anything else? For whom has he ever overpaid?. Maybe Petrovic, but what was he paid? You want to play for the Illini, you play for the Fighting Illini and not for your bank account or the name on the back. Not sure anyone who ever did that has any regrets.

Underwood's playbook for dealing with the portal and NIL should be the lawbook for college hoops. Players love playing in the program because the best players get the minutes and no one is guaranteed anything. And yet, regardless of court time, they all seem to love being a part of the team success....the way it should be.

I definitely agree. I think it’s probably under appreciated how well our staff draws the line between going after somebody who might not be the best fit culture wise if they are asking for a reasonable NIL price but the second they feel it isn’t worth it they move on. And really just never overpaying in general like you mentioned.

 

[Illiniam1984]

or better yet….

 

[Bbuck21]

I read 75 of the top 100 portal individuals are already committed - this reinforces your point.

Everyone should take a read at the big ten tracker pinned in this thread and look at the 18 teams in a P2 conference and get excited for the year. We are probably 1 of 4-8 teams that heading into the year has a real chance to win the whole thing

I was just having this conversation with my son. In the next couple weeks we will already know the 5-8 t(persoanlly I thoink it's 3-4) eams that will have a shot at the NC. Illinois will be one of them.

 

[POWURR]

Maybe fourth in the big ten… Illinois is going to struggle to guard athletic, physical PG/SGs man…

 

[Illinirog70]

Interesting comparison between EvanMiya.com ratings from this past year and projections for next year:

View attachment 50042

View attachment 50043

The good:
- As has been said before, he rates this as a #2-6 roster (though I'm not sure if the rankings would have changed since this was posted)
- Mirk is projected to improve a lot (and almost as valuable as Keaton was)
- Vaaks is also projected to improve a lot (3.55 last year, or #507 in the country)
- The #9 and 10 guys are projected to be a bit better (likely even more so with Zens added in), though not great

The bad:
- Stoj and Davis are projected to be worse (so is Z, but his rating this past year wasn't sensible)
- None of the freshman get much love
- The #3-8 guys are rated much lower than this past year
- Humrichous was a gem and it will be hard to replace that level of production for the seventh guy

Other:
- Interestingly, Morillo is ahead of Coleman
- We were #7 in EvanMiya this past year. These projections for next year look worse, yet he calls this a #2-6 roster. This could be due to some combination of NCAA talent being worse next year and/or the fact that often several of the best teams in any given year overperformed their pre-season projections and the projections of other top pre-season teams (this is like how the #2 MLB team in pre-season wins over/under is 90.5 this year despite many teams each year exceeding that- we just don't know which ones it will be).

Edit: I'm not putting this out as though it's my own opinion or anything. Just an interesting analysis to chew on.

where is zavier??

 

[Bbuck21]

Are you Rich Adams?

No, but he was my contemporary.

 

[jamarvelous31]

At first I was getting annoyed by how crazy these off-season recruiting threads have been..

Now I look forward to the crazies outing themselves and getting that ignore button

 

[Illini2010-11]

One of them is going to be in trouble. Maybe both if Blackwell comes to ILL.

 

[MULEDOG35]

I applaud your willingness to try and level with these irrational people.

We just went to a final four, returned a majority of our production from the roster while adding two top 35 recruits and a top 5 transfer. Additionally, everyone and I do mean everyone has us pre season top 5 possibly even #1.

How are people upset!?!?

 

[ThePortalMadeMeDoIt]

Maybe fourth in the big ten… Illinois is going to struggle to guard athletic, physical PG/SGs man…

Well that is just crazy talk. I think 2nd in the Big 10 but there is still a pretty big gap between us and Michigan especially once they get their roster filled out.

 

[Noblesville Illini]

But I thought Blackwell wanted to play for a winner?

Lost in translation

 

[Lakes333]

There are probably one hundred top college programs in the country that would run through a brick wall to have a roster like ours. Not worried about Duke, Florida or anyone else for that matter. We are going to be a literal nightmare for teams to match up against. Bring them all on and fear no one. ILL for life.

 

[fuggles]

Purely asking out of curiosity for those of you who know far more than me:

Is the appeal for Blackwell and the other many “mouths to feed” to stay just because it’s a Duke Brand that you’re sticking it out for? I understand guys like Lee who intends to transfer out because he’ll be competing for minutes at this level, but will be a high contributor at a Mid or Lower major at a minimum. But some of Dukes bench look like they’d be starters at a power conference, and even a higher tier power conference team at that. The question here for days has been Blackwell, Andrej, Coleman not wanting to share, but looks like Blackwell is going to Duke to share still?

Is the Duke branding that high? Sort of like 5-star freshman QBs heading to Alabama only to be the 3rd string a decade ago?

Couldn’t be more thankful we went with Andrej + Coleman over Blackwell. The chemistry of this team will be unmatched, and it can’t be understated.

Clarification on Lee: I think he’d be a strong rotational piece for a high major power conference team as well. I merely meant at the very least he’d be a baller if he went down to a mid-major so that he gets more opportunities.

The insider post saying we would lose 2 players if Blackwell came here is telling to me. And we backed off. It says we ended up rejecting him, not him rejecting us.

 

[Bbuck21]

Maybe fourth in the big ten… Illinois is going to struggle to guard athletic, physical PG/SGs man…

Not sure where you came from, but heads-up, we recognize bull!!!! troll crap here. Don't waste your and our time.

 

[Juju]

Blackwell to Duke is official.

https://twitter.com/x/status/2046688808200999120

"I want to play on a National Championship-caliber team." Keywords being "want to play." So he goes to Duke, where he won't even start if Evans comes back?!?! Kid is full of and idk, I'm kinda feeling like we might have actually dodged a bullet with him not coming here. A "me, me, me" guy like him DESTROYS team chemistry. I won't lie, I'll get a lil twisted pleasure out of watching him ride that bench a lot of the season.