She saw all the weird stuff I put in cottage cheese... She never looked at me the same way...
Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread
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pruman91
- interviewing new NL's daily....I really really am
Can I get any information on these questions?
She told you that to let you down easy.. It was really the butt stuff!
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
The "if we get Blackwell we're preseason #1" stuff is probably more or less true, but as I said from the moment that possibility was raised, to howls of derision from the insiders and others, the fit made no sense, which was exactly the conclusion the players themselves came to.
With the right addition of a more complementary passing-and-defense guard, this will be a better team that gets more out of our returning stars than we would have been with Blackwell.
My money is on Kentucky or a team where he’ll get a lot of usage. Not sure if he’d want to come here and fight for a spot against a bunch of guys who were retained.
I know someone who might take on the role we have room for though (not an insider, just vibes)
Divine Ugochukwu - Michigan State Spartans Guard - ESPN
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Thought the same thing when @NarrowJ posted him...
Still think he'd look for a bigger role somewhere, but he does defend like heck. gives spacing. doesn't really fit our rebounding profile though.
Battle89
- Cary-Grove, the better Trojan team
I feel like I've been waiting decades to read something like that (third-party valuation of a very high ranking, whatever the source). Does an old man's heart good. Thanks.
Feel like UConn should definitely be included in that
Really praying Tennessee forks over enough for Juke.
but with Hill, Haralson, Ames, and Lundblade. Don't love the way this is trending
but with Hill, Haralson, Ames, and Lundblade. Don't love the way this is trending
Battle89
- Cary-Grove, the better Trojan team
She insisted on putting Western dressing in my cottage cheese
Feel like for whatever reason people still forget about uconn and florida....but they should always be 1 and 2 on the list the last 20 plus years
Joel Goodson
- how was I to know, she was with the Russians too?
yesh, please!
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
This will probably be an unpopular opinion, but in addition to just not being a great fit (adding a guy who scores points but doesn't add much else to a group that will have no issues scoring), I actually just feel like he's just not that good.
The overall quality of what was available via portal this year seemed far weaker than previous years, so I do get him being highly ranked there, but what does he do other than score? I guess he is a good rebounder for his size... but, again, something we already have in droves.
He wasn't even the leading scorer on a 24-11 Wisconsin team.
So, in all, the ball dominance combined with non-upgrades in virtually every other facet of his game and I think as far as Illinois is concerned as a fit: redundant with the potential to create chemistry problems.
In regard to the former badger...
Anyone know the story on TTU's Christian Anderson? There are news stories saying he withdrew from the draft and entered the portal, but I don't see him listed.
Get. This. Kid.
Yes he entered. He is a 6'3" point guard who averaged 18.5 points and 7.4 assists for Texas Tech. He would help us.
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Not convinced he is withdrawing from the draft. He's supposed to go mid-teens unless that's changed drastically.
But, officially, not in the portal.
Where are you seeing this? Per 247.com he is not in the portal.
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The problem here is they also need to be a shooter, as Brad has shown how much he values having guys that can hit on kick outs. A guy that can’t shoot isn’t going to play much. And putting together those 3 traits (shooting, passing, defense) makes for what is usually a decently highly valued player.
Passing and defense was essentially what we had with KB at the end of the season and while he was good for us, the fit got a little clunky with Drej. I think we really need a guard defender that can also hit open 3s. We have plenty of passing elsewhere on the floor. We need somebody to defend the other teams’ best guard, fit in on offense (ie, not be a black hole), and hit on kick outs from Tomi, Mirk, Vaaks, etc.
My man-crush on Keaton Wagler.
Dee_4_Three_83
- Mahomet, IL
Wow, if we could get a kid that can score 22 points a game in only 8 minutes of game time, that would be amazing. /s
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
An efficient, offense-friendly three level volume go-to bucket getter is a pretty valuable player. He's better than AJ Storr was and we could have made it work if we had to.
But the rest of your post is right, his strengths are strengths we already have and he wouldn't have done much to shore up our weaknesses.
I'm confident we'll get that right puzzle piece in due time. I predict after the NBA early entry deadline passes on Friday at midnight and Andrej can't leave, all of a sudden the insider chatter will start bubbling up again.
Yeah the goldilocks player would have all three. And who knows, let's shoot for the moon here, maybe we can find that guy.
But the fundamental problem we're solving for is checking an opposing lead guard in a scenario where Coleman isn't trusted to make all the right reads and decisions negotiating screens and Vaaks is just getting shredded.
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I agree on diminishing returns to the offense - does it make our offense better? yeah. but, for the cost, how much better when we're already so strong on that end + Brad always will level up guys on that side of the court.
The part bolded though, that's what really excited me about his game for our team. In our system he'd crash the glass even more, and we're losing two pretty awesome rebounding guards. And while I think Vaaks will improve his rebounding because his size and length combined with our coaching, he was a bad rebounder last year.
All that to say. It really seems like Coleman is known for rebounding the absolute h*** out of it for a guard. and combined with his shooting reputation and size. I get why Illinois staff thinks this is perfect fit for the other guard spot.
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