Get. This. Kid.
Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread
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.
A friend of mine who is a huge Tennessee fan said he's heard they have $8-$10M left to spend.
Take that with a grain of salt, but they have money set aside for Ament possibly returning and they wanted Tanner from Vandy. Presumably, $$$ won't be an issue for Juke.
Soak it in
With Florida, I want certainty that Aberdeen (or equivalent) is actually on their roster before including them in the SuperTeam™ sweepstakes. Though I suppose they did pretty well despite what was honestly pretty poor guard play last season. They also need a couple more players, right now they have Fland, Klavzar, Hough, Condon, Chinyelu (Handlogten xferred, Lee out of eligibility) and a couple bench guys.
Why would Ugochukwu take that role? He is leaving MSU because they have good freshman guards coming in and he's going to move down the roster into the role you want him to take here.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
View the profile of Michigan State Spartans Guard Divine Ugochukwu on ESPN. Get the latest news, live stats and game highlights.www.espn.com
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
Cross-cultural marriages can be fraught. I speak, unfortunately, from experience, though the cultural discontinuity I had to bridge was a lot less substantial than an Iowa-Illinois gulf.
Right. Would have gladly taken Blackwell but I was skeptical about how much he raised our ceiling, particularly at the price he likely fetched.
After watching him for 3 years, to me his comp is a less athletic Brandon Paul. If we got him he’d certainly have a few games where he caught fire, scored 30+ and won us the game by himself. He was also going to have plenty of 4-15 stinkers which very well may cost us the game.
I actually think Coleman is a better fit for the role we need. He should be able to provide spot up shooting and secondary playmaking, which is what we need alongside Vaaks, Mirk, Tomi and Andrej. I wish we had more of a defensive stopper for that role but not too many 3 and D guys out there, plus there’s nothing to say Coleman can’t grow into that role, and we should get him for multiple years.
I’m happy with the way things played out. Sometimes less is more.
illini55
- The Villages, FL
This is a great point. While it would be wonderful to win a Natty next year, I’m way more interested in being at the top year in and year out. When the Blackwell recruitment went south, my first thought was that our new, shiny five star (Coleman) balked at being recruited over. Who wouldn’t?? He can write his own ticket to virtually any program in the country. I’m thrilled he picked us for 1-4 years, whereas Blackwell is gone after a single year. Morillo, too, may very well be an unpolished diamond. I’m 100% behind the coaches’ decision making in this regard. Go Illini!
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How do we think Adam Miller would have turned out if he had just stayed out here for his entire career? Better than Kylan? All-B1G caliber?A veteran guard is available!
I would imagine given our pipeline that he’s either already on, consciously off, our radar.
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
We're in a position to pay the finishing touch of our super team more than they are "worth" to play a dirty work role.
And we will tell them the truth that we will, ahem, shade when our returning players hear it, which is that Ugochukwu's 16 mpg is probably a reasonable estimate (with flexibility up or down)
Our guys were big babies about John Blackwell stealing too many shots from them. So be it, that's their right. But once we've got them locked in we're going to go get the guy we're missing, and I have faith that Brandon Lee got told the truth about that, which is why he departed.
We're not supposed to hear any of this until midnight Friday, but if any of our players are actually reading this board, mercy me we've got bigger problems.
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hard to tell - the ACL injury really seemed to hurt his development.
If i assume he never got hurt and stayed, i think he'd have been a really good B1G player. Maybe not All-B1G, but a guy who started every game of his college career, and was associated with lots and lots of winning.
I’ll make this quick. We currently has two open scholarships. Brad has shown a propensity to leave one scholarship open, but there’s no way he’s leaving 2 open, I don’t think.
Just have to find the right piece. There is no shortage of options.
As @ChiefGritty points out above, expect things to pick up very late Friday/Saturday.
Just have to find the right piece. There is no shortage of options.
As @ChiefGritty points out above, expect things to pick up very late Friday/Saturday.
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Vibes are great can't wait until next season!!!
It was reported by a couple of shady sites, but as you said, there is no indication he plans to withdraw from the draft. He won't be a lottery pick, but you'd be hard pressed to find a mock that has him outside the 1st round.
Do you also happen to know why my ex broke up with me?
It wasn’t you. It was her.
And remember, come March he effectively will be a sophomore