Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread

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#1,226      
Really praying Tennessee forks over enough for Juke.

but with Hill, Haralson, Ames, and Lundblade. Don't love the way this is trending
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.
 
#1,227      
Soak it in

Nicolas Cage Hair GIF

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.
 
#1,228      
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)

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.
 
#1,230      
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.
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.
 
#1,231      
Our coach is doing a great job of balancing what we need now, with what we will need moving forward. I think we should appreciate that a bit more.
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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#1,234      
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.
Make It Rain Money GIF


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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#1,235      
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?

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.
 
#1,236      
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.
 
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#1,238      
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.
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.
 
#1,242      
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.
And remember, come March he effectively will be a sophomore
 
#1,243      
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.
can I throw a weird concept out here. this is a bit of devil's advocate comment but.....is Todd Golden just new version of Scott Drew. one amazing run in the tournament masking a lot of early exits. they likely will be preseason number 1 but if they don't make another second weekend this year then his NCAA record will be pretty bad. did they address their backcourt enough this year?


2019/2020 - no tourney
2021/22 San Francisco - lost in first round
2022/23 Florida - NIT
2023/24 Florida - first round loss
2024/25 Florida - NCAA champs
2025/26 Florida - second round

clearly you can't dismiss the national championship but the rest doesn't look great
 
#1,249      
Illinois wasn’t going to pay Petrovic anywhere near what he got this year.
People don't understand that this is how you move a player that you want to replace. Cut his NIL to nothing or next to it. Tell him that you don't want to pay much to a guy who isn't going to get any minutes. If he can play elsewhere he will go. His agent will already know where he can play. Bring in a player with potential who didn't get to play, or a freshman.
 
#1,250      
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.
Hans has many great stories: "The Emperor's New Clothes", "The Little Mermaid", "The Red Shoes", "The Ugly Duckling", "Thumbelina" & my personal favorite "The Princess and the Pea".
 
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