Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread

#1,153      
Most everyone agrees that the starting lineup will be Tomi, Mirk, Dre, QC, and Vaaks. Then have have Z, Jake, and Morillo in the rotation. I am betting on at least one surprise from the end of the bench. Not as a starter but a significant contributor. Would still like a serious big as insurance and future rotational player as losing both centers next year. Do not expect to see a ball pounding guard such as Petro recruited again. Petro wasn’t bad, he just didn’t fit. Defensive system must be adjusted to defend with bigger, slower guards. Have a summer to work on it.
 
#1,154      
How that AI missed cottage cheese as a main topic, I'll never know.
Instead probably shunted it off into the "off-topic noise" category, which is of course foolish. ;)
btw, there were earlier mentions of the delicacy, specifically in 2022 and 2016, but the current 'thread' seems to have been a spinoff from catsup / ketchup on hot dogs in RayJ recruiting thread

Post in thread 'Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread' https://www.illinoisloyalty.com/post/illinois-hoops-recruiting-thread.31326/post-1904316
 
#1,155      
Duke's roster right now:

Foster
Blackwell
Evans
Williams (#4 freshman)
Ngomba
.....
Boozer
Sarr
Rippey (#10 freshman)
Howard (#14 freshman)
Scharnowski (Belmont transfer)
Wilkins (#35 recruit in 2025; redshirted THIS PAST SEASON as developmental decision)

Evans is really the lone true draft decision there.

There is NO other program -- I mean nobody -- that's capable of stacking that much talent on one roster PRESEASON (we don't know how it's gonna turn out, but preseason).

It's kind of like Ohio State's wide receiver room.
It's been that way for close to 30 years now. In fact I'd say this coming year might not be as ridiculous as some in the past. They typically have 6-9 Burger boys, a few ranked top 5-10 coming out.

Kentucky had several years with Coach Cal when they equaled what Duke has had. Outside of that, no one comes close.

Add in ridiculously favorable officiating and it's hard to see how they haven't won it all more often.
 
#1,159      
There has been debate whether the Illini (as of now) have improved compared to last year.

I find "follow the money" to be an efficient way of baking everything in.

Going into the 2025/26 season the Illini were about 40:1 to win it all.

Going into the tournament this March the Illini were about 19:1

As of now on Kalshi Illini are listed at about 9% chance to win it all in 2026/27 which is about 11:1.

Seems like an upgrade to me!

Time will tell but I can't remember being so excited about the beloved!
Yeah, this is how I like to think about it too, though some nuances might affect things...

Kalshi is funny. The graphs are fun for seeing trends, but include some whacky trades when volume is low. The "chance" column is even more wonky. Current prices are more stable, but still have some outliers (especially the "yes" prices), and (at this point at least with the 2027 NCAAT market) the pricing has an overround/vig built in (unrelated to Kalshi's transaction fees, which are extra). I think after trying to account for this as well, our odds are around 6.5%

At traditional books I'm seeing +1200 to +1600, with +1500 being the midpoint. After removing the ridiculous vig for futures this far out (~60% for FanDuel), our fair odds are ~4%

Just before the tournament, we were +1900 to +2000, and after removing the vig (20% at that time), our fair odds were ~4%, or 7th best. We jumped about one spot in computer rankings by the end of the tournament, so in a hypothetical re-do of the tournament based on final ratings, we probably would've been ~5-6% depending on how our bracket would've been as a likely 2-seed.

None of this is a perfect comparison, but I think it points to books viewing us as roughly similar to how we ended last season.
 
#1,160      
He just declared for the draft and is gone.
Daniel Day Lewis Oops GIF by slicedbread
 
#1,163      
I believe that almost completely, to a person, members of this board agreed that retention was job 1. Brad accomplished that. Then he brought in highly rated young guys who can probably help immediately and definitely in the future. While I understand the PTSD of the members, why are you criticizing walking from Blackwell if his signing jeopardizes the first goal? How many of you business magnets you would directly fly in the face of the company's stated priorities? None of the successful one would, I'm pretty sure. For the life of me, I can't understand the criticism. 💩🤡
Maybe there were a few posts like that? But almost all of it was hoping there's some other player out there (star or role-player or backup) if we still had/have $$. And I think most people have moved on from discussing that regardless of their opinion
 
#1,164      
Jalen Cox to USC.
I like his game, probably couldn't have QC and JC. Not sure that would have been a sell.

Have never seen BU sit still, always seems to find another player even when the feeling is we don't need one. I feel like we still could use another player, especially back-up 6-3 type PG guard.
 
#1,165      
Duke's roster right now:

Foster
Blackwell
Evans
Williams (#4 freshman)
Ngomba
.....
Boozer
Sarr
Rippey (#10 freshman)
Howard (#14 freshman)
Scharnowski (Belmont transfer)
Wilkins (#35 recruit in 2025; redshirted THIS PAST SEASON as developmental decision)

Evans is really the lone true draft decision there.

There is NO other program -- I mean nobody -- that's capable of stacking that much talent on one roster PRESEASON (we don't know how it's gonna turn out, but preseason).

It's kind of like Ohio State's wide receiver room.
Duke looks like they will have the most stacked roster since Kentucky 2014-2015. Not sure how you keep 11 top players happy.
 
#1,168      
Sorry I'm late to the thread. This was a nice interview! I'm excited for this kid to suit up in the O&B next year!

I also didn't realize that Justin Harrison (football) is his cousin. Do they have any more athletes in that Illini family pipeline?
We waited and waited. You didn't call. We were a nervous wreck.
 
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