Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread

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#1,454      
Anyone claim cottage cheese and maple syrup yet?
bart simpson nasty food GIF
 
#1,456      
I blended cottage cheese with maple syrup, vanilla extract, and maple syrup to make a chocolate pudding…does that count?
 
#1,459      
omg DB11Headband says CURIOSITY and ATTENTION thats 2.... Indy post 2 eyeballs.... we are soooo getting 2 players!!!! Anderson AND Blackwell.....seems pretty obvious to me :)
 
#1,460      
I sometimes wonder if our insiders just wanna have a good laugh at the bar. Few buddies sitting around enjoying a few drinks when DB11 says "you guys wanna see something funny, watch how quickly I can fire up these people up with one simple Gif".
 
#1,462      
I sometimes wonder if our insiders just wanna have a good laugh at the bar. Few buddies sitting around enjoying a few drinks when DB11 says "you guys wanna see something funny, watch how quickly I can fire up these people up with one simple Gif".
Indy doesn’t shoot from the hip though…
 
#1,468      
Why do you think they went after Blackwell? The staff can recruit/want all the talent in the world. The players have to want it too.
Candidly, the coaches really didn't go after Blackwell. Can you imagine the uproar that would have ensued had they not ACTED as if they were going after Blackwell?

This was a two - fold decision. The first was money - even though our NIL spend ($14 -$17mm) will be in the top 15 (possibly higher) - there is NO CHANCE that Blackwell was going to be the highest paid Illini. And the with the design of bringing back the big 5, Vaaks and the Freshman we had already signed, there was no money for Blackwell.

The second issue was that of fit both offensively and defensively. In the spread that Brad and Tyler run, players MUST BE comfortable with not getting the ball 2 or 3 consecutive times down the floor. Illinois has run 3 offensive sets (4 when Kofi was at Illinois) which are both similar and different but have the same objective. Force the defense to defend players on the perimeter. And the offensive rebounding % is the key to the offense. It would be great if we shot 35% from 3pt - but its not necessary if our rebound rate is 40%. The key to that approach is where the 3 point shot comes from, NOT who is shooting it. I am not going to go into further detail as I think most avid long - term Illini fans know exactly what I am talking about. As for the defensive side the drop defense that Wisconsin ran, not a fit for us, but we have no idea how Blackwell would have fared in our MTM/Zone.

However, given the press coverage and Blackwell's lineage it was very important that the coaches make it seem that they were pursuing Blackwell. This group is focused on 2026 - 27 and going back to the FF. The last thing they needed was blowback that they didn't recruit Blackwell.
 
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#1,470      
I sometimes wonder if our insiders just wanna have a good laugh at the bar. Few buddies sitting around enjoying a few drinks when DB11 says "you guys wanna see something funny, watch how quickly I can fire up these people up with one simple Gif".
And the success rate is 100%, which is funny by itself.
 
#1,471      
Immediately invalidates the list.

They lost two high impact seniors and their best player off the bench. Carr and Fears still can’t shoot. Lot riding on freshmen and transfers.
The Izzo effect whether it is true or not....me thinks not!!!
 
#1,475      
Field of 68 rankings also has MSU over Illinois. I don't see it. 2nd year in a row they are going to lose top players and not replace them. They do have a good freshman class, but Izzo isn't known for relying on freshman.
The center position will be an Achilles heel for MSU. They have had to scrape the bottom of the barrel to find one in the portal.
 
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