If he improves his outside shot just a little bit and sees the floor a bit better, it is not hard to envision him as a 1st round pick next season. He is a good athlete, fantastic driver/create own shot, and a plus defender already.
Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread
Impossible. I heard it would be very hard for our returnees to improve
At my ocean front property
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
That emerging as a stopper on the defensive end did more for his stock than every bucket he's gotten in college thus far, and that his path to making and especially sticking in the league lies on that end.
That'd be great. I (and everyone else probably) would also like him to get his shooting to be as Peja-esque as possible.
1)Improve the perimeter shooting
2)When taking the ball to the basket, make the right decision, ie.... don't take the ball to the basket with his head down, get stuck, which leads to a turnover or him putting up a prayer.
3)Finish at the rim.
4)Be the alpha with Wagler gone and finish games by having the ball in his hands(this includes making free throws)
4)Continue to show the lateral quickness and physicality that made him a great defender in the tournament
5)Stay healthy
He needs to be tournament Drej from October to April.
He’ll never shoot like pops but can improve his shot selection, which should translate to a respectable percentage. Same can be said for Z.
Get better at making 3's, look to pass occasionally when headramming, continue growth on defense
What surprises me about Drej is how awful his form is. You'd think that one of the greatest shooters that God blessed to walk to earth would have a kid that has a purer form which would allow him to be more consistent. It could be that this is just the way Drej is comfortable and they have tried messing with it and he doesn't take to it.
If he can shoot the ball at a good, not necessarily great clip....that puts him in the first round. He's going to have to buck a threw tear trend, but hey, Demonte did it.
He shot at bad percentage, but I really don't recall Andrej taking bad shots to the point it's an issue.
Z's were completely wide open for the latter part of the year... and he shot 38% literally a season ago. His shot just broke.
Bad shooting percentage doesn't ALWAYS translate to bad shot selection.
Lattimore Ford (G/F, High School 3*) commits to Washington
Isaac Riddle (F, Australia) commits to Wisconsin
docs.google.com
Isaac Riddle (F, Australia) commits to Wisconsin
B1G Roster Tracker
pruman91
- interviewing new NL's daily....I really really am
pruman91
- interviewing new NL's daily....I really really am
this made me laugh out loud. people seem to forget that young basketball players often improve over time!
I'd be happy if Tomi could get back to his 1st year level (obviously being 100% healthy would help).
I’ll take the Tomi we got during the ncaa tournament
Noblesville Illini
- Nappanee, IN
And Z getting his 3 point shots to go down. I’d be good with that!
I mean, we can feel however we want, but we risk looking like the guys who thought Keaton should redshirt last May... If you were judging Keaton by his prep tape you'd say, too skinny and not an explosive enough athlete to contribute right away... There's a reason why no one else was after this kid...
None of us really know at this point... Until they start competing against college guys, it's hard to say how well their games will translate.
I'd bet my Arizona Beach House Morillo will be a better player than Ben by the time he leaves. (...and Ben was a VG player this year, brought a lot to the table and didn't take anything off it.)
Morillo is going to need to play to get there.
Our starters will be as good as anyone's, and I wouldn't be surprised if 4 of them are around 30 minutes a game. (Jake and Z will be, presumably, the first guys off the bench) The young guys (other than Coleman, he's too talented not to play a lot) are going to have to get really good really fast to get more than 7-8 minutes a game.
They don't need to be stars...we have plenty of star power...just come in and do their job. Between Morillo, Brown, Zens, and L. Davis, someone is likely to surprise us. I also assume there will be more competition in the mix before actual practices start...
If Tomi is healthy you will see a player far more impactive than ever before IMHO....for a variety of reasons. There is no reason for him to not see significant improvement in shooting, defense, inside offense, and rebounding...maybe even more quickness and athleticism. All he needs to do is put in the work and care....and I can't imagine that he won't as this period in his life will only come around once.
magnificent stroker:
McLovin's cuz, who will flippin' destroy you
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
It's not really so much about who's the better player, it's that Vaaks has a lot of similarities with Wagler and will bring a lot of the same traits and maintain continuity with how we played last year, whereas Morillo is nothing like Ben at all.
If we're asking Morillo to impersonate Ben Humrichous then yeah, he's going to be a downgrade on the real thing. But then if we have Morillo be himself, how does that impact other players and the overall way in which we play?
Ben was constantly able to guard opposing true bigs and then get cross-matched at the other end against guys who he would just shoot straight over as if they weren't there. Morillo can't do that, he's going to have to use his skills to impact the game in a different way.
In fairness to Drej, he knows his 3 pointer isn’t all that great. He only really took open shots from the corner. He needs to improve his form and the little hitch in his long ball to be improved shooting from range.
FIFY....
Illini Basketball
Sharing this infographic that I update at the conclusion of each year. We are fully back. By my objective-ish methodology, the BU era is now equal to the Before and During Dee era (1980 - 2006) of Illini basketball. And BU is quickly becoming the most decorated coach in Illini basketball...
www.illinoisloyalty.com
Where exactly should Tomi return from? I hate to be pedantic here, but his usage decreased and his role changed in part because we had a substantially better/deeper front court, so I'll continue to disagree with this notion that there was some meaningful regression YOY if you look at a side by side comparison of his seasons. He was highly efficient down the stretch at doing exactly what we needed him to do.
If he stays healthy through the offseason, I would assume that would allow him to add a bit of strength, quickness and conditioning, which would make him a materially better player than he was last year and his first year.
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