Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread

#301      
PleaseMakeABowlGame
Illiniguy13 said:
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.
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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.
 
#303      
pruman91
illini0440 said:
Impossible. I heard it would be very hard for our returnees to improve
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#311      
Emerson Bigguns
PleaseMakeABowlGame said:
I feel like Morillo is a bigger downgrade from Ben than Vaaks is from Wagler.
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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...
 
#312      
hoopsfan47
Combo said:
I'd be happy if Tomi could get back to his 1st year level (obviously being 100% healthy would help).
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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.
 
#314      
ChiefGritty
PleaseMakeABowlGame said:
I feel like Morillo is a bigger downgrade from Ben than Vaaks is from Wagler.
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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.
 
#315      
Frank
Illiniguy13 said:
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.
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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.
 
#316      
RollChief
Combo said:
I'd be happy if Tomi could get 100% healthy for the full season.
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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 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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