Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread

[Tevo]

You forgot the PE, Esq., LEED at the end.

I'm not sure he was efficient enough to get a LEED cert.

 

[wc_illini]

We are between 1st and 5th in pretty much all preseason lists for next year so I’m not sure what this “not #20” talk is. The 9/10th man isn’t going to torpedo our season, I mean they’ll be lucky to get spot minutes.

I really thought what I said was more clear, but apparently not since you read it so differently. I said nothing about where I think the current ream would rank (for the record, I'll go with the books and put us around 5th, so there's no need to assume I'm a doomer).

You referenced Jake in 2024/25 (or someone like him) as an example of a good 9th man, and I was saying "2024/25 shouldn't be our blueprint for this year because we were #20 in 2024/25, but we're aiming to be top 5 or top 1 this year." Of course that has more to do with the top 8 than whoever was 9th. But if there's a blueprint for this year, it should be Michigan, and they weren't afraid to bring in more talent than they could fit in an 8-man rotation (and it likely helped them weather Cason's injury).

So let me start over. We have four returning/transferring starters and two returning solid bench players. Coleman is the presumed 5th starter, though last year's top 20 freshman show there's some risk there (but the floor is likely a solid bench player, in which case Jake could start). Morillo presumably rounds out our top 8, but since half of last year's #20-30 freshman weren't good enough for an elite team's bench, there's clear risk with a #47 guy. One of Zens/Brown/LDavis might surprise, so that lowers the risk, but certainly doesn't eliminate it. I'd like to think we're better at evaluating talent than the rankings, so maybe I'm overly pessimistic to even consider that we might only get one high quality player out of those freshman in their first year, but to me it's not something to ignore. We've had our misses too. (And I'm not predicting anything, just considering the odds).

Since I'd like to have one more solid 6-8th guy (I'd take someone better than that, but I get that we couldn't keep everyone happy when we tried), but many posters here think it's a pipe dream to think anyone good would come for a bench role, I gave examples of decent mid-major starters who transferred to be key bench players (both knew they'd be reserves and both ended up 7th in minutes) on deep elite teams. Maybe those guys didn't exist this year (or maybe an overseas late addition will be that person for us). But it isn't a crazy idea.

 

[wc_illini]

There is a limit to the NIL available. It is not the university that goes all in but the donors who are going to pay the nil. We have football competing for those dollars. There is also the issue of finding a piece that fits and won't be a locker room issue. There is more to it than just buying the best players available - ask Louisville or Kentucky or BYU how that went for them last year. And unless you have one of the largest budgets, you have to take your chances that some bad things don't happen. It is not easy to get to a final four, let alone win a title, even if everything goes right. There is a team of very smart and savvy people trying their best to field the best team possible. If you have a couple of million to spare, I am sure they would take you up on it and add another piece assuming one is available that makes sense but that is a big if.
We had 8 high major starting level players last year - two of which were untested freshman that worked out. So that means we went into the year with 6 starting level players including Davis and Humrichous. We have 6 again this year - Mirk, Tommie, Z, Davis, Stoj and Vaaks. Compare those 6 to Tommie, Z, Davis, Stoj, Humrichous and Boz - four of whom are back with another year of experience. We are in as good or better shape going into the summer as we were last year. We are going to need a couple of freshman to contribute, but not to the same extent as last year because the established players can take up that burden.
Team construction is a balancing act and an art, not a science. We won't know the results until they play out. Have to just relax and look forward to what that will be.
And by the way, these freshman that we will be giving the opportunity to compete will be the backbone of the team in a year or two.

If it's just a $ issue, then I agree there's nothing to discuss. But most people resisting bringing in another quality guy seem to be saying there just isn't room on the roster, and that's what I personally disagree with.

I think we're in better shape now than we seemed at this point last year. But there were some huge surprises (both positive and negative, but very much net positive IMO) last year that I don't think are likely every year, so I think we likely need to be quite a bit better going into next year to have good odds of finishing higher.