Really hope he's back. Obviously Tomi, Mirk, and Z will play virtually all the minutes at the 4 and 5 spots. But there will be games where we need another big to contribute. Zens also might be able to back up Mirk.
Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread
I dont think anyine 6''7" 210 is going torebound well enough to back up Mirk and come close to defending power conference post 4's.. I think Zens will be a better shooter but other than that as far was what is most important when Z cant back up Mirk, we need post defense and rebounding and Jason will be our only real option to do that. Hopefully he can do that if we dont add a power 4 man it is more likely that Andre ithe guy. He is the same size, likely stronger than Zens.
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If there’s a kid who’s a 2027 that has a big summer and wants to reclass… that’s the type of last get id be interested in. A Will Riley level kid wouldn’t come here to come off the bench or play sparingly.. but a top 50 17 year old would certainly be a nice addition.
Rather than look on the next recruit (like Brnovic) as the ninth man, it would be better to consider him the fourth big man in the rotation. We know how often Tomi and Z were often injured or sick the last two years and we needed Mircovic to move down low rather than help bringing the ball up. Plus, those three are all likely gone after this year and we would be starting over with bigs. It would be great to bring in a guy like this Montenegrin to be the foundation for next year's team--learning and contributing this year, and being a focal point next year.
Love that we're not looking to having to restock from scratch each year but are winning while continuing to build a solid foundation with significantly different emphases each year. Love this freshman class, but this will be a completely different focus without Wagler, OUR unicorn (proud to say it!)
Love that we're not looking to having to restock from scratch each year but are winning while continuing to build a solid foundation with significantly different emphases each year. Love this freshman class, but this will be a completely different focus without Wagler, OUR unicorn (proud to say it!)
Joel Goodson
- it's all ball bearings, nowadays
he's got it going on:
Joel Goodson
- it's all ball bearings, nowadays
speaking of which, I suspect Pettigrew (and his camp) are going to seriously entertain re-classing
The question is do you think Brown or Zens can duplicate that production?
Oh wow! That would be hype. I would have thought Cole Kelly would have been more likely given how he already plays a year up in AAU.
LVille like
Are we in the running, or is this recruitment going to be mostly transactional?LVille like
NOT 9th man...think of it as 4TH BIG...needed way more often
Well are they better than Izzo’s granny?
Play in 70% of team games and average 2.0 points per game. That's the #9thMan bar for Zens (or Brown; whomever it is).
FightinIllini30
Future insider
A bar I think either brown or Zens can reach
My bar is that Underwood will have the confidence to play them in a tight game when we have 2 guys hurt or sick. Or one guy hurt and a couple in foul trouble.
If Zens is your 9th man, your program is in a very very good place. And I'll take him all day everyday in that role this season because I think theres a very high level of long term equity here.
This isnt some me-ball freshman/newcomer coming in ranked high based solely on iso ball/ athletic gifts and clueless how to fit in within the confines of an offense. He's already learned how to play off others in a winning high school program. Hes going to be a high level college basketball player in time. And he's going to be able to fit in wherever you put him.
Many players aren't able to be effective players without the ball in their hands. We saw that last season and seasons prior. Zens isn't that.
This isnt some me-ball freshman/newcomer coming in ranked high based solely on iso ball/ athletic gifts and clueless how to fit in within the confines of an offense. He's already learned how to play off others in a winning high school program. Hes going to be a high level college basketball player in time. And he's going to be able to fit in wherever you put him.
Many players aren't able to be effective players without the ball in their hands. We saw that last season and seasons prior. Zens isn't that.
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I feel like every time someone says “but what if the team has multiple/many injuries” (which is like several times per day) that 6 other people have to explain that [1] thrusting your 6th and 7th best players into starting roles while simultaneously bringing #9thman into the rotation isn’t going to keep the team operating at a top 5 level and [2] no players who are better than ZZ or Brown are going to jump at the opportunity to sit in street clothes all season for peanuts NIL hoping for the team to become riddled with injury so they play 5 mins.
Indeed. And in addition to injuries, we also don't know how many of the freshman will be good enough for our top 8 anyway (especially at the 4). We're obviously still in great shape even if we don't end up with that much depth, but most of the top teams had it this past year (UM, UConn, and Houston got ~20mpg from 9th+ guys and Duke got ~12, while we got ~8).
They didn't do it by having some 9th guy stashed on the bench in case of emergency, so it isn't worth discussing whether that would appeal to recruits/transfers. Those teams played 9+ man rotations throughout the year, which is a much different opportunity.
Joel Goodson
- it's all ball bearings, nowadays
Joel Goodson
- it's all ball bearings, nowadays
I mean at this point I don't even really know who is out there, but does anyone really think that Illinois is going to beat a team like Duke in March if Jake Davis is playing a significant role?
I like Jake, he's a fundamentally solid player that doesn't make many wrong decisions but he also just gives you a lot of empty minutes especially against top tier competition. Look at the UConn final four game, he didn't produce offensively in 17 minutes and he couldn't chase anyone on UConn around 3s leading to some very good shots for them.
The ideal situation is that you add a guard capable of playing 20+ minutes(think like the quality of Gayle, Burnett, or Cason that all averaged 20 minutes). Then if both Morillo and Coleman pan out you end up with Jake Davis as your 9th man(don't have to rely on him in bad matchups anymore) and anything out of any other freshman is a bonus.
Every recent off-season, people here keep talking about how it's the deepest Illini team ever and then injuries happen and guys don't pan out/translate and then you see them drop games because they are down to 6 guys by February.