Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread

[NarrowJ]

I feel completely differently. Unless an athlete is training to run that distance or longer at a fast pace, you just won't see D1 basketball conditioned athletes just trot out and run a sub 4:20 mile on the track. Basketball conditioning is completely different than miler conditioning...short bursts, fast twitch, and hops are focused on over the sustained effort needed to be able to run that sort of mile time.

What was your high school basketball's conditioning like? Our coach rode his 10 speed bicycle beside us as we jogged the entire town for like an hour every day in the fall lol

EDIT: I'm only being half serious here, because I do think mile runners train with much longer runs than that though... you've got to extend comfortably beyond a mile in order to have a good aerobic engine to be fast in a 4th lap

 

[Ga65]

He's not a particularly good 3 pt shooter. That said I like him. He seems like a good fit off the bench for us because he can play all over the court.

Ty Rodgers who can shoot?

 

[Fly Illini Fly!]

INI...Why not a #1 preseason ranking? Because our name isn't Duke, I suppose. The guy we seem to be sleeping on is Morillo. Watching his film, I see a guy who has played the point, and seems to be comfortable. He seems to be strong with the ball and a clever passer as well as a dangerous 3 pt. shooter I'd like three 6-7 guards. That's the kind of length who would be a nightmare to guard.

We’re just not in the same realm as Duke or Florida, as it stands preseason, in terms of defensive upside and superior top-end talent. Our roster is very talented, but those two are in a tier of their own at the moment.

I think #3 is the highest ranking for us that’s justifiable.

 

[Combo]

We’re just not in the same realm as Duke or Florida, as it stands preseason, in terms of defensive upside and superior top-end talent. Our roster is very talented, but those two are in a tier of their own at the moment.

I think #3 is the highest ranking for us that’s justifiable.

I agree 100%. Our fans almost alway overrate our talent. Duke and probably Florida are straight up more talented teams

That doesn't mean we aren't a legitimate threat to win it all. if we are relatively lucky with injuries and our players match the chemistry of last year's team, we can equal or even improve on last year's results.

 

[NarrowJ]

Michigan is #2 in the overall 247 recruiting rankings. Yes they lost a lot, but I'm not sure how you can say they haven't done much to replace it. There's only one team ahead of them, Duke. Plus with Dusty May's track record of being a great coach, it shouldn't be surprising to see them in the top 5.

Because they're replacing it with freshmen and guys who are a huge, huge step down from what they had last year? That #2 recruiting class only has 1 player who's really expected to contribute a lot this coming season in McCoy, they have a couple of other top 50 kids in there too, but again, a major step back from last season for them.

 

[Second place is 1st loser]

Michigan is #2 in the overall 247 recruiting rankings. Yes they lost a lot, but I'm not sure how you can say they haven't done much to replace it. There's only one team ahead of them, Duke. Plus with Dusty May's track record of being a great coach, it shouldn't be surprising to see them in the top 5.

Saying they lost a lot is an understatement to say the least.

They lost three potential lottery picks. What other team lost that type of firepower? That frontcourt was everything to them. Just ONE of them missing would have changed their season. I'm sorry, but losing all three, plus their normal graduating seniors(Barnett, most notably), that's four starters gone. No way they reloaded to a point where they can be just dropped into the top 5.

Now, can they come together and be a top 5 team? Absolutely. The talent is there to be very, very good. There are a lot of teams like that. I look at Louisville. They loaded up, but nobody is making any assumptions on anything with them.

You just don't lose an NBA roster and pick up where you left off. May is a really, really good coach, but he didn't have to be John Wooden to win with that team last year.

 

[wc_illini]

4:19 is an incredibly good mile time but I don't think it's outside the realm of possibility for a D1 basketball player to do.

Especially so a guy with long strides like Ben. Has the build to be a good mid distance runner tbh.

Every single guy on my high school basketball team except one ran a sub 6 minute mile. The only guy that didn't was a chubby backup center and he was still like 6.5.

A couple guys ran sub 5s and none of us were D1 caliber athletes(the one kid was flirting running sub 5 in 8th grade track).

4:19 is very fast, but more like a D2 runner than elite.

But D2 runners are still shorter and skinnier than Ben, and while they may run just 40-70 miles per week rather than 60-120 like elites, they get lots of intensity to make up for lower distance and still have to maximize their recovery to maintain the overall training load. Ben presumably had to save some energy for the rest of his training (some of which probably worked against his aerobic capacity).

The wildcard is his genetic aerobic capacity, so it's certainly possible he could overcome all the other things stacked against him. As someone who became a runner mid-life with a 4:4x mile, I'm dying to know.

Ben vs Olympic 1500m runners:

 

[Joel Goodson]

Kid is an absolute stud. Will be a 1 and done.

I'm high on Kitt too. that said, I'll have what you're having

 

[OB positive]

I agree 100%. Our fans almost alway overrate our talent. Duke and probably Florida are straight up more talented teams

That doesn't mean we aren't a legitimate threat to win it all. if we are relatively lucky with injuries and our players match the chemistry of last year's team, we can equal or even improve on last year's results.

True but it takes more than talent, otherwise the last twenty national champions would have been Duke, UNC, Kentucky or Kansas.

 

[bavanga3]

Saying they lost a lot is an understatement to say the least.

They lost three potential lottery picks. What other team lost that type of firepower? That frontcourt was everything to them. Just ONE of them missing would have changed their season. I'm sorry, but losing all three, plus their normal graduating seniors(Barnett, most notably), that's four starters gone. No way they reloaded to a point where they can be just dropped into the top 5.

Now, can they come together and be a top 5 team? Absolutely. The talent is there to be very, very good. There are a lot of teams like that. I look at Louisville. They loaded up, but nobody is making any assumptions on anything with them.

You just don't lose an NBA roster and pick up where you left off. May is a really, really good coach, but he didn't have to be John Wooden to win with that team last year.

They didn't lose 3 potential lottery picks. I would say 1. McCoy isn't the only one expected to contribute. Their entire class of transfer bigs are going to be starting or first off the bench. And by the way, all those transfers had better numbers than Aday Mara and Morez Johnson the year before they transferred. So quite honestly, to expect them not to take a leap forward as well with superior talent around them is questionable. They've earned every bit of their ranking.

 

[bavanga3]

Because they're replacing it with freshmen and guys who are a huge, huge step down from what they had last year? That #2 recruiting class only has 1 player who's really expected to contribute a lot this coming season in McCoy, they have a couple of other top 50 kids in there too, but again, a major step back from last season for them.

Thats not true. Their entire front court is experienced and had better stats at their previous stop than Mara and Johnson. And they're all expected to contribute as starters. I don't know what you're reading, but its misleading you.

 

[Second place is 1st loser]

They didn't lose 3 potential lottery picks. I would say 1. McCoy isn't the only one expected to contribute. Their entire class of transfer bigs are going to be starting or first off the bench. And by the way, all those transfers had better numbers than Aday Mara and Morez Johnson the year before they transferred. So quite honestly, to expect them not to take a leap forward as well with superior talent around them is questionable. They've earned every bit of their ranking.

What have they done to "earn" it?

I'm being serious, LSU and Cincinnati were bad teams and when we played Tennessee....Estrella played 7 minutes and scored 4 points. You can understand my hesitancy to be more concerned with him than Johnson, Mara or Yaxal.

 

[OB positive]

They didn't lose 3 potential lottery picks. I would say 1. McCoy isn't the only one expected to contribute. Their entire class of transfer bigs are going to be starting or first off the bench. And by the way, all those transfers had better numbers than Aday Mara and Morez Johnson the year before they transferred. So quite honestly, to expect them not to take a leap forward as well with superior talent around them is questionable. They've earned every bit of their ranking.

I seriously doubt they take leaps forward. I look for Michigan's frontcourt to be a level or two lower this year. Especially considering the gaurds and wings they have returning. They are going to want their time in the spotlight.

 

[EmeraldCityIllini]

They didn't lose 3 potential lottery picks. I would say 1. McCoy isn't the only one expected to contribute. Their entire class of transfer bigs are going to be starting or first off the bench. And by the way, all those transfers had better numbers than Aday Mara and Morez Johnson the year before they transferred. So quite honestly, to expect them not to take a leap forward as well with superior talent around them is questionable. They've earned every bit of their ranking.

Per usual, answer is probably somewhere in the middle.

If it’s not 3 lottery picks, it’s 3 first round picks with one or two close to fringe lotto picks. And while McCoy might be a higher pick than Yaxel one was a 24 year old man and the other a kid - kinda like comparing Chris Cenac to Yaxel.

They’ll be really good again tho

 

[Fly Illini Fly!]

They didn't lose 3 potential lottery picks. I would say 1. McCoy isn't the only one expected to contribute. Their entire class of transfer bigs are going to be starting or first off the bench. And by the way, all those transfers had better numbers than Aday Mara and Morez Johnson the year before they transferred. So quite honestly, to expect them not to take a leap forward as well with superior talent around them is questionable. They've earned every bit of their ranking.

At minimum three top 20 picks. But all have a chance for the lottery.

 

[NarrowJ]

They didn't lose 3 potential lottery picks. I would say 1. McCoy isn't the only one expected to contribute. Their entire class of transfer bigs are going to be starting or first off the bench. And by the way, all those transfers had better numbers than Aday Mara and Morez Johnson the year before they transferred. So quite honestly, to expect them not to take a leap forward as well with superior talent around them is questionable. They've earned every bit of their ranking.

They do have a highly ranked freshman class coming in as you said (its 4th not 2nd though). Their class is also ranked so highly due to the way they rank the classes... having more recruits weights your ranking, so having 6 freshman coming in gives them a higher 'score'... really only one of those freshman is someone I'd expect to have a major contribution in McCoy. Couple other fringe top 50 kids, but as we know those are rarely big difference makers as freshmen. How good can we expect them to be when half of their roster are freshmen?

Now that we've established their 2nd ranked recruiting class is actually 4th and that there isn't much production expected to come from said recruiting class, lets look at the transfers:

Mara is projected around the end of the lottery. Is the guy coming in (Thiam) as good as Mara? Doubtful.

Morez is projected mid-to-late first round. Can we expect J.P. Estrella to be as good as Morez was for them? Yikes.

Lendeborg was the B1G POY and projected to go in the late top 10. How does Jalen Reed (I know... who?) slot in as a replacement? Sheesh.

Then you have two super senior guards in Burnett & Gayle. They have McKenney & McCoy to replace them, who are good players, but have 9 years less CBB experience than the Burnett/Gayle combo did.

Cason is out for the season.

I see them as a top 15/20 team as they sit right now. Maybe they add someone significant, but I think they're at 14 or 15 players so I'm going to doubt that happens as well.

Final note just to circle back to the freshman class ranking -- only one of the F4 teams from last year had a top 10 class (Arizona). Michigan and Illinois had freshman recruiting classes ranked 30th and 34th, respectively.

 

[Fly Illini Fly!]

They do have a highly ranked freshman class coming in as you said (its 4th not 2nd though). Their class is also ranked so highly due to the way they rank the classes... having more recruits weights your ranking, so having 6 freshman coming in gives them a higher 'score'... really only one of those freshman is someone I'd expect to have a major contribution in McCoy. Couple other fringe top 50 kids, but as we know those are rarely big difference makers as freshmen. How good can we expect them to be when half of their roster are freshmen?

Now that we've established their 2nd ranked recruiting class is actually 4th and that there isn't much production expected to come from said recruiting class, lets look at the transfers:

Mara is projected around the end of the lottery. Is the guy coming in (Thiam) as good as Mara? Doubtful.

Morez is projected mid-to-late first round. Can we expect J.P. Estrella to be as good as Morez was for them? Yikes.

Lendeborg was the B1G POY and projected to go in the late top 10. How does Jalen Reed (I know... who?) slot in as a replacement? Sheesh.

Then you have two super senior guards in Burnett & Gayle. They have McKenney & McCoy to replace them, who are good players, but have 9 years less CBB experience than the Burnett/Gayle combo did.

Cason is out for the season.

I see them as a top 15/20 team as they sit right now. Maybe they add someone significant, but I think they're at 14 or 15 players so I'm going to doubt that happens as well.

Final note just to circle back to the freshman class ranking -- only one of the F4 teams from last year had a top 10 class (Arizona). Michigan and Illinois had freshman recruiting classes ranked 30th and 34th, respectively.

I don't think Reed is replacing Yaxel.

Starting group last year was
Cadeau/Burnett/Yaxel/Morez/Mara.

This year I'd expect it to be
Cadeau/McKnenney/McCoy/Estrella/Thiam.

Regardless, the downgrades are at the 3/4/5. That frontcourt is a ton to replace.

 

[WhereDoWeStandWithStorr?]

https://twitter.com/x/status/2060752297748017522

 

[Combo]

True but it takes more than talent, otherwise the last twenty national champions would have been Duke, UNC, Kentucky or Kansas.

Absolutely. If you're one of the top 10 or so most talented teams (which we are), you have a legit chance to win it all. After that, how the team plays together is key. And of course it takes some luck - both with injuries and with tournament draw.

 

[Mamba1313]

I'm high on Kitt too. that said, I'll have what you're having

 

[Mamba1313]

Got this for Christmas for my Illini Cave !!!

 

[skyIdub]

In the spirit of the….ahem…Illini Hoops Recruiting Thread…here is a montage of Tom Cruise running.

 

[Ga65]

Absolutely. If you're one of the top 10 or so most talented teams (which we are), you have a legit chance to win it all. After that, how the team plays together is key. And of course it takes some luck - both with injuries and with tournament draw.

And we did get the draw.

 

[nichi]

You’re about 10 years off on your timeline (Groce was the DJ’s coach)
As someone who ran a 5:27 mile (humble brag) 15ish years ago at 5’11” / ~180#, I’d be shocked if DJ set a team record at 6’3” / ~175# (guessing) and didn’t break 5.

It appears DJ ran a 5:08 mile as an Illini freshman. That was the team high for that season. Bruce Weber was his coach at the time. Groce took over when Richardson was a senior.

 

[PleaseMakeABowlGame]

Absolutely. If you're one of the top 10 or so most talented teams (which we are), you have a legit chance to win it all. After that, how the team plays together is key. And of course it takes some luck - both with injuries and with tournament draw.

It doesn’t take luck if you’re just way better than every other team (at least its impact gets reduced to a very minimal level).

Michigan was just flat out the best team. Same with that UCONN team.