Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread

[Fly Illini Fly!]

View attachment 50492


Jalen Cox will start along with Rice & Arenas in the backcourt with Lewis, Jones & Bruns as reserves.

Forward spots are up for grabs - they have Cofie/Reibe but the 3 freshman bigs are all extremely talented.

Bruns, Hughes or one of the freshman will be their 9th man (ie, guy who barely plays at all and has next to zero impact)

You guys are just making sh1t up now.

I don’t think Cox starts over Rice / Lewis / Arenas.

From Rothstein 45:

“Projected Starting 5:

G Alijah Arenas

G Rodney Rice

G KJ Lewis

F Jacob Cofie

C Eric Reibe”

 

[21ChampaignSt]

In honor of this ridiculous conversation, I submit for your consideration my nominee for the best 9th man in program history - Damir Krupalija .

Damir, appeared in 27 games averaging 5 points and 4 rebounds in 10 minutes on a B1G champion, 1 seed, Elite Eight team.

Many other players were considered but Damir stood out for his balanced and efficient contributions on a high level team.

Any other names come to mind for this truly elite achievement? Let's hear 'em.

 

[NarrowJ]

I don’t think Cox starts over Rice / Lewis / Arenas.

From Rothstein 45:

“Projected Starting 5:

G Alijah Arenas

G Rodney Rice

G KJ Lewis

F Jacob Cofie

C Eric Reibe”

Maybe.

He or Lewis will start and I think Cox is just the glaringly better and more versatile player... they're going to need a point guard because Arenas, Rice and Lewis are all shoot-first archetypes.

Anyhow, completely irrelevant as he isn't going to be #9thman.

So a dysfunctional program managed to get the #7, #19, and #30 freshmen and two decently productive starters from lower conferences to fight for the 8th and 9th spots? I thought anyone of that caliber wanted a clear path to more playing time.

For the record, I'm not focused on having a 9th man, but rather having another option for 5th-8th man in case someone doesn't pan out.

Edit: and I'm sure USC will find a way to be bad, so maybe they just manage to get the most overrated guys rather than just having bad coaching, but the players probably don't think they're overrated and would still want the playing time that similarly ranked players would want

I wouldn't go so far as to label them dysfunctional. They lost their best player and 20ppg scorer six games into the season. They have proven they'll compile talent.

USC doesn't have a clear top 7/8 and the bottom two guys are pretty weak (Jones & Bruns) so there is playing time to be earned... obviously a vastly different situation than Illinois returning most of it's players from a F4 team.

I'm not.

Starters will be: Rice, Arenas, Lewis, Cofie, Reibe.

Bench will be Christian Collins, Ratliff twins, and Cox.

Really a heck of a roster.

They won't start 3 ball hungry, shoot first guys. Cox will start alongside Rice & Arenas and be a ballhandler/distributor. This is obvious.

Heck of a roster, agreed. A tier below Illinois, though.

 

[Fly Illini Fly!]

Maybe

He or Lewis will start and I think Cox is just the glaringly better and more versatile player... they're going to need a point guard because Arenas, Rice and Lewis are all shoot-first archetypes

Anyhow, completely irrelevant as he isn't going to be #9thman

I mean that still doesn’t solve the argument because we’re saying one of Adonis Ratliff / Darius Ratliff / Christian Collins is the #9thMan. All 5 stars.

 

[Second place is 1st loser]

Can anyone explain how exactly Zavier Zens was a maxpreps All American? Usually every one of these guys are 5 stars.

Here’s the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd teams this year (2026):

1st team:

— Quentin Coleman
— Colben Landrew
— Miles Sadler
— Jordan Smith Jr (player of the year)
— Tyran Stokes

2nd team:

— Abdou Toure
— Cam Williams
— Brandon McCoy
— Caleb Holt
— Jason Crowe Jr

3rd team:

— Luke Ertal
— Cayden Daughtery
— Christian Collins
— Caleb Gaskins
— Zavier Zens

Here’s the 1st, 2nd, 3rd teams from last year (2025):

1st team:

— Nate Ament
— Brayden Burries
— Cam Boozer (player of the year)
— Darryn Peterson
— Koa Peat

2nd team:

— AJ Dybantsa
— Malachi Moreno
— Braylon Mullins
— Caleb Wilson
— Tounde Yessoufou

3rd team:

— Mikel Brown Jr
— Kingston Flemings
— Nik Khamenia
— Jordan Smith Jr
— Tyran Stokes

…..

Every one of these guys listed are bona-fide 5 stars and potential lotto picks. Was Zens just massively under-ranked and we got a steal… or is it more of great HS production but not quite the NBA potential?

The Keaton Wagler Syndrome (KWS) will forever be the argument/commentary for every three star, under recruited player to walk through the doors for us. Whenever there's a kid who has huge HS numbers, but doesn't have a decent offer list, many of our fans with KWS will bring up the wildest recruiting coo in NCAA Basketball history and will use it as a "what if".

Wagler was the one, singular, exception to recruiting rationality and was a unicorn to basketball recruiting.

Guys ranked outside of the top 100 are FAR FAR FAR more likely to get a meaningful college degree than get invited to a combine or play professionally ANYWHERE.

KWS will erode over the next decade.

 

[EmpoweredIllini]

I'm not.

Starters will be: Rice, Arenas, Lewis, Cofie, Reibe.

Bench will be Christian Collins, Ratliff twins, and Cox.

Really a heck of a roster.

do you really think they will rotate 5 post players while the only PG they have gets dnp's? lolz

 

[lstewart53x3]

Maybe.

He or Lewis will start and I think Cox is just the glaringly better and more versatile player... they're going to need a point guard because Arenas, Rice and Lewis are all shoot-first archetypes.

Anyhow, completely irrelevant as he isn't going to be #9thman.




I wouldn't go so far as to label them dysfunctional. They lost their best player and 20ppg scorer six games into the season. They have proven they'll compile talent.

USC doesn't have a clear top 7/8 and the bottom two guys are pretty weak (Jones & Bruns) so there is playing time to be earned... obviously a vastly different situation than Illinois returning most of it's players from a F4 team.




They won't start 3 ball hungry, shoot first guys. Cox will start alongside Rice & Arenas and be a ballhandler/distributor. This is obvious.

Heck of a roster, agreed. A tier below Illinois, though.

Torvik does have Cox as their 9th man in projected usage and minutes. But Torvik also isn’t very high on their roster overall. Has them at #31 preseason:

 

[NarrowJ]

Torvik does have Cox as their 9th man in projected usage and minutes. But Torvik also isn’t very high on their roster overall. Has them at #31 preseason:

View attachment 50494

Understand what the computer says/thinks...

But there is just no universe where USC plays 5 different bigs at the 4/5 spots while the only PG they have on the entire roster racks up DNPs

Editing just to add that I certainly wouldn't swap places with USC (not directed at you necessarily, just this thought that USC has it's roster figured out while Illinois is flailing away because we only have top 100 freshmen + a potential Euro add to fight for inconsequential garbage time minutes)

 

[EmeraldCityIllini]

Levels to being the 8th/9th man as well.

Backing up a player who isn’t as established or touted is still more appealing from a playtime perspective. As opposed to agreeing to back up say, Mirk.

 

[PleaseMakeABowlGame]

Understand what the computer says/thinks...

But there is just no universe where USC plays 5 different bigs at the 4/5 spots while the only PG they have on the entire roster racks up DNPs

Editing just to add that I certainly wouldn't swap places with USC (not directed at you necessarily, just this thought that USC has it's roster figured out while Illinois is flailing away because we only have top 100 freshmen + a potential Euro add to fight for inconsequential garbage time minutes)

USC has a better roster than Illinois and likely the best roster in the big ten. Doesn’t mean they’ll finish ahead of us, but fair to point it out.

 

[NarrowJ]

USC has a better roster than Illinois and likely the best roster in the big ten. Doesn’t mean they’ll finish ahead of us, but fair to point it out.

Illinois returned a huge chunk of a F4 team and added a 5 star freshman, the best offensive player in the portal, and another top 50 freshman.
USC returns 3 guys from a team that didn't make postseason play at 18-14.

They're ranked a good tier below us in every preseason list thus far.

Cox may be their most important player next season. The thought he'll rack up DNPs and only play garbage time minutes is completely preposterous.

I mean that still doesn’t solve the argument because we’re saying one of Adonis Ratliff / Darius Ratliff / Christian Collins is the #9thMan. All 5 stars.

Highly unlikely they have 5 post players in the main rotation, 3 possibly 4 (if 4, then one of them is getting spot minutes).

You are correct that it doesn't solve the argument, because that wasn't the argument. He said Cox would be the 9th man, not one of the freshmen.

The argument that Cox is their #9thman is equivalent to arguing Vaaks will be Illinois' #9thman.

 

[PasadenaIllini]

Illinois returned a huge chunk of a F4 team and added a 5 star freshman, the best offensive player in the portal, and another top 50 freshman.
USC returns 3 guys from a team that didn't make postseason play at 18-14.

They're ranked a good tier below us in every preseason list thus far.

Cox may be their most important player next season. The thought he'll rack up DNPs and only play garbage time minutes is completely preposterous.



Highly unlikely they have 5 post players in the main rotation, 3 possibly 4 (if 4, then one of them is getting spot minutes).

You are correct that it doesn't solve the argument, because that wasn't the argument. He said Cox would be the 9th man, not one of the freshmen.

The argument that Cox is their #9thman is equivalent to arguing Vaaks will be Illinois' #9thman.

You must have guzzled at least 2 gallons of orange koolaid this morning to help you type these words. Vaaks is a great offensive player. He's not better than Haggerty or Blackwell, and definitely isn't anywhere near as proven.

 

[blackdog]

USC has a better roster than Illinois and likely the best roster in the big ten. Doesn’t mean they’ll finish ahead of us, but fair to point it out.

Based on what exactly?

 

[Fly Illini Fly!]

The Keaton Wagler Syndrome (KWS) will forever be the argument/commentary for every three star, under recruited player to walk through the doors for us. Whenever there's a kid who has huge HS numbers, but doesn't have a decent offer list, many of our fans with KWS will bring up the wildest recruiting coo in NCAA Basketball history and will use it as a "what if".

Wagler was the one, singular, exception to recruiting rationality and was a unicorn to basketball recruiting.

Guys ranked outside of the top 100 are FAR FAR FAR more likely to get a meaningful college degree than get invited to a combine or play professionally ANYWHERE.

KWS will erode over the next decade.

My post had legitimately nothing to do with Wagler.

Was just highlighting that it’s a rare feat to become a maxpreps AA while ranked outside the top 100.

 

[EmeraldCityIllini]

USC has a better roster than Illinois and likely the best roster in the big ten. Doesn’t mean they’ll finish ahead of us, but fair to point it out.

 

[phats22]

Based on what exactly?

the 9th man....

 

[Fly Illini Fly!]

Highly unlikely they have 5 post players in the main rotation, 3 possibly 4 (if 4, then one of them is getting spot minutes).

You are correct that it doesn't solve the argument, because that wasn't the argument. He said Cox would be the 9th man, not one of the freshmen.

The argument that Cox is their #9thman is equivalent to arguing Vaaks will be Illinois' #9thman.

Welp, I figured it was along the lines of “USC’s 9th man is very good.”

But regardless, Vaaks is our primary ball handler. For USC, that’s likely going to be Rodney Rice; not Cox.

There’s about a 95% chance Vaaks is a starter for Illinois next season; compared to like 30% for Cox (and that might be on the higher end).

 

[Fly Illini Fly!]

https://twitter.com/x/status/2063321782682112498

 

[blife]

9th man= assistant backup to the backup. We will be fine.

 

[Iamgroot]

You must have guzzled at least 2 gallons of orange koolaid this morning to help you type these words. Vaaks is a great offensive player. He's not better than Haggerty or Blackwell, and definitely isn't anywhere near as proven.

Did you see Brad's interview the other day was his exact words vaaks put up great numbers on a team that had about as much talent as a mac team.his numbers are going to be so much better this season with the talent hes surrounded with he had to take so many bad shots because of the talent gap and still shot 35% from 3 last season.he may not be the very best player from the portal but at least top 3 or 4 its also about fit and he fits this offense like a glove I dont think its crazy to say hes the best player out of the portal as far as fit,talent and abilities its not always the player putting up 20 a game that makes the biggest impact to team if he puts up numbers lets say 15-3-3 along with what we already have and leads us to another final 4 I'd say that would be hard argue with

 

[Iamgroot]

Welp, I figured it was along the lines of “USC’s 9th man is very good.”

But regardless, Vaaks is our primary ball handler. For USC, that’s likely going to be Rodney Rice; not Cox.

There’s about a 95% chance Vaaks is a starter for Illinois next season; compared to like 30% for Cox (and that might be on the higher end).

Id say if vaaks isn't the starter then something bad happened he was the biggest off-season addition outside of bringing mirk back.i just dont see a world he dont start unless hes injured

 

[lstewart53x3]

USC has a better roster than Illinois and likely the best roster in the big ten. Doesn’t mean they’ll finish ahead of us, but fair to point it out.

ESPN —

Illinois: 4
USC: 12

FOX —

Illinois: 2
USC: 12

Sports Illustrated —

Illinois: 4
USC: 22

CBS —

Illinois: 2
USC: 14

The Athletic —

Illinois: 1
USC: Unranked

Torvik —

Illinois: 4
USC: 31

—

The whole world disagrees with you.

 

[NarrowJ]

Welp, I figured it was along the lines of “USC’s 9th man is very good.”

Figured wrong, I guess?

But regardless, Vaaks is our primary ball handler. For USC, that’s likely going to be Rodney Rice; not Cox.

Vaaks is certainly our primary ball handler, Rice & Cox will likely share that role for USC.

There’s about a 95% chance Vaaks is a starter for Illinois next season; compared to like 30% for Cox (and that might be on the higher end).

I don't know how you came up with these completely arbitrary percentages, but Cox is certainly not 9th in their pecking order (which was the whole point) unless they plan to roll out a post player at point guard.

You must have guzzled at least 2 gallons of orange koolaid this morning to help you type these words. Vaaks is a great offensive player. He's not better than Haggerty or Blackwell, and definitely isn't anywhere near as proven.

I can walk that back but he's very very good, as is Cox... that's the point I was making (but your semantic nitpick stands)

Dunno why it is the mission of the message board to tear down the team they root for and hoot and howl over the rest of the league... USC with the best roster in the B1G made me chuckle for sure.

 

[wc_illini]

I wouldn't go so far as to label them dysfunctional. They lost their best player and 20ppg scorer six games into the season. They have proven they'll compile talent.

USC doesn't have a clear top 7/8 and the bottom two guys are pretty weak (Jones & Bruns) so there is playing time to be earned... obviously a vastly different situation than Illinois returning most of it's players from a F4 team.

Dysfunctional was probably too harsh. But the team/staff hasn't demonstrated anywhere close to the success we have.

I can see both sides of whether their accumulation of talent is relevant to our situation at all. It's definitely a high-reward opportunity since they have more starting minutes up for grabs. But they have 9 guys who think they're good enough to start, and that doesn't even include Hughes, Jones, and Bruns (all productive starters at lower levels). So 3-4 of them will get buried, and one or two others will be disappointed in their playing time.

I guess I think if that situation was enticing enough for all those guys, wouldn't it be interesting for someone comparable to the #5-10 guys on USC's roster (not actually any of their guys, but Brad's choice of someone comparable) to come fight for 5th-8th on a pre-season top-5 program with great coaching/player development/team chemistry? Apparently it wasn't, though none of us can know for sure whether we tried to get anyone like that.

 

[wc_illini]

Tovik has USC's roster at #5 for talent. They are ranked lower due to program/coach history (experience and returning minutes were much less significant since plenty of other top ranked teams had similar returning minutes/experience)