Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread

[Amelot]

Hey hey hey buddy... Central Illinois is pretty beautiful in its own right!!! Won't take none of that!!

Having just returned from Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, and Montenegro, I have two responses.
1. We need to have a recruiter posted permanently in the region. At 6', I was frequently towered over.
2. All of those regions are gorgeous. Central Illinois, not so much.

 

[MadtownIllin]

Having just returned from Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, and Montenegro, I have two responses.
1. We need to have a recruiter posted permanently in the region. At 6', I was frequently towered over.
2. All of those regions are gorgeous. Central Illinois, not so much.

After and recently returning from these countries, I can verify the observations and can add that the women's team might also benefit..

 

[RollChief]

Having just returned from Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, and Montenegro, I have two responses.
1. We need to have a recruiter posted permanently in the region. At 6', I was frequently towered over.
2. All of those regions are gorgeous. Central Illinois, not so much.

Hope you enjoyed your trip! As someone from Central Illinois, when I visited Montenegro, I couldn’t believe a place like that existed. Absolutely stunning.

Croatia is also beautiful, funny enough a lot of westerns in the 60s were shot in the mountains around Zadar because it was cheaper to do it there than in the U.S. (or so a tour guide told me). The country is incredibly clean, respectful and welcoming in my experience, and it didn’t feel like you were tripping over other tourists the whole time like in parts of Italy.

Going in between Croatia and Bosnia was crazy because of all the reminders of the Yugoslav wars, it’s crazy to think there was a hot war like that so recently in that region.

 

[Battle89]

I wanted to argue that Izzo would be more Slytherin than Cronin, but I think he's more of the goblin banker than a wizard...

View attachment 50562

C'mon, it's been well-documented that he is an elf

 

[QCUIGrad0512]

Gotta say… I’ve never been so uninterested in ongoing discussions on this site as I have been with these two. So in order to get things on a better track, here’s a picture of a pizza I made at home. #homemadepizza

View attachment 50545

Quad Cities-style? Or just not a fan of triangles?

 

[Fly Illini Fly!]

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.

https://twitter.com/x/status/2065124555165761701

 

[Fly Illini Fly!]

I don't remember needing a heart monitor while watching him dish out 6 assists with 0 turnovers at Breslin:

View attachment 50550

But yeah, I get it... dude be crazy (no more underhand, full court softball pitches, please)

He wasn't near as helpful the following game against Wisconsin (when we needed anyone who could dribble the ball besides Keaton; both Andrej and Boz out).

 

[Combo]

He wasn't near as helpful the following game against Wisconsin (when we needed anyone who could dribble the ball besides Keaton; both Andrej and Boz out).

Yeah, even though he does have good handles for a PF, you don't want him to overhandle. In that regard, Jake and Ben were really smart last year - they just didn't put the ball on the floor that often. Sometimes not dribbling at all is the best option.

 

[Fly Illini Fly!]

Here is my issue. The same people that say Vaaks will our point guard are the same people that can't explain what a point guard is and say basketball is position less.

Fact of the matter is we all thought it would be Petrovic last year and were wrong.

We have 4 playmakers in our starting lineup. Vaaks and Coleman are both combo/shooting guards to me. The primary ball handling duty will be sorted out throughout the year just like last year. Somebody will have to earn it and go take it. Coleman has that assertiveness to do that. Whether he does or not, time will tell. Anybody that thinks anything is guaranteed at this point is fooling themselves.

Anybody that thinks anything is guaranteed at this point is fooling themselves.

I mean you're the one who claimed it's "indisputable" that Coleman is our point guard.

.....

FWIW, Vaaks is the only one on this roster with natural PG ball skills.

Coleman is very good, but he's more 2 than 1 (which is COMPLETELY fine).

 

[Illini in Italy]

I wanted to argue that Izzo would be more Slytherin than Cronin, but I think he's more of the goblin banker than a wizard...

View attachment 50562

So let it be written, so let it be done . . .

 

[Weatherspoon1]

I mean you're the one who claimed it's "indisputable" that Coleman is our point guard.

.....

FWIW, Vaaks is the only one on this roster with natural PG ball skills.

Coleman is very good, but he's more 2 than 1 (which is COMPLETELY fine).

We can slide Mirk into this convo as well.

 

[Illinisnake]

Keaton wasn't known to be a ball handler coming into last season......at all, more of a 2. Coleman is more of a 2 as well but can handle the ball no problem. I think it will be a mixed bag of Vaaks, Mirk and Coleman handling the ball.

 

[Illinicpa14]

Keaton wasn't known to be a ball handler coming into last season......at all, more of a 2. Coleman is more of a 2 as well but can handle the ball no problem. I think it will be a mixed bag of Vaaks, Mirk and Coleman handling the ball.

There’s also 2 types of needs for “primary ball handler”

There is the guy that initiates and runs the offense - that was wagler

And there’s also the guy that can handle the ball in the backcourt with guys draped on him, break down press, break down the double teams in high leverage late game - more often then not, that was Kylan for us.

A lot of times, that’s the same guy. For us last year, it wasn’t.

I think through all the guys back we have no issues with #1 for most games and situations, it’s the question of what does that look like in the tight end of game sequences. It’s also June…

 

[skyIdub]

We have our point guardS.

 

[Joel Goodson]

not that it matters much (for us, anyway), but:

https://twitter.com/x/status/2065459499888955537

 

[nichi]

FWIW, Vaaks is the only one on this roster with natural PG ball skills.

.

Other than Morillo, possibly Brown.

 

[Emerson Bigguns]

Having just returned from Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, and Montenegro, I have two responses.
1. We need to have a recruiter posted permanently in the region. At 6', I was frequently towered over.
2. All of those regions are gorgeous. Central Illinois, not so much.

The average height of men worldwide is 5'7"-5'9".

In the US it's 5'9"

In every one of those countries it is 6'+

Montenegro (Mirk's home) is #2 in the world. (Netherlands edges them by about half a centimeter)

They are all among the top dozen countries in average height globally. The average woman over there is basically the same height as the average man here.

Vaaks' home, Estonia, is #5.

It's good to have friends in TALL places...

 

[Joel Goodson]

https://twitter.com/x/status/2065439179295600856

 

[Fly Illini Fly!]

Keaton wasn't known to be a ball handler coming into last season......at all, more of a 2. Coleman is more of a 2 as well but can handle the ball no problem. I think it will be a mixed bag of Vaaks, Mirk and Coleman handling the ball.

This is not true. This perfectly illustrates LaTulip’s point on a recent pod… if he were 6”2, everyone would’ve called him a point guard.

PG isn’t based off of height. It’s based off of ball skills and PnR ability. Keaton always had that ability and simply being a point guard.

Now… he wasn’t thought to be THE TEAM’S point guard (which is a completely different point) because Kylan and Petro were said to be very good.

Boswell still was, Petro was a bust, and Wagler was just a generational Illini freshman.