Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread
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I really liked Matthew Mayer for a while, he was funny and he won us some games but at the end of the season, he went super cold, starting with that awful loss at IU. That coupled with the Monster Overdose and losing in the first round of the NCAA tournament left a real bad taste in my mouthfor both MM and Jaden Epps. When referring to that team, my kids and I always call it the Matthew Mayer team and we're not saying it as a compliment.I've beaten a dead horse on Petro. I think he would have been fine, he just happened to show up on campus where the 5th overall pick was waiting - he falls into my bucket of "he underachieved because someone else stepped up".
Melendez late season push probably made him overachieve freshman year. Because he overachieved in year 1, maybe that meant he underachieved sophomore due to our expectations - I guess i'd roll with that, but a little nuance.
Humrichous for sure didnt reach expecations in year 1, i think he crushed expectations in year 2. Half the board wanted him off the team. Another 25% of the board still blames him for Morez Johnson shooting 50 percent from the free throw line. Overall, I'd call Ben's time in Champaign successful
Mayer - forgive me, I don't really remember the consensus of the board on him. If we were saying AA, then ya, ridiculous. But he started 33 games for us and averaged 12.5 and 5 (career highs in points, rebounds, assists, and blocks). He was goofball, and i think we all kinda disliked that team, but he was productive.
Booth - you're right. I'd add Skyy Clark to that list as well.
He was very good in the loss @IU. Shannon was out with a concussion, and Mayer carried us with 24&8.
It was RJ Melendez who was horrid in that game. CH was given a really bad technical after a dunk on TJD. Jayden Epps missed a game tying free throw.
…..
The following game Shannon came back, and we had the huge 19pt comeback against NW.
We followed up that historic win with a loss @OSU. This was an atrocious Ohio State team that hadn’t won a game in like two months… but they snapped that losing streak against us.
That OSU game completely broke my spirit with that team.
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We were in the mix for a big ten title.
- Illinois had to win against OSU and Michigan
- Purdue had to lose at Wisconsin
If those were to happen, our final game at Mackey would’ve been for a share of the Big Ten (one game behind PU in the standings).
Memory is tricky, Now that you say that, I now remember that it was RJ who was really bad that game, and Epps wasn't great either, our 3 point shooting was lousy overall but somehow I was disappointed in MM too. Not sure why, I guess just the disappointment of that loss, MM certainly scored and rebounded well that game, not sure what I expected from him other than wishing he hadn't passed the ball to RJ and had just taken the shot himself. RJ was 0-fer that game. The NW game was a great comeback but Jaden Epps sat at the end of the bench and pouted, and that bothered me. After the OSU loss, MM had the Monster Poisoning incident which caused him to miss some practises. Then something weird happened with Jaden getting hurt in practice, even went to the hospital, and there was something mysterious about that. Seemed like there may have been a fight that broke out at practise. The Vibes with the tame seemed off hen lAfter we lost to Arkansas, I remember Coleman making some cryptic remarks that made it seem like he wasn't a fan of MM's. Then the following summer, Ty Rodgers seemed to allude to issues with the previous year's personnel which I took to mean MM and Jaden. Vibes were just off, somehow. The year just seemed disappointiing.
Well, we will play them this year. He's a very good defender, and likely the starting SF at Duke.
I agree. It was not a fun hang. It was my least favorite Underwood team - which given the losing early in the rebuild, is actually saying something.
My only point is he wasn't a total zero.
Same. Whenever referring to that team, i always call it the "mayer team."
I thought he was terrific in the game we knocked off Texas at MSG too. TSJ was actually bad in that one, until he was dazzling in OT.
But Mayer went for 21 - 8/10 from the field and 5/5 from 3.
He was good in the OT win against Michigan (24/7). Excellent at Iowa in a game we lost by 2 (21/5/4). He was excellent on the road knocking off Wisconin (26). He had moments, and we probably don't make the tournament with out. But ya. meh.
I hope that's true. I hope he's a strong contributor as a frosh. I'm especially interested in his development, as he was confident enough to commit to us even though our backcourt was already loaded with young talent.
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