For sure I was just trying to build a conservative case to temper hopes. Will make a potential eventual commitment that much sweeter.
Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread
I saw someone refer to Carmelo’s run in the tournament as “lucky” a couple of days ago lol.
Melo was the classic case of one super talented player going on a heater and carrying a team. They usually produce your worst champions.
2003 Syracuse (Melo)
2011 UConn (Kemba)
2014 UConn (Napier)
Those three teams are widely considered the worst champs of the century. It's hard to call them lucky, but more of an unrepeatable model.
Not all that unlike Danny Manning lead Kansas.
Lots of champions have had a super talented player.
Florida, for example, had Walter Clayton Jr.
Villanova had Jalen Brunson (NPOY).
Eh, Florida was a 1 seed. Brunson was a great 2 seed. Those were great "teams".
UConn was a 7 and 3 seed, Cuse was a 3 seed.
Anyone ever catch this article on how Calipari pitches recruits? If you ever want to find out what your up against when you go against this snakeoil salesman.
How John Calipari Blurs the Line Between College Coach and NBA Agent
www.theringer.com
RabidDawgClassic
- Los Angeles, CA
Danny Manning’s championship team was definitely lucky with so many higher seeds before them being upset.
The 03 Syracuse team had Hakim Warwick too. He was the perfect compliment to Melo. He was great at all the things Melo wasn’t.
Dude spent a decade in the NBA.
Melo scored a lot of points, but he had help.
McNamara hit 6 3’s in the Final, & Warwick blocked the Kansas attempt to tie it at the buzzer.
I don’t have any insight, but he seems to check all the boxes for a future Illini.
Wonder how much NIL that took.
No more than anywhere else. These guys that feel very strongly their NBA bound sooner rather than later might as well get every penny they can. Only 1 team can win a national title. Even if you go to the best team, theres no guarantee you win, so just get your money. College basketball has been turned into a professional business now.
photo caption: damn we gonna have to carbon-date this after we get the cob webs off it
You sort of contradicted yourself there.
If the money at SU wasn’t more why not go to a place with better coaching and chance to win while making the same money?
Perhaps you’re indirectly making a point that SU may help better showcase him for the NBA draft?
This is not a “we didn’t want him anyway” post but of all the guys we’re getting on visits he was one I think the fit may not have been right. He’s a great talent and we would have been lucky to have him but an athletic wing that doesn’t really have an outside shot right now and just wants to get to the rim isn’t the prototype for this offense. I’m sure Tyler would have figured out how to utilize him but it wasn’t a must get IMO Pettigrew and Berrouet (sounds like he may recalls to ‘27) I am much more excited about their fit
I think people are underestimating the importance of the fact that he is from New York. Yes, money typically is the biggest factor these days, but these decisions rarely only come down to just one thing and local ties do still carry some weight.
Hope that's true with Pettigrew and Kelly too.
Considered by whom?
He'a Bronx kid, Cuse's stomping ground. McNamara needed to make a splash and has apparently been in on Moussa for awhile.
I don't think there is much debate about that considering the majority of the champs in this century were a 1 or 2 seed. Florida in 06 was a 3 and UConn in 23 was a 4 seed. Considering that Florida won every game by double digits except one game and UConn won every game by double digits although they didn't play a seed higher than a 3.
You could make an argument 03 Syracuse and 11 UConn were better than 23 UConn. I would say they were better. So maybe put 23 UConn behind those 2.
23 UConn
14 UConn
11 Uconn
03 Syracuse
Rank them how you want but I would consider those the "worst' champs of the century. 06 Florida were probably better than some of those 1 and 2 seed champs.
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not really, I was taking the prior comment from the perspective of why go to Syracuse. My thought being, Syracuse's money cashes just the same as Duke. So he went to Syracuse most likely because they paid him the most. Why worry too much about winning for 1 year if you're thinking you're going pro. Just go to the highest bidder.
Any list of experts ranking champs of the century. I've seen about 5 of them, those are consistently your bottom three. 2022 Kansas is usually right there.
23 UConn is tough because they steamrolled the field, and they also steamrolled the overall 1 in the early season. They smoked their OOC schedule. Still lower half, but not sure one of the 4 worst.
I'd rank the worst as:
14 UConn - basketball was straight mierda between 2010-2020 other than that Villanova team, in that OAD era.
11 UConn
03 Cuse
22 Kansas
Still not sure how great that 19 Virginia team was. The 2010 Duke team wasn't all that special.
These guys do a pretty good job of it, not sure I agree with the full list. Figures our 24 team has to run into the second best champ of the century.
Ranking every college basketball national champion since 2000
Ranking national champions is usually a fool's errand. These lists tend to boil down to vibes, recency bias, and whichever team the writer happened to grow up watching. I wanted to do it differently, so I built a grading system to objectively rate all 26 champions since the turn
www.basketunderreview.com
This one is close.
2001 Duke
Jay Williams
Shane Battier
Dunleavy
Nate James
Carlos Boozer
2024 UConn
Newton
Spencer
Castle
Karaban
Clingan
If you unpack them player for player, Duke is probably the better team. Duke three lottery picks, 1 second rounder, 4 guys drafted. UConn 2 lottery picks, 3 first round picks, all 5 guys drafted. JWill/Battier first team AA. Newton first team AA.
Clingan is the biggest chess piece on the board. UConn keeps him in drop and he shuts the water off in the paint. Boozer was also a terrible defender. I'm just not sure if he could get into Clingan's chest and move him/draw fouls. Everyone tried that, didn't work. Duke had three guys that were blazing from 3.
Castle was a menace on D and if they stuck him on JayWill and they shut off the paint, exactly what they did against us, that Duke team is stifled. That Duke team was down to Maryland by 20 in the tourney before they came back. That UConn team blitzed teams all tournament. Different era.
I think a team with a true dominant rim protector and a predator like perimeter defender is one of the most deviant recipes in college basketball. If you take away the paint and the other teams best perimeter player, what are you left with? UConn then extends defense to the three point line, let's Dunleavy put it on the floor. Would be a game where they give Duke a ton of mid rangers. Hard to do this one given the era difference.
CHATGBT says Duke by 3.
I give coaching/system and how the pieces fit, plus unique chess pieces, to UConn.
Cuse finished 15th in ACC, and 2 games under .500. Makes sense