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.
Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread
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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
McNamara is going to make a difference. He's going to be really good. He's starting off well.
I said: “Wonder how much NIL it took”
You open with “No more than anyone else.”
Now you’re saying Syracuse paid him the most. So it was more than others?
My question was just a was this a $2M check or $3M check or higher, etc.
The main reason for that, was their FT shooting percentage:
The game they had against Houston was absolutely putrid.
It's a good thing a certain kid from Chicago didn't agree with your way of thinking back in 2017.
madillini4
Ozamataz Buckshank
- Millywaukee
hated boeheim but they are a basketball school through and through, much like Illinois. Wouldn’t mind them getting back to winning as I always liked McNamara. They should invest in a new basketball arena, but idk what their books look like.
Yep, we were absolutely mired in mediocrity, for a decade, before Ayo changed everything by taking a chance. I think some of our younger fans forget what we were.
Mac was a home run hire, but let's not forget their first choice was Bryan Hodgson.
Remember that name, he's not long at PC. That guy is a killer. Whoever gets him next is going to reap the rewards - next big name on the seen. Learned under Oats, flipped Arkansas St and South Florida instantly. Will be running that heavy analytics based offense. Orphan, ice in his veins. In ten years, he's top of sport.
Him and Jai Lucas are next gen. Hurley probably has ten years left, not sure if he does some of that in
Why so many of these programs default to their crappy assistant coach to the legend without any HC experience is beyond me. Red Autry was such a bust. The forced alumni hire is one of the worst decisions in CBB. Duke did alright by Scheyer, but he was trained for 9 years and given a Ferrari. I think there was a decent chance he bombed had he taken the DePaul job. Nice guy, but comes off a bit canned.
The worst hire is the ex NBA star.
UNC - Hubert
UK - Pope
Cuse - Red
UConn - Ollie (won a title off Calhoun's fumes, the ran them into the ground)
Nova - Neptune
GTown - Ewing
There have been some bad coaching hires that have run legendary programs into the ground. Georgetown may have the next biggest brand to Duke in the 80s/90s as were Urban America's team with John Thompson, Ewing, Mourning, Mutombo and Iverson. Then he stepped down and they never really recovered after they tried Ewing in the seat. Now the fan base is completely apathetic.
Nova was on top of the CBB world there with Wright, they made a terrible hire in Neptune and now have to climb out of the hole they dug with a decent, not great coach in Willard.
When UConn was firing Ollie, they're short list included guys like Thad Matt and Tom Crean. Imagine if they went that route?
Absolutely love him but I think Frazier started the Illini evolution...
Trent, Damonte & Giorgi are the OG’s.
To a degree. They went 11-27 in the B1G their first two years.
Kofi doesn’t get enough flowers. He changed everything.
Trent, Giorgi & Damonte were all in the same class..no?
Before Kofi, we were horrible. As soon as he arrived, we were really good.
Yet, it's indisputable that Ayo was our best player and head of the snake.
So it's those two for me.
Yet, it's indisputable that Ayo was our best player and head of the snake.
So it's those two for me.
Ayo was the catalyst for everything we are experiencing now there isn't even a conversation to be had about it. Ask anyone there.
Yep I agree and it's why you can make a pretty strong argument that Ayo is the GOAT in the program's history.
The question is, do we land a Kofi if Ayo wasn't here. Did he attract higher profile recruits? Ayo brought instant credibility by his commitment alone then, once here, he brought a swagger that made coming here "cool" again. The Michigan shot, the daggers vs OSU, etc....there was an electricity that we didn't have in a LONG time.
Trent, GB and Frazier were critical pieces to winning, but I don't think we're getting the higher level of recruits in the door(at that time) without Ayo. Glad we didn't have to find out.
He's got a darn good argument for being the GOAT. Before him(and after the 2006 year), a good season for us was just not being on the bubble. If we got in as a 6 or 7, it was a really good season. Generally, we were sweating it out and after that, we weren't even in the conversation.
When Ayo came, his first year we were clearly in the rise because we had a star and here we are. If we're not a top 4 seed, people are ticked.
One COULD argue that the GOAT is Brad. Ayo isn't here without him. Brad sold a vision, which sold Ayo and Ayo was a fantastic ambassador of the program. Still is. Was he here without BU....don't think so.
If Ayo and Kofi don't come on board Frazier just becomes another example of a great Illini player who didn't have enough talent around him to win anything. See, e.g., Malcolm Hill.
St. Johns- Chris Mullin
(asst. Mitch Richmond)
Please don’t leave Michigan and Juwan Howard plus Memphis and Penny Hardaway out of this “ex NBA players who can’t coach to save their lives” conversation
Jerry Stackhouse
Anfernee Hardaway (1 tourney win in 8 seasons)
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