NBA Draft

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#126      
OrangeBlue98
21ChampaignSt said:
In other words, if you go pro as soon as possible then you have a 50% chance of making tens of millions more than if you were to stay in college. If I'm a player with even an ounce of self confidence I'm betting on myself and taking those odds ten times out of ten.

Staying in college for as long as possible makes sense for guys like Hunter Dickinson, Kofi, etc. NIL is a life changer for them. But for guys who are surefire first round picks, there really doesn't need to be this much debate over what the right move is.
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This is the same argument that we see when looking at potential MLB draft picks. If the kid has a good chance of making it big in the pros, you go. If you want to return to college one day, you can. If I were someone like Riley and (hypothetically) I wanted to get my degree, I'd try to negotiate that into my first contract.

A degree will always be there. The earning potential of a professional athlete has a limited expected life even in the best of circumstances.
 
#127      
grue2
OrangeBlue98 said:
This is the same argument that we see when looking at potential MLB draft picks. If the kid has a good chance of making it big in the pros, you go. If you want to return to college one day, you can. If I were someone like Riley and (hypothetically) I wanted to get my degree, I'd try to negotiate that into my first contract.

A degree will always be there. The earning potential of a professional athlete has a limited expected life even in the best of circumstances.
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The college degree will be there. Large portions of the college experience likely will not. Its an interesting question IMO.
 
#128      
ChiefGritty
pcvIllini said:
Looking forward to seeing who ends up better, Buzelis or Flagg.
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Buzelis is special athletically. His growth into an NBA star depends on him developing in the coming years of his early 20's the kind of creating and offense-initiating ability with the ball in his hands that Flagg was already showing against NBA talent as a 17 year old high schooler.

Levels.
 
#129      
OrangeBlue98
grue2 said:
The college degree will be there. Large portions of the college experience likely will not. Its an interesting question IMO.
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As someone who has a son going through the college search process in a different sport and has a good friend who is fielding legitimate D-1 offers, I honestly don't think the college experience really applies to athletes. Sure, they may have a little time to do "normal college things". But their non-class time is pretty much consumed by their sport. For example, family friends of ours have a son playing soccer for a mid-major D-1 school. He had to drop a class where he was doing well and enjoyed the class because he was going to miss too many classes due to an extended trip. The professor was simply not going to compromise on attendance standards and would drop him one letter grade for each absence above the threshold.

I get what you're saying, but I don't think Will Riley's college experience is anywhere close to Joe/Jane Q.Public who is not a D-1 student-athlete.
 
#130      
grue2
OrangeBlue98 said:
As someone who has a son going through the college search process in a different sport and has a good friend who is fielding legitimate D-1 offers, I honestly don't think the college experience really applies to athletes. Sure, they may have a little time to do "normal college things". But their non-class time is pretty much consumed by their sport. For example, family friends of ours have a son playing soccer for a mid-major D-1 school. He had to drop a class where he was doing well and enjoyed the class because he was going to miss too many classes due to an extended trip. The professor was simply not going to compromise on attendance standards and would drop him one letter grade for each absence above the threshold.

I get what you're saying, but I don't think Will Riley's college experience is anywhere close to Joe/Jane Q.Public who is not a D-1 student-athlete.
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I'll agree that the D1-players college experience is going to be different. I still think it can be fun and life changing. I strongly suspect they have more free time than I did**. Even an hour or two of free time a day and 3-4 hours on weekend days over the course of years adds up. I don't think I'd be better off with more money in the bank instead. Once you have enough, you have enough. As others have observed, its pretty rare for anyone going in the first round to not end up with enough. IMO its an interesting choice. I wouldn't have been wise enough to realize it at the time.

** Average 20hrs/sem in eng courseload. Study 40+hrs/wk. 20hrs/wk of work to try to pay the bills. I still found time to get out and do stuff.
 
#131      
jmwillini
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#132      
pweo
OrangeBlue98 said:
As someone who has a son going through the college search process in a different sport and has a good friend who is fielding legitimate D-1 offers, I honestly don't think the college experience really applies to athletes. Sure, they may have a little time to do "normal college things". But their non-class time is pretty much consumed by their sport. For example, family friends of ours have a son playing soccer for a mid-major D-1 school. He had to drop a class where he was doing well and enjoyed the class because he was going to miss too many classes due to an extended trip. The professor was simply not going to compromise on attendance standards and would drop him one letter grade for each absence above the threshold.

I get what you're saying, but I don't think Will Riley's college experience is anywhere close to Joe/Jane Q.Public who is not a D-1 student-athlete.
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I remember turning around late one night in a computer lab at Everitt and thinking dang, that guy is huge. It was Jack Ingram. I'm sure times have changed a little...
 
#133      
PepeSilvia
OrangeBlue98 said:
As someone who has a son going through the college search process in a different sport and has a good friend who is fielding legitimate D-1 offers, I honestly don't think the college experience really applies to athletes. Sure, they may have a little time to do "normal college things". But their non-class time is pretty much consumed by their sport. For example, family friends of ours have a son playing soccer for a mid-major D-1 school. He had to drop a class where he was doing well and enjoyed the class because he was going to miss too many classes due to an extended trip. The professor was simply not going to compromise on attendance standards and would drop him one letter grade for each absence above the threshold.

I get what you're saying, but I don't think Will Riley's college experience is anywhere close to Joe/Jane Q.Public who is not a D-1 student-athlete.
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Eh. I played a non revenue sport for 3 years before injury and had a fairly normal college experience imo.

Having to drop a class would be news to me. The university basically bent over backwards to make sure we could enroll in classes first to set up a schedule and had mandatory study halls/tutors available to keep us eligible.

There wasn't as much weekday drinking as some of my friends or my last year but still did plenty of that and had plenty of time to do normal college things.

Honestly the free tutoring felt like a cheat code and I feel like I made up a ton of time that regular students would be studying.
 
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#137      
IlliniFaninHoosierLand
OrangeBlue98 said:
As someone who has a son going through the college search process in a different sport and has a good friend who is fielding legitimate D-1 offers, I honestly don't think the college experience really applies to athletes. Sure, they may have a little time to do "normal college things". But their non-class time is pretty much consumed by their sport. For example, family friends of ours have a son playing soccer for a mid-major D-1 school. He had to drop a class where he was doing well and enjoyed the class because he was going to miss too many classes due to an extended trip. The professor was simply not going to compromise on attendance standards and would drop him one letter grade for each absence above the threshold.
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One of my best friends from high school got a full ride to go to West Point to play basketball. He was a good high school player though he probably would have been better off going to a D-III school like Millikin as he would have been able to be more dominant at that level than at the low D-I level. (I won't blame him for going the route he did though. He has an electrical engineering degree and has got a pretty nice paying job working for GE nowadays.)

One of the biggest differences he said between playing in high school and college was that in college they treat it more seriously, like a job, than just something you do after school like in high school, where you're just playing the sport with your friends.

A couple months back I was talking to a former co-worker of mine. Her daughter is a really good soccer player and could have gone D-I but opted to go D-II (in Iowa I think?) because the coaches they talked to at the D-I level made it seem like they take things way too serious at that level and she probably wouldn't have had much fun playing as she would have where she is now.
 
#139      
Grandpa
Mr. Roberts said:
Jack was an engineering major. Not many of those in CBB (then or now). Side note - Jack is having a nice career in the engineering world.
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This post needs more likes!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Go like this post. A serious basketball player (Jack Ingram) played serious basketball, got a serious Illinois engineering degree, and is now a serious engineer! This is what is supposed to happen for the guys who don't get to play basketball for a living.
 
#140      
JSpence
pweo said:
I remember turning around late one night in a computer lab at Everitt and thinking dang, that guy is huge. It was Jack Ingram. I'm sure times have changed a little...
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Even at the time, it was really noteworthy to have a prime time athlete in ECE. Very few programs at the school were (or still are?) more difficult. Physics had a lot of gravitas, but at the undergrad level, it was MCB followed by EE. No offense to Aero. Or Nuke. Or TAM 💔.
 
#145      
Calvin
PepeSilvia said:
Honestly the free tutoring felt like a cheat code and I feel like I made up a ton of time that regular students would be studying.
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Tutoring was one of my many part-time jobs to get spending money as a grad student. One-on-one time felt like it really helped students keep up & get their questions answered and feel more confident about their knowledge. The tutors I knew were pretty strong in their area and wanted to help. Most of the students I encountered had a measure of good discipline courtesy of their athletic experience (I know that's not true across the board) so it was pretty effective as a service.
 
#146      
Brosky
I would think most of NBA scouts/evaluators would like to see Will work thru another college season to get bigger and stronger, but what do I know about it?
 
#147      
AirNeazy
Lol not like defense, athleticism, and shooting are considered essential to stick in the modern NBA or anything like that.

Any GM taking Danny Wolf in the top 20 should be immediately fired.
 
#150      
Mobi
MDchicago said:
Good breakdown of Will's development looking at his splits over the last half of the season.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1911859103342989583
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I know I am biased but the fact that he can be a second/third ball handler while creates for himself, others, and nice off ball movement looks very nice to me. It still frustrates me that we had so many nice individual pieces but couldn't piece it together the last season. I guess KJ's injury was a big toll but that's not the main cause for our flawed defence.
 
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