Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread

[Tevo]

Yes, absolutely. Continuity is a top 3 thing in college basketball even in the current landscape imo (1: personnel/talent, 2: experience, 3: roster continuity if you asked me to rank what's important) and then I'd say coaching is 4th behind those things, not sure really.

The original comment that spurred discussion was someone questioning bringing in this many transfers. We all certainly agree (I hope, anyway) that roster continuity is crucial.

I think with the roster changes the way they are, and will be, it moves coaching up to probably #2 or even #1. The coaching skills needed may be shifted from more traditional skill building or even breaking-down-and-building-back of individual players, to roster construction, chemistry-building, motivation/buy-in, and flexibility to adjust quickly, etc. Is it fair to say that head coaches now need to be more "managers" and less traditional "coaches"? More about taking the experienced players and adding a tool/adjusting a technique and putting them in position (with their teammates) to maximize their production, rather than molding raw athletic talent or teaching concepts? Maybe that's splitting hairs. But Underwood has talked about the "junior-college approach", and Tony Bennett's departure does point to somewhat different skills (or temperament) being needed. With all the transfer turnover and turmoil, I would say the consistent elements of coaches and staff are even more important now than previously.

 

[jamarvelous31]

View attachment 37071

Maybe Canadian Bacon?

 

[fuggles]

If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend watching the series and specificly episode 3. Everyday Starts Here, Episode 3

Tyler talks about using advanced metrics in recruiting. Says Brad is a numbers guy. Would have been an accountant if coaching didn't work out.

UIUC has a world class Computer Science department. I don't know how much the Athletic Department can use the resources of the Academic departments. I would guess quite a bit in athlete education technologies. Analytics idk.

Its a new era. Reminds me of Billy Beane at Oakland 20 years ago. Revolutionized MLB roster construction.

Time will tell. But I like where this is going so far.

 

[Mapman]

If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend watching the series and specificly episode 3. Everyday Starts Here, Episode 3

Tyler talks about using advanced metrics in recruiting. Says Brad is a numbers guy. Would have been an accountant if coaching didn't work out.

UIUC has a world class Computer Science department. I don't know how much the Athletic Department can use the resources of the Academic departments. I would guess quite a bit in athlete education technologies. Analytics idk.

Its a new era. Reminds me of Billy Beane at Oakland 20 years ago. Revolutionized MLB roster construction.

Time will tell. But I like where this is going so far.

Great point, but I would add there is a difference between analytics and computer science. The synergy is more with statistics and statistical modeling, IMO.

 

[Grandpa]

IMHO we would have been a better team if Hawkins and Sencire had stayed for the continuity, also if I had played some different numbers I would have won the lottery.

A team like 2005 that had been starting together for most of the previous 2 seasons is going to be very rare.

 

[fuggles]

Great point, but I would add there is a difference between analytics and computer science. The synergy is more with statistics and statistical modeling, IMO.

Fair enough. I guess I was thinking about building the models more so than the data gathering, statistical part. As a former CS/EE I think the statistics, data, is the easy part. Analysis and decision making is the hard part, and isn't really statistics. In the episode they talked about some interesting data they are collecting. Likely I was loose with my terminology. Still pretty excited about what is happening here. Oh and that NOAH thing is super cool. Speaking of stats and data.

On a tangent here is some cool stuff the University is doing on sports analytics. Old but somewhat related. After the recruitment.

Sensors embedded in sports equipment could provide real-time analytics to your smartphone

Sensors embedded in sports equipment could provide real-time analytics to your smartphone

csl.illinois.edu

Another cool story more recent.

From Illinois to the NFL: one data scientists journey | Department of Statistics | Illinois

In the high-impact world of professional football, player health and safety are of utmost concern.

stat.illinois.edu

 

[Bucktown]

IMHO we would have been a better team if Hawkins and Sencire had stayed for the continuity, also if I had played some different numbers I would have won the lottery.

A team like 2005 that had been starting together for most of the previous 2 seasons is going to be very rare.

The question is who would not be here if we had Coleman and/or Sincere?

 

[NashvILLe05]

The question is who would not be here if we had Coleman and/or Sincere?

Really good point. I do wish we could’ve seen Coleman at the 4 and Morez at the 5 together, especially on D, but wasn’t meant to be. Sorta reminds me of Cook and Augustine playing together back in ‘02.

 

[Old Farm Illini]

The question is who would not be here if we had Coleman and/or Sincere?

I don’t think we’d have Dra if we kept Sincere and I’m happier that we kept Dra.

 

[aaeismacgychel]

The question is who would not be here if we had Coleman and/or Sincere?

Coleman was never in the cards for next year it seemed, based on both timing and what both wanted. So sort of a tough hypothetical there. If Amani and Sencire stayed would probably have been more feasible. That said if Coleman/Amani stayed, I think that Booth would probably never have come. As for Sencire, that's a tougher question. While it could be Jake, doubting it. DGL seemed like he wanted to stay. Ben and Tre both probably wouldn't think they're unaffected. Boswell, KJ, and Riley are still coming. So it is maybe DGL or Tre?

 

[PepeSilvia]

Coleman was never in the cards for next year it seemed, based on both timing and what both wanted. So sort of a tough hypothetical there. If Amani and Sencire stayed would probably have been more feasible. That said if Coleman/Amani stayed, I think that Booth would probably never have come. As for Sencire, that's a tougher question. While it could be Jake, doubting it. DGL seemed like he wanted to stay. Ben and Tre both probably wouldn't think they're unaffected. Boswell, KJ, and Riley are still coming. So it is maybe DGL or Tre?

Its all a lot of ifs that don't matter now and I'm happy to see this team play but I think if Domask had ended up getting that waiver this years team would look very different.

I think it would be more of a let's run it back type of year where Brad went and got a bunch of veteran guys instead of this year which would have included Coleman coming back on a team that's all in on a championship.

Instead it's more of a transition type year.