Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread

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#326      
IlliniHardwood
PepeSilvia said:
Matt Mayer was good. It's not his fault that he was forced to operate in a role and take tough shots because he they had no guards on the roster.

Skyy Clark quit in December, Jayden Epps got progressively worse and then basically quit on the team towards the end, Sincere Harris was atrocious on offense.

That team was basically entirely Shannon and Mayer. Coleman was not good that year, Melendez sucked, Ty was a freshman, and so on.

Mayer would have been a monster if you put him in the Guerrier role the next year or if he got to play with as the 4 next to Kofi.
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I could not disagree more with this assessment of Mayer. Regardless of whether he was playing his ideal position or not, he could have had far better shot selection. I don't think there has ever been more contested step back 3s attempted in the history of basketball. To be fair, there was no cohesiveness with that team. But, by the same token, he was a major reason for the lack of cohesion because he was only looking to get his shot.
 
#329      
80'sIllini
Former 5-star recruit Joson Sanon enters portal

St. John's guard Joson Sason has entered the transfer portal. The former 5-star recruit from the Class of 2024 was the top-ranked player coming out of Massachusetts. In 37 games for the Johnnies this year, the sophomore averaged 7.9 points and 2.4 rebounds. This is his second time on the portal, after a freshman season with the Arizona State Sun Devils.

www.sportingnews.com

College basketball transfer portal tracker 2026: Latest news on John Blackwell, Juke Harris and others on the move | Sporting News

The Sporting News is tracking player movement in the college basketball transfer portal.
www.sportingnews.com www.sportingnews.com
 
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#330      
OB positive
If our Insiders are content with this current team w/out Blackwell, then I am fine.

BU and staff proved themselves bigly this year; they deserve our trust.

For things to work, I feel Morillo and especially Coleman will outperform expectations.

I feel the Twins along with Mirk will get a ton of looks close to the basket, as it proved valuable during their awesome run.

Vaaks cannot be sporadic like KJ (great player still), and I don't think he will.

Jake will be Jake.

If the defense can defend like they did during their awesome run and rebound, then it's go time.
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Brad also thought Sky Clark and Jayden Epps were gonna get us past the first weekend. While letting Fears go to MSU. We all know how that worked out. Even last year the plan was for Petro to run the offense, another big fail. We still need to get a veteran point gaurd added to the lineup or we might get bit in the !!! again.
 
#331      
ColSLU69
SescIllini said:
I agree, for having a high PPG, he looks to be a pass first guy. Has upper level speed/quickness, not a 3 point shooter. But his midrange is solid which will give us a player to use the space the 3 point shooters give us. He would be the guard to take on the Fears/Boyds/Dents of college bball. Seems very EDG.
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Agree on Cox! But he did make 36.5% of his 3-pointers last season, albeit not on the highest volume. I'm hearing that Cox is visiting Kentucky. So, he might be asking for more than Illinois is willing to pay for him? I also like that Cox played under Coach Crocker at Dayton. I imagine Coach knows Cox's character quite well.
 
#332      
ColSLU69
SescIllini said:
Attended the Portsmouth Invitational, a player out of Georgia Tech Kowacie Reeves looks like the portal type that might still be out there. 6-7 jumper, shooter, athletic...possibly under the radar. He was playing against AJ Storr, today looked to be the better NBA prospect. Never heard of him, is McLain out of NC State similar? I think we can move Andrej to shooting guard if Vaaks is the PG, add a good athletic shooting wing.
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6'5" sophomore SG Paul McNeil Jr (NC State) would also be a nice addition, and keep Stojakovic at SF.
 
#333      
Grandpa
If he ends up at UCLA he should’ve just stayed at Wisconsin
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There is the pay bump. I would have switched jobs for a season for several million.
 
#336      
Altuve27
ColSLU69 said:
Here are a couple of possibilities that may not have been mentioned earlier. 6'4" sophomore PG Christian Bliss (Delaware). He averaged 16.7/5.2/5.9 while shooting 42.4/39.3/84.8 this past season. And 6'3" Junior PG Tylen Riley ((San Jose State). He averaged 15.0/3.9/4.4 this past season.
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I like both of the guys you mentioned. There are a number of quality options I would be exploring. You are 1 injury away from the guard rotation being uncomfortably light. Brad sure as hell knows more about the roster than I do.

I just feel like we need one more guard. John Blackwell is FAR from the only really good guard available.
 
#337      
Det_Illini_fan
ColSLU69 said:
Agree on Cox! But he did make 36.5% of his 3-pointers last season, albeit not on the highest volume. I'm hearing that Cox is visiting Kentucky. So, he might be asking for more than Illinois is willing to pay for him? I also like that Cox played under Coach Crocker at Dayton. I imagine Coach knows Cox's character quite well.
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I think the word a couple days ago was that he was asking for an astronomical bag; way more than he’s worth. But I could be misremembering the intel.
 
#338      
Illinifan533
IlliniHardwood said:
I could not disagree more with this assessment of Mayer. Regardless of whether he was playing his ideal position or not, he could have had far better shot selection. I don't think there has ever been more contested step back 3s attempted in the history of basketball. To be fair, there was no cohesiveness with that team. But, by the same token, he was a major reason for the lack of cohesion because he was only looking to get his shot.
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The sequence that summed up the Matthew Mayer experience was during the game at Purdue. Illini battling from behind all game and they have the ball with Coleman Hawkins dribbling the ball. Mayer keeps calling for the ball but Coleman keeps waving him off. As was common that year nobody else was moving on offense so Coleman finally relents with the shot clock winding down and Mayer bricks yet another 3 on a play that wasn’t ran properly. Hard to think of an Illini player I was gladder to see gone than him. Best part about that season was it taught Brad a lot about the type of guys he needed.
 
#339      
Muskie
Hearing Duke for Blackwell, but things can change with that group.
 
#340      
SescIllini
Jaylon Cox seems to have a lot of what the team doesn't have, yet seems like a great glue EDG. BU and asst. always have a depth chart of recruits would think he is on the list. BU always seems to over recruit, believe we have at least one more portal acquisition.
 
#344      
rtbritt
ColSLU69 said:
Agree on Cox! But he did make 36.5% of his 3-pointers last season, albeit not on the highest volume. I'm hearing that Cox is visiting Kentucky. So, he might be asking for more than Illinois is willing to pay for him? I also like that Cox played under Coach Crocker at Dayton. I imagine Coach knows Cox's character quite well.
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Fair to say he isn’t a 3 pt shooter. Percentage isn’t much of an indicator when so few are taken, imo.
 
#346      
wncillini
WxIllini said:
Blackwell goes live on instagram for 0.2 seconds to say he’s still undecided… what a troll 😂😂
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Wonder if teams are losing interest as they are putting their energy elsewhere and he's trying to keep the interest up so "UCLA" has to bid against somebody.
 
#347      
Illiniforlife
If Blackwell goes to UCLA, they are going to be stacked. I would have them and Michigan ahead of us. I think we would be number 3 in big ten and for sure finish top 4 or 5
 
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