Illini's Mychal Henry transferring?

[amckillip]

Salley I liked the guy and he brought some toughness but the guy had bricks for hands. The other guys were all 4s at best. Yes we need a 5 to play with the elite teams unless you believe just making the NCAA and losing in the first round as acceptable. A true 5 gives a team an inside base which opens the outside shot.

Next year??? Making the NCAA is absolutely acceptable!

[tornado]

Salley I liked the guy and he brought some toughness but the guy had bricks for hands. ...

SFP - I liked Salley, too ..he gave us everything he could - but if people are riled about our current guys who give us 10-12 ppg and 6-8 rpg, then Salley's best seasons gave us 6-7 ppg & 5-6 rpg.
Plus Salley's size made him a bit of a defensive liability...
I'd have to think if we traded what we have now for Salley, plenty of the same people would suddenly realize it was a bad move...

and did I mention it simply IS hard to recruit top kids to any small private school in Central IL.

[Dub]

We have Wells. I am putting my stock in Nate Wells being a quality center for us next season, splitting time with Prosser.

[PeoriaLou]

We have Wells. I am putting my stock in Nate Wells being a quality center for us next season, splitting time with Prosser.

Oh boy, you have much more faith in those 2 then I do. I hope you're right, but if I was a betting man....

[Mikovio]

I'm not a fan of having two transfers sit out again, unless the coaching staff is incredibly confident about the big men we have making huge strides this offseason. We need inside help next year if we want to challenge for the Valley title. If anybody leaves though I wouldn't mind one transfer.

[Future Walk-On]

We need a true big man.

Not a 6'9" foward who shoots threes and can't defend inside

Not a 6'9" forward/center with no offense

Not a 6'6" forward

We need a player than plays with their back to the basket and can avg. 6-7 boards a game and defend.

[tornado]

I would love for BU to land a top big man - but the fans of NINE other MVC teams feel the same way...

who do you think will be the best big man in the Valley next year?

do we also need a PG?....or an outside shooter? - or a lock-down defender to replace Dyricus so the other team's best scorer doesn't go for 40 on us??

[tornado]

who do you think will be the best big man in the Valley next year?..

--using the official season stats from the MVC web site and arbitrarily choosing only those players who play a low post position
(and please, I have decided to use the eye test in deciding this because as much as people bicker minutia this one isn't all that hard to figure out - and if you think we should add Ned Cox or Desmar Jackson - just please don't have a cow..)
And hoping Doug McDermott goes to the NBA...

Here are the ONLY TWO returnees in the entire Valley who average better than 10 ppg OR 5 rpg -- (pretty minimal definitions of quality big men)

#1 Tyshon Pickett - 11.2 ppg & 5.7 rpg
#2 Seth Tuttle --- 10.8 ppg & 6.2 rpg

the other players in the league that I have seen comments that border on coveting are...
Joey King - 7.1 ppg & 2.9 rpg
Seth Van Deest - 9.5 ppg & 4.8 rpg
Egidijus Mockevicius - 5.5 ppg & 4.8 rpg
JordanThreloff - 2.7 ppg & 2.0 rpg
Justin Gant - 7.6 ppg & 4.7 rpg
Dantiel Daniels - 8.0 ppg & 3.3 rpg

I wouldn't trade our guy for any of them

[peoriaspitfire]

5 guard offense anyone? Allright, 4 guards and a semi-big.

[tornado]

possibly - without knowing anything else - would it surprise anyone if a couple players who were getting essentially zero playing time were interested in looking elsewhere because they fear they only have 2 years left and this coach did not recruit them....
the connections with the current coaches (via Chicago AAU or via Dustin Ford) could make them check out BU.

the downside I see is that once again we will use our only open scholarships for this fall on two guys who wouldn't likely be eligible for another year and a half...
all that optimistic talk of landing a couple more "difference makers" for this fall would end as neither of these guys would help us 'til 2014 and by then Walt Lemon, Prosser, & Tyshon are gone

looks like those rumors more than a month ago were pretty accurate - except we still haven't heard Henry discussed - but I am still hearing it might happen...

[amckillip]

looks like those rumors more than a month ago were pretty accurate - except we still haven't heard Henry discussed - but I am still hearing it might happen...

If this is true I would LOVE to get MH...

[alczervik75]

looks like those rumors more than a month ago were pretty accurate - except we still haven't heard Henry discussed - but I am still hearing it might happen...

It seems likely Groce wanted the other three to leave, I don't think that is the case with Henry. It's no secret Groce is looking at 2 - 3 5th year guys (including Ekey), so if Illinois gets a real good one (like the kid from Texas Tech or Tulane), Henry may look to move. I think Mike Irvin wants him to move, but I'm not as sure he wants to.

[bradleyfan124]

It sounds like Groce may be ticking off some of the AAU coaches. Not a good idea for a college head coach to do that

[alczervik75]

It sounds like Groce may be ticking off some of the AAU coaches. Not a good idea for a college head coach to do that

Oh, When Groce hired Paris Parham instead of Chin Coleman for the assistant role, it's pretty clear it didn't sit well with Mike Irvin. Of course, without Paris Parham, he probably doesn't get Kendrick Nunn, and isn't in pretty good shape with Cliff Alexander. Also, that helps with the entire Meanstreets roster (Nunn's dad is one of the coaches), so Illinois is in pretty good shape with Vic Law, Charles Matthews and DJ Williams, all top 50 guys.

I think it's hard to keep all the different Chicago AAU guys completely happy when they want you to hire their friends. I doubt it's too bad, however, as if Shaw didn't like the staff I doubt he would have came here to play for the brother of his big man coach. Also, I think Irvin's upset because the last staff, particularly Jerrance Howard promised both Henry and Shaw they'd get a lot of early playing time, but they haven't to this point.

[lightsout]

I keep hearing and reading that Henry may end up closer to home and end up playing for DePaul.