Illini land another mid-major transfer

[tornado]

Illinois has made a cottage industry out of grabbing mid-major and low-BCS-caliber transfers...
Sam Maniscalco, Jon Ekey, Rayvonte Rice, Sam McLaurin, Darius Paul - and I guess you could even throw Ahmad Starks & Aaron Cosby onto that list.

now they land another one - JOhn Groce seemed desperate for a guard to replace Tracy Abrams...
they get Khalid Lewis from LaSalle who will now play at his 3rd 4-year college..
Coming off a senior season at LaSalle (he was actually a redshirt junior in his 4th season) - he averaged 6 ppg, 2 assists, hitting 37% and 32.8% from the arc and 62% on FTs. He started his college career at Delaware, a couple stops ago...
Khalid's claim to fame is that he is Ken Griffey, Jr.'s nephew.
A couple of my Illini friends are shaking their heads that John Groce can't get any better or more depth than this..

[Da Coach]

John Groce is becoming increasingly desperate for another point guard.
He just offered a 2-star, 2016 junior college point guard-

https://verbalcommits.com/players/donovan-jackson

[tornado]

posters on the Illini board are bummed that they got beat out for Donivine Stewart by Portland State

ps- all those midmajor transfers haven't just been for bolstering the roster or for backups...
Those transfer players listed over just the past FOUR SEASONS have accounted for over 130 games STARTED!
I wonder if the coach has an idea what loud message that sends to future recruits?
Every kid knows he might get recruited over, but when kids see that regularly the playing time goes to lower level transfers, then I would think it hurts recruiting.

[Tommy]

John Groce is a great coach. Unfortunately, you have to be better than great to be successful in the Big 10. I think this is his last year there.

[tornado]

Illinois has made a cottage industry out of grabbing mid-major and low-BCS-caliber transfers...
Sam Maniscalco, Jon Ekey, Rayvonte Rice, Sam McLaurin, Darius Paul - and I guess you could even throw Ahmad Starks & Aaron Cosby onto that list.

now they land another one - JOhn Groce seemed desperate for a guard to replace Tracy Abrams...
they get Khalid Lewis from LaSalle who will now play at his 3rd 4-year college..
Coming off a senior season at LaSalle (he was actually a redshirt junior in his 4th season) - he averaged 6 ppg, 2 assists, hitting 37% and 32.8% from the arc and 62% on FTs. He started his college career at Delaware, a couple stops ago...
Khalid's claim to fame is that he is Ken Griffey, Jr.'s nephew.
A couple of my Illini friends are shaking their heads that John Groce can't get any better or more depth than this..

Sam Maniscalco is now writing the articles for the Illini
he has a really great, thorough article on graduate transfers and the impact they have had...with a mention of himself (Bradley to Illniois)

https://illinois.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1799308

...good job Sam