New Illini head coach Brad Underwood hiring ex-Bradley assistant Chin Coleman

[tornado]

speaking of ignorance...
the paper this morning claims Illinois added a transfer from UIC..
"Illinois lands Nigerian transfer Greg Eboigbodin from UIC"
..but he never went to UIC - so he is not a transfer...

[Da Coach]

speaking of ignorance...
the paper this morning claims Illinois added a transfer from UIC..
"Illinois lands Nigerian transfer Greg Eboigbodin from UIC"
..but he never went to UIC - so he is not a transfer...

In this case, I looked up and found the article (since I do not subscribe or read the PJ Star). Here it is-
Illinois lands Nigerian transfer Greg Eboigbodin from UIC

http://www.pjstar.com/sports/20170607/illinois-lands-nigerian-transfer-greg-eboigbodin-from-uic

As pointed out, he is not a transfer. He was released from his commitment to UIC and was recruited to Illinois out of high school, a significant difference.

IMO, new coach Brad Underwood, is going to need to start signing much higher rated and better quality big men if he wants to compete in the Big Ten. That has been a weak spot for many years.

[tornado]

all of their big men going back to Brian Cook have been mid-major kids that they beat out only a handful of other mid-majors to land..

[Vent]

In this case, I looked up and found the article (since I do not subscribe or read the PJ Star). Here it is-
Illinois lands Nigerian transfer Greg Eboigbodin from UIC

http://www.pjstar.com/sports/20170607/illinois-lands-nigerian-transfer-greg-eboigbodin-from-uic

As pointed out, he is not a transfer. He was released from his commitment to UIC and was recruited to Illinois out of high school, a significant difference.

IMO, new coach Brad Underwood, is going to need to start signing much higher rated and better quality big men if he wants to compete in the Big Ten. That has been a weak spot for many years.

I would suspect, Brad Underwood would be the first to agree with you.

[Da Coach]

In another attempt to strengthen their roster, especially their weak front line, Illinois coach Brad Underwood gets a commitment from 6'9, 196 lbs. Matic Vesel from Slovenia. He is so far under the radar that no recruiting website knows who he is or has him in their database.
The most up-to-date site, Verbalcommits.com does not have him listed, but I expect them to add him soon, now that he has committed to the Illini-

http://verbalcommits.com/players_search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&search=matic+vesel&platform=desktop&button=

He visited Illinois this past weekend, and is headed back to Slovenia and will not return until the fall. Here is a profile from a European site-

http://www.fiba.com/europe/u18/2016/Matic-Vesel

Here is a YouTube video-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iY_1Hgm_Pv0

[Da Coach]

In another attempt to strengthen their roster, especially their weak front line, Illinois coach Brad Underwood gets a commitment from 6'9, 196 lbs. Matic Vesel from Slovenia. He is so far under the radar that no recruiting website knows who he is or has him in their database.
The most up-to-date site, Verbalcommits.com does not have him listed, but I expect them to add him soon, now that he has committed to the Illini-

http://verbalcommits.com/players_search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&search=matic+vesel&platform=desktop&button=

Matic Vesel now listed on Verbalcommits.com-

http://verbalcommits.com/players/matic-vesel

One of John Groce's biggest shortcomings was his failure to land any quality big men. Even most of the guards he recruited were borderline Big Ten caliber. IMO, Hill and Nunn were his only decent Big Ten caliber guards he landed in his 5 seasons.
But it was paucity of big men that kept Illinois under Groce from competing for the upper half of the Big Ten.
And IMO, Brad Underwood is falling into the same trap. Tying up 4-year scholarships on marginal, skinny mid-major guys like Greg Eboigbodin, who decomitted from UIC, and now Matic Vesel an extremely thin Euro player who had no other D1 offers while the other teams are all beefing up with legitimate Big Ten big men, is not going to turn around the Illini's fortunes nor endear him to Illini fans.

Their only other leftover "big men" for next year are 6'10" Michael Finke, a nice player who scores significantly more points on three-pointers than he does on 2-pointers, and only averages 4 rebounds per game, Leron Black, an undersized forward who is only 6'7" at best and whose production dropped significantly in conference play (6.5 ppg) compared with non-conference games (10 ppg), and Kipper Nichols, an even more undersized forward listed as 6'6, but probably not that big, who is a poor defender and probably should be playing at a mid-major level. He averaged only 4.9 ppg and 2.9 rpg last season. Like Finke, he also has a penchant for launching threes
I know Underwood is not likely to land high quality big men this late in the recruiting cycle, but IMO it is a mistake to tie up scholarships with borderline kids who won't likely be around in a couple years.

[Vent]

I don't know that Underwood has fallen into a trap. I think Underwood is doing nothing but trying to fill out a roster, similar to Wardle when he came to Bradley. My bet is most of these players you are referring to will only be here for a year. Similar to Joel Okafor, Davonte Cooper, Scottie James and the freshman from Florida that redshirted this season at Bradley.

[Da Coach]

I think you are likely correct that those guys won't be around long, but then why sign them at all if they aren't part of the rebuilding process? I still think it's a mistake to just fill roster spots while he hopes to recruit better players for the long term. If filling roster spots was so important, then he might have been better bringing in short-term players like jucos or a couple lower-level grad transfers, because they will leave in a year or two when he will need those scholarships. Instead he went all-out to try to land the top one-year grad-transfers (Akoy Agau of Georgetown, Dwight Coleby of Kansas, Mark Alstork of Wright State, and MiKyle McIntosh of ISU- who do nothing to help for the long term) and recruiting a couple 4-year players who are not Big Ten caliber players. He should have used his time and resources recruiting better players who could help for the long term. In the end, the only transfer he landed is Alstork, and because of that, he lost Jalen Coleman-Lands, who I think might have been a better player and had 2 years left to play, instead of just 1.
As an Illini fan (I also have a degree from U of I), these look like similar moves made by John Groce, which may have worked in a midmajor conference, but never worked in the Big Ten.

[Vent]

The same reason that Wardle brought in freshmen instead of JUCO players. It's easier to get rid of freshmen after one year than JUCO players. He got a late start in recruiting players to Illinois. He's got to be given a chance to get his feet in the ground. Do you not think he is already recruiting front line players for his next recruiting class? Are they going to all be high school all Americans? I doubt it, but I really believe you will see the caliber of incoming talent to Illinois will be vastly improved over what Groce brought in. I just think it's premature to assume he's fallen into this trap of getting subpar big people. Give the guy more than a couple of months.

[tornado]

... sophomore reserve D.J. Williams announced he was transferring a couple weeks ago.

DJ Williams headed to George Washington - avg just 2ppg for Illini

[tornado]

All the La Lumiere kids are headed to DePaul I guess, thinking that will make them a powerhouse...
so, wouldn't surprise me of the best La Lumiere kid they have leaves and heads there.

As predicted here, former La Lumiere player Jalen Coleman-Lands has announced his intention to leave Illinois and transfer elsewhere-.....

Not sure why it took so long, but unsurprisingly, Jalen Coleman-Lands does commit to DePaul

https://twitter.com/EvanDaniels/status/881644214827798528