Fran fatigue or not, it's ludicrous to put Iowa at 17th
Iowa Men 17th in the B1G this season? Field of 68 (Sean Paul) has Iowa 6th
- Thread starter Franisdaman
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I should have worded my statement about Freeman, Dix and Payton being top 20 players a little differently. I think all 3 are good enough to be on an all-B1G team. HIGHLY unlikely that all 3 would make it. Maybe none of the 3, but they are all more than just pretty good players. It is definitely a very solid base to work with.
Freeman, Dix and P. Sandfort are all quality B1G players. I don't think they're all in the top 20 in the league.
I'd be very surprised if the Hawks finish in 17th. I'd be shocked if they finish in the top 3. Between 9th and 12th seems a more likely result.
I'd be very surprised if the Hawks finish in 17th. I'd be shocked if they finish in the top 3. Between 9th and 12th seems a more likely result.
I agree with this. I’m a big Josh Dix fan. Sandfort can get hot and be a problem, but I’d take Dix for my team.
Freeman is a good player. Not many freshmen started in the league last season. It was an “old” league. I think there a lot of good centers in the league this season.
We agree on what the players bring to the court. Dix is there on both ends every game, and this year he should have the green light to score. He played Shannon very tough last year, and not many players can do that. Payton can be a game changer, when he gets it going, but his defense is at best mediocre. Freeman was really good for a freshman, and I expect him to be stronger and smarter this year. He also should have more help around him on the defensive end, which will make him more effective and less prone to foul trouble.
The Illini have so many new faces, it is hard to keep up. Lots of talent, but can they gel into a really good team. Predicting the order of the B1G is a crap shoot with the portal and NIL.
It's going to be hilarious when this system of full scale roster makeover, screwing guys that hung around, jettisoning high school recruits, blows up in teams faces. Can't wait for it.
It can work either way. Coach Cal learned at KY that having the best one-year players isn't always going to make you a top team. It sure beats not having much talent...
I hear lots of coaches talk about "getting their teams older" as especially with the extra covid year we are seeing players 5-6 years removed from high school. I remember how big of jump it was in small school Iowa basketball from JV to Varsity (I wasn't very good!), so just imagine the jump to college and then to top tier conference play. I remember playing pick-up ball in college against guys that were at the bottom of the D1 team bench and they were miles better than me and couldn't see the floor. Thus why coaches look for proven talent and mature bodies.
Yep. It's rough for high school kids getting recruited these days. I'm sure I could look it up but isn't the extra covid year ending soon? Maybe after this year? Awfully tough for a 18 year old kid playing against a team of 23 and 24 year olds. Hard to see the floor. While I think it's been better for the game to have more mature players sticking around because of NIL I also see the other side for the youngsters.
Getting a team older can be accomplished by the previous method of bringing in high schoolers and keeping them in the program until their eligibility is gone. I don't think that's what we'll see.
The way going forward to getting that experience is adding grad transfers from lower levels who have shown they have enough ability to get a shot on a power conference roster. At least for a team like Iowa. For the bigger name schools and/or deeper pockets it will be simply straight up paying for any player on any other roster at any level that can fill out your team for a tourney run. I think that the big east schools are in a great spot given that they don't have to deal with expense of a football program.
My only challenge with your post is I understand it from an NIL perspective, but now that we are moving to schools paying players from athletic department funds, you need the INCOME of the football program as most places that is 80-85%+ of the revenue.
Maybe.
I was referring more to the very unique position of the big east when it comes to basketball. They are the only league with history and reputation that can go toe to toe with other big time programs that are football schools as well.
Because they're private schools I think it will be harder to know what their finances look like.
I heard the hosts on kxno talking yesterday about this Vegas holiday tourney at Thanksgiving that is offering 1 million directly into programs NIL fund as an inducement to participate and schools will line up for this payout
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Seems crazy but these days anything goes..a million would go a long way for our BB NIL budget.
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Seems crazy but these days anything goes..a million would go a long way for our BB NIL budget.
That might be the gayest thing I have ever seen. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
I no longer understand the world.
Glad they can play BB better than they can dance.
Who did Underwood screw over? I thought one of his assistants went to West Virginia and took some players with him. Did Underwood Crean some dudes? Dain danja maybe? Others?
Which HS recruits did he jettison? I haven't heard anything about that. Any idea where they will end up?
Illinois seems like the kind of staff that is just going to keep recruiting better players at any opportunity no matter what. If current players are threatened by that, that's fine with them.
I don't know.... On one hand it seems a bit mercenary but at the other extreme you end up with unplayable players soaking up schollys for four years (not naming names). That's never good for a program. Painter seems to have struck a good balance.
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Yep, I have no idea what he's talking about because the entire country is doing it.
It makes most sense for a scholly to be limited to a year at a time and contingent on the needs of the team as determined by the coaching staff.
Players move on to a more lucrative payday, more PT, school that they'd rather be at, etc. if they have shown enough skill to warrant.
Teams can move on from players who aren't improving their roster or whatever other reason that is performance related.
Any player can always choose to stay at the school as a student, if that is what they really want, even if they are no longer on scholly.
In the current environment, players are essentially at will employees. Whether you think that's a good or bad thing, that's how they should be "managed".
Players move on to a more lucrative payday, more PT, school that they'd rather be at, etc. if they have shown enough skill to warrant.
Teams can move on from players who aren't improving their roster or whatever other reason that is performance related.
Any player can always choose to stay at the school as a student, if that is what they really want, even if they are no longer on scholly.
In the current environment, players are essentially at will employees. Whether you think that's a good or bad thing, that's how they should be "managed".
Illinois basketball loses fifth player to NCAA transfer portal
Illinois basketball loses fifth player, redshirt freshman guard Niccolo Moretti, to NCAA transfer portal.
www.pjstar.com
Freshmen are going to struggle to play with the transfer portal. What’s your point? Coaches can now go get 5th year guys. Just is what it is.Illinois basketball loses fifth player to NCAA transfer portal
Illinois basketball loses fifth player, redshirt freshman guard Niccolo Moretti, to NCAA transfer portal.www.pjstar.com
My point is, as I stated above, is that I hope teams like Illinois and the many others you apparently know about, fall flat on their collective faces. I know I'm probably dreaming but this free agency, NIL, fiasco, cannot be sustained, IMHO and I hope teams like this feel the consequences of their actions.
I don't even remember if he played against us. Probably knew he wasn't going to have much of a role when they added Boswell.Illinois basketball loses fifth player to NCAA transfer portal
Illinois basketball loses fifth player, redshirt freshman guard Niccolo Moretti, to NCAA transfer portal.www.pjstar.com
Think about this for a second: Baylor dropped out of the Maui Invitational to play in this Vegas NIL tourney.
How about the other 4? I think there was some Creaning going on, just my opinion however.
Not sure really. From the Illinois board... two of them went with the Illinois assistant who left for West Virginia. Goode, who is from Indiana, graduated from Illinois and is going to get a business degree at IU.
Crean was a turd, who must have been ahead of his time. A little creaning, if done with both the program success and the future of the player in mind, might be a good thing.
You have no idea what you are talking about. Lol
Illinois had 6 players graduate: Shannon, Guerrier, Domask, Harmon, Hawkins and Goode. Two of them had an extra year and went for NIL. No hard feelings. Underwood actually helped Hawkins land at his old Alma mater. Goode went to his home state. Neither were going to get the amount of NIL at Illinois they would get elsewhere. They both got their degrees.
Dainja also went for NIL and a guaranteed starting spot at Memphis.
Chester Frazier was hired at West Virginia and took two of his recruits with him: Hansberry and Harris. Butler, a guard recruited by Frazier, decommitted and ended up in the Big Ten. He’s really good. He was not forced out.
No recruits were forced out. Last month, 6-9 Morez Johnson was the highest rated recruit at Illinois in 14 years. Now he is the third highest. 5-star 6-9 Will Riley and Euro guard 6-6 Kasparas Jacisionis are projected 1st round picks in the 2025 NBA draft. Jakstys, a 6-10 forward who is ranked #135, is redshirting. The other “freshman” is 21 year old 7-1 Tomislav Ivisic who is expected to start at center. He regularly went up against top competition in Europe including ex-NBA guys.
That leaves Ty Rodgers and Gibbs-Lawhorn returning. Both have a chance to be a major part of this year’s team.
Other transfers are former 5-star Kylan Boswell (Arizona) who probably went to college too early when he re-classed. He will be a 19- year -old junior. 6-9 Ben Humrichous (Evansville), projected to be one of the leading scorers. 6-10 Carey Booth (Notre Dame), a former top 65 recruit who has developing skills. His dad Calvin is the GM of the Nuggets. 6-7 Tre White (Louisville) who was on a bad team but is very skilled. 6-6 Jake Davis, a shooter from Indiana who played his freshman year at Mercer and averaged just under 10 a game.
So, who was “screwed?” Underwood is the winningest coach in the Big Ten over the last 5 seasons. You might give him the benefit of the doubt that he just might know what he is doing.
Sounds like a lot of pieces, but there’s still only 1 ball to share. Will they gel together? Not a given. Sounds like they’re light on guards too. Who’s the point guard? I hope you say Ty Rodgers 🤞
Sounds like some incredible talent, especially at forward, but I had the same thought as you, who is the PG? If Underwood has that covered, Illannoy could be very good, if he can keep all of the highly regarded happy.
Who was the point guard on the elite eight team? Domask?
Doesn't seem to matter much who is called PG in Underwood's offense because they're not running some base offense with x sets, they're pushing in transition, trying to score fast, and then seeking mismatches more than anything else. I really don't think it matters much whether Boswell or Jacisionis is bringing the ball up court.
It's a lot of new pieces to make fit and euro guys typically take a long time to adjust to US high major play. Hell, I'm not even sure Ivisic will even make it to campus. I'm not going to be super intimidated by their talent until I see them in action. I will say that I watched a clip of one of their recent practices on x and Kasparas Jacisionis surprised me. Looks incredibly skilled and efficient.
Both Illinois and Indiana will be interesting to watch. It's very possible that neither will be able to put all the pieces together.
Woodson has shown no ability to coach. If he weren't one of IU's all-time great players, would he still have the job?
17th? Bah! I'll eat my hat if the Hawks finish that low in the conference standings. Granted, a lot of each team's prospects and success hinges on their unbalanced schedule, but come on man. We have a lot back and some new faces and talent to boot. I think this team has about a 50/50 chance to make the NCAA tournament, 17th place in the Big Ten will not get that done.
Agreed !!!
My prediction is the floor is 8th and the ceiling is still to be determined. I think it’s a well balanced team, but losing a Payton or Freeman for any length of time due to injury could really cause issues. I’m happy enough with depth elsewhere. I know some are going to say guard depth is an issue but my opinion is it’s not as bad as they think. Buchanan and Kingsbury could imo play well enough to back up Thewell, Harding, Dix ,and Pryce. Not as optimistic about Mulvey and Brauns but I’m open to them proving me wrong.
Agreed, their margin is thin and a key injury could cause a fairly quick spiral out of relevancy. Barring that I’m somewhat confident they’ll be competitive in the league. I’m excited to see the incoming class and how they can supplement our core rotation.
This should be a much better team than last year, barring injury to a key few players. The best young Center in the Big Ten, with so much room to grow still. Sandfort, while clearly limited on the defensive end, is as good an offensive player when hot as anyone in the Big Ten. Dix gives you size and shooting ability at the 2. Krikke and Pat absolutely killed us on the defensive end last year as we know. Major upgrade at the Power forward position athletically. I was a big fan of Perkins unlike some on here but he was never a true pt guard. We now have one that is also a damn good defender. This team should be way more athletic than last year and we clearly have more depth than we've had. Fran was still trying to play fast and play 8-9-10 guys at times last year and he couldn't and shouldn't have. I think he will have the ability to do that this year.
The team will be better due to the 3 seniors being gone. Big addition by subtraction
