LZIp Posted April 23 Report Share Posted April 23 5 minutes ago, clarkwgriswold said: It just seems to have that feel to it. I hope not. Killer guards are what wins games in the tourney, and while he hasn’t put it all together consistently, the potential has flashed and is there. LCJ didn’t really take off until his 4th year of college. Same for Castenada. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueandgold Posted April 23 Report Share Posted April 23 7 minutes ago, LZIp said: I hope not. Killer guards are what wins games in the tourney, and while he hasn’t put it all together consistently, the potential has flashed and is there. LCJ didn’t really take off until his 4th year of college. Same for Castenada. I agree and I hate to see anyone go because I like the chemistry of our returners, but if I had to choose one myself, I would choose Lyles. My previous comment was based on the number of guards now on the roster and would seem to make the most sense. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zippy5 Posted April 23 Report Share Posted April 23 (edited) i would bet it's Musiime-Kamali or Prather Edited April 23 by zippy5 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2Ball Posted April 23 Report Share Posted April 23 Darrion Baker just entered the portal 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueandgold Posted April 23 Report Share Posted April 23 5 minutes ago, 2Ball said: Darrion Baker just entered the portal Damn. Not him! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue & Gold Posted April 23 Report Share Posted April 23 6 minutes ago, 2Ball said: Darrion Baker just entered the portal Didn’t have that option on my bingo card 😟 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zipsrule Posted April 23 Report Share Posted April 23 3 minutes ago, Blue & Gold said: Didn’t have that option on my bingo card 😟 Agreed. Was not expecting that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Let'sGoZips94 Posted April 23 Report Share Posted April 23 10 minutes ago, 2Ball said: Darrion Baker just entered the portal Fudge. Rat farts. Double turds. What a waste of a scholarship/redshirt. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1981 grad Posted April 23 Report Share Posted April 23 I do not know why everyone is upset. I think this late it is the coaches call and obviously he picked the player that he thought would not get to see the court. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zippy5 Posted April 23 Report Share Posted April 23 I think it's safe to say he wasn't as good as this board thought he was 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1981 grad Posted April 23 Report Share Posted April 23 (edited) If I am Tavari, Prather, or Nate and I see who Groce is bringing into the program to compete for my position, I am going to elevate my game this summer knowing that getting court time next year just got a lot harder. Edited April 23 by 1981 grad Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Let'sGoZips94 Posted April 23 Report Share Posted April 23 (edited) 9 minutes ago, 1981 grad said: I do not know why everyone is upset. I think this late it is the coaches call and obviously he picked the player that he thought would not get to see the court. Because we needed a scorer last year, and that scorer's scholarship was occupied by a player that chose to redshirt and is now leaving the program. To be clear I'm not mad at Darrion. Just frustrating to see how many recruiting misses the coaches had in the last few years post-COVID. Baker was always pretty well recruited out of high school. He was potentially stretch 4 material which is big in today's game. We are also now lacking depth in the front court. Lyles and Okonkwo are the more traditional "big men" on this team. Harris is a good rebounder but plays more on the perimeter. MMK seems to be more of a 3/4 Forward than a 4/5 F/C, and Brisco might fit the PF mold but will only be a true freshman. I wouldn't be surprised to see a guard transfer out and a "big" fill their spot. Edited April 23 by Let'sGoZips94 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clarkwgriswold Posted April 23 Report Share Posted April 23 There's a huge baseball complex in Indiana that is planning to host a week of "Portal Games" where kids in the portal can come there and show their talents over a week before college coaches. I wonder if at some point we'll see something similar for basketball. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zippy87 Posted April 23 Author Report Share Posted April 23 With so many guards and the tidbit from Bud about the offense moving to a more guard-centric one, is it possible Groce is trying to build a team like his Sweet Sixteen squad at Ohio? Jon Smith, 6'7", 189 Walter Offutt, 6'4", 202 Ivo Baltic, 6'9", 214 Nick Kellogg, 6'3", 198 DJ Cooper, 6'0", 176 Reggie Keely, 6'9, 239 Ricardo Johnson, 6'5, 207 TJ Hall, 6'3", 210 Stevie Taylor, 5'10", 174 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clarkwgriswold Posted April 23 Report Share Posted April 23 From what I saw of Baker, I thought he could develop into a decent MAC big. This team is going to be deep on the perimeter but shallow inside. I could foresee a Toledo type offense in the Zips' future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zippy87 Posted April 23 Author Report Share Posted April 23 3 minutes ago, Zippy87 said: With so many guards and the tidbit from Bud about the offense moving to a more guard-centric one, is it possible Groce is trying to build a team like his Sweet Sixteen squad at Ohio? Jon Smith, 6'7", 189 Walter Offutt, 6'4", 202 Ivo Baltic, 6'9", 214 Nick Kellogg, 6'3", 198 DJ Cooper, 6'0", 176 Reggie Keely, 6'9, 239 Ricardo Johnson, 6'5, 207 TJ Hall, 6'3", 210 Stevie Taylor, 5'10", 174 Adding to this: Josiah Harris, 6'7", 215 Nate Johnson, 6'3", 204 James Okonkwo, 6'8", 240 Isaiah Gray, 6'3", 219 Seth Wilson, 6'2, 220 Shammah Scott. 6'2", 180 Ryan Prather Jr, 6'5", 205 Tavari Johnson, 5'11", 155 Amani Lyles, 6'7, 226 Marvin Musiime-Kamali, 6'6", 195 I do worry about frontcourt depth, even in a guard-heavy offense. I wonder if Tavari may go elsewhere with Sharron Young taking those minutes and playing right away? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Illini Zip Posted April 23 Report Share Posted April 23 One year is all a coach needs to figure out if a guy is a good fit. Even if he’s still inexperienced and raw. It could be almost anything; attitude, work ethic, teamism, intelligence. Remember what UConn’s coach Hurley said, it is sometimes the parents that are the cancer. Could be anything. We might be done. If not, I would like a true center with more than one year of eligibility please. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueandgold Posted April 23 Report Share Posted April 23 8 minutes ago, Zippy87 said: Adding to this: Josiah Harris, 6'7", 215 Nate Johnson, 6'3", 204 James Okonkwo, 6'8", 240 Isaiah Gray, 6'3", 219 Seth Wilson, 6'2, 220 Shammah Scott. 6'2", 180 Ryan Prather Jr, 6'5", 205 Tavari Johnson, 5'11", 155 Amani Lyles, 6'7, 226 Marvin Musiime-Kamali, 6'6", 195 I do worry about frontcourt depth, even in a guard-heavy offense. I wonder if Tavari may go elsewhere with Sharron Young taking those minutes and playing right away? Very, very similar. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1981 grad Posted April 23 Report Share Posted April 23 28 minutes ago, Let'sGoZips94 said: Because we needed a scorer last year, and that scorer's scholarship was occupied by a player that chose to redshirt and is now leaving the program. To be clear I'm not mad at Darrion. Just frustrating to see how many recruiting misses the coaches had in the last few years post-COVID. You and I are on the same page with regard to Groce's misses on the transfer pool last year with regard to Scott and Thornton not being the scorer we needed and now a clear miss with regard to Darrion. However, I am hoping he is learning from his "misses" from last year. I agree it is a waste of a scholarship from last year but it is a good move to cut your losses and bring in a player that has a better chance to help the team this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clarkwgriswold Posted April 23 Report Share Posted April 23 Without knowing what went on inside of the team, given the propensity of kids to quickly move on, I can't call a kid a miss and put it all on the coaching staff. As I recall, Baker was given the option of redshirting and took it. Behind an All-American, there's not much time to be had and I am sure that played into the decision to redshirt. There are a lot of reasons kids transfer and they don't all come back the coaching staff's quality of recruiting or something they did after the kid arrived. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Let'sGoZips94 Posted April 23 Report Share Posted April 23 1 minute ago, clarkwgriswold said: Without knowing what went on inside of the team, given the propensity of kids to quickly move on, I can't call a kid a miss and put it all on the coaching staff. As I recall, Baker was given the option of redshirting and took it. Behind an All-American, there's not much time to be had and I am sure that played into the decision to redshirt. There are a lot of reasons kids transfer and they don't all come back the coaching staff's quality of recruiting or something they did after the kid arrived. I don't think we can judge if Baker was a miss as a player. The "miss" is found with the roster construction. I think it's quite obvious the staff have learned their lesson. This is a complete 180 in recruiting approach this offseason. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kreed5120 Posted April 23 Report Share Posted April 23 1 hour ago, Let'sGoZips94 said: Fudge. Rat farts. Double turds. What a waste of a scholarship/redshirt. This is exactly why I've been saying if you think a player is good enough to give you 5-10 minutes, there is no point in red-shirting in today's game. It's better to use scholarships on players you can help you now as there is no promise of a tomorrow. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Let'sGoZips94 Posted April 23 Report Share Posted April 23 2 minutes ago, kreed5120 said: This is exactly why I've been saying if you think a player is good enough to give you 5-10 minutes, there is no point in red-shirting in today's game. It's better to use scholarships on players you can help you now as there is no promise of a tomorrow. I'm 100% in your camp. I think I was bitching during the season about Baker redshirting cause we needed to see if anyone on the team could give us some scoring. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kreed5120 Posted April 23 Report Share Posted April 23 I don't really think Groce ever really got away from the concept of wanting to be a guard center team. He just happened to stumble on an All-American big, which he didn't even recruit. When you have a player of Freeman's caliber, you adjust your scheme to fit your roster. Now that Freeman is gone, Groce is just returning to how he normally constructs a roster. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue & Gold Posted April 23 Report Share Posted April 23 (edited) Earlier this year there was a video posted somewhere of an interview w/ Enrique. He was asked who he thought had a bright future among the underclassmen & he mentioned MMK... but didn't mention Baker. At the time I thought it was just a mental slip as he was speaking off the top of his head. But now it looks like there was more to it than that. Edited April 23 by Blue & Gold 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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