Illini Basketball Podcast Live: Episode 217 (Illini land Croatian big man Tomislav Ivisic & more)

The Illini landed Croatian big man Tomislav Ivisic, they’re targeting other Euros, and more.

[Music] all right L basketball podcast episode two 17 is that right 217 baby uh yeah terrible area code um wow yeah uh May 8th correct yeah May 8th 2024 maybe the last episode where I don’t have to have my camera off possibly hopefully I would think unless we do one in the next like six days still a basketball still a basketball well that’s live and breathe basketball okay and that’s uh that’s what we’re doing here and and every feels like every time Illinois lands a player we have to talk about it and we have to we have to come back on the podcast so we’re doing that with this uh the line land the Croatian big man Tomy slav iich uh not to be confused with his brother who was at Kentucky last year and transferred uh to Arkansas to follow John Calipari remember the they also had the eligibility issue where he wasn’t they didn’t fully get him uh eligible to play at Kentucky until Jan January so hopefully that’s not a concern here uh it’s a good thing that they’re getting him in and committed in May plenty of time to figure that out I would think the Illinois wouldn’t put this much resources and and time and effort into landing aich and trying to land other European players without knowing that those guys can come over and play right away yeah true and Antiga you know has experience in this with his brother Zan zir what’ you say his name was big Z uh yeah I don’t I don’t know how to pronounce his brother’s name I’m glad that you got his name are we just gonna call him Tom or is it toy I mean it’s probably tomislav iich uh remember I do a lot of stuff in hockey so I know a lot of these uh pronunciations although I don’t delve you know it’s not too much into Croatia it’s more Sweden Finland you know when you have a name that’s spelled r o r o o p it’s it’s rope you know stuff like that Sean what’s up man thank you for the five dollar uh hope this guy can score in and out early birthday to me and Dennis Rodman is the goat thank you thanks Sean I know you can do that stuff I did set it up but uh Z I would say the the brother’s name is zamir zamir or I mean how could the Z be silent is really my thought so it’s either vamir or vamir I mean they call Big Z so it shouldn’t be silent yeah so so from 247 uh on on Tomy slob uh he played for SC Derby this past season the ABA so you know he’s playing against different level than what you’re seeing for a lot of these American prospects uh average 7.3 points four rebounds about a block and 1.3 assists per game shot 63.5% from two 13 of 32 from three which is 40.6% and another big number here for a guy who’s 7 feet tall uh 1 to 15 from the free throw line um he also played uh 14 games in the in the other level which would be uh uh the Montenegro earthe Liah 12 points 7.5 rebounds 1.3 blocks 1.2 assists in 14 games there 60% from two 46% from three and and once again 86% from the free line so very similar numbers in different levels of leagues obviously you know the ABA higher level um and here’s another note an interesting note here from uh our guy Jeremy Warner or our best friend um SC Derby played a scrim image if you watch the the film Benchwarmers um against USC last summer and uh Tomy slav had 23 points and 12 rebounds so he already feasted against a future Big 10 opponent it’s good news something to think about right there um yeah I mean Illinois’s been looking for a five they I would say that they got their five he’s not a traditional five but Brad seems to think that he can protect the rim which is kind of what Illinois needed right you you’re you’re not so much worried about a a five that can bang on the offensive in you wanted one that can protect the rim and and Brad says that this guy can so and he’s 20 right he’s already 20 years old um he’s been playing with Pros so seems pretty good yeah that’s a big that’s a big part of like the way that other professional leagues also like approach like if you’re so in the in the argument in hockey so you have like a you have a Canadian guy who’s been playing against Junior players you know in in his age 16 17 18 seasons and and then you have you know a Russian who’s been playing in the KHL so he”s been playing in a pro league so you’re playing it’s a different level so the numbers aren’t going to be as flashy for these guys in those professional leagues but they’re going to be you know more well-rounded and more uh experienced and established when you’re playing against older players and you know he’s he’s not he’s definitely not a traditional five but he has some traditional five Tendencies um Brad called him a modern-day fiveman who fits right into our style as a big who can space the floor he can play in pick and rolls Elite passers there’s you know elite elite I haven’t watched that much on him but I definitely think he’s got the the footwork and the body to protect the rim I think uh Brad called him a very good rim protector high level basketball againsts older a established competition that experience has made a tremendous impact on his development and we’re excited to add someone with his skill and versatility to our program I would be very surprised if you didn’t see iich with like some of the better numbers in the team next season like I think probably not leading scorer but I think he’ll be right in the mix and I think he’s probably going to put together like a a good season where we’re like okay this guy might only be here for like two years or one year I mean he’s already 20 so yeah his brothers was an NBA Prospect barely playing at Kentucky and he’s gonna go to Arkansas and probably get drafted next year so uh I think he’s got a future in the NBA I don’t know you know how what the ceiling will be there but I think he’s more than ready to jump right in and uh this is not Zachary Baron okay it’s not that yeah yeah I agree um Brad so Brad talked about uh big Hummer a little bit and talked about how he’s going to have him play booty ball a little bit uh and this this is kind of the five that you need for that I mean kind of like with Coleman last year that can space the floor and let let guys work like damask did last year and and this makes Illinois really tall in the front Court back court whatever cour yeah I think think there’s a chance that they end up starting uh humri house iich and Boo or morz like there’s a chance all three of those guys start like you have yeah you have humri house starting in like a hybrid three four roll and then morz kind of a power forward type you know stretch the floor a little bit type I it’s G to be kind of hard to figure out how Illinois is gonna play with that and I don’t know like can you start that lineup and have Ty Rogers also there that’s that’s the big question where’s Ty fit in um you’d be you’d be asking Tai to guard twos and threes instead of ones and twos I would say so I think that’s probably a good thing but I mean if you do that you’re 62 6669 6971 or whatever r s is listed at so I mean it’ll be I I think the bench is going to be pretty uh pretty interesting to figure out a lineup there like is is DGL going to be the guy that’s that’s handling the ball off the bench feels like we’re in that direct we I mean I could see you know who I could see handling the ball a little bit more than we expect the guy that I’ve never said anything bad about Trey white I think could handle it a little bit that would be interesting do you think Trey white has the the opportunity to start over over Ty Rogers I mean maybe I think it depends on what Brad’s looking for in that last spot let’s also not forget we’ll talk about him later but like if eigor comes to Illinois I think he’s gonna start right yeah I would say I would that would be a crazy looking lineup if they did if you had Boswell eigor four guys over 68 yeah that’s yeah that’s a lot but I mean you got a bunch of handlers there yeah very it’s very similar to last year just bigger and a couple different skill sets with a guy that you can have run the offense as a point guard I don’t know at a banishing I mean they’re you gota you got to bring in talent and Illinois is not struggled to do that at all this summer they don’t have the flashiest class because they’re not bringing in a bunch of guys who have a ton of you know experience as as great college players but they’re bringing in talented guys who have played a lot of minutes or guys from Europe who have played against high level competition I think it’s very encouraging and it’s not like USC was very good last year but the fact that iich can play against them and put up 23 and 12 I think is pretty sick that he did that last summer so he’s already got another year under his belt since then I don’t think he’s gonna have any problem transitioning to this level like at all I don’t think there’s going to be any issue there and clearly with the way that elois is structuring their non-conference schedule they’re going to be facing some really really good opponents and uh I think that’s great I think that’s how you do it I don’t think you shy away from that stuff you don’t want to let a bad non-conference schedule catch up to you yeah much better off making it harder yeah there’s some Comins here seems like we’re getting one more four or five star out of the portal you guys think it’s that Miami or uh I I think Illinois’s got to be done with the forwards and wings and stuff right I it sounds like they’re going after like they’re trying to land another Wing but I like you could say eigor is another Wing right at 68 I I don’t know he’s Wing is a size but he’s right not really he’s not really a uh traditional Wing why is Ethan still a basketball swelling man swelling I I can’t sit what do you want from me Jesus and the lighting yeah it’s terrible it’s just not it’s I’m in a different room it’s it’s tough if I were like if I were like 4 foot two I’d be able to stand at my desk downstairs but I’m Not Too Tall Way Too Tall like 7 fo four is what I’m standing at right now I bet I bet I could throw a strike at the Cubs game for the first pitch unlike Zack he who way outside not even close so far outside that even uh Paul Goldman might not have swung at it who knows though he probably would have um yeah wuga polar is the Miami player very talented but I don’t really see where he fits in like at all with this team like I don’t know what do we Indiana just adding a bunch of redundant players like maybe not this year’s Indiana team but in the past I’m saying you know what he is 657 I thought I thought he was like 68 that’s on me um is he good be a two guard yeah I mean this yeah but I just don’t think that Illinois is gonna have the nil or want to put the nil into him he is a two guard I did get him confused with NORAD that’s that’s my bad there’s so many weird name Miami players that I kind of got it mixed up uh yeah I mean if if they can get him great but I don’t think that that’s their number one priority right now and I think he’s probably going to end up like he seems like an SEC guy to me or maybe a big 12 guy I don’t know who reached out Illinois reached out there on that list yeah there were other other uh players as well or other teams that uh that reached out let’s see Kentucky Arkansas Duke Villanova St John’s that was the USA Today article about where he could end up but I don’t know who’s actually contacted he’s an East Coast guy too he’s from Philly so Villanova makes a lot of sense yeah uh yeah out of high school he picked Miami over Auburn Georgetown Georgia LSU yeah he’s going to be a yeah he’s going to be a big East SEC guy guaranteed not happening we go to we got to stay overseas to to find another guard or large guard large guard uh DJ Wagner Cedric coward Jackson Robinson and wuga are probably the best Wing players available those are all like two guards Wagner might be a one yeah how do you say that War’s name demon I would say it’s probably demon okay but I can do a little research on that I haven’t actually heard how it’s pronounced do we just want to talk about him next yeah we’ll transition from one European player to another um yeah sure okay it’s uh it’s jagor diomor jagor deoman interesting that’s completely that’s close it’s completely unverified but that’s what I’m reading where are you reading this at uh the message boards oh okay anyways yeah so apparently Illinois’s in contact with uh okay so somebody on the message board knows a bellan Belarusian who speaks fluent Russian likely pronounces his name yeor deoman let’s go with that that’s cool or like y that that’s how they remember uh uh we could I mean we we americanize all the time like I I there’s you know there’s uh the Jay and Sweden is supposed to be silent for Swedish names so if you’re a hockey fan uh from the Rangers M zabin zabin Jad is what Americans call but it’s actually zabad so like we American like I feel like jagor kosnov was somebody that existed I think the Suns had a head coach named eigor with an i but it was actually supposed to be pronounced jagor so let’s go jagor deoman okay um jagor Brad Brad’s Brad’s making us podcasters work when it comes to pronouncing things with these players uh gonna need a dictionary pronouncing our players next year humri house demon in Tommy slav sounds sounds right um yeah so uh this kid’s from Spain I mean he’s playing in Spain he’s from Russia from Russia yeah he’s playing for Real Madrid yeah uh apparently people are saying he’s gonna be a two guard he’s he’s listed as a 67 guard on H the Euro basket website yeah and it’s probably the basketballs over there in Spain but he only shoots 33% from three so he’s more of I would say he’s more of a well-rounded allaround like he’s going to get you assists and rebound and he does score from two he does distribute the ball well um 60 in the Spain ebaa last year he was 60 of 105 from Two and 41 for 122 from three uh he had 91 total assists 4.3 per game 5.1 rebounds including 1.1 offensive rebound per game uh and he averaged 134 or 135 and four and also here’s a here’s another stat 2.2 steals per game yeah um and he played 23.3 minutes a game 21 uh games for Real Madrid uh in the under 19 League he shot 36% from three uh averaged 13 three and three in that League 2.6 steals per game in seven games uh he played in the Adidas Next Generation tournament for Real Madrid 13 points four rebounds six assists 2.5 steals in four games uh shot at 17 of 28 from two so he can get to the rim and score in a number of ways inside the three-point line he just isn’t a very consistent three-point shooter uh but he has games where he is I mean you look at a game they played against uh uh mayah Honda they won by 19 he shot four of 10 from three so he was eight of 10 against uh quentar I see three yes that is also true but he was also you know against tabara he was three for 15 so he’s not afraid to shoot it clearly four for 11 four for 11 against vako um and that’s these are you know Spain ebaa teams so yeah I love the profile like I think there’s a lot there I mean he’s he’s gonna either way he’s gonna go to the NBA after next year right I mean that’s kind of the consensus on this kid is he’s GNA be drafted so he either spends a year at Illinois or he spends a year over in the pro league uh in Europe I don’t I mean it it’d be great to get him International Brad I hear that Jeff Alexander was kind of the first guy on this but Antigo was getting all the credit is that true I don’t know but it seems like they’re really doing a thing where they’re going kind of different direction where they’re looking they’re getting guys or going after players in these European leagues who are way more ready to contribute now like Moretti was from the NBA uh Europe NBA thing whatever that was and then perin obviously wasn’t ready to contribute right away like jagor is going to be ready we already know that uh eich is ready so it’s different approach I like the approach and the profile for jagor is like really exciting to look at like I think there’s a lot of different things he can do like I I think that Illinois would really benefit with the guy the skill set like this like you’re looking at games where they’re blowing teams out in some of these under 19 games and he’s getting like five steals four steals four steals like he’s getting a ton of Steal he’s long I mean yeah he had a game against San jier uh Jorge I guess I’m getting I’m getting like way too liberal with the uh with the I’m just letting it Fly uh listen to his statline against uh San Jorge they won by 36 he played 25 minutes this is in the under 19 league for Real Madrid uh he had seven points he was three for nine from the field so not great seven points six rebounds seven assists five steals so like stuff in the stat sheet yeah yeah and he shot it terribly from three when he playing the under 19 league but he went six for 10 Against yaha Time Out crypto shock dropping the 20 bomb uh and it’s obviously all for me because you don’t drink says have a beer on me fellas love your show crypto thank you very much who controls the account thank you very much crypto crypto has been very generous to us so we appreciate you uh hle says was there any Buzz about other schools targeting Thomas slavi uh I love the fit but how excited are we about a player we didn’t have to compete for I don’t know that for sure it is interesting that his brother you know came last year to Kentucky and Kentucky didn’t want him I I think but that gives gave him another year of playing with Pros uh his brother again didn’t play till January so I I think he’s he might just be a touch behind big Z but you know if you can keep him for two years rather than I think probably big Z’s done after this year It’s gotta be a good thing uh is jer what’s jagor coming to visit Illinois I don’t think so um it sounds like I if he wants to come to Illinois and play it’s out there I don’t know apparently there’s rumors that Illinois is offering all this nil money we talked about this before we went on I mean like Zack Edy since he was on a Visa couldn’t get nil money so I don’t know how people are saying Illinois’s just throwing a bag at him and saying if you want to come come but that’s apparently the story I I think it’d be more if he does he want NBA guys to have more eyes on him would would be my guess but uh yeah I mean I will say iich uh Tomy slav this is the one that’s going to Illinois um I don’t know that Illinois didn’t have any competition for him but what I do know is that his numbers in terms of efficiency were much much better in the ABA in 2023 24 uh he only averaged six more points per game but he went from 51% from the field to 57 he went from 15% from three to 42% um his his percentage from two went up six uh his free throw percentage went up from 78 to 86 uh he did average fewer rebounds but that was more so because he only averaged one offensive rebound per game as opposed to 1.3 um his assist numbers went up3 and7 from two years ago so there’s been steady growth each year and maybe he didn’t I mean maybe you know I I don’t know if nobody was interested in him I just think that Illinois was in a was in a good spot to to bring him in I I think you look at the skill set you look at the numbers there’s a lot to like um about it but I don’t know how the nil stuff works at all like I know that there’s something with passive income for European players and not promoting stuff I don’t know I mean sounds like they have to buy out his contract and pay him nil yeah I and I like I said I don’t know how nil works exactly but they talked a lot about how Ed couldn’t make any money because he was on a student visa so it’s also you know that might changed now too I don’t can I say the p word that’s you know I’m not gonna say it you know Canada um are we saying like buy out his contract from Russia from real MADD from from from Real Madrid like I wonder how much that would be if that’s what he’s talking about can’t be that much for for a 19yearold or whatever whatever God he was born in 2006 H yeah I don’t know I mean there’s a lot to like the people are saying a lot to like yeah I mean we talked about a little bit but like this team has a lot of guys that could end up in the NBA so this uh European basketball message board that I’m looking at right now said inter he’s an international to keep an eye on mobile 69 nice passing chops can defend athletic non-broken shooting mechanisms there is some talk about him heading to the states next season to play in the inci so I mean if he wants to yeah then why not why not make it work that’s what I’ll say why not and it seems like there’s very mixed thoughts on on this entire thing whether it’s like oh Illinois doesn’t have the nil for or Illinois likes where they’re at on it or Illinois feels like they’re going to get him like I have no clue what directions is heading in all I know is that this is the guy that I want I want this guy on the team because not only you expanding the idea that hey we can bring in guys and develop them and get them to the next level which is very important to establish that and ‘s been doing that for the last five years under Brad establishing the fact that we can develop guys into NBA players we can develop Talent like there was no guarantee that IO dumu is going to be a guaranteed minutes NBA guy he’s a top 30ish prospect effect he came to Illinois played on a terrible team his first year next two years took off developed probably should have been a first round pick drafted early second round uh so they developed him if Coleman Hawkins gets drafted this year which I I we’ll talk about that in a minute but that would be another example of that I think Illinois helped Terence Shannon take his game to the next level offensively yeah which I think will be a big talking point when he does get drafted uh this summer and there’s a bunch of guys in this team that Illinois has the opportunity to help develop and get to the NBA which isn’t the only thing we should be wanting to do we’re not we’re not John Calipari who’s literally seems only concerned with that um but it’s a big big selling point for recruits and and you know absolutely everybody yeah yeah yeah says also hearing Nico might come back have you heard anything about that uh just the randos on Twitter is is all I’ve seen um I I think that Brad’s going to probably have two scholarship spots left sitting there when all everything shakes out just by the way where bring going so if you’re gonna fill your spots bring in development guys yeah and Nico would qualify in that category if he wants to keep developing come here practice against these guys you’ll probably see some minutes too yeah I mean I don’t know how how good does Nico think he is right now is basically what it comes down to like does he think is there a team he could go to like a Pacific or or a pepperine or you know pepper Dy either one um Santa Clara you know yeah Santa Clara has a great resume of developing NBA guys you know that’s I’m just saying I don’t know if Nico’s the NBA guy but and that might be a thing that he’s doing he’s he’s seeing if you know there’s anybody that that is has a need for him and can give him more playing time I I think that he he’d get time at Illinois I mean he got time this year but depends on how much how much kids want these days I mean that’s that’s where we’re at like do you want to play or do you want to develop so yeah Coleman Coleman next okay uh Coleman had an interview with uh good Bloom and and basically said he there’s no shot he was coming back to Illinois which we already knew so basically the doctor on Twitter you you stop now it’s all right yeah the doctor keeps telling people um nor norlander said yesterday he thinks like K State North Carolina he listed like five schools that he he thinks that Coleman would end up at the good newss is he said he wouldn’t ever go to a big 10 team he hates them all he hates mizou uh yeah so Coleman it’s been a fun ride but I hope he tests well and somebody drafts him I agree I I I don’t know if I want to see him play for somebody else but but if he like goes to North Carolina that’s that’s fine and I thought it was really like I I really liked how he said that Brad’s building his team right now and he doesn’t want to take away from the guys that Brad is getting right now and if he comes back you know it impacts guys like booth and you know big Hummer and those guys so I I I think that’s a very mature way to look at it like I know that I want to go test NBA Waters but I don’t want to mess up Illinois what Illinois is trying to build for next year and him coming back you know would mess with that so see you Cory Booth or Carri Booth either one yeah Carrie booth for sure so let me ask this question do you think Illinois has spent that much in nil this this off season so far um I don’t know because again I don’t know what the the you know work visa guys are but I can’t think that I mean Boswell was probably expensive yeah yeah I mean literally Cliff got an Cliff am morier got a $2 million offer from somebody supposedly and sign with Alabama instead yeah but if they’re paying that come on I saw a thing about that that said that those are the numbers that agents put out because they want to make it look good so I I don’t know I don’t know how much money nil money they have I do you have any clue what Terence shanon made last year or Coleman you get any idea I’ll throw some messages out there okay I mean it’d be interesting to see I still don’t know how I I still don’t understand nil because there’s guys that do commercials there’s guys that get it through the school I don’t really understand it so I think that number is yeah like are you asking me do they have a Millie to throw at somebody if they want to I would say I would say they do yeah I would say probably but it says that Shannon signed a deal with some nil uh company for 240,000 so which is how much is the school paying though you know that’s really the question yeah I don’t because the school can the school can’t technically pay right it’s that icon for Illinois that actually pays yeah I don’t know understand any of it so if anybody knows any better information than we do let us know hit us up so that’s the same thing with the store uh number that was totally an agent throwing that out there yeah don’t trust agents yeah I don’t know like I think that if if there was a player out there that got a million million plus we’d know about it I cannot see Cliff get a two million from somebody that that seems insane for one year I mean who would it be could Georgetown do that they’re dumb enough I don’t know the message boards seem to think that eigor is out of the price range but I don’t understand what the price range would be and how that would work but yeah I don’t know I don’t know what way we’re trending this is all stuff from Monday so I don’t know anybody that’s deeper into the message boards tell me if we’re getting dieo or not I’m G be pissed if we don’t yeah um yeah so Brad’s I do you besides jagor do you think elois needs another piece right now like who who else would be on your list Nico Nico I don’t know I haven’t really been I’ve been so focused on the Europeans I don’t know and working on another project that we might be launching soon hint yeah but now that people are throwing money at us on here who knows I mean uh no um I agree get ready for us to turn into a line ey guys guys maybe relax maybe we will uh throw some money we need a wing you know like we I feel like we got plenty of them plenty of wings I don’t know what the what the hell is the definition of a wing at this point for for Illinois Chaz laner humri house really isn’t a wing what do you consider him power forward yeah I don’t really look at like I don’t know Wing to me is like Trey white Chaz likely down to Kentucky and Tennessee he’s out yeah I didn’t think that was gonna happen but it did make sense from his you know his profile number wise I don’t know just get jagor and do it what is the for Hawkins to have Kansas State on a short list I Kansas State’s in I must be kind of crazy because yeah I would think they seem to land a lot of guys that you’re like why would you want to go to K State but a two guard yeah I think Illinois needs a two guard that would be where I’d be uh trying to throw money at uh Jay says jagor is definitely who I want wants to deal with International Players anyways do you have to pay the team he’s leaving and give the player nil yeah I that’s what we’ve been talking about Jay I I don’t know how it works like I said you know Ed supposedly couldn’t get any nil money so I don’t know how we’re gonna pay off a contract and then pay a kid nil money on a school Visa or student visa confusing it’s confusing I’m to try to find out how much he’s makinging from them you can’t I I looked for the basketball yeah I tried to find out what his uh salary was uh chat Google AI tells me that you can’t find it Microsoft being AI tells me you can’t find it so oh yeah I bet um where’s he playing Spain Real Madrid yeah two looks like Real Madrid has a budget of over40 million in US Dollars seems good okay he’s probably making like 200,000 a year I don’t know can’t be more than a million for an 18year old or whatever but I think it’s like the fourth tier League that he’s in I don’t I need to I need to look at this more I’m more in tune with European hockey leagues than I am basketball unfortunately for everybody that’s listening to this sure yeah um hypothetically hypothetically speaking if a podcast was to start like a like a page for different types of content like hypothetically like if it were not substack but like a like patreon or something like that like hypothetically how would that go is kind of the question I have for the chat just hypothetically uh eleno schedule yeah uh Brad said it quote he’s harder than ever I mean it’s harder than ever so yeah they got they got the Tennessee home and home so that’ll be in Champagne this year right uhuh they got Alabama they’re working on working on Alabama B Birmingham right neutral site yep and then next year will be Chicago okay and then Duke who is deathly afraid of the home and home would be an MSG game against Brad loves MSG but I also think Duke is afraid of Duke is afraid of uh of the orange crush Duke is afraid of home and homes with good schools when was last time like does Duke ever play on the road in non-conference against Elite opponents like remember Arizona went to them last year probably not okay they went to Arkansas last year maybe I’m wrong I don’t know I just feel like Duke is afraid Arkansas was awful last year I know but it’s still Arkansas and that’s before the season you schedule that the year before that they didn’t go anywhere 2022 they went to Ohio state so they signed one with Ohio State or no that was actually big to an ACC challenge they didn’t have a choice uh they went to 2020 they went at Michigan State but that was probably Big 10 ACC challenge they’re ducking us they don’t want to play at the Assembly Hall State Farm Center they will play at Arizona talking about oh did they did they sign a home and home with Arizona I didn’t know if that was actually a deal or just Arizona was going to them I think Duke’s schedule is not easy so I just saw a bunch of comments they’re afraid of the home and home so I wanted to make a joke about that as well uh love that Illinois is going MSG those soft ass rims I we’re going to score 100 points again you guys seem to really be worried that nobody else wanted I that’s what I don’t that’s where like even with college players like you you’ve even brought this up with certain players before like oh he was he had offers from this school but he comes to Illinois he’s gonna suck which I don’t think that that’s yeah I don’t think that’s always the case I think first of all we need to trust the evaluation from the staff secondly we need to trust like Illinois has a certain type of player they’re looking for a certain type of guy they know they can develop like just because the offers weren’t the greatest doesn’t mean like that much in my opinion because I think there’s examples where you either need to trust the staff or you need to trust the the player that they’re going to be able to develop and uh I think it’s worked out in several cases I mean you look kind of at the places that Coleman Hawkins was looking at out of high school it’s not the greatest list ever you know he had Arizona offer he had a USC offer ruter offer uh Nevada Washington State he visited Ruckers he visited San Diego State and then he visited Illinois so like you know he’s a three star so it’s a good list but it’s not an elite list like I don’t think I think we probably put too much into that and I think it takes a lot more effort to go to exactly that is the other thing get these guys to getting European players is not something that that many schools want to put a ton of resources into because think of the schools that have those European guys it’s a it’s a small list that bring them in every year Gonzaga Arizona what do those schools have in common Tommy Lloyd’s and Mark fug guy that’s the way that they operate they bring in Europeans all the time you look at uh Larson from from uh from Arizona you look at Balo is from overseas or he’s I don’t know where he’s from but he’s not from the United States um you know gonzaga’s had a bunch of those guys as well so not every school wants to do that some schools just want to pay a ton of nil money for guys who have been at who are going to their fourth School in five years yeah AJ store and Illinois is not doing that so uh Tennessee at home we are all over the place uh Duke at MSG yep Alabama Birmingham and missou as always is building a better team they were last year for sure uh what’s Illinois Record in those four games right now one three and one really lose lose to Alabama I’ll go two and two I think they’ll beat Tennessee home game they’re due to win one of those home games against like they lost to Marquette they lost to Arizona that one year they’re due to win one of those against a big opponent and I think MSG it’s literally impossible for them to lose doesn’t matter who’s playing they don’t lose at MSG and they’re better than Missouri and Alabama might be preseason number one so that could be a problem Illinois’s been better than Missouri a lot in the bragging rights games the levels are different now though even Missouri’s team now is not going to be close to what Illinois has I guarantee it lock it in Illinois’s got a better Coach Illinois’s got a better system Illinois’s got more Talent Illinois knows that it’s that they ever lose to these losers we got two guys who played in it last year so you know Missouri’s gonna have none right nobody’s returning to that team inkle says Ethan’s come a long way on the International Players I seem to remember him trashing meret and perin the entire time they were at Illinois I don’t think I trashed Moretti that much I think I was kind of a Moretti guy parent yeah I think I was parent thing the parent thing was not based on the parent thing was not based on the talent it was more so based on people thinking he was ready and I am very much in favor of I like players who are ready to go now and looking at the profiles of these players I mean look you know Tomas sl’s 20 years old and Jor is a clearcut NBA Prospect Nico’s got a long way to go pin I think we thought maybe down the road if he develops here he can get to the NBA but Illinois just didn’t that that wasn’t ever going to work out you can’t really develop guys like that for four years or three years or two years especially if they’re not fully committed to hey I have to come and play right now which seemed like perin was and he wasn’t kind of he played 5 Seconds against Indiana and looked like a baby deer out there um but yeah I like uh and and there’s also a certain type of player that I like like I like guys who are six seven and can run the one or you know can can do those types things and I like you know bigs with guard skills which I think is is what these two are true true did Missouri have the number one recruiting class last year uh no 27 football yeah 27th in basketball so they are Zachary fifth this year Zachary parin is not getting drafted this year by the way there’s no way you don’t think maybe next year maybe next year Well I see a list from the NBA draft room right now that doesn’t have him on a top 20 power forwards list so feel like that’s a problem he is ranked 52nd though I guess on draft net so or no he wore number 52 whoops good luck to him um yeah I mean Missouri I’m GNA look at Missouri’s class here Missouri 247 basketball that’s how we do it let’s see Missouri’s got the number 12 class this year in basketball it’s a pretty good class fifth but sure fifth composite 12th overall 11th transfer uh yeah they got some good players coming in see if they can develop them they don’t I mean they got a three star guard a four star 73 big another seven-footer 66 but you can’t really build with freshman I don’t know Tony Perkins I don’t think he’s very good uh this jacob Cruz from UT Martins is a decent transfer Warwick from uh what is that Northern Kentucky eastern Kentucky one of those two Mark Mitchell is a good get I think um if they can kind of unlock some of that talent but I think it’s just it’s hard to do every year you know rebuild an entire team and make it work and they didn’t do it last year they did the year before they have way more Talent this year than they did last year the last year’s team just flat out sucked what’s Illinois doing Illinois’s got a pretty good base of winning though multiple years in a row okay all right Illinois is also not bringing in five freshman there’s one freshman that’s going to play probably unless well three if you count if jagor comes and you have iich yeah yeah all right uh hle wants you to elaborate on the substack patreon concept why don’t you just show the show the fans the the thing he showed me I’m not going to show him that that’s private information uh no I was just thinking like one of the things I wanted to do this offseason was try to do different things and maybe have like a patreon page for for people who want to subscribe and contribute and help out and enjoy the stuff um ean’s trying to get that trip to Oregon paid for that’s what he’s trying to that’s part of it you know that’s part of it and and you know that’s part of it um which that’s more content I mean think about that we would definitely do like a vlog and other there take a tour of the facilities I got some inss at Oregon so um by ins I mean like I know some of the I don’t know them but they they don’t know me but anyway uh no but just like I one one thing I don’t want to do with this is take away from this type of content like I wouldn’t touch the episodes yeah the concept would basically be you know extra we’d have extra stuff if you paid some money like like just some exra things the idea right now is I don’t know if you guys know this but Ethan has a bachelor’s degree in sports sports management that’s correct yeah and I’m also a basketball coach um uh no it’ be like you know the first the first tier would probably be $5 a month you know you don’t have to do it I’m not begging anybody to do it but you know I would do like more some breakdowns on players like maybe like hourlong videos talking about you know new additions and and look at some some film stuff some breakdowns like I’m not going to pretend to be an expert but I feel like I’ve watched enough basketball at this point in my life plus I have a sports management degree at Bachelors uh to know what to look at in a player and it would be stuff like that um I think there’s a few games per year maybe do an exclusive watch party for the for the people who would would be members um we would still do regular watch parties but I’m just saying like certain games like for example the MSG game against Duke that would probably be one that we would just do exclusively we would send all the subscribers a link and they’d be able to access it uh I was thinking during the season we would do like weekly uh you know like Zoom call things with all the members you know chop it up talk ball talk life talk politics you know all that good stuff yeah it’s a joke uh and then uh I had a couple other ideas that I’m working on for it um there’s a chance we’ maybe do another tier if it worked out I don’t think we would start with two tiers right away uh I think we would start with probably five uh$ five tier and uh some other stuff you know other ideas would be like more content for the college basketball as a whole we would you know post some stuff that a lot of this exclusive stuff is gonna be me doing it because you know he making us work harder is what it sounds like you’re doing expanding the brand um you know exclusive college basketball Big 10 content throughout the offseason and season so you’d see more of us talking about college basketball instead of like doing the countdown March M we’d expand a little bit on that uh we would do probably patreon exclusive episodes with um with people if like if you’re a member you can join us for an episode and we we’ probably post on YouTube a couple weeks later but it would be exclusive you have to take a background check though so sure uh I had an idea for like historical Ali season episodes that would probably be a part of the patreon thing if we started that um it it can’t be on substack it’s just you know that’s it’s tough thanks for the 499 ankle patreon and then like some interview episodes like let’s say if Brad Underwood ever you know stops ducking us and comes on we would maybe make that exclusive on patreon and if you wouldn’t have bugged the out of lulup we might have been able to get him on sometime but I guess lulup maybe he’s not allowed to go on a direct competitor which we’re really not a direct competitor with what those guys are doing maybe in the podcast you know streamyard industry I mean that time that I you know saw him outside cams he said he’d come on so I don’t know and there’s another podcast in the Eli world that gets players on so I feel like we we could maybe work on that I mean damask totally dodged us before the season we really only got giv him a fair shake and he didn’t want want to come on but it’s just an idea you know I I I’ve wanted to expand this a little bit more for a while and I think this is a good way to do it and I think we would also have some uh some merch and by the way as a selling point for people who watch us the first tier is going to be the thin ice here so how about that there you go everybody brings it up all the time so you know just saying this this could it could you know it might happen might not I don’t know thanks for a thousand followers on Twitter everybody you know yeah I didn’t want to do anything with this until we had that because our ratio on Twitter is pretty good it’s way better than mine on my account that’s true uh you know we follow 163 and we have over a thousand that’s that’s a pretty good ratio good stuff but yeah Ethan working on stuff I guess is I told him he’s the brains I’m just talking head so if any of this comes and you guys hate it it’s Ethan’s fault if you love it uh you can thank me for pushing them to do it so definitely so yeah stay stay tuned uh you know stay stay tune on the on the Twitter I would hope to if we do do this do do uh if we do this I think miday late May early June would be a a launch idea I still got some stuff to work on with it um but it’s not going to take away from the episodes for example if Illinois if Illinois gets jagor maybe one of the first patreon exclusive things would be like a film breakdown and Analysis of his game maybe I’d have a special guest on for it something like that or I’d do it myself or I would bring in another basketball coach to to talk you know hle I’ll screenshot it and send it to you um if he shows it to me again he probably won’t now no I’m trying to find a good way to show it to people without giving too much away you don’t want to dox us let me just okay I’ll throw this up there just screen grab it well it’s just going to be the same so it just be you know like this these tiers here are going to change so so yeah preliminary stuff so you know I put our name in there uh no affiliation with the university that’s important to note right yeah yeah so yeah there you go something to think about folks something to think about you don’t have to throw us money on here that’s you know we don’t we don’t need that on here we could do it on you just pay $5 a month also giveaways you know we got some stuff we’ll probably be giv away if we get the merch thing going some shirts some hats Maybe something like that uh maybe we’ll do golf balls again down the road maybe we’ll make golf videos of us you know throwing 63s out there I give an in at a golf course maybe we could see I know that he doesn’t like people recording on the course but if it were us I don’t think it would matter he doesn’t no I don’t know if it was that I think it was there was a group one time of younger kids recording all their shots and taking forever and they were like a group of five I think was the situation so it’s a little different forever no I mean we two hours 20 minutes max that is if I can play I mean who who knows if I’m gonna be able to play C Swing Golf Club yeah so all right yeah seems like nobody wants to do it but anyway uh you had look out for what they all said they’re in what do you mean all right hle tells me to tease the page and doesn’t even say anything when I do ridiculous okay yeah I know that was another thing that I was thinking about I need a better a better name for tier two I agree but I might not even come out with tier two right away yeah I was thinking about that I was gonna make it to smoke some weed and shut up tier but that’s like that’s just like that’s that’s just me making it about myself I don’t want that this is yeah it’s all preliminary so just calm down angle geez yeah well bozilla wants wants to to have it done I don’t know yeah no I’m talking about him talking about the tier two name I know I know all right uh yeah so stay tuned on that if elen lands another player we’ll be back for another episode um yeah uh we need to thank Alm Steakhouse and Saloon is we still have a deal there all right yeah I mean it’s a I’d say it’s a year long right so okay check when the contract’s up but uh 700 East Broadway Avenue in maton Illinois you can find them online at www.al steakhouse.com they do have a Mother’s Day special coming up they’re open at noon on Mother’s Day you can get a filet Oscar an 8 ooun filet topped with jumbo crab meat in a holiday sauce today is Wednesday they have a Pasta Prima Vera on special so go check them out as always like subscribe follow uh rate US one star whatever you guys want to do we appreciate it uh thanks for hanging out with us and we’ll be back soon yep we’ll be back uh well bootzilla says next week so maybe we’ll add somebody next week yeah and thank you crypto and Hinkle and Sean um for gifting that money we really appreciate it thank you very much yep thank you to those guys and uh we’ll see you next time check out the Twitter for more