Illini Legacies

Congratulations to Bruce Weber and Illinois for landing Jeff Jordan as a preferred walk-on. The kid can really play and the Jordan name is special in Illinois. Congratulations to Jeff and I hope he has a great college experience. Sometimes when you get a player, you get a nice family connection. DJ Richardson, Marcus Jordan, DeAndre McCamey, and Crandall Head are all '09 or '10 players that are related to Illini players or recruits.
I think we could land them all and have some awesome classes. Here are my preferences for the '08, '09, and '10 classes (assuming Jamar is back and CJ is a football player).

2008:
DeAndre Liggins (PG/SF)
Michael Dunigan (PF/C)

*Other '08 targets are Matt Humphrey, Verdell Jones, Lewis Jackson, Darius Miller, Iman Shumpert, Josh Crittle, and Stan Simpson (not sure about that last one). You could plug in Shumpert for Liggins and I would be fine with that too.

2009:
Marcus Jordan (SG)
DJ Richardson (SG/SF)
Tyler Griffey (PF)

*I also like Joseph Bertrand and Jordan Prosser in 2009, plus a forward from Texas whose name escapes me at the moment.

2010:
Jereme Richmond (PF/anywhere he wants)
DeAndre McCamey (PG)
Crandall Head (SG/SF)

*There are several other studs in this class that I like but it's too early to get specific.

Here is the rotation for the next 4 years, in my scenario:

'07-'08

PG Frazier/McCamey
SG Smith/Watkins/Jordan
SF Alexander/Brock
PF Randle/Semrau
C Pruitt/Carlwell

RS: Cole, Tisdale

'08-'09

PG McCamey/Frazier/Liggins
SG Smith/Watkins/Jordan
SF Alexander/Brock
PF Semrau/Cole
C Carlwell/Tisdale

RS: Dunigan

'09-'10

PG McCamey/Jordan
SG Watkins/Jordan
SF Liggins/Richardson
PF Semrau/Cole
C Carlwell/Tisdale/Dunigan

RS: Griffey

'10-'11

PG McCamey/McCamey/Jordan
SG Watkins/Jordan/Head
SF Liggins/Richardson
PF Richmond/Semrau/Cole
C Tisdale/Dunigan/Griffey

The '10-'11 roster would be the scariest collection of talent in Illini history.

Rodney Alexander Commits!

Great get by Bruce Weber and the staff. I'm excited!

We have two scholarships available for 2008 and my top two choices (at the moment) are DeAndre Liggins and Michael Dunigan. I also like Iman Shumpert and Scott Suggs, plus a few out-of-state guys that we are in on.

Let me update the projected rotation from a few days ago (taking into account new analysis):

Starters:
JR Frazier (24)
JR Smith (32)
JR Brock (20)
SR Randle (24)
SR Pruitt (32)

Bench:
FR McCamey (16)
FR Watkins (12)
JR Alexander (16)
FR Semrau (12)
SO Carlwell (12)


Meacham (0)
Holdren (0)
Jackson (0)
Wise (0)
Tisdale (RS)
Cole (RS)

Projected 2007-2008 rotation

Here's what I would do (for now assuming that our '07 class is complete):

Starters:
JR Frazier (24)
JR Smith (32)
JR Brock (24)
SR Randle (28)
SR Pruitt (32)

Bench:
FR McCamey (16)
FR Watkins (16)
SO Carlwell (12)
FR Semrau (16)

Meacham (0)
Holdren (0)
Jackson (0)
Wise (0)
Tisdale (RS)
Cole (RS)

*If we get Alexander, he gets 4 minutes each from Brock, Watkins, and Semrau for a total of 12 minutes.
**If Jamar is unavailable for the season, his minutes go to Watkins (8), McCamey (4), Meacham (4), Semrau (8), and Tisdale (8), with Randle starting at the 3 and Semrau at the 4.
I recommend distributing PT in 4-minute increments, since it corresponds to TV timeouts and keeps things much simpler.

Here's a year-to-year (using our '07 NCAA Tournament roster) comparison at every position if we're healthy, Jamar is back, and we get Alexander.

1: Frazier will be improved over a year ago because of health and experience. McCamey is a huge upgrade at backup PG over McBride/Meacham.
2: A healthy Jamar Smith should match McBride's offense but will be a big step down defensively. Q will pick up the slack as a better backup option on both sides of the court than Meacham or a tired McBride.
3: Brock as a junior will be a slight downgrade on offense, defense, and rebounding from a sluggish Randle. Randle/Watkins/Alexander will be slightly better than last year's backups (mostly Brock).
4: A healthy Randle will be very effective at PF and should be about as good overall as Carter was last season. Semrau/Carlwell/Alexander will be a small upgrade over Arnold/Randle backing up the PF spot.
5: Pruitt as a senior should be significantly better than Pruitt as a junior. Carlwell will be a big upgrade over Arnold as a backup center.

Summary:
1: Big improvement
2: Slight dropoff/even
3: Slight dropoff/even
4: Even/slight improvement
5: Big improvement

Net result should be improvement from ~#44 in the country to #24-32 in the country.

I'm thrilled that Watkins signed a LOI with us and I hope we can get Rodney Alexander within a week to finish up our '07 class.