champaignchris

He’s an undersized wing who can shoot. Considering the length they have at every other position, I wouldn’t be too worried about his size. With him and the Claxton trade, they’ve addressed the two most glaring needs in the starting lineup. if Caleb Wilson is the dude people think he is, and if they can get anything out of Essenngue or Dillingham, they could be an interesting, if not particularly good, team.

If only they had a youngish hometown kid shooting 45% from 3 that they could extend instead of trading for a couple 2nd round picks.

If you’re Michigan’s AD, you at least have to give Billy Donovan a call, right? “Billy, how do you feel about taking an immediate run at ring #3?”

Yeah. Between limited scholarship spots open and most NIL funds already committed, I don’t see anyone major leaving. Maybe someone on the fringes of the roster thinks they can get more playing time elsewhere, but I’d be surprised if anyone expected to be a contributor leaves. The timing hurts in terms of immediately finding a new permanent HC, but probably helps in terms of roster retention.

Dusty May to coach the Mavs. This is late enough in the year that I’m not sure any players could leave if they wanted to. I assume Michigan will go with an interim for the season unless they think one of the assistants is ready to take over permanently. Pretty rough way to go when they have what looks like a top-10 roster headed into the summer.

Right. This seems like a credible, not horrible hire. Well done. Now, put some talent around Giddey and Buzelis.

As a side note, a nice secondary effect of NIL in the NCAA is that following recruiting has gotten a lot less creepy. I’d rather hear about schools ponying up 85 bazillion dollars for kids’ services than who their girlfriends are or what their mom does for a living.

Illini fans of a certain vintage are certainly aware given John Groce’s utter inability to land an impact point guard. (Brunson’s then gf, now wife went to Illinois and the recruiting came down to Illinois and Nova.)

You don’t. Never believe a team owner who says he’s losing money.

As a mostly disinterested party (my wife is a Knicks fan, and I was pulling for my ex-Illini with the T-Wolves) this playoffs has been wildly entertaining, from the bonkers first round to two great Finals games. MSG is going to be off the hook Monday night.

That was the most bizarre and entertaining first round of an NBA playoff that I can ever remember.

Stojakovic confirms he’s coming back to Illinois. So that’s every rotation player with eligibility coming back except for projected lottery pick Wagler. They’re adding the guard from Providence and a top-40-ish freshman point from St Louis, with a possible additional high profile transfer (Blackwell). They’ll be pre-season top 3 assuming nothing weird happens between now and Halloween.

Just call me the kiss of death.

If anyone is tempted to read anything into Stojakovic not announcing the same time as the other three, Jake and the twins all have the same agent, which is why they all announced together.

All indications seem to be that he’ll be back at Illinois next year. No idea how or if he’ll be able to contribute next year. At this point, I think it’s more a personality/loyalty/culture thing than anything else with him.