All Things Alex Illikainen Recruitment Thread: UPDATED 11/12/18: Illikainen leaves UW

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I could see Big Al and Martin complimenting each other on the court. What kind of minutes does the board think he will play as a frosh. Martin will be a sophomore, King a Senior, plus you have Buggs and Diedrou on the roster. I think he will get into the rotation, but do you guys think he starts day one?
 

bemidjigopher said:
I could see Big Al and Martin complimenting each other on the court. What kind of minutes does the board think he will play as a frosh. Martin will be a sophomore, King a Senior, plus you have Buggs and Diedrou on the roster. I think he will get into the rotation, but do you guys think he starts day one?
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Completely speculation here, but no, I don't think he'd start day one. He'd still likely get consistent minutes right away though with an opportunity to grow into a significant contributor as the season moves on. Lets hope we can get a commitment from him first!
 

bemidjigopher said:
I could see Big Al and Martin complimenting each other on the court. What kind of minutes does the board think he will play as a frosh. Martin will be a sophomore, King a Senior, plus you have Buggs and Diedrou on the roster. I think he will get into the rotation, but do you guys think he starts day one?
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I've only seen Buggs and King play but I think he could push those two to be the starter as a freshman, he's going to get playing time wherever he ends up.
 

jovs said:
I've only seen Buggs and King play but I think he could push those two to be the starter as a freshman, he's going to get playing time wherever he ends up.
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I agree, I think he's too good to not play if we get him, but then again who knows how it will shake out between King, Buggs and Martin this year, depth in the front court is always a nice problem to have
 



Richard said:
If I had to compare Alex to someone, it would probably be Jon Leuer. Doesn't blow you away with his athleticism, but still would consider him an above-average athlete for his size. Can give you a little bit of everything on offense, good jump shot and can create a little off the dribble against bigger defenders. Wouldn't classify him as a banger down low, but is pretty solid with post moves as well. Good, but not great rebounder and defender. Just seems like a great all-around player that would be best playing as a Stretch 4.
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I have a question on Alex's rebounding - isn't he on pace to become the state's all time rebounder in MN HS history this upcoming season? Is that just a product of him being so much taller than most of the teams he plays against? Thanks.

Go Gophers!!
 

BleedGopher said:
I have a question on Alex's rebounding - isn't he on pace to become the state's all time rebounder in MN HS history this upcoming season? Is that just a product of him being so much taller than most of the teams he plays against? Thanks.

Go Gophers!!
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Alex is averaging 4.8 rpg in EYBL, Travis averaged 8.7 and Martin 5.7.

4.8 seems pretty respectable, not amazing.
 

98VQueens said:
Alex is averaging 4.8 rpg in EYBL, Travis averaged 8.7 and Martin 5.7.

4.8 seems pretty respectable, not amazing.
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Can we find per minute numbers? That's the only way to know how well he rebounds by comparison. If he plays a lot of minutes, then his rebounding is pretty poor.
 

Gopherguy0723 said:
Can we find per minute numbers? That's the only way to know how well he rebounds by comparison. If he plays a lot of minutes, then his rebounding is pretty poor.
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He hasn't. AI's actually been pretty underutilized by Coach Harris this EYBL season. I'd say if he got the same amount minutes per game Reid Travis got last season, his rebounding numbers would be around 6-7 rpg. I do think there is room for improvement with his rebounding, but I think it's competent enough in the time being for an incoming Big Ten PF.
 



Gopherguy0723 said:
Can we find per minute numbers? That's the only way to know how well he rebounds by comparison. If he plays a lot of minutes, then his rebounding is pretty poor.
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81st in rebounding of the 476 players listed on D1circuit.com. He is only averaging 20mpg, not sure about the others I listed, I'd guess they averaged more.
 


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Gettin up early tomorrow to head to the Top 100 camp! So glad I got this opportunity!</p>— Alex Illikainen (@AIllikainen_25) <a href="https://twitter.com/AIllikainen_25/statuses/478740464393142273">June 17, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Go Gophers!!
 




Geez. 40 posts back he was refuting the move and claimed he was staying home. Does this make the Gophs a harder sell and open him up to East coast schools? I'd rather he stayed home.
 

This could be a reason he's been racking up east coast offers. His sis is in Boston too I believe. I don't blame him though, the competition he was going against up north was terrible.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk
 


MadtownGopher said:
This could be a reason he's been racking up east coast offers. His sis is in Boston too I believe. I don't blame him though, the competition he was going against up north was terrible.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk
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His sister is on the east coast as she plays hockey at Providence. I agree part of the problem was probably not facing consistent enough competition but I think another part might have been the talent around him wasn't real good at all. This move will help him face tougher competition not only in games but in practice as well and also help him get used to playing with better talent like he is this summer I just hope this move doesn't hurt the Gophers chances at all.
 


GameDay said:
Certainly doesn't help the Gophers' chances... I just get a funny feeling (not just from this) that he is going to end up comitting somewhere else. Hopefully I'm wrong though!
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I don't think this will impact our chances by all accounts the leaders are us and Creighton, why would this hurt us and not them? Don't be paranoid because he's not staying on the iron range, not like Vaughn where he had "a handler"
 

I'm not sure why I quoted you gameday, didn't mean too, thought I'd point that out
 

Well I have bad experiences when our recruits go to Prep school so count me as a doubter.
 

bemidjigopher said:
I don't think this will impact our chances by all accounts the leaders are us and Creighton, why would this hurt us and not them? Don't be paranoid because he's not staying on the iron range, not like Vaughn where he had "a handler"
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You make good points in there, and maybe I am just paranoid. Obviously his recruitment seems to be clean unlike Rashad's, I just have a funny feeling about it ending in Minnesota's favor. That's all.
 

If a kid leaves the state that hurts our chances of recruiting him end of discussion. It may or may not hurt us significantly, but it is a detriment. Don't fool yourself.
 

Definitely think it hinders more than helps. Gophers need a really good season to kick-start recruiting. Seems like none of the high quality Minny kids want to be a trailblazer.
 

All Things Big Man Alex Illikainen Thread

I hate to see the trend, even though I can see where some kids would benefit from better competition. It's a different era, but think about no more "local" legends like Olberding, McHale, Breuer, Peterson, etc. or even Humphries and more recent kids that are part of local HS BB lore because they played out their entire HS career in their home state. Even though they are going elsewhere, I think our collective memories of Tyus and Reid will be different than Rashad, because they played here.
 


He might be trying to get better offers, or what he perceives as better offers
 

Every Top150 recruit thinks he is going to make it to the NBA. That's what this is all about. So Alex or Vaughn or X or Y or Z transfers to a basketball farm their senior year and gets marginally better. Compare that to finishing out your senior year, cementing your legend, breaking every record in the books, setting the stage for life after basketball. You've already got the offers.

I wish kids could see that talent gets found and it MIGHT be more rewarding to play for the hometown team. If a kid wants to get away, can't see anything wrong with that. But for Top150 talent to transfer away just because they think the grass will be greener...

Unfortunately, I don't think any recruits give a damn about their in-state legacy, which sucks donkey balls. Knowing what I know now about life, etc, I would milk that local legend thing for all it's worth. I would love to be a Top150 and play for the Gophers. But we are old men and women that see the bigger picture.

Can't blame any of them. And it's very easy for us to judge.
 

SelectionSunday said:
Definitely think it hinders more than helps. Gophers need a really good season to kick-start recruiting. Seems like none of the high quality Minny kids want to be a trailblazer.
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It probably makes it tougher to get him. But if we do get him- he'll be a better player for the experience. I remain confident that Pitino will bring in the players we need to get better and better over time.
 


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