Wasserman is high on the Illini.
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Never seen such buzz on a fringe player than this kid.
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Brandon Johns would like a word with you. 
In general I would agree though - these Illinois guys who were middling rotation players are getting a ton of hype this off-season. Not to mention that they brought in transfers and recruits to compete with them.
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Honestly I think him and Hawkins are going to be good.
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Melendez had 7 games last year where he played at least 10 minutes and 0 where he played more than 20. He had more DNPs than 10+ minute games.
Kid could be very good but itâs plenty plausible heâs pretty meh.
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Torvik dot com says 129 ORTG on 21% USG, so I know who Iâm trusting.
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He has a wide range of outcomes. I donât blame Illinois fans for high hopes since if he was a Michigan player I think weâd be hyping him, but thereâs also not a ton to go off of really. Illinois in general is a team with a lot of variance I think. They could win the conference or be a bubble team and I donât think Iâd be that surprised either way
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The thing about Johns though is the at he produced as a started up until his senior year. 9 and 4 on about 35% from three. His regression as a senior was so odd.
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With the way heâs recruiting a couple runs for a national title arenât out of the question.
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Totally agree, his best years are yet to come. At least 1 natty, probably 2 tbh
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Anything less than two more titles would be an absolute failure as far as Iâm concerned.
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YeahâŚI was more talking about how he was a guy who averaged under 13mpg as a junior and struggled to bounce between the 4 and 5 but because of a couple good games at the end there was all a lot of projection of him being a major contributor as a senior.
It happens that guys blow up after being marginal players (DJ Wilson, Xavier Simpson) but it is also just as likely that their ceiling is never quite what the glimpses hint it could be.
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Melendez is much more of a realistic breakout candidate than Johns ever was. Freshman to sophomore year is when you make the leap generally. You donât see the same thing from Jr to Sr.
Akins, Melendez, Bufkin, there are a lot of guys I think you could see taking a big jump. Melendez shooting numbers are very SSS but they are still better than bad shooting numbers.
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I realize some may think I like Johns only slightly more than I like Marvin Bagley, but I canât remember Johns ever consistently playing well night in/night out and his NCAA tournament âsuccessâ as a junior, to me, always seemed to be âvs expectationsâ (he was better than my expectations too!) than being âgoodâ in an absolute sense. He was a fifth starter you could survive with for 4 games?
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Yeah I mean Iâve discussed this ad nauseum and BJJ is gone now so I hate to belabor it but he was not that great in the tournament compared to how people were hyping it. He was brought up by awesome teammates that still almost made it to the final four and an outrageous FT rate. I remember joking with my brother how every time BJJ threw up an awful jump hook during that stretch that the refs kept calling fouls for some reason.
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Yeah, and fifth starter who was clearly scouted as such and guarded as such.
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Ok, ok, ok. I was trying to make a joke with Johns relative to the hype around these fringe rotation Illini players. Letâs not go back and rehash his story or nitpick my example that was meant in jest.
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Hahahahaha. Love it.