Richey | Gibbs-Lawhorn has breakout potential

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Apr. 12—CHAMPAIGN — Men’s college basketball has reached a stage where teams with national championship aspirations clearly have to be well versed in portal-ese.

Just look at this year’s Final Four.

Every player in North Carolina State’s NCAA tournament rotation started their college careers elsewhere. The Wolfpack’s two leading scorers — DJ Horne (Illinois State/Arizona State) and D.J. Burns (Tennessee/Winthrop) — were both on their third school.

Alabama’s top-three scorers were all transfers. Mark Sears (Ohio), Aaron Estrada (St. Peter’s/Oregon/Hofstra) and Grant Nelson (North Dakota State) all thrived with the Crimson Tide.

Purdue’s shot at a national title was clearly bolstered by the addition of Lance Jones (Southern Illinois). And Connecticut won its second straight championship with Tristen Newton (East Carolina) claiming Most Outstanding Player honors and Cam Spencer (Loyola Maryland/Rutgers) matching coach Dan Hurley’s vibe.

Illinois got within one win of the Final Four for the same reason. A rotation full of veteran players — most who played elsewhere first — pushed the Illini to their most successful season in nearly two decades.

Brad Underwood is fluent in portal-ese at this point. But the Illinois coach maintains high school recruiting will continue to be a part of his roster-building efforts. That he still has a developmental program that goes beyond fine-tuning veteran players acquired via the transfer portal.

And there are several examples to back up that notion. Coleman Hawkins’ four-year growth is simply the latest. There isn’t exactly an overabundance of players that started at Illinois and stuck around during the past seven seasons with Underwood in charge, but those that do have gotten better.

Ayo Dosunmu and Kofi Cockburn had lofty expectations when they arrived in Champaign, but it still took a little time for them to become All-Americans. Trent Frazier was less heralded as a recruit, but still wound up with an impressive career.

It’s Frazier’s…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/richey-gibbs-lawhorn-breakout-potential-144800464.html

Author : The News-Gazette, Champaign-Urbana, Ill.

Publish date : 2024-04-12 14:48:00

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