I watched the Nike Hoops Summit basketball game featuring Illini commit David Mirkovic and hopeful commit Dame Sarr. Here are my thoughts:
Mirkovic looks better than I initially thought. Long guy that plays bigger than his listed 6’8”. The foot-speed seemed a tick quicker than it did on the highlight videos (he’s not afraid to put the ball on the floor) and he looked like he belonged against the best High School basketball players in the world. The shot is a little slow developing (takes him awhile to release the 3-pointer) but I don’t think that’s ever going to change or be that much of a problem because it’s fast enough. He didn’t jump off of the screen with any “wow” plays but he got himself in position a few times and made a couple tough lefty lay-ups. Knee-jerk reaction I had him down for non-immediate impact 8 min/game as a Freshman, but after watching this game I think he is going to make more of an impact than I thought. Definitely a rotation guy and depending on the health/foul/hot hand situation, Mirk is getting some serious minutes day 1. Would love to get this guy for 2/3 years, he would be an absolute monster year 3 but as it stands right now, he is going to be a contributor (possibly even big-time contributor) immediately.
Dame Sarr was what I expected (maybe a little more). Fluid athlete, can get to the cup, stroke it from deep, and run the floor with anybody in the country. Gets a little loose with the dribble at times but he will tighten that up on campus. Basically what we have here is a multi dimensional player that’s going to make an immediate impact, should be one of the better wing players in the country by the end of next season, and makes Illinois a contender for everything. The only problem is, he’s an NBA player whether it’s this year or next year. Hopefully next year for my sake and yeah that’s selfish but Brad and I are trying to win a championship here guys.
The takeaway from this is that I come away pleasantly surprised by both players and hopefully they’re big pieces to the puzzle for at least next year.
For what it’s worth, no new news as of right now Monday morning on Dame Sarr. The wind was blowing positive for the Illini this weekend but at this point that’s all that it is. The reality is that this is probably going to drag out all the way til NBA deceleration day at the end of May. Until then we can read tea leaves together. Have a Monday.
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