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**Shoxfan11** · April 17, 2013, 12:13 AM

Illinois is a much better team now than they were in 2011, Maniscalco was on an Illinois team that went 17-15. And in my opinion, which doesn't mean much, Maniscalco was a more complete player than Ekey. I see Rice getting good minutes, but I don't know how Ekey fits in well.

ESPN article: http://espn.go.com/chicago/mens-coll...state-redbirds

Looks like the main emphasis is senior leadership, which I'm sure Ekey can provide.

**pinstripers** · April 17, 2013, 02:58 PM

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/story/22084584/arkansas-blocks-specialist-mickelson-granted-ok-to-transfer-dad-says

shotblocker

**SPEShockAlum** · April 17, 2013, 04:47 PM

With Illinois poaching all the Valley players in recent years, MVC should (should have) taken a run at adding them to the conference... they're in the right state, anyway.

**IlliniShocker** · April 22, 2013, 11:02 PM

Originally posted by Shoxfan11 View Post

Ekey officially commits to Illinois. Maybe I'm underestimating him, but I just don't see him getting minutes.

Originally posted by SubGod22 View Post

You're not alone. He's a nice player, but I just don't see it either.

Ekey may not be the best player, but you'll have a hard time finding many Illinois fans who aren't happy with his addition. Figuring in the loss of 4 scholarship seniors, and having 3 players recently transferring out, we'll only have 4 returning scholarship players plus Rayvonte Rice coming off of his transfer year. We also have 5 incoming freshmen this fall. Just from that, it doesn't take much to see that coach Groce inherited a roster with terrible class balance.

Obviously, with the 3 kids transferring, we suddenly had 3 open scholarships for this season. Already having 5 incoming freshmen, and with it extremely late in the game for 2013 kids, it was unlikely that we would look for more HS seniors. We also have some pretty big 2014 targets, so ideally we did not want to tie up those scholarships for multiple seasons. That pretty much narrows it down to graduate student transfers.

Many of you on here probably know much more about Ekey than I do, but from what I've seen/read/heard, he's actually a surprisingly good fit for Illinois, for one season. He definitely fits the mold of a stretch 4 type player, which Groce loves to use in his system. Having a limited number of returning players, with 5 incoming freshmen, we were going to have a freshman as the primary backup at every position next season. From that standpoint, Ekey's addition is especially valuable, as he'll be able to take over some of their minutes, allowing us to bring some of the freshmen along more slowly as they adjust to the college game. I really wouldn't be at all surprised to see him in the 15-20 mpg range next season. No matter how his one season with Illinois pans out, adding him is infinitely better than having that scholarship go open.

Everyone feel free to bring up the counter-points now :friendly_wink:. I just thought that I'd take a minute to expand on that topic from the perspective of an Illinois fan.

**wusphlash** · April 23, 2013, 05:46 PM

I always thought Ekey would do more after seeing him his freshman year. Never turned out to be the player I thought. Maybe that was Jank, maybe it was Mueller, maybe I was wrong. Maybe Illinois is the spot.