Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread (October 2017)

[pruman91]

I found great relief in mom's twitter about amazing weekend....I think being closer to home and new coach and system built for his skillset wins out....

GO ILLINI.....

 

[Wrangor]

Wake Forest lurker here. Wanted to wish all the Illini good luck with the Ayo decision. We went through a similar recruitment last year with Harry Giles and had our heart broken, and we are hoping the universe pays us back for that debacle.

In the end Ayo and his family has handled themselves well in this entire process as they maximize his exposure with honesty and enthusiasm. They have shown love to both of our fanbases, and has made it clear that it will be a difficult decision. It seems to be a battle between his heart and his head. I think he always thought he would end up at Illinois, but Manning, Childress, and particularly Jaylen Hoard have made a strong argument and this seems to be a coin flip decision.

I have enjoyed reading your posts, and while I will certainly celebrate on the OGBoards, I (and I don't think any other Wake fans) will come over here to rub salt in the wounds if it happens to go our way. If Ayo ends up at Illinois then there is no shame on the Wake side of this. We have a great class without him, but for obvious reasons would love to have a player of his capabilities and demeanor playing for us. He puts us solidly inside the top 10 for the 18' class, with the possibility of being a top 5 class when all the commits are complete.

Good luck. Keep your head up if he doesn't commit. Most wake basketball fans were pretty despondent upon losing Giles, but in the end it turned out that his non-commitment opened up more minutes for John Collins who developed into a first round NBA pick. This led to an opening at the PF/C position which landed us Olivier Sarr ('17 recruit). Sarr is French teammates with Jaylen Hoard (18' recruit) who has also played AAU ball and is good friends with Ayo. So even if things look bleak, focus more on your coaching staff than your recruits. A good coach will overcome recruiting losses.

If you win, you sure got a good one. Ayo can play.

 

[drewillini89]

My favorite is how they have absolutely no information on this recruitment, and it is completely apparent.


My second favorite is the light that they view their program in. They have been even hotter garbage than Illinois (and historically aren't as good). They had a good season last year, and all of a sudden Ayo is a luxury that they don't need.


Their pitch is that Ayo will get to play tougher competition. Duke and UNC will always be superior to Wake. So, yeah he'll get to play tougher competition, and he will get to finish behind it.


Illinois is a year behind them in the rebuild, but we have the pieces to be as successful as they will with Ayo.


The third is how ignorant they are about Mark Smith. They only see rankings, and that's all they need. If that's how it worked, we wouldn't need to play the game. I wish I could see their expressions when they play us in the challenge.

They'll know Mark Smith once we play WF.

 

[illini80]

My vote is with both of you. Honestly it is the only reason I read the recruiting board. :thumb:

Exactly how I feel. I’d much rather hear from them what they have heard than everyone else. I think it’s idiotic that they get attacked for being wrong. Those people need a large dose of stfu.

 

[Obelix]

Wake Forest lurker here. Wanted to wish all the Illini good luck with the Ayo decision. We went through a similar recruitment last year with Harry Giles and had our heart broken, and we are hoping the universe pays us back for that debacle.

In the end Ayo and his family has handled themselves well in this entire process as they maximize his exposure with honesty and enthusiasm. They have shown love to both of our fanbases, and has made it clear that it will be a difficult decision. It seems to be a battle between his heart and his head. I think he always thought he would end up at Illinois, but Manning, Childress, and particularly Jaylen Hoard have made a strong argument and this seems to be a coin flip decision.

I have enjoyed reading your posts, and while I will certainly celebrate on the OGBoards, I (and I don't think any other Wake fans) will come over here to rub salt in the wounds if it happens to go our way. If Ayo ends up at Illinois then there is no shame on the Wake side of this. We have a great class without him, but for obvious reasons would love to have a player of his capabilities and demeanor playing for us. He puts us solidly inside the top 10 for the 18' class, with the possibility of being a top 5 class when all the commits are complete.

Good luck. Keep your head up if he doesn't commit. Most wake basketball fans were pretty despondent upon losing Giles, but in the end it turned out that his non-commitment opened up more minutes for John Collins who developed into a first round NBA pick. This led to an opening at the PF/C position which landed us Olivier Sarr ('17 recruit). Sarr is French teammates with Jaylen Hoard (18' recruit) who has also played AAU ball and is good friends with Ayo. So even if things look bleak, focus more on your coaching staff than your recruits. A good coach will overcome recruiting losses.

If you win, you sure got a good one. Ayo can play.

Welcome!

But... the Harry Giles recruitment was totally different and WF was on the outside looking in. Not the same with Illinois and Ayo, this is not a coin flip, nor a battle between his head and his heart.

The Wake Forest program is on the way up though.

 

[skyIdub]

Heads it's Illinois!

 

[Deleted member 186590]

Ayo is not a savior, but he's a critical piece to the rebuild. He's the only high national recruit we are in on right now, so if we want to be back to national prominence, he's really a "must get" recruit.

He's not going to do it alone, but Smith, Frazier, Ayo would be one heck of a backcourt that will make us competitive again.

 

[Deleted member 29907]

Wake Forest lurker here. Wanted to wish all the Illini good luck with the Ayo decision. We went through a similar recruitment last year with Harry Giles and had our heart broken, and we are hoping the universe pays us back for that debacle.

In the end Ayo and his family has handled themselves well in this entire process as they maximize his exposure with honesty and enthusiasm. They have shown love to both of our fanbases, and has made it clear that it will be a difficult decision. It seems to be a battle between his heart and his head. I think he always thought he would end up at Illinois, but Manning, Childress, and particularly Jaylen Hoard have made a strong argument and this seems to be a coin flip decision.

I have enjoyed reading your posts, and while I will certainly celebrate on the OGBoards, I (and I don't think any other Wake fans) will come over here to rub salt in the wounds if it happens to go our way. If Ayo ends up at Illinois then there is no shame on the Wake side of this. We have a great class without him, but for obvious reasons would love to have a player of his capabilities and demeanor playing for us. He puts us solidly inside the top 10 for the 18' class, with the possibility of being a top 5 class when all the commits are complete.

Good luck. Keep your head up if he doesn't commit. Most wake basketball fans were pretty despondent upon losing Giles, but in the end it turned out that his non-commitment opened up more minutes for John Collins who developed into a first round NBA pick. This led to an opening at the PF/C position which landed us Olivier Sarr ('17 recruit). Sarr is French teammates with Jaylen Hoard (18' recruit) who has also played AAU ball and is good friends with Ayo. So even if things look bleak, focus more on your coaching staff than your recruits. A good coach will overcome recruiting losses.

If you win, you sure got a good one. Ayo can play.

We will see how this plays out. We're certainly in a rebuild and having a coach who has shown success is nice, but of course we will have to see it on the court at Illinois.

Keep in mind the heart vs mind thing doesn't have to be in the same class. We had a 25 or so ranked 2017 class vs Wake's upper to mid 40s. Recruits also look at who is already there and how they fit in. And, living in Virginia as I do, i also realize most ACC fans have no clue of the Big 10 and the teams - which is apparent on your board - but probably goes both ways. If he does go WF way - congrats. If he doesn't I am sure we'll hear all the reasons/excuses other than Illinois basketball and team.

 

[KrushCow31]

No single player is a savior, but people would be allowed to be super pumped about getting Ayo. And for good reason.

Other guys have been close(Meyers 31, Richmond 35) but Ayo would be our first Rivals rated 5 star since Dee Brown in 2003. That's 14 years ago. It's been a long time.

 

[doowink]

Cash has posted a lot of good info. He has posted stuff that I’ve heard right around the same time I heard it. He’s posted stuff before I’ve heard it that I eventually heard. He posts things he actually hears. He’s not guessing and he’s not trolling anyone. He has connections, sometimes people get fed bad info. You just have to be selective of who you believe and what situations you believe them in. It’s good to hear things from more than one place too. Some sources have better info on certain kids than others. And those others have better info on the other targets. A lot of times there are several different stories regarding one kid coming from several different places. Can be very convoluted. You have to get an understanding on when you can or cannot be confident in the info.

How about things that you've not already heard of....has he heard of those things??...if he has heard of things that I've already heard..well then that's not to hard to tell what he's heard...but if he hasn't heard of things you haven't heard of...well it's hearing something that maybe wasn't heard of at all...lol....who's on first...lol

 

[IlliniFin86]

All you need to know about Illini at Wake in the B1G/ACC challenge is the game is scheduled for broadcast on espnU.


That's what they think about BOTH teams.

 

[Obelix]

No single player is a savior, but people would be allowed to be super pumped about getting Ayo. And for good reason.

Other guys have been close(Meyers 31, Richmond 35) but Ayo would be our first Rivals rated 5 star since Dee Brown in 2003. That's 14 years ago. It's been a long time.

Richmond was a bigger get. People are biased in retrospect because Jereme did not pan out and had multiple character and basketball issues for many years, but purely basketball-wise, Jereme was a bigger get.

But it's been a long time indeed, and Ayo's recruitment is different. It is a bigger potential negative than positive. If Illinois fails to land Ayo, it is not that Illinois will miss on yet another highly ranked recruit (we have missed on so many over the last 12 years). He is a recruit (independent of rankings) that current staff should not miss.

But it is all academic, I have very good reason to believe that Ayo will commit to Illinois. Ayo will be an Illini.

 

[SalukiIllini]

All you need to know about Illini at Wake in the B1G/ACC challenge is the game is scheduled for broadcast on espnU.


That's what they think about BOTH teams.

Haha yep. Both middle of the road bubble teams.

 

[sacraig]

I really hope Ayo commits soon, primarily so we can stop talking about whether cash has inside information and go back to talking about actual recruits (and hopefully commits).

 

[Obelix]

All you need to know about Illini at Wake in the B1G/ACC challenge is the game is scheduled for broadcast on espnU.


That's what they think about BOTH teams.

Yep, and losing Mitoglou so late really hurt Wake. They are in a rebuilding mode as well, but it should be a good game/test regardless.

 

[Deleted member 29907]

All you need to know about Illini at Wake in the B1G/ACC challenge is the game is scheduled for broadcast on espnU.


That's what they think about BOTH teams.

Its also our first away game so that should be interesting...

 

[FC Illiniman]

I would highly doubt THT is worried about being overshadowed.

The more logical answer is THT and his advisors knew the Fire was Ayos team. He wanted to up his stock, as he was not a top 100 recruit, so he needed to have the ball in his hands more. He went to a team where he could be the focal point and it worked well.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

Think this is more likely the mind set. Been following this situation since the split in summer, THT made one comment, and many lost there minds. Since then you very seldom heard from anyone of the 2, Ayo and Talen.


They have know each other for awhile,hard to think they had problem with each other, sometimes you gain more when you get to do more. Would like to think a visit this weekend from Talen , might make the idea of a them playing together, closer to happening than some Insiders think.

 

[sacraig]

Think this is more likely the mind set. Been following this situation since the split in summer, THT made one comment, and many lost there minds. Since then you very seldom heard from anyone of the 2, Ayo and Talen.


They have know each other for awhile,hard to think they had problem with each other, sometimes you gain more when you get to do more. Would like to think a visit this weekend from Talen , might make the idea of a them playing together, closer to happening than some Insiders think.

I'll do you one further. The fact that he is visiting this weekend, to me at least, pretty much debunks the idea that he is wholly unwilling to play with Ayo. I just don't think he'd waste his time if he wasn't willing.

 

[FC Illiniman]

I'll do you one further. The fact that he is visiting this weekend, to me at least, pretty much debunks the idea that he is wholly unwilling to play with Ayo. I just don't think he'd waste his time if he wasn't willing.

Exactly. Why waste his time.:thumb:

 

[ivwilsoniv]

No single player is a savior, but people would be allowed to be super pumped about getting Ayo. And for good reason.

Other guys have been close(Meyers 31, Richmond 35) but Ayo would be our first Rivals rated 5 star since Dee Brown in 2003. That's 14 years ago. It's been a long time.

Until he commits here... then he'll get downgraded to a borderline 3/4-star. :thumb:

 

[skyIdub]

So, this is like two pages straight of logical, reasoned, rational responses.

Could we please get back to the irrational, neurotic, emotional outbursts of pessimistic pontificating and incredibly inaccurate recruiting predictions?

Who's got Nolley uncommitted from VATech by Friday?? De-committed?

 

[FiveStar]

If Ayo commits this week, and THT doesn't cancel his official, I will be doubly stoked.

 

[drewillini89]

Exactly. Why waste his time.:thumb:

He could cancel once Ayo commits...
Just saying.

I do think it's totally ridiculous when people say that they don't want to play together.

 

[sacraig]

He could cancel once Ayo commits...
Just saying.

I do think it's totally ridiculous when people say that they don't want to play together.

 

[TALKTOCHUCK]

Nolley burned the bridge with Ayo when he pulled his crap with his first surprise commit. He also burned that bridge with the staff.

Before that Ayo would have been happy to have a good wing flanking him in the class but once that transpired he wrote him off... In fact he knew it was happening before (after Castleton announced for Michigan and Nolley said "i guess I'm next").

It'd be different if I heard what cash is saying from multiple sources but this is the only place I read he remotely mattered to Ayo after that incident. Ayo wrote him off.

Ya because Ayo decides who gets to go to Illinois with him, not Underwood. This is ridiculous and hilariously disturbing to worry about the minds of high school kids and who "wrote off" who. Ayo could commit but until he does he doesn't have any point in discussing who is also committing. Classic case of sour grapes with Nolly.