Biggest Recruiting Mistake
We already had a 99.9% chance of winning the NCAA. That .1 percent was a bad bounce to a taller player in the semi-final. Horton was a good player, but not sure he would have been a better fit than Hamilton for this time. Hamilton, IIRC, had more bounce and athleticism, which fit the up and down play of the Flyin' Illini. Horton was the better overall player, but more a traditional post player as I recall. Now, if you are saying chances greatly improved with him in addition to Hamilton, then I am all in.
I agree, it was DJax. Instead, we ended up with 4 years of Jaylon Tate, a mid major talent.
I would agree on this as a guy that wasn't recruited and should have been. Just a total miscalculation by Self.
While I suppose it could be argued that not going hard after Ed Horton was the biggest recruiting MISTAKE made that impacted the success of that 1989 FF team, the biggest recruiting MISS impacting that team's success was LaPhonso Ellis, IMO. Had they had him on the team, there is no doubt in my mind we win the NC in a walk (should have anyway, I know). But instead of finally committing to Lou and Jimmy after the priority full-court recruitment he was given, he instead bought into Digger's BS about playing PF at ND (he didn't) and John Shumate's "intellectual discussions" about Shakespeare and other topics.
Oh, what might have been...
Illwinsagain
- Cary, IL
I suppose Dwayne Wade belongs here somewhere. Sorry if repeat.
I think Quentin Snyder hurt just as much or more, considering we were done recruiting PG's with his commitment. He ended up being a killer at Louisville too.
If we would have gotten DJax in 2013, we probably wouldn't have gone after QSnider the next year.
And then we would have been on Brunson the whole time rather than cooling after Snider committed.
My dad grew up in East Chicago. He was friends with the coach at East Chicago Central. I first met Etwaun when he was in 8th grade. They were saying he’d be the next big thing. They were right. Bonus props to beating Eric Gordon for the state championship in a game that wasn’t as close as the final score indicated.
Also around the same time was another “Region” guy we we’re in on at some point. Brendan Dawson.
mhuml32
- Cincinnati, OH
+1. I remember the debates on here of people thinking he wasn't good/was good/too short/etc. Then people laughed at him going to Kentucky because he wouldn't play.
Collins, yes, Sloan no. Sloan just got overwhelmed by the size of U of I. I think you hit gold with Collins though. I had forgotten about that one. NBA HOF'er, so yeah, a major, major miss.
ILL in IA
- Iowa City
Fun to play what if right. But if you get Collins (dad) does that mean you get Collins (son) later down the road.
The Collins one is really interesting on what could have changed.
If that meant keeping Weber, I’d call that dodging a bullet, rather than a recruiting miss.
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Doesn't Jack Sikma deserve to be linked together with those two?
My memory is different on Doug Collins. First, context: I am pretty sure that was the class of 1969. If I recall correctly, Collins was a good but not great basketball player for Rich Herrin at Benton. He also probably grew a few inches at while at ISU.
Anyway, my recollection is Harv Schmidt recruited Collins, but Jeff Dawson was more highly regarded and a higher priority. I also heard Collins did not want to play in the Big Ten.
Dawson signed with Duke, but transferred to UI after 2 seasons. They wound up signing 2 guards; Larry Cohen from New Trier East and Greg Wilson from Sebring Ohio.
That 1969 class, led by Nick Weatherspoon, was rated #1 despite losing priority recruits Jim Brewer to Minnesota and Dawson to Duke.
Jerry Sloan actually enrolled, but did not like the size of the campus, and left. Larry Bird did the same thing at IU.
Again, I heard Doug Collins did not want to play in the 'physical' Big Ten. Note that he was 6-6 but only weighed 180 st ISU. If memory serves, he was more 6-2 and 160 in high school.
Harv Schmidt recruited Jack Sikma hard. He wanted to attend a small college.
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Exactly. Frank became Frank in large part because of Bo Ryan.
Biggest mistake in terms of not offering? Tyler Ulis.
Biggest tactical mistake? The way we handled the Brunson/Evans issue. We were in great shape with Evans, and then made a push to get Brunson while selling Evans on a 2-PG system. In the end, we get neither.
If Weber had limped along here and we fired him next year, sad to say, but that's a whole universe better than we've actually been, and would put us in basically the same position going forward.
I saw Ulis play when his high school made a trip to Dubuque playing the No. 1 team in the state in class 4A (biggest class in Iowa), and Ulis, all 5-7 of him, beat Dubuque Senior all by himself. It was amazing to watch. But when he decided to go to Kentucky, even I thought it was a stupid move and he'd never play. Kid sure proved me wrong!!!
Was baffled though as to why Groce was never interested?????
THT [emoji6]
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Maybe because he would have been crucified, more than most of us fans already did day to day, for taking a 5'7 inch Spud Webb without the hops?
Ulis could dunk though?
I think the aperture opens too much when we consider recruiting "misses" as "mistakes." Every school has many misses, and every fan base, in retrospect would have rather recruited the lower ranked player who happened to overachieve. Most of the examples fit those descriptions.
But as far as mistakes in the sense of recruits who had very close Illini ties, had Illinois as their clear top choice, wanted to come here, we did not recruit them, and came back to haunt us for years, the clear mistakes were only Brian Cardinal and Robbie Hummel.
But as far as mistakes in the sense of recruits who had very close Illini ties, had Illinois as their clear top choice, wanted to come here, we did not recruit them, and came back to haunt us for years, the clear mistakes were only Brian Cardinal and Robbie Hummel.