Biggest Recruiting Mistake

#1      

EJ33

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San Francisco
EJ33
Who is the biggest recruiting mistake in Illinois basketball history?

I define a mistake as a gettable player that we didn't offer (or we slow-played the recruitment). Bonus points if the player went to a B1G rival and tortured us for four years.

Here are just a few names to start:

- Robbie Hummel
- Brian Cardinal
- Ethan Happ

I was in school during the Flyin' Illini years and it was always painful to watch Ed Horton.
 
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#5      

destindog

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destindog
I feel Horton was a big miss. Horton wanted to come to Illinois along with Hamilton. But he was told by Nagy they wanted him to red shirt his first year and he said he felt since he was the best player in Class 2 A be was better than Hamilton. So after his trip he called Raveling and committed there along with Gamble.
 
#6      

uofi09

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uofi09
Fred VanVleet?
Jalen Brunson?

Two guys who had great college careers.
 
#7      

IlliniFin86

IlliniFin86
IlliniFin86
#9      

EJ33

E
San Francisco
EJ33
uofi09 said:
Fred VanVleet?
Jalen Brunson?

Two guys who had great college careers.
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VanVleet for sure. IIRC correctly Snacks liked him, but Weber wasn't impressed.

You're thinking we get Brunson if we kept recruiting him even when we thought we had Snider?
 
#11      

illini80

illini80
Forgottonia
illini80
Shaquille O'Neal.

Doesn't exactly fit the definition of the OP, but neither do most of the other names offered up.
 
#13      

illini80

illini80
Forgottonia
illini80
RIVERCITYCHIEF said:
Sometimes no matter how skilled you should pass . J richmond.
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Great point. He may have been the biggest single factor in BW's demise. The player he desperately needed to keep his job, ultimately may have cost him his job.

And no I don't want to go down that rabbit hole again.:D
 
#15      

illinitiger

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illinitiger
illini80 said:
Great point. He may have been the biggest single factor in BW's demise. The player he desperately needed to keep his job, ultimately may have cost him his job.

And no I don't want to go down that rabbit hole again.:D
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And JG seem to put all of his eggs in getting the "perfect PG" (i.e Snyder, Brunson, Lovet, etc), which I think cost him. Vanvleet would have extended the JG era.



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#16      

blackdog

blackdog
Champaign
blackdog
illinitiger said:
And JG seem to put all of his eggs in getting the "perfect PG" (i.e Snyder, Brunson, Lovet, etc), which I think cost him. Vanvleet would have extended the JG era.



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Also throw in Landry Shamet there too especially considering he just got drafted.
 
#18      

Se Il Illini

Se Il Illini
Se Il Illini
Doug Collins. Illinois showed no interest. Ended up at Illinois State, and the rest is history.
Jerry Sloan. Originally signed with Illinois. Decided to go to Evansville College.
 
#19      

EJ33

E
San Francisco
EJ33
RIVERCITYCHIEF said:
Sometimes no matter how skilled you should pass . J richmond.
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Excellent point.

Imagine a world where Weber takes Hummel and passes on Richmond, and you see the far-reaching implications of just a few recruiting decisions.
 
#20      

Deleted member 643761

D
Guest
Deleted member 643761
illinitiger said:
And JG seem to put all of his eggs in getting the "perfect PG" (i.e Snyder, Brunson, Lovet, etc), which I think cost him. Vanvleet would have extended the JG era.



Sent from my VS500 using Tapatalk
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Well Shamet was offered. So the question is did the offer have caveats.

Remember after the Evans visit and the buzz that ryan baker said Groce had a tough decision. There was some chatter that evans wanted to commit and to not have brunson. We'll likely never know.

But I do wonder if Groce slow played too many guys
 
#21      

Deleted member 643761

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Guest
Deleted member 643761
imdball said:
Groce went hard after Brunson much too late. It was obvious he was a stud early in career and Groce didn't figure it out until after his state tourney run junior year. Many coaches knew he was a winner before that. I don't know how anyone could have not been impressed his winning mentality even early in his H S career. If we had been on him from the start our whole program could have changed long ago.

Also add Evan Turner to the list. When BW thought he had Eric Gordon in the bag he quit on Turner even though with IU's coaching change it was pretty obvious Gordon was a real possibility to bolt. I wrote BW a letter explaining that very fact shortly after Davis and his surly personality was fired and Sampson hired. One of the costliest mistakes in Illini history. Sent the program into a spiral we have yet to escape.
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Weber didn't quit on turner. I think he visited just days before osu commit
 
#22      

FlyinIllini22

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FlyinIllini22
Coach Henson was interested enough in Mike Duff to visit his school. Not sure how gettable he was but he went to U of E and died in that plane crash Fr year that killed the whole team. He competed well against Larry Bird in a game and people say he could have been another Bird...
 
#25      

Obelix

Obelix
Obelix
redriver said:
All right, Shamet was similar to the kid who went to UVa. It is a free society, people get to choose a lot of things
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That was London Perrantes... the previous poster was talking about Landry Shamet a different UI miss.