Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread (August 2018)
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There was never a Duke offer, the KY offer was never commitable and Kansas bowed out early on.
From the article:
"But Illinois fans need to let this Class of 2019 recruiting class play out before being too dramatic and over-the-top on the future and fortunes of Illinois basketball and its recruiting. Dire straits is when you sign a class of Charles Jackson, Chester Frazier and Jamar Smith and follow it up a year later with a class of Richard Semrau and Brian Carlwell."
I'm all for dunking on Weber, but having said that, sign me up for a repeat of Semrau and Carlwell. I'll pass on the non-basketball related hospitalizations both guys suffered, but in terms of positions and skillsets and talent levels I would be over the moon for a duo like that.
TownieMatt
CU Expat
- Chicago
"...Illinois fans need to let this Class of 2019 recruiting class play out before being too dramatic and over-the-top on the future and fortunes of Illinois basketball and its recruiting. Dire straits is when you sign a class of Charles Jackson, Chester Frazier and Jamar Smith and follow it up a year later with a class of Richard Semrau and Brian Carlwell."
Thank you, Joe Henricksen.
Thank you, Joe Henricksen.
Context matters of course. Those were the classes signed in the immediate aftermath of us being one of the greatest teams in college basketball history, sending a bunch of guys to the NBA, and yada yada, and in both of those classes we didn't even fill all of our available scholarships.
But alas, if Jamar had been able to handle the booze, he and Carlwell are probably big contributors to much better teams in 07 and 08. And if we'd offered Jerel McNeal and Robbie Hummel....
Failure to parlay the Dee era into Julian Wright and Sherron Collins and Derrick Rose and Jon Scheyer is NOT the proximate cause of where we are today.
TownieMatt
CU Expat
- Chicago
In isolation, those classes were bad. In context, they're even worse.
I'm not going to say that failing to land specific players led to where we are now. However, the failure to parlay a Final Four run (and nearly two decades of national relevance) into success on the recruiting trail was most certainly the cause of our regression. In hindsight, I think Weber was trying to figure out how to play the big boy recruiting game. When he eventually did, we landed guys like Brandon Paul, DJ Richardson, and Meyers Leonard who have all gone on to play high-level pro basketball. Obviously, what happened with that team's underachievement led to Weber's demise, but the talent was there.
What has directly led to where we are now was a fairly incompetent AD making a bad hire post-Weber.
pruman91
- Paducah, Ky
and in the Coast Guard....
KrushCow31
Former Krush Cow
- Chicago, IL
I know from a very good source that Brunson was never seriously considering Illinois, Darius Paul or not. Sounds like Darius has salty grapes if this story is even real.
NBB1979
UIUCFAN1
- Springfield, IL
Hey, Mike Thorne picked us over KS and KY, IIRC. I kid, I kid
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sacraig
- The desert
Let's not rag on Carlwell. He was a highly regarded recruit (top 100, just outside the top 50). His career obviously didn't go the way we hoped for at least one completely avoidable and unfortunate reason, but he is the sort of recruit that ought to be our bread and butter.
sacraig
- The desert
Is your source Patrick Ewing?
TownieMatt
CU Expat
- Chicago
This is S&C hyperbole at its finest. I get where you're coming from, but I have a hard time saying that a coach that nearly won us a national championship "did almost everything wrong," though he clearly has limitations as the leader of a high-major program. It's also pretty laughable to say Underwood "has done almost everything wrong." He's had one season with subpar talent. I know it makes many uncomfortable, but clearing out the roster from a team with a culture of losing may prove to be the right decision. I'm not saying BU hasn't made mistakes (Hi THT), but the jury is still very much out, even on many of the decisions he's already made.
Joel Goodson
- respect my decision™
Wow, they were stiffs. Hard pass. Carlwell was ranked pretty high, but that was completely based on size. He was a stiff in HS. Way, way overrated.
In my view, that's an exaggeration on Guenther and basically just wrong on Underwood.
I was suprised that he didn’t commit there the first time.
At last, a recruitment where we didn't end up as the Maid of Honor!
Oh, wait...
Oh, wait...
Same. Once he decided to go to prep school in Florida, I had no doubt that he would end up at FSU. That being said, I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up at a school outside of his top 4 if other area schools reach out.
What else can we argue about in mid-August IL other than semantics?
??? How is he inherently dislikable? Seems like an overly antagonistic position. He is clearly respected by many of his peers in the profession, and those who knew him in the community know him to be a really good guy. Bash on his recruiting all you want, but don't stoop to baseless insults.
sacraig
- The desert
Guenther probably more correctly suffered from staying too long in his post and not retiring soon enough. He seems like sort of the old guard of ADs that stayed too long in an era of rapid change, and it caught up with him. He was involved in some pretty great hires (particularly on the basketball side) and then his main basketball sin was sticking with Weber long past the expiration date.
Thomas was a marketing whiz with no idea how to deal with people or judge coaching candidates. In fairness, at the time, Bollant looked like a home run and just didn't work out, but Groce and Beckman... woof.
I still don't get how you can possibly say Underwood has done almost everything wrong at this point. That statement is just beyond comprehension.
Deleted member 643761
D
Guest
Well, I might be in the minority here, but sustained mediocrity under Bruce Weber or anyone else wouldn't make me very happy. There's a part of me that's happy that Groce failed to land a couple of his PG recruits because we were able to see that he couldn't coach and now we've moved on.
I just don't know how you can say that BU has done almost everything wrong when we have two highly regarded recruits coming in and a couple of others with intriguing potential. Time and time again we've heard your complaints about Underwood, largely because he's losing style points in your book. I just want results, and on the recruiting side we got it in year one and hopefully on the court we'll get it in year two.
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