Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread (August 2018)

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#201      
Doesn't sound like he's gone to me. Ayo is his big brother and he knows Ayo will get him the ball regularly. Think he knows he'll get the ball all the time at UK? Not even close.
 
#202      
Remember when Ayo was choosing between us and Wake Forest...and all of our insiders as well as national experts were picking Ayo to Illinois.

Then Wake Forest posters came over here and started trying to explain away very obvious signs while holding true to their hopeful, yet loose, narrative that Ayo might still choose them?

This feels like that. Except we are WF.

(But I’ll always hold out hope!)

Remind me of who from Wake was a real close friend to Ayo, like Ayo is to Whitney, since you are saying the situations sound similar to you.
 
#204      

ivwilsoniv

Aurora, IL
Doesn't sound like he's gone to me. Ayo is his big brother and he knows Ayo will get him the ball regularly. Think he knows he'll get the ball all the time at UK? Not even close.
Uhh... Like any top 25 player, KW is confident that his skills will get him the ball and that there will be someone on UK that is able to facilitate as good as Ayo.
 
#206      

Deleted member 643761

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What has hurt Illinois is not so much losing the "one and dones" but losing on a great option B player who will stick around for 3-4 years. If Shannon is as good as the recent reports he might be our best option at the SG/Wing position for 2019. Just look at the great college players we lost out on pursuing Cliff Alexander and PGs that we didn't land. I'm not saying not to go after the McAA players in our backyard, just have that realistic "cut bait" timeline to pursue the Malcolm Hills, Damonte Williams, Trent Frazier top players.

Alexander was a different scenario. he was just an extra in a class that looked full.

As to PGs we didn't get because we were chasing others, that seems to be revisionist. We just flat out lost guys like Perrantes and Shamet to other schools that most of us felt we should have beaten for that talent. I believe it was less about not having a plan B and more about not landing the guys in plan B.
 
#208      

Deleted member 649710

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Well, if he actually waits a couple weeks, I'd say all bets are off. So I kinda agree with you about sleeping on it.


He needs a couple weeks to organize the signing ceremony to UK.
 
#212      
Losing Okoro and now Whitney already in 2019 is just ... yuck. I had much higher hopes for this staff.
 
#216      

Joel Goodson

respect my decision™
Alexander was a different scenario. he was just an extra in a class that looked full.

As to PGs we didn't get because we were chasing others, that seems to be revisionist. We just flat out lost guys like Perrantes and Shamet to other schools that most of us felt we should have beaten for that talent. I believe it was less about not having a plan B and more about not landing the guys in plan B.

This. Groce was good at ID-ing talent. And usually early, at that. But when plan A kids opted elsewhere, he failed to land the plan B/C kids and had to settle for plan D.
 
#217      

Hoppy2105

Little Rock, Arkansas
Remind me of who from Wake was a real close friend to Ayo, like Ayo is to Whitney, since you are saying the situations sound similar to you.

Well they aren’t LITERALLY the same. They just feel similar.

But if we must draw a comparison, didn’t Danny Manning have a connection to Ayo’s uncle or something. Maybe they had played together? I can’t remember...I just remember the WF posters saying That relationship held a lot of weight. (Whatever it was)
 
#218      

TownieMatt

CU Expat
Chicago
Announcing a final 4 suggests to me that he's working to wrap this thing up in the next few weeks. Have to get an official with Whitney to have a shot. I know he visited unofficially over the summer, but it just doesn't seem likely that we'll be able to beat out UK without an official.
 
#219      
Losing Okoro and now Whitney already in 2019 is just ... yuck. I had much higher hopes for this staff.

I'll agree with you slightly, since im sure more backlash is coming against your comment. They've missed on a lot targets, some of which I think you can label as crucial. If we do lose Whitney, that's another black mark. Will they be tied to BU's tenure ala IDKWTI, Sherron Collins, Cliffmas, [insert fave Groce PG miss here], and etc etc etc? That'll be determined on the court, not the recruiting trail.

Fact is, every single coach we could've hired, would've missed on some/most of the same players this staff has. There's literally 2 or 3 univeristies that have their pick of players in the top 50. Furthermore, theres maybe 15 more than can, year in and year out, expect to grab a couple of those kids every year. There's probably even another tier or two that we've gotta go down until we reach UI. We have a top 15 history, with a borderline top 50 team. That's hard for even the best recruiters to overcome. It's to the point we've gotta view ourselves as a program on the rise from a mediocre place, rather than an elite program that's been down on its luck for a little.
 
#220      

bredhartmann

Centralia, IL
Announcing a final 4 suggests to me that he's working to wrap this thing up in the next few weeks. Have to get an official with Whitney to have a shot. I know he visited unofficially over the summer, but it just doesn't seem likely that we'll be able to beat out UK without an official.

I don’t understand why he’d release a top 4 after the UK visit just to commit to them without taking more visits. We shall see.
 
#221      

Hoppy2105

Little Rock, Arkansas
For some reason I feel like UK put him on the clock. “Commit soon or your spot will be gone” sort of thing.
 
#222      
Well for St. Louis, you've gotta check out Blackthorn. It's deep-dish pizza, but I wouldn't call it Chicago style deep dish, which I think is highly overrated. But probably wanna get it for carry-out. Unless you like dim, grimy bars that plays a lot of hardcore metal.

Actually, I do. I'll have to remember them the next time I'm in St. Louis (probably 20 years from now...)
 
#223      

Deleted member 654622

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I can say one thing Kentucky has over us in the twitter area, a bunch of fake accounts with very attractive females as the profile pics.
 
#224      

Joel Goodson

respect my decision™
For some reason I feel like UK put him on the clock. “Commit soon or your spot will be gone” sort of thing.

Oh, really? Why would UK do that? Maybe if he's still on the fence after a couple of weeks, they might give him a prod. But now? An ultimatum could easily backfire.
 
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