Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread (October 2017)

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#5,327      

jbutts718

J
jbutts718
Why does everyone assume.....

that we made the decision we did for the benefit of future commits from the Fire?


I don;t think are coaches are that naïve.




They were given a choice......AYO or THT. Whether you agree or not.....they chose AYO. I don't think they are expecting the Fire to send all their best to UI......they wanted AYO more than THT. That simple.
 
#5,328      

TyinLex

TyinLex
Kentucky
TyinLex
peace davids said:
Reality kind of sucks. Kids don't get to go to their preferred school all the time - for lots of reasons. This isn't just basketball, but kids trying to get into their dream school and academic program. Cost, logistics, denied admissions, etc. Maybe THT really wanted to go to East Lansing, but he was also denied that opportunity. He and his family moved on, and they will from this.

If he wasn't 100% certain of his choice in ISU, he could have easily postponed the decision based on the events of yesterday. He will do great there with a good coach and talented recruiting class. I am not saying that Illinois should be guilt free here - but THT will move on, and hopefully be stronger because of this. I will watch ISU intently and root for him every step of the way.
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Thanks? I agree with you if we were talking about the #35 ranked student in Villa Grove's senior class and he was denied from UofI ... I'm talking about high level recruiting ... where *gasp* academics are the least of their concerns

I would move on too, ISU is a great school and THT will probably be better off there. The point is, Illinois had a chance to stiff the "Chicago recruiting" scene, while gaining a kid who wanted to wear orange and blue, and instead, the coaching staff caved
 
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#5,329      

Original jay z

O
Original jay z
If you read THT‘s mother‘s comments following the announcement… The comments seems inconsistent with a
scholarship being pulled… A reasonable analysis of those comments is that THT simply decided to go elsewhere… Nothing more… nothing less
 
#5,330      

Peoria Illini

P
Peoria, IL
Peoria Illini
Original jay z said:
If you read THT‘s mother‘s comments following the announcement… The comments seems inconsistent with a
scholarship being pulled… A reasonable analysis of those comments is that THT simply decided to go elsewhere… Nothing more… nothing less
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"reasonable analysis"?

Those are sometimes hard to find on here, LOL!!!

I'm sure there was posturing by all parties involved to try to save face, etc.

Good Luck to THT in the Big 12 and Good Luck and welcome to Ayo! :chief:
 
#5,331      

Obelix

Obelix
Obelix
I've always been very sarcastic about the wisdom (or lack of) of the writers, analysts, and local press covering the Illini. But their collective effort during the last week, definitely takes the cake.

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#5,332      

DonIllini

D
DonIllini
HTT said:
This is what we need.

Neither our staff nor MIF nor AYO family should be blamed on just because someone spits out a conspiracy theory.

THT chose ISU, which is a school that has led his recruitment for a long time. That the substantial information we get. Our staff tried but did not pull him. Other than that are all BS.
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This it was all BS and we fed into it hook line and sinker. They wanted a show and the last laugh. They got it
 
#5,333      

Illini Beer 4 All

I
Illini Beer 4 All
DonIllini said:
This it was all BS and we fed into it hook line and sinker. They wanted a show and the last laugh. They got it
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If you believe this you're nuts. Things happened. The whole world knew where THT was going Wednesday. Then everything changed. Remember the Nick Irvin loyalty tweet addressed to #5 Wednesday night. Would seem like that was sent out shortly after Underwood agreed to side with the Irvins.

People can spin it any way they'd like but there are plenty of facts out there

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 
#5,334      

drewillini89

D
drewillini89
This was a very unusual recruitment in so many ways. At the end of the day, THT is at ISU.

I wish him the best, he's a great kid.

Let's move on to the next recruit.
 
#5,335      

IlliniBrave75

IlliniBrave75
IlliniBrave75
#5,337      

Qwiksilvur

Q
Qwiksilvur
Illini Beer 4 All said:
If you believe this you're nuts. Things happened. The whole world knew where THT was going Wednesday. Then everything changed. Remember the Nick Irvin loyalty tweet addressed to #5 Wednesday night. Would seem like that was sent out shortly after Underwood agreed to side with the Irvins.

People can spin it any way they'd like but there are plenty of facts out there

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
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Again...the #5/19 means state titles by 2019. In the bio it literally states "#StateChamps2013,2014,2017" and his post today is this "TBT Holding Pops picture in my hand after winning my 1st State Championship #5/19"

#5/19 is irrelevant
 
#5,339      

TALKTOCHUCK

T
TALKTOCHUCK
TyinLex said:
For those drinking the kool-aid saying we're all good ... if you think black-balling a kid just to stay in bed with an AAU team and their "future" recruits will spout those recruits down the road, y'all are ignorant. Who's to say we get those future MP/MIF recruits when they blow up and the blue bloods come calling ... the end goal is that they choose Illinois over Kansas, Duke, UNC, Kentucky, etc right ... well that ain't happening. We are an average basketball school only going to attract average recruits (we've lost a generation due to our lack of winning).

Winning will change, eventually, but we are not guaranteed anything now or in the near future and I feel it would have been better longterm to stick-it to MIF/Irvins, take the chance w/ THT and see what those future MP/MIF recruits do. If they really want to play for Illinois (loyalty) ... which are the type of players we all strive and want to have play for us ... then they wouldn't need to be harnessed to MIF/Irvins like a little child...that's why I'm not high on Ayo.

Ayo might be a great player, but when we actually beat out those schools mentioned above for a player, then my tune might change. This day and age, I compare recruits to who those blue bloods are recruiting...if they ain't going after them, then they probably aren't the next-(insert your favorite NBA player former college all-american) we tend to proclaim all Illini recruits to be these days. You can say Mark Smith was one who claimed from the blue-bloods, but those schools were never all-in on him, even Kentucky.

A kid should commit somewhere, whether they wear a polo, pull a hat, switch a hat, or do it live on TV and it be the most joyous moment of their young life. Watching what I witnessed last night was sad, it doesn't take a shrink to see he wanted to play for the Illini and he was denied that opportunity. Over what, petty feelings getting hurt? ... whats the name of this website ... that is what we should strive for, not AAU loyalty ... High School loyalty ... but Illinois Loyalty #sad
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Everything you said is wrong. We have had a bad Chicago pipeline because we refused to do things like this. Underwood is doing what we all have been begging for, your entire rant is small time.
 
#5,340      

IlliniBrave75

IlliniBrave75
IlliniBrave75
Kedric Prince‏ @KedPrince4 9m9 minutes ago
#Illini bball rec update: 4-
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E.J. Liddell: Ayo Dosunmu contacts me almost everyday telling me how Important I would be to play @ ILL
 
#5,341      

TALKTOCHUCK

T
TALKTOCHUCK
jbutts718 said:
that we made the decision we did for the benefit of future commits from the Fire?


I don;t think are coaches are that naïve.




They were given a choice......AYO or THT. Whether you agree or not.....they chose AYO. I don't think they are expecting the Fire to send all their best to UI......they wanted AYO more than THT. That simple.
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Simply not true. It was never Ayo vs THT, it was always the Fire vs THT. This is 100% a power play by Nick Irvin and any thoughts to the contrary are the naive thoughts. In the same breathe we are not guaranteed anything but if we have a decent year; we will get Okoro and if we continue to build we will get Adam Miller who is unreal!!! This is the beginning of our years to shine
 
#5,343      

TyinLex

TyinLex
Kentucky
TyinLex
TALKTOCHUCK said:
Everything you said is wrong. We have had a bad Chicago pipeline because we refused to do things like this. Underwood is doing what we all have been begging for, your entire rant is small time.
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That's too funny ... you got a mouse in your pocket? What are you referring to when you say "do things like this"?
 
#5,346      

PJD86

P
Texas
PJD86
I agree, lets move on. I'm more concerned about what we do with the rides we still have, and the holes we still have.

Who is up next? Springtime late bloomer? Europe? Until then, lets get the season started and get trending upwards on the court.
 
#5,349      

SescIllini

SescIllini
SescIllini
Originally Posted by IlliniOX08 Been a while since I've posted but here are my thoughts:

1. If forced to choose, the staff made the right call.
2. Ayo committed first. THT could have been told last Thursday/Friday that we were moving on - before the visit. And none of this becomes a problem.
3. Unfortunately the staff read the situation so poorly that we and our shiny new 5* both came away with egg on our face.
4. This was a big boy recruiting situation - again the staff made the right call - they just looked like amateurs doing it.
5. Us Illinois fans have been wanting to land a player like Ayo for over a decade. We've wanted the top dogs from the MIF for a long, long time. Now we played the game, got our player and suddenly don't like the look in the mirror? Our reaction to Ayo and MIF is stupefying. Blame the staff for letting this get out of control - not the kids. They made their intentions known. Again - the staff look like amateurs.
6. We've been deifying THT but his camp has made enough shots towards Ayo that I see why the rift is still there. Remember, the proverbial olive branch from THT and THT's mom wasn't extended until there was something for THT to gain. He handled the situation 100x better than our staff did, but he shouldn't be absolved of all blame in letting it get this far.
7. In terms of those hand wringing over Robert Smith and Simeon potentially black balling Illinois - name me the last 5 Illinois commits from Simeon. Better yet, I'll do it for you: DJ Williams, Kendrick Nunn, Jaylon Tate, Stan Simpson, Calvin Brock. Before that? Bryant Notree and Kevin Turner.
7b. In terms of the above - the last Simeon players to play for Illinois in an NCAA tournament were Calvin Brock and before him, Kevin Turner.
7c. You know who we didn't get from Simeon in that time? Derrick Rose, Jabari Parker, hell we didn't even get Ed Morrow. The Simeon pipeline is a mummers farse for Illinois fans to hold on to the 80's when it was real. Since that time it's been used a fall back for Illinois to take all of the B and C rated talent. We're not losing a pipeline, we opened a new one.
8. All that said, again THT didn't deserve to be publicly embarrassed. In any way, shape or form.
9. Make no mistake - we're in bed with the Irvin's now. It feels slimy and gross at the moment but if we start winning games and the Irvin's keep producing the "A" talent (see: Miller, Adam) for Illinois, isn't that what we've all wanted? Let's not be complete hypocrites - if you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen.
10. ... on a more light hearted note - isn't this the most friggin Illinois thing that could happen?
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Holy crap this is "Post of the Year", this is on the level of Jerry McGuire. Thank you for summarizing it accurately. I unfortunately have shared some of these sentiments over many posts. This fanbase has been demanding "meat", well BU gave you a lot of sausage. Unfortunately you saw the sausage being made and now you want carrots and apple sauce. Still convinced that if you look at the personalities it is likely not all Irvins. Did Ayo and parents feel THT had his back? Regarding the Olive Branch, did THT apologize to MIF and Ayo for dropping them during a competitive EBYL season. AAU not about winning? Tell that to the teams that don't want to be embarrassed going against 5 star talent. Like Eric Dickerson told SMU about a prized recruit "stay away from that SOB". Well SMU didn't and he was a disaster for them.
 
#5,350      

Deleted member 236589

D
Guest
Deleted member 236589
TALKTOCHUCK said:
Everything you said is wrong. We have had a bad Chicago pipeline because we refused to do things like this. Underwood is doing what we all have been begging for, your entire rant is small time.
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It is small time. For 10 years, I've heard nothing but complaining about Weber going after recruits who aren't talented enough in the Big 10, Groce couldn't close the deal and finished in second all the time....blame the coach, not the players, blah, blah, blah.


NOW, people get their wish and have a coach that isn't afraid to make his mark in the CPL and people complain because the recruitments have hair on them. Pick a lane.


Either accept that you have to get down and dirty with those guys and do what needs to be done to get the top tier recruits or accept that this is going to be a middle of the road or bottom tier Big 10 team because you want to wait until Central Illinois produces more talent. Pick a side and when we're 17-15 every year, enjoy it. Enjoy having Northwestern go to the tournament while we're the #3 seed in the NIT.


So many people got angry when Cuonzo came in and ate our lunch. He may not be much of a coach, but he does what needs to be done to get players in his program(hiring the Porter's Dad for example). Self gave a job as a video coordinator to one of the Chalmers. It is what it is.


NCAA Basketball is a business, plain and simple. To win, you have to have the right people on your team and good connections. We have a coaching staff that knows how to play the game. Chin and Antigua were brought on to close these deals....and Chin did. He got his guy that he was hired to deliver. He has a couple of more guys that he's on the staff to deliver the next couple of years. If you think those are going to be nice, clean, smooth recruitments because of Chicago's genuine love for the U of I....well, I'm going to break the suspense for you, it will be just as nasty as this one was.


So, either deal with mediocrity and quit calling for coaches heads every four years or get on board with what it takes to get elite players here to win and contend again. There is no middle ground when it comes to recruiting in this state. It's dog eat dog and best relationships win. We should know this all to well by now.
 
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