Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread (October 2018)

[bombayIllini]

Winning is not a pre-requisite for new coaching staffs to recruit well, it helps, no doubt, but this board is turning winning into one mighty strong crutch, or justification for this staffs inability to sign their targets. And now come the emotions over QG and DT not coming here, fortunes to those who knew a while ago they weren’t.

True, in general, it is not a pre-requisite.

But, for this school and this coach, I think it is.

Let us see.

 

[Obelix]

Several crystal balls going to Gonzaga for Timme

 

[illinidd12]

This is weird, can’t believe we missed on him!

 

[Deleted member 3875]

Worst recruiting period in Illinois basketball history?

Pretty much the truth.

 

[Deleted member 3875]

I never said we stood a chance. I'm just saying our visits sound lame by the tidbits that are made public. Even if we can't compete with the Nike kingdom, I'd like it if we were making an impression on recruits.

But you do get to ride in a golf cart.

 

[skyIdub]

Just hoping for Antwan January or the Juco Gueye guy now but not holding my breath on anyone anymore.

Screw it, i'm tired of breathing anyway!

 

[TCTORNADO]

I knew Guerrier wasn't coming, but I thought I'd have at least another week of feeling optimistic about Timme.

I wonder if Brad gave the guys back their money that paid the $10,000 for the special access during Guerrier's workout.

 

[Takeittothehoop]

Is there anything new on Shannon's recruitment?

 

[OrangeNTude]

Our recruiting strategy:




Out recruiting results:

 

[Fr8trn16]

The thing is, the likeability of a given college town probably doesn't figure very prominently in most of these kids' decision-making. There's hardly anything in State College, PA or Auburn, AL, and towns like Tuscaloosa, Norman, and Gainesville are far less attractive than some of the other bigger college cities. But those schools have zero problems attracting recruits.

Texas A&M is hardly an elite hoops program like those schools listed above are football programs, but the close-to-home factor is a powerful one. A lot of kids are willing to stay closer to home at a less-than-fabulous town than go far away to a more enjoyable town.

Pay to play is why.... pay to play....

 

[Deleted member 746094]

I am sure I am going to get a bunch of one off examples of coaches, programs, and recruits over the past few years that argue my next point, but I’m going to make it anyways.

For this basketball program, in its current state, winning will translate into recruiting successes. I will let you lists and stats guys do what you do, but I would imagine an overwhelming majority of the Top 100 recruits we have lost the past two years have went to teams that have made the tourney at least twice in the past three years. We haven’t been in 5 and selling what we “could” be is much harder than any of us can imagine. Most of these kids want to win NOW and the best way to ensure that happens is to go to a program that has been winning consistently the past 3 to 5 years. That ain’t us!

I agree that we hired BU, OA, and Chin to bring in top level recruits to get the program on track. I think they have done so with Ayo, Tevian and Andres. Samba in a year could be a ton if he reaches his potential. Our performance this year will change our current outcomes in recruitment if this team can show what BU is selling is real. Until then we will not be able to “close” these Top 50’s because they want to WIN.

 

[Love the Illini]

Good points winning will definitely help recruitment but not sure how much success this years team will have as young as it is and with the lack of quality bigs. Also from the recruiting standpoint it is not that we are missing out on top 50 guys it is that we have so far missed out on just about everybody we have tried to recruit in this cycle. You may hit on some 2 or 3 stars from time to time that develop into better players than people thought but you are not going to be in the top half of the Big 10 on a regular basis with that type of recruiting at some point Underwood is going to have to get a couple top 150 players on a regular basis and at least some top 50 talent otherwise it is going to be very difficult to turn things around

 

[illini1123]

What a bunch of Debbie Downers. We just signed a top-25 class, mostly in the spring. Yeah so we missed on most of the fall recruits, but we will be fine. We will get 2 quality recruits in the spring, after making the tournament. Yes, we will be making the tournament this year. This team will be one of the most entertaining & successful teams we've had in a long time.