Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread (October 2018)

Status
Not open for further replies.
#1,601      

Greensboro

Greensboro
Greensboro
Epsilon said:
Meaning targeting prospects that really arent that interested or shooting over/under?
Click to expand...
Today's 2nd hour has Piper talking about recruits -
Timme he thinks it is between Gonzaga & Us - Since Piper is a homer, I take that as Gonzaga leads, but what I did take out of it is A & M isn't the favorite, but he does know some A&M players from AAU so sounded like they weren't out of picture.
Guerrier - He thinks Oregon is out because of distance, Syracuse is clear favorite, but we have a style of play advantage. Announcment is on Canada's version of ESPN, didn't sound like the half time bit of the game makes a difference.\
Cockburn - May sign in Fall, thinks FSU is out, visit with UConn, we should get a visit.
 
#1,602      

ChiefGritty

ChiefGritty
Chicago, IL
ChiefGritty
Newman said:
I wonder how many of these successful first year coaches are in towns like Champaign.
Click to expand...

Champaign and UI are pretty great, I think it's ridiculous to point to that as a weakness for our program, especially relative to a lot of our competition.
 
#1,603      

Obelix

Obelix
Obelix
ChiefGritty said:
Champaign and UI are pretty great, I think it's ridiculous to point to that as a weakness for our program, especially relative to a lot of our competition.
Click to expand...

What I don't understand is how some posters exaggerate the chances of UI doing better in the current season, yet they do not believe in the potential of our program long term. I personally think that the opposite is true. Currently, given the roster, our chances of doing great are not that good, but the long term potential of our program is truly great, depending on coaches and recruiting. I really believe UI has tremendous potential as a program.
 
#1,604      

Deleted member 746094

D
Guest
Deleted member 746094
ChiefGritty said:
Champaign and UI are pretty great, I think it's ridiculous to point to that as a weakness for our program, especially relative to a lot of our competition.
Click to expand...

I will give you the University of IL is a beautiful campus and it is a great school. The “student life” is also equally as great from what I experienced when I visited friends back in the day.

However, there is nothing “great” that would appeal to a top recruit in Champaign that isn’t on campus. Just spent two weeks there on business and the young professionals at Carle and OSF would tell you Champaign/Urbana is a typical midwestern town that is a good place to raise a family. Not exactly what a college kid would get excited about.
 
#1,605      

NBB1979

NBB1979
UIUCFAN1
Springfield, IL
NBB1979
Greensboro said:
Today's 2nd hour has Piper talking about recruits -
Timme he thinks it is between Gonzaga & Us - Since Piper is a homer, I take that as Gonzaga leads
Click to expand...

I agree with this - piper is certainly a homer so if thats his quote - Gonzaga is the team to beat.
 
#1,606      

ChiefGritty

ChiefGritty
Chicago, IL
ChiefGritty
Newman said:
There’s nothing wrong with Champaign. I grew up there
Click to expand...

Then you know how different it has become. It had its charm as this sleepy college town hidden among the corn back in the day, but it has become a really fun, culturally vibrant place.

It's not Chicago or some other cosmopolitan city, but that's not what we're competing against. We're competing against Stillwater and Columbus and Morgantown. CU more than holds its own among that group.

I agree with Obelix, all the losing we've done is causing people to run ourselves down for no reason. Sure we have kind of a weird relationship to our biggest media market and talent pool, and sure we've sucked lately, and sure our facilities need improvement, but we have a ton to sell. And we have some great puzzle pieces already in place, it's just going to take work.
 
#1,607      

bluemountain

B
bluemountain
deucemu said:
I will give you the University of IL is a beautiful campus and it is a great school. The “student life” is also equally as great from what I experienced when I visited friends back in the day.

However, there is nothing “great” that would appeal to a top recruit in Champaign that isn’t on campus. Just spent two weeks there on business and the young professionals at Carle and OSF would tell you Champaign/Urbana is a typical midwestern town that is a good place to raise a family. Not exactly what a college kid would get excited about.
Click to expand...
Any more champaign consistently ranks as a top 10 college town. I grew up there and left after I graduated 30 or so years ago, and it is a heck of a lot more fun to return there now than it was even 10 years ago
 
#1,608      

ChiefGritty

ChiefGritty
Chicago, IL
ChiefGritty
Put it this way: in an otherwise growing, thriving community the aspect of the University of Illinois/Champaign-Urbana experience that isn't pulling its weight is Illini revenue sports.
 
#1,609      

dajuiceman2

D
dajuiceman2
As someone from a major city in the east coast who went to school in Champaign-Urbana, I can definitely say how amazing CU is as a college town, and as independent cities. But all in all it depends on what any individual is looking for. Some people I know only wanted to go to school in a city, some wanted a real campus. One definite benefit of the CU community is how much they care about the Illini. Certain markets are oversaturated or no one cares about them.
 
#1,612      

ChiefGritty

ChiefGritty
Chicago, IL
ChiefGritty
Newman said:
But to your point, what do we have to sell? I don’t think it’s a ton, at least not yet. There’s playing time, playing style, and what else?
Click to expand...

We're all college basketball nerds with a ton of life experience, so I think we tend to look at this the wrong way and focus on making narrow arguments to differentiate ourselves from Kansas or Duke or whoever. These kids are 17, they play in high school gyms with dingy old facilities, they know less about college basketball than you'd think, and they've never lived outside of their parents roofs. So what Illinois has to sell is that it's major college basketball with a huge arena and a huge fanbase playing on a beautiful college campus that offers a great education where they're treated like kings and can party and hook up with girls and all the rest of it. Every other major school basically has that in common, but it's not about making some dry objective ranking of which schools have the most of which criteria, it's about finding out what aspects the kid wants and making that real and visceral and exciting to them. We've experienced all that stuff before, they haven't.

I'm not sure I'd lean so hard into the thirsty Peoria Dads gawking at them from on high at Ubben like it's Eyes Wide Shut, but hey, our staff knows a lot more about this stuff than I do, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.
 
#1,615      

Chief lives on

C
Chief lives on
FiveStar said:
Yeah man it was epic. DePaul, UI and FSU hats on the table. Put on the DePaul one, set the FSU one on fire, then pulled the old hat trick and put on the block I hate. S&C was screaming at him about brand identity how he should have used the Didn’t happen
Click to expand...
 
#1,616      

Serious Late

Serious Late
Peoria via Denver via Ann Arbor via Albuquerque vi
Serious Late
ChiefGritty said:
We're all college basketball nerds with a ton of life experience, so I think we tend to look at this the wrong way and focus on making narrow arguments to differentiate ourselves from Kansas or Duke or whoever. These kids are 17, they play in high school gyms with dingy old facilities, they know less about college basketball than you'd think, and they've never lived outside of their parents roofs. So what Illinois has to sell is that it's major college basketball with a huge arena and a huge fanbase playing on a beautiful college campus that offers a great education where they're treated like kings and can party and hook up with girls and all the rest of it. Every other major school basically has that in common, but it's not about making some dry objective ranking of which schools have the most of which criteria, it's about finding out what aspects the kid wants and making that real and visceral and exciting to them. We've experienced all that stuff before, they haven't.

I'm not sure I'd lean so hard into the thirsty Peoria Dads gawking at them from on high at Ubben like it's Eyes Wide Shut, but hey, our staff knows a lot more about this stuff than I do, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.
Click to expand...

Woah, woah, woah! some of us resemble this comment and let me be clear... at this stage of the game, even us "thirsty Peoria dads" aren't making the trek. You need to be referencing the "Retired Champaign Grandfathers" crowd!

(sincere apologies to the Retired Champaign Grandfathers in attendance at Ubben. We appreciate your efforts.)
 
#1,617      

pruman91

pruman91
Paducah, Ky
pruman91
TCTORNADO said:
Chris Mack was spotted at WY this am visiting with DJ Steward.
Click to expand...
istockphoto-57159219-1024x1024.jpg


Lville is the place DJ
 
#1,619      

Dbell1981

D
Decatur, IL
Dbell1981
othawhitemeat said:
I too think he will be a good player. He is not a superstar, but has a chance to be a glue type player.
Click to expand...

Yeah last year I was watching an Okoro highlight video and kept asking myself "well who's the guy on Bloomington giving him fits?"
 
#1,621      

IlliniBrave75

IlliniBrave75
IlliniBrave75
Wednesday's Leftovers: Dishing on Kofi Cockburn, UNC, Oklahoma

Well it’s Sunday. But Kofi to uconn next weekend?

Expect Cockburn to use at least the majority of his visits before he commits. This weekend’s visit could bolster UConn’s chances, but I would be surprised if he doesn’t make it to Florida State, Illinois or St. John’s before he announces.

https://basketballrecruiting.rivals...ftovers-dishing-on-kofi-cockburn-unc-oklahoma
 
#1,622      

PlayAZ

P
PlayAZ
Greensboro said:
Today's 2nd hour has Piper talking about recruits -
Timme he thinks it is between Gonzaga & Us - Since Piper is a homer, I take that as Gonzaga leads, but what I did take out of it is A & M isn't the favorite, but he does know some A&M players from AAU so sounded like they weren't out of picture.
Guerrier - He thinks Oregon is out because of distance, Syracuse is clear favorite, but we have a style of play advantage. Announcment is on Canada's version of ESPN, didn't sound like the half time bit of the game makes a difference.\
Cockburn - May sign in Fall, thinks FSU is out, visit with UConn, we should get a visit.
Click to expand...

Timme I think stays with loyalty and actually picks us, although A/M would be just as obvious imo though.
Guerrier, pulls the ultimate hat switch and picks us during the game...lol
Cockburn leaves his mark and picks us ONLY if the other schools in contention keep getting commits, like FSU just did.
 
#1,623      

Sizzler22

S
Sizzler22
Man, who wouldn’t want to play for Penny Hardaway. I always said “I’m Penny Hardaway!” when I played basketball as a child.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.