Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread (September 2018)
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That's Antigua and he arguably has a worse track record so far than Walker.
Still agree with the sentiment though. I'd fire them both assuming things dont turn around. Thank god for Chin Coleman.
I agree. Too many misses from Walker. Need to win some of these recruitments. Illinois should be going after these high profile kids or ill even go as far as Top 100 kids, and we should be getting at least 1 per class for how much we are paying these assistants.
Miss on Liddell and Guerrier (Walker is primary on him) then I think it’s time to can him. BU can’t keep screwing around with mediocre recruiting. Honestly i’m not impressed with Antigua either so I’d be supportive of a change there if he whiffs on all of his top targets again. (which he probably will)
We need a big time recruiter who is under rated. I’ve said his name before on here and I’ll say it again but Jonas Hayes is one heck of a recruiter, and he has relationships in GA especially that have already paid dividends for Xavier.
Another name that comes to mind is Ryan Pedon from Ohio State. He was on staff here before under Groce but wasn’t allowed to recruit off campus and he proved under Holtmann that he can recruit and he might welcome a return for the right $$$.
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socalini
- So Cali
I don't believe EJ would have any concerns in that area. Certainly not more so than at any other schools he looked at.
We haven't won consistently since these kids were in early elementary school. They don't know us as anything but a mediocre program. I think a lot of them keep us in their top 3 or 5 just because of the pressure of staying home. I don't think HS kids care about "staying home" or "being the guy who brings Illinois basketball back." They want to play with top players and for coaches with a track record of success.
We have a beautiful campus and a solid academic reputation, but that's not a big factor. In fact, other than the campus proper, the general campus-town area looked pretty run down to me last time I was there (couple of years ago). Having a hard-!!! coach probably doesn't help matters either.
We're going to have to start winning through good coaching and by finding diamonds in the rough. Maybe the recruiting strategy of looking for those types of players needs to happen now. I get the impression that our facilities are nothing special. I wish the facility upgrades had started with basketball, but JW has his own priorities, and I trust he is building toward success in both revenue sports.
Turning on these players on social media makes us look like a crazy ex-girlfriend. And other players do take note of that. No one wants to sign up to be obsessed over.
Not sure why other schools can bring in new coaches and start winning so much more quickly than us, but both sports were about as low as they could go when JW, BU and Lovie took over.
One of these days, things are going to start happening that will surpass our expectations. Just not sure how long that's going to take.
I know. TLDR. Felt like sharing some thoughts though.
Antigua transformed Black. Let's not forget that.
+1. Let's see what he can do with Giorgi, Kane, and Higgs.
Monday is a big day with Liddell announcing not sure what he will do but I think Ohio State is the leader but none of three would surprise me. I think the bigger question is if Illinois doesn't get him who will we get in the November signing period. I am not sure we are front runners with any players right now. I don't want to think about another year of trying to pick up players late. Year in year out most of the better players sign early and we need to get a couple names on the dotted line in November.
So they even want to helicopter over other people's kids. Let em all go to Mizzery. I wish we would just quit bowing down and spending all our resources on these in state kids that spurn us. We can build a fine team of Fraziers, Jones's and Griffins. I've always thought we would get burned by all the players in E. STL. even before Tilmon recommitted. Them kids could care less about Mannie Jackson and the globetrotters.
Yeah... he was worried we were too good for him so he is going to go sign with the team that has beat us 8 times out of the last 10. That's exactly what is happening here.
Orlando is here to be the big man's coach, I am glad to have him. I never felt we were the lead on Liddell, but I still am begging he says ILL Monday. We had a coach who was playing to the kids of this generation, he is at Akron now. Support the team this year as it is important. Thanks to everyone who shared information on this recruitment.
ILL
ILL
First part is right but catering to these self entitled brats for the last decade or two has caused this mess. It's on all the soft !!! parents.
His SFA recruiting was filled with 5 or 6 JUCO's and his OSU recruiting had FBI mentions. I can't imagine surviving long term in P5 without high school recruitments let alone those connected to Illinois.
Smith..the gift that keeps on giving...not sure underwood is the guy in this day and age...hope he can overcome the obstacles...seems like st louis area will be difficult going forward if mark Smith's father is now pushing an anti underwood agenda...will make it even easier to root against mizzou..of course its always been pretty easy
3 point girl
- texas
How did "pushing that agenda" work for John Groce? I want a kid that wants to be here that will work his tail off to get better & bleeds orange and blue no matter who the coach is.
Let’s hope Shannon commits asap
Reality is setting in.
At one point, it looked like 2019 was the perfect set up for us with Okoro, Liddell and Whitney all with geographic and staff connections.
But it appears there will be no Ayo for us this year.
At one point, it looked like 2019 was the perfect set up for us with Okoro, Liddell and Whitney all with geographic and staff connections.
But it appears there will be no Ayo for us this year.
Not picking on you at all but I’ve seen this posted countless times and I honestly have no idea what it means. It sounds great and all but we have to convince kids that Illinois is the best place for them but realistically it means given their current offers. Think of the beloved Illini players from the past 30-40 years and now I hate to break it to you but 90% of them would gone elsewhere if they had blue blood offers.
The Smith departure was far more ugly than most people realize.
Can you elaborate more on this at all?
Orlando was hired because he had one of the best recruiting track records as an assistant in the history basketball. That's why he's here. He needs to recruit.
Deleted member 29907
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I give Smith a year before he moves on from Miznoz as he is being recruited over... Most adults can see and understand what happened last year with MS. He was given much more than a fair chance to succeed as a frosh and failed to live up to B1G ability. Its possible he gets better - but the feet at his position may continue to be a problem.
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