Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread (August 2018)

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#351      

Indy Illini Fan

Indy Illini Fan
Indy Illini Fan
Man, I really wanted Whitney. :(

I get losing a kid to KY, not much you can do in that situation, especially with the current state of the program.

What I won't get is not being able to get a top 100 kid in '19, for paying the AC's the most out of any B1G team ($850,000 combined), I expect Top 100 players.

Plain and Simple.:shield:
 
#352      

tpbradley

tpbradley
tpbradley
TownieMatt said:
This rational take is no fun...

...Quick, someone complain that the kid is just following the crowd and isn't brave enough to make his own legacy!
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It's obvious that BU is putting the time in now for when KW transfers haha. Also, take it with a grain of salt, but my barber says that his growth plates are already closed. I'm thinking we dodged one here.
 
#354      

schlagboy

S
schlagboy
TheGMan said:
Khalil Whitney to Kentucky

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1027250123498311680
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giphy.gif
 
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#356      

coryfor3

C
coryfor3
jaked1121 said:
You can't have disappointment without expectation and to be honest I don't think anyone was really expecting anything other than KY.
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I understand the decision based on Whitney's standing and his goals. I also can't even imagine being a coach who identifies a talent and recruits the kid for years, putting in time and effort and dedication and then losing him when someone else jumps in to the fray. BU recruits Whitney for years and establishes a relationship. Cal puts in maybe a month and it's over. I guess in college coaching, you learn to live with the frustration of recruiting.
 
#357      

TCTORNADO

TCTORNADO
TCTORNADO
2019 Top50 big man Zeke Nnaji out of Minnesota has scheduled a UI visit for August 28th. Probably a UV.
 
#358      

Joel Goodson

Joel Goodson
respect my decision™
Joel Goodson
coryfor3 said:
Cal puts in maybe a month and it's over. I guess in college coaching, you learn to live with the frustration of recruiting.
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It's good to be king.

As for us, we need to progress from being an also-ran to a winner. But make no mistake, blue bloods are always going to win these recruits the vast majority of the time.
 
#359      

Johnny Lawrence

Johnny Lawrence
Johnny Lawrence
coryfor3 said:
I understand the decision based on Whitney's standing and his goals. I also can't even imagine being a coach who identifies a talent and recruits the kid for years, putting in time and effort and dedication and then losing him when someone else jumps in to the fray. BU recruits Whitney for years and establishes a relationship. Cal puts in maybe a month and it's over. I guess in college coaching, you learn to live with the frustration of recruiting.
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It's all about paying dues. Cal didn't walk into UMass and start hand picking blue chippers. And before we start the obligatory $$$ rebuttals that make us feel better, it's fair to note that that he turned an absolutely dreadful program into a national power in a very short amount of time with only one McDonald's All American (Donta Bright) and that was only because he was a Prop 48.
 
#360      

Newman

N
Newman
coryfor3 said:
I understand the decision based on Whitney's standing and his goals. I also can't even imagine being a coach who identifies a talent and recruits the kid for years, putting in time and effort and dedication and then losing him when someone else jumps in to the fray. BU recruits Whitney for years and establishes a relationship. Cal puts in maybe a month and it's over. I guess in college coaching, you learn to live with the frustration of recruiting.
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The length of the relationship is overrated in recruiting. It's only going to matter when all of the other variables are equal but winning, track record of getting guys to the league have much more weight. The length of the relationship is enough to give us a spot as a bridesmaid though.
 
#361      

Emerson Bigguns

Emerson Bigguns
Emerson Bigguns
coryfor3 said:
I understand the decision based on Whitney's standing and his goals. I also can't even imagine being a coach who identifies a talent and recruits the kid for years, putting in time and effort and dedication and then losing him when someone else jumps in to the fray. BU recruits Whitney for years and establishes a relationship. Cal puts in maybe a month and it's over. I guess in college coaching, you learn to live with the frustration of recruiting.
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The frustrations of losing lead to more frustrations in recruiting. If you are Cal, and can point to top 10 draft picks every year, tournament games every year, Final Four appearances every couple years, you paint a pretty nice picture for a prospective athlete. Since Cal took over at Kentucky (09-10), Illinois has had more head coaches than NCAA appearances. That's a tough sell.
 
#362      

Greensboro

Greensboro
Greensboro
jcgoldie said:
I don't understand why we don't offer Shannon as a 2018 if he's fully qualified as has been reported.
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just an fyi...Piper was on the Werner show yesterday & said Quincy was planning on enrolling mid year/ end of first semester ( eligible right before Mizzou game this year). So if we take Shannon now, we probably are passing on Quincy. I'm ok with that, bird in hand, not sure of our chances with Quincy anyway, but I would rather have Shannon in 2019 & Quincy this year if we can pull that off. Take Both!
 
#365      

SescIllini

SescIllini
SescIllini
To be successful you need to stop envying what others are doing. If you hate their success, either you need to accept mediocrity or mimic it.
Kentucky is a different program from Illinois, but can we look at what Villanova has done the last 5-10 years. Yes they get their occasional McAA but their success is built on the 3-4 year players. Many were probably in the 50-100 range.

So I'm not saying to give up on the Kahil Whitney types, but realize that long-term success for Illinois will be built on a balanced veteran roster of the 50-100 type players. BU is still playing catch up on his recruiting, but I think landing Ayo and Tevian were tremendous for the program. From the group of bigs he landed some will be solid contributors and others will be transfer candidates. I believe Griffin and Feliz will be solid contributors as well, just likely not immediately.

Hopefully this year we can get more of those 30-50 type players.
 
#366      

Deleted member 29907

D
Guest
Deleted member 29907
SescIllini said:
To be successful you need to stop envying what others are doing. If you hate their success, either you need to accept mediocrity or mimic it.
Kentucky is a different program from Illinois, but can we look at what Villanova has done the last 5-10 years. Yes they get their occasional McAA but their success is built on the 3-4 year players. Many were probably in the 50-100 range.

So I'm not saying to give up on the Kahil Whitney types, but realize that long-term success for Illinois will be built on a balanced veteran roster of the 50-100 type players. BU is still playing catch up on his recruiting, but I think landing Ayo and Tevian were tremendous for the program. From the group of bigs he landed some will be solid contributors and others will be transfer candidates. I believe Griffin and Feliz will be solid contributors as well, just likely not immediately.

Hopefully this year we can get more of those 30-50 type players.
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Agree for the most part - IMO in the state we're in we need to build a program that can attract very good talent and win with the 3-4 year players with a potential occasional one and done.

However, I think, regarding your first point, you can dislike/hate someone's/team's success if you don't agree with the way they got there or obtained that success. That doesn't mean you accept mediocrity, it just means you expect different standards.
 
#368      

The Dave

The Dave
CA
The Dave
Johnny Lawrence said:
It's all about paying dues. Cal didn't walk into UMass and start hand picking blue chippers. And before we start the obligatory $$$ rebuttals that make us feel better, it's fair to note that that he turned an absolutely dreadful program into a national power in a very short amount of time with only one McDonald's All American (Donta Bright) and that was only because he was a Prop 48.
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I thought Cal made his name at UMass with Marcus Camby. I actually have no idea if he was a McDAA or not but I seem to recall the (insufferable at the time) UMASS fan-base talking smack all day about Camby and Cal.

Of course at this point I'd almost taking hitting the lottery once every 20 years (Dr. J. --> Camby --> next UMASS lightning strike).
 
#369      

The Dave

The Dave
CA
The Dave
I'm sure I'm opening a firestorm here, but...

Any idea if/how recruiting things like this affect the CURRENT team members? Do they follow it as closely as us? Do they care? When we lose a recruit do they get discouraged? Does it affect their own self-worth (why did I come here if player X won't even come here)?

Just a PoV that I had never really considered till today...
 
#370      

618MattD

618MattD
618MattD
The Dave said:
I'm sure I'm opening a firestorm here, but...

Any idea if/how recruiting things like this affect the CURRENT team members? Do they follow it as closely as us? Do they care? When we lose a recruit do they get discouraged? Does it affect their own self-worth (why did I come here if player X won't even come here)?

Just a PoV that I had never really considered till today...
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Being a former college athlete, (baseball) current players are definitely aware of recruits. Players always interacting with recruits on visits, for example, selling them on why they should come join the team, talking about the school, food, fun things in the town, etc. Sometimes, and probably more so in football and basketball, current players will text recruits to help with recruiting efforts. From my experience, coaches are usually open about the guys that they really want and make sure the team knows that they need to take care of the guy and make sure he enjoys the visit.

As far as getting discouraged, not so much. You want guys that want to be apart of the team. If a guy thinks its best for him and his career to go elsewhere then so be it. You want to add guys to your family (that's what the team really is) that want to be there and are bought in.
 
#373      

CARPET

C
CARPET
The Dave said:
I'm sure I'm opening a firestorm here, but...

Any idea if/how recruiting things like this affect the CURRENT team members? Do they follow it as closely as us? Do they care? When we lose a recruit do they get discouraged? Does it affect their own self-worth (why did I come here if player X won't even come here)?

Just a PoV that I had never really considered till today...
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Fair question for sure - These players are operating in the now phase day to day. Recruiting effects zero on how this team assembled will play this year-
 
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