Nowhere, because UI needs to recruit players, not the other way around. Players and parents owe nothing to UI. Truth is that we need them, they do not need us, if we can't successfully recruit them, they will simply go elsewhere.
While I whole heartedly agree with that premise because it's absolutely true, it does work both ways. There is no good rhyme or reason why kids in Illinois shouldn't be pining to attend their home state's flagship school. I know there is lot of negativity towards a lot of people in the State of Illinois due to a number of factors (rampant corruption, broke state government, terrible roads, losing population, high taxes, economic decline in many parts, inequality to name a few), but man, complaining about it and having a constant negative attitude about it and taking it out on the University that represents your state (still a damn fine institution that has somehow managed to maintain it's world standing and reputation despite having much of it's public funding bled dry over the course of the past couple decades) is not helping.
Yes, a lot of it has to do with the University itself doing a poor job of marketing, and of course boneheaded decisions by many of the University people in charge, but it makes no sense that Illinoisans shouldn't feel the same blind pride and loyalty that, say, Indiana residents do to IU or Purdue, or Iowan's do to U of Iowa, or Wisconsonians do to Wiscy, or Michiganders do to scUM (Michigan a state that has felt just as many if not more economic woes as Illinois does!).
Yes, winning begets some of this no question, but even when Illinois was winning in both sports in the 80s, and in basketball in the early 2000s it still felt like the support was half-hearted and bandwagony for the most part. Aside from a few years with Jimmy Collins it's not like the Chicago and AAU floodgates ever opened and in football it's much the same thing with top Illinois prospects often choosing to go to Iowa or Wisconsin or Notre Dame over the state school. Again, a lot of it falls squarely on the shoulders of the school itself for doing a terrible job of cultivating a following in it's own state for decades and terrible hiring and firing decisions and not keeping up in facilities and thus not making it not as attractive to recruits and fans. I get that, but as that's changing (and it most certainly is thanks much to JW), I would really love to see that overall culture change on all sides: from the school, from the media, and from the residents, fans, and high schools across the state.
