Hoops recruiting and class balance

Watching this season's Illini hoops squad can be frustrating and even at times maddening. The talent level has improved since last season, but the results don't seem to be as good this year. How can that be? The simple answer is the lack of class balance in recruiting over recent years.

Last season's team didn't have an abundance of four and five-star talent, but that class had years of experience playing together and real senior leadership. This season's team, in contrast, is just getting used to playing together with two freshmen in the starting line-up, and there is no real senior leadership on the team.

How did this happen? It's a function of three factors: spotty recruiting for a period of several years; lack of class balance; and bad luck. The would-be senior class consisted of only two players - Richard Semrau and Brian Carlwell. Of course, misfortune befell each of those two and, as a result, the team never really benefited from their skills and promise. That's not anyone's fault, but the fact that there were only two recruits in that class and they were both pure bigs began the problem with lack of class balance.

Chris Yates