Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread (January-March 2016)
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1) finke will likely end up more highly ranked than Williams because he's a better player and 2) finke isn't nearly as close to being an Illini as Williams.
Also the whole "domino effect" talk might be getting a little premature. From what I understand from guys like Piper it's that a Williams commit would do a lot for goodwins chances of coming to Illinois (even more so than Illinois currently being on top of his list). If that happens, that's when it gets interesting regarding Tilmon to the point where those changes go wayyy up.
It'll be interesting to see what happens in the next few months.
To me, these sound like the kind of rumors a coach on the hot seat would start to put out there. Because, as you said, it's reason alone to keep him. I'm not buying any of this.
Also, didn't Goodwin recently talk highly of creighton, IU, Purdue and mizzou? This just doesn't add up. Someone has a lot to gain from putting these rumblings out there. Maybe I'm being paranoid
You are being paranoid and this isn't coming from the staff. At least from pipers end it isn't.
Where is it coming from? Because piper is pretty tied in with the staff
Lol, the recruits themselves haven't been keeping it a secret that they're strongly considering going to Illinois. It's definitely not Groce doing this.
I don't consider myself an insider or anything, I just recently happened to get to know one of the top 2017 guys outside of the Chicago, and the information I got was almost identical to the leaked information elsewhere. I'm not saying that it's a lock, but I'm more confident about a couple of them going to Illinois than almost any other recruit in Groce's tenure. These are high school kids so anything can happen, there are no locks whatsoever, it doesn't mean that the information being provided right now isn't credible though.
You can laugh it off, but we've all seen the recruiting thread get blinded by optimism in the past. To me, the party that benefits most from these rumors is john groce. So, to me, it is not at all unreasonable to conclude that he has played a part in spreading the word.
I think the best thing that Goodwin did was to play football this year. I could be wrong but I think that this was the first year that he played. Anyways, he has gotten a lot stronger and in a lot better shape. He has really slimmed down. He was not fat by any means but was very stocky last year. Last year he had no chance at going straight up for a dunk getting a pass at the rim. Much improved athleticism
K, agree to disagree then.
Let me be clear here though, no one is suggesting this will happen or is even likely. But it's also not just some plan concocted and floated around by the coaching staff. It's somewhere in between at this point and the next couple months will show us which way this whole idea may start trending, that's all.
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Piper is actually the one being a little cautious about all if it. Guys like Tate and Henrickson are a little more confident.
Agree - we will learn a lot soon
The real question is why have those guys stopped recruiting him?
They haven't. At least not in IUs case.
Again. There is a lot of common belief he will be at Illinois.
Even with IU taking 3 combo/lead guards in the 2016 class and having a need for bigs with Max and maybe Bryant leaving?
Piper mentioned specifically that Indiana was still recruiting him. Or, I believe that Williams said they were anyway.
I've listened to all these guys talk about it. Tate thinks it's likely Tilmon and Williams would commit to Illinois if they committed today, but admits a lot can happen with blue bloods coming in on Tilmon. I don't think Henricksen is that bullish on Groce landing Tilmon with KU and UNC coming in. I agree with your take on Piper.
We've been here before on all this super optimistic recruiting talk.
Regarding the downstate comments - we have never been strong in the St Louis Metro area, so I think the downstate thing is overblown. What 5 star player have we ever landed from there? Our stronghold has really been Central Illinois - we've consistently landed good players from Peoria and Springfield, but we've lost several good ones too.
Yea let me be clear about Henrickson. Hes not saying it's going to happen just that Illinois is sitting better than people think with Tilmon.
IMO coaches haven't wasted to much time on him because he has always appeared to be a strong Illini lean(esp Big 10 schools)
Jkat00
- Champaign, IL
That's just not true. Not saying he's not going to Illinois but he's very interested in Ohio State and some others if/when they offer.
So happy to come to the recruiting thread and see some optimistic signs, it has been rather bleak on here for awhile. Sure hope we are turning the corner!
Well, we've got our blinker on.
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