Every time we are recruiting kids that end up going to blue bloods people bring up the "playing time competition" angle. It never works out well for us. When will we stop bringing it up?
When it stops being the only possible reason one of the kids might choose U of I over Kansas or Duke or UNC or MSU or Kentucky. We need to have some on court success and I am convinced that is going to have to be done without the big name recruits. I know we are all Illinois fans but these kids don't care about going to the state school. They don't want to play in the CBI tournament. They want final fours. I won't blame Tilmon or Goodwin when they commit elsewhere. If Groce gets them I will gladly eat my words but he hasn't done anything to lend credence to the only sales pitch he can make, turning around Illinois basketball. He has had several years and the results speak for themselves. If you were the coach of MSU or Kansas or Kentucky or Duke how easy would it be to sell your school and negative recruit against Illinois?