Are Werner and Piper and the channel 3 sports guys traveling to follow this announcement. They usually make these trips if they are positive the pick will be in favor of the illini.
Maybe... just maybe
Are Werner and Piper and the channel 3 sports guys traveling to follow this announcement. They usually make these trips if they are positive the pick will be in favor of the illini.
Nice, or I guess I should say noice...
The show was so much funnier than the movies
Coach Underwood has done a solid job on the recruiting front before even coaching a single game. If the players adapt to Underwood's style and have what they call the 7 sec. offense, i'm sure other recruits in the near future can buy into that. Hopefully THT has an Illini polo on at 6:30 pm CST.
Can’t wait for the post-THT commitment thread.
If we lose him, we get to keep speculating how Ayo didn’t allow BU to sign THT.
If we get him, we can speculate about when Ayo is going to re-open his recruitment.
Really, a win-win here.
Let's call a spade a spade.
If Underwood manages to land Mr. Basketball Mark Smith, (likely) Mr. Basketball Ayo Dosunmu, and emerging star THT before coaching a single game, then that goes down as one of the most impressive recruiting accomplishments I've ever seen at Illinois.
That is the sort of foundational trio that you can build a program on.
Let's call a spade a spade.
If Underwood manages to land Mr. Basketball Mark Smith, (likely) Mr. Basketball Ayo Dosunmu, and emerging star THT before coaching a single game, then that goes down as one of the most impressive recruiting accomplishments I've ever seen at Illinois.
That is the sort of foundational trio that you can build a program on.
I'm not worried...
Let's not forget the rest of the team: Williams, Lucas, Frazier et al. The focus seems to be on Smith, Ayo and now Horton-Tucker as the "saviors." But resurrecting the program depends on the whole roster.
I truly believe the program is heading in the right direction. My hope is that Coach Underwood isn't implicated in the Adidas scandal.
I used to believe that if Illinois was a consistent winner top recruits would sign on just like that.
Illinois was on the way up under Kruger and Self. Bruce Weber did an outstanding job keeping Self's team together and going to the final.
Ilinois had a pretty fair team in 2004-05 and again the next year, but the program didn't capitalize on that success; instead it was run into the ground.
Success, I think, has to do with the whole culture at Illinois from administration on down. It appears Illinois has a great AD and a winning coach who has landed his dream job. A recipe for success, as they say. I certainly hope so.
Oh, I am. But then, I'm always worried about these situations.
I was less worried about Ayo because we were the perceived leader all along. This one is different -- I feel like the recent shift in vibes is setting us up for a nutpunch extraordinaire. But man, I hope I'm wrong.
(and I probably will be wrong, based on everything that's out there)
To clarify, I mentioned Mark Smith, Ayo, and (potentially) THT because they are highly-ranked HS recruits that Underwood landed before he ever coached a game. And, secondarily, they'll probably be the three most touted guys on our roster in a year or two.
I love Alstork, but there's a bit of a different dynamic recruiting a 5th year guy than there is recruiting a highly-ranked HS recruit. And as much as I love Damonte, TJL, Trent Frazier, and others, they weren't Underwood recruits.
I'm merely commenting on Underwood's ability to recruit the sort of trio that you can build a really strong team on -- and he did it before coaching a single game.
We're still a long, long way from being nationally recognized and being able to consistently pull recruits from Calif, AZ, Texas, FL and NY. To the best of my knowledge, that's never happened at UofI. As with Lou (1980's) and Bill Self (2000's), it all starts with Chicago and the state of Illinois.
Exactly we can't forget what gave us our past success, which was Illinois talent. We can occasionally put a talented out of state player but it has happened rarely in the past (Deron, Harper, lesser extent Coleman-Lands).
Frankly, if we recruit the state as well as Underwood is currently recruiting it, then we'll be just fine if our out-of-state success is within the recent norm.
Oddly enough, Groce did quite well out-of-state -- JCL, Leron Black, Tejon Lucas, Trent Frazier, etc. It was the in-state whiffs that killed us. If Underwood can pull in the equivalent of JCL, Black, TJL, and Frazier over the next few years, I think we'll be in great shape.
Exactly we can't forget what gave us our past success, which was Illinois talent. We can occasionally put a talented out of state player but it has happened rarely in the past (Deron, Harper, lesser extent Coleman-Lands).