Believe nothing until signed & on campus
I actually saw EJ join Mario McKinney on Instagram live for about 5 minutes last night and he mentioned 10/1 announcement.Some Mizzou ‘insider’ on Twitter says EJ will announce 10/1. Can’t find another confirmation yet. The twitter handle is ‘chadmizzou’
Facilities, record, this, that... it all helps. But at the end, either you are a very good recruiter or you are not. Bryce Drew is a very good recruiter.
I WENT to Illinois and I have barely seen Illinois play in the tournament. Not to mention I graduated in 2013. People reference our clout or storied past way too much because a lot of posters went to Illinois around the Flying Illini time and figure everyone must care a lot about that still. They don't. I don't. Vanderbilt is a much more successful program than ours right now, just by making the tournament a few times. People barely even care about the championship run. I was in grade school back then. I remember watching them blow it to Ohio State and I remember the Arizona game, and that is it. I don't even think I watched the national championship and to be honest I can't even remember the national championship from 4 years ago let alone 13 years ago.
Yes, on some being very good recruiters outside of those other factors. nevertheless, I feel like plenty of mediocre recruiters have had great success in recruiting by putting together these other elements.
And you're "you are or you're not" dichotomy is wrong. As in most things, there's a continuum. We'll have a better idea where BU fits in that continuum in November.
Vanderbilt, who I don't think anyone would argue a) Is less of a historic power than us and b) has a worse recent record than us (shocking but true), just signed a class with the 11th, 14th, and 64th best prospects. An outlier for sure, and perhaps Drew is really an ace recruiter and blah blah blah, but the facts are that teams worse than us sign top 25 players.
I'm as pessimistic as the next person, but I think it's clear most of the guys that visit here leave under higher impressions of the organization. That's worth something. Eventually, we will get top talent to commit here.
Hey, how did you get me in that video?!
It is not about judging reputation, it is about getting results. BU may not have the reputation, but if he gets the recruiting results he will be a very good recruiter. Bryce Drew gets results so far.
We are also not talking a continuum of "recruiting." On that dimension, there is a continuum indeed. But being a "very good recruiter" means that you are either at the high end of that continuum or not.
It seems to me that Oscar knows a couple things: 1) He'll start immediately, which can't be said at a lot of other places;
Did you graduate from HS or Illinois in 2013? If you graduated from college, and was a fan, i'm not sure how you didn't watch the NC game - you should have been in 8th/9th grade.
Make Illinois Basketball Great Again!
So I think it's definitely possible for a guy to start out in the middle of the spectrum and end up at the high end.
Vanderbilt is a much more successful program than ours right now, just by making the tournament a few times.
Assuming he doesn't turn pro, Konate will be a senior next year. Derek Culver is a promising frosh, though he might be more of a PF. Derek Culver is a juco transfer who plays C."a lot of places"?
How about a few places, like Kentucky. Don't know how things stack up for WV, but are you really saying that he won't be able to start for them?
"a lot of places"?
How about a few places, like Kentucky. Don't know how things stack up for WV, but are you really saying that he won't be able to start for them?
Of the things listed, are any of 1-3 unique to Illinois or we are clearly ahead of the other teams listed in his final 4 schools? And let's be real, #4 does not matter. We should stop acting like it does.It seems to me that Oscar knows a couple things: 1) He'll start immediately, which can't be said at a lot of other places; 2) Illinois has some very good and young PG & wing talent; 3) Illinois fans are crazy about hoops and will come out in droves if you're even reasonably good; 4) He'll get an education from a university that is know through the world as one of the great public institutions. Is that enough, time will tell.
Vandy has been to the tournament proper once since 2012-13, same as us, and has won just one tournament game since 2006-07, which is one fewer than us.
Did you graduate from HS or Illinois in 2013? If you graduated from college, and was a fan, i'm not sure how you didn't watch the NC game - you should have been in 8th/9th grade. However, I get your overall point - and that's what I was trying to get at. The history of Illinois basketball has been great - but since 2007 (a kid entering his Sr year in HS would have been 10 years old or so) Illinois has been mediocre at best. People "my age" or older aren't deciding to go to UI based on its rich history. They haven't seen any of that - that's what BU needs to recreate
Make Illinois Basketball Great Again!
Decide for yourself I guess.
Oscar T will start at most places indeed and get significant playing time. But one of my personal pet peeves was the original statement of "one of the great public institutions" which I have seen quite a few times in the past from posters. For the general public, it matters because tuition and cost can be different. But for a highly ranked recruit, public and private make little difference as they will be on scholarship/stipend independent of original cost of tuition (that often varies greatly between some public and private institutions).
Citing Western Kentucky's $ucce$$ is no bueno. We go down that road and heavy sanctions, here we come.
And more importantly NCAA athletics inherently denies most revenue sport athletes from any meaningful access to the benefits of an elite education, to the extent those players would even be in a position to gain anything from such access, which is vanishingly rare.
However, that does NOT mean that we shouldn't be telling OT that Illinois is a better school than UK and WVU, if that's a message he or his parents are receptive to. You play the hand you've got.