mhuml32
- Cincinnati, OH
Could this be a Monster Class? The first 2 are extremely high for Illini standards. Could we really, really be building our program back?!?!?!? This is very exciting stuff.
It's a very good start to the class. Something to keep in mind is that Feagin's commitment is "punching above our weight class" and are the type of wins that Illinois needs to replicate 2x/3x a year to take the next step (progressing to 5x/year in the near future). Need to start sprinkling higher regarded talent across the roster. Ignoring any class rating inflation, Hayden's AVG rating is on par with last year's class composite rating (what does this mean? Hayden's ranking is consistent with the average recruit in the 2022 class). If Illinois can pick up more and more players like Hayden that are closer to the floor then it's a sign of recruiting making progress.
I don't know how many recruits are expected in this class but my guess is the 2023 recruiting class AVG score will be incrementally better than the 2022 class. Would love if that number started getting into the high-.8600's or low-.8700's. That would put Illinois on a similar level as Wisconsin or Maryland (based on last year's numbers). Another goal would be can Illinois' '23 class break into the top-10 of the B1G. Bielema's staff was 12th last year but that is with some benefit of taking 26 recruits. It's going to be a lot harder to get 10th if they only take 21-22 recruits.