Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread

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#54      
Bleedorangeandblue44
Monticello said:
There's an old book, "Play Their Hearts Out," that discusses the problems with AAU (and it's over 12 years old, so I'm certain it's gotten much worse). The book covers a coach and his start athlete over the course of a few years. It was a very sad case study. Kids are treated like pieces of meat by adults hoping to strike it rich.
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That was an excellent book. Probably that and Friday Night Lights my two favorites on high school sports, maybe Once They Were Giants is another excellent one on the 1952 Hebron team.

But back to recruiting, couldn't agree more that this has been going on forever and it's just out in the open more now. Enjoying all the discussion of our possible targets, the Moneyball angles to building a roster, the start of minute projections for next year's team, especially enjoying how much the insiders have nailed so much of what was going to happen well before it did.....all great stuff. Sure makes for a much more interesting March, April and May on illinois loyalty. I'm in the nostalgic camp of missing the way college basketball used to be and following the development of kids for 3-4-5 years at Illinois, but I'm more in the camp of wanting to win going forward and excited to see what next year will bring.
 
#55      
turnaround3
ChiefGritty said:
What would be a good Old Cal goes Villain Mode school? Arizona State?

(or, uh, I mean should I say it?)
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Yeah I mean it's hard to imagine a more obvious layup than Louisville there, given their current situation.

But there's plenty of blue blood potentially spilling into the water, so to speak. We're probably a year away from Kansas opening up. Indiana boosters will be screaming like always if Woodson lays an egg this year. Carolina's in a bizarre spot entering Davis' third year.
 
#57      
ChiefGritty
turnaround3 said:
Yeah I mean it's hard to imagine a more obvious layup than Louisville there, given their current situation.

But there's plenty of blue blood potentially spilling into the water, so to speak. We're probably a year away from Kansas opening up. Indiana boosters will be screaming like always if Woodson lays an egg this year. Carolina's in a bizarre spot entering Davis' third year.
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Ooh, Louisville would be amazing.

But if BU decides he still wants to be somewhere else next offseason and John Calipari is available, Josh Whitman should back up the dang Brinks truck and all of this board's reasons against that are wrong and bad.
 
#58      
othawhitemeat
Indy Illini Fan said:
AD got more than $200k “allegedly” … I know nothing of that to be true … 😎

Also have to realize … These kids get paid to play for certain AAU programs and certain prep HS programs …

It’s been going on for a LONG time …
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I don't usually have a lot of inside info, but I heard more than that by more than double, allegedly. I could be way off, but just what was mentioned back in the day and some semi-hearsay.
 
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#59      
One Man Fast Break
ChiefGritty said:
Ooh, Louisville would be amazing.

But if BU decides he still wants to be somewhere else next offseason and John Calipari is available, Josh Whitman should back up the dang Brinks truck and all of this board's reasons against that are wrong and bad.
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Calipari is a mediocre basketball coach in the actual coaching basketball sense... and he wouldn't get the same level of recruits at Illinois that he snags at Kentucky.
 
#60      
Indy Illini Fan
othawhitemeat said:
I don't usually have a lot of inside info, but I heard more than that by more than double. I could be way off, but just what was mentioned back in the day and some semi-hearsay.
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AD was a millionaire before he touched the league … Per sources …

Ginger Squirrely Dan GIF by Crave
 
#61      
illiniguy24
It’s sad we can’t recruit certain kids because we don’t have enough money to give them, even though we have roster needs and a fit for them.
 
#62      
Illini231
Do we have any idea of when TSJ is going to announce? Better yet, when is the deadline?
 
#64      
ChiefGritty
illiniguy24 said:
It’s sad we can’t recruit certain kids because we don’t have enough money to give them, even though we have roster needs and a fit for them.
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The current talent acquisition environment is WAY WAY WAY more advantageous to Illinois than the one we left behind.

Kentucky succeeds in any environment. Oregon State, Southern Illinois, y'know, Texas A&M Corpus Christi, there are layers and layers still stuck below.

Illinois is like the paradigmatic winner of the NIL world because of our ability to do small dollar fundraising from our Game of Thrones Ice Zombie Army of basketball recruiting obsessed internet weirdos.
 
#65      
DAM1298
So not only did RayJ Dennis like the Domask and Harmon tweets yesterday… this morning he posted the Harmon commitment to his Instagram story.

EDIT: He doesn’t follow either of them on social media, which gives the impression he doesn’t know them (at least very well) beyond Illini recruitment. Odd he would go out of his way to post a commitment vid of a guy he doesn’t even follow…
 
#66      
Illynois
DAM1298 said:
So not only did RayJ Dennis like the Domask and Harmon tweets yesterday… this morning he posted the Harmon commitment to his Instagram story.

EDIT: He doesn’t follow either of them on social media, which gives the impression he doesn’t know them (at least very well) beyond Illini recruitment. Odd he would go out of his way to post a commitment vid of a guy he doesn’t even follow…
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He follows Harmon on IG, but not Domask. But agree...Peculiar he'd post about Domask for sure
 
#67      
BretMyBeachHouse
ChiefGritty said:
The rather obvious subtext, yes. We've gotta make it worth their while to put off their professional ambitions and roll the dice on another college season.

I have no inside knowledge, but I would also advise paying folks like Harris, Hansberry, Goode, etc more than they're "worth" strictly speaking.

I suspect as we start to Moneyball this over the coming years, development and continuity in a system will come to have a pretty healthy price placed on it.
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The problem is moneyball is really based on performance. And for a lot of these guys, we just don't have complete numbers. the pros have limits on salaries for young players for that very reason. None of that exists in this wacky NIL world.
 
#68      
illiniguy24
ChiefGritty said:
The current talent acquisition environment is WAY WAY WAY more advantageous to Illinois than the one we left behind.

Kentucky succeeds in any environment. Oregon State, Southern Illinois, y'know, Texas A&M Corpus Christi, there are layers and layers still stuck below.

Illinois is like the paradigmatic winner of the NIL world because of our ability to do small dollar fundraising from our Game of Thrones Ice Zombie Army of basketball recruiting obsessed internet weirdos.
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Oh you’re 1000% correct. I’m not saying it as an overall negative. Just a little odd is all, still getting used to it I guess.
 
#70      
Indy Illini Fan
DAM1298 said:
So not only did RayJ Dennis like the Domask and Harmon tweets yesterday… this morning he posted the Harmon commitment to his Instagram story.

EDIT: He doesn’t follow either of them on social media, which gives the impression he doesn’t know them (at least very well) beyond Illini recruitment. Odd he would go out of his way to post a commitment vid of a guy he doesn’t even follow…
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Interested Thinking GIF by reactionseditor
 
#71      
ChiefGritty
If we end up with Domask, Harmon, RayJ and TSJ, that will be the leading scorer from four different D1 programs that won 20, 23, 27 and 28 games last year, respectively.

We had no one who'd ever led a college team in scoring on last year's team. I remember BU mentioning that in a preseason interview.
 
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