Usually I'm for the dark colored jersey team, unless the light colored jersey team is from the big ten. Even though I wanted him fired years ago, I was cheering for the light colored jersey team down the stretch. Never would of guessed Bruce would return to Sweet sixteen before Illinois did.. 3 different teams in sweet sixteen. How many coaches can claim that? Bill self comes to mind..Lon Kruger boasts four..Maybe it's not that impressive?
3/18 Games
That list has 2 top-25 recruits, 2 more top 50. That's recruiting 'very well'??
Maybe in one class, but that was over 15 seasons. He averaged less than a top-100 per season.
I looked back six seasons starting in 2015, and his best class was barely in the top-40. Worst was 138th.
Or maybe ILLINI have a way of losing coaches that can get it done, just not for us and our cursed program...lol
Ok, now look at this list and tell me how many top-25 recruits Illinois has had during that same time period:
https://247sports.com/college/illinois/Sport/Basketball/AllTimeRecruits
Once again, I'm not saying that Bo Ryan was recruiting like Calipari or that he wasn't a great coach, but the narrative of him winning with scrubs that nobody else wanted is way overblown.
Great question!
It was a long tangent that came from a discussion of Bruce Weber's coaching and the importance of recruiting.
Whenever recruiting is not going that great, people will bring up Bo Ryan, with the secret hope that maybe our coach will have the success of Bo Ryan with lesser recruits. Or that our little known recruit may be the next Frank Kaminsky or Trey Burke.
At the end of the day, people realize that the aforementioned coach is no Bo Ryan, and more often than not, that recruit is neither Trey Burke nor Frank Kaminsky.
In fairness, the Trey Burkes and Frank Kaminskys are MUCH more common than the Bo Ryans. A lot of 3-star recruits turn out to be excellent college players, but very, very few college coaches have the sustained success that Bo Ryan had, especially at a non-traditional basketball school.
Yeah, except Bo, Painter and us all wanted Egwu first. Bo end up with a Frank after hvlost the Egwu sweepstakes.
You should read my statement again, it is pretty carefully worded
Yeah, I think we're actually on the same page with this one
No 16 seed has ever beaten an 8/9 seed!
foby
- Bonnaroo Land
SKane
- Tennessee
Kansas State is the first team to defeat a 16-seed in the second round of the tournament.
KSU is not getting any respect from the national media. I hope they can defeat Kentucky but it is a humongous long shot if Wade does not play for KSU. It is just a long shot if a rusty Wade is able to play for KSU.
KSU is not getting any respect from the national media. I hope they can defeat Kentucky but it is a humongous long shot if Wade does not play for KSU. It is just a long shot if a rusty Wade is able to play for KSU.
FightingIllini09
- Belleville, IL
True, but to be fair they played terribly in the game against UMBC. Interesting that they were "re-seeded" dead last in the field of 16 per the below ESPN article.
That said, I hope they stomp Kentucky, but the only chance I see is if their D plays a perfect game.
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/22825232/ncaa-tournament-reseeding-sweet-16
Sort of like Bo won the Happ sweepstakes and we ended up with Finke.
Nothing like that. Happ committed as a sophomore. Groce had just been hired. Bo, Painter and Weber all heavily recruited Egwu and he committed as a junior, normal time, not early like Happ.