Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread (April 2017)

[Obelix]

If Groce avoided to mess up with those highly touted 4.5 or 5 stars and kept recruiting players who wanted to be here and would play 4 years and then developed them, he might not have been gone

It turns out that illini gained exactly 0 value for being part of those recruiting battles. Hope BU involve less in recruiting drama and more on player development

Groce's mentor, Matta, is another great recent example of failing on big recruits, though he actually got some of the stars, but lack of player development, program consistency, and too much drama burned them.

Meh... schools win NCs with talent, whether recruits play 1 year or 4 years has become much less relevant. The level of talent at UI the last 12 years has been down, nowhere near the level when Illinois was consistently very good (80s and 1999-2005).

Health has had a huge impact on Matta, but they have not been burned during his tenure. Matta has had as many Final Fours and NC game appearances as we have had in our modern history combined (at least in the last 60+ years).

There is a reason people go gaga over Antigua possibly joining our staff, and it is not his exceptional X's and O's ability...

 

[PNWIllini]

Don't need a good coach to coach talent

Lorenzo Romar's 9-22 record with an NBA lotto pick and a good lineup otherwise would like a word....

Couldn't even win with talent.

And if he could, Porter stays in Seattle, and none of this crap starts happening.

 

[ChiefIllini]

Lorenzo Romar's 9-22 record with an NBA lotto pick and a good lineup otherwise would like a word....

Couldn't even win with talent.

And if he could, Porter stays in Seattle, and none of this crap starts happening.

How about that coach at Cal who didn't win a single tourney game with 3 5*s. Think his name was kahnzo or something.

 

[robjilla]

OK, so after "looking around" Tilmon says, hey, Illinois, I love you after all. If you're Underwood, what do you do?

My strong temptation would be to say, kid, you're good with a basketball, but I need to put a team on the court, and you don't seem to be a real team player. How do I know that I can trust you?

At that point, you recruit me, because while you've been looking around, so have I.

I don't care how hot she is, if she's said yes but then gives the ring back because she "wants to look around," I'm not sure anymore that I want her.

Are the other three going to bolt because Tilmon got cold feet? I dunno. Maybe they're more pissed at Tilmon than we are. Maybe they feel like they've been played.

Yeah, he's got talent, but be also seems to be a legend in his own mind. Disappointed? Sure. But don't look back.

My response, "Yes, we'll release you. Thank you for letting us know this early so that we can have time to find someone for scholarship you had accepted."

I have noticed that Tilmon is fairly quiet on twitter. I have seen Frazier say pro Illini things like he is the one from Illinois, yet he is the ONE that is not from Illinois but would probably walk to Champaign right now to get started. He wanted to play in the NIT game in Florida. I think that Frazier would BOLT the state of Florida to come to our state on this rainy day right now. Williams also seems to be committed to the University and not the coach, assistant coach, or anyone else.

 

[Ubermensch]

Now we can REALLY embrace the Small Ball concept!

I'm in. I love small ball, especially nowadays. More tick for Kipper at the 3/4.

 

[Deleted member 236589]

Tilmon is a big boy and can make his own decisions. I always thought he really wasn't on the Illini band wagon any way. If it is keeping Groce to keep Tilmon or Underwood I will take the new coach. I would bet Underwood isn't sitting at home watching cartoons all the time. He will find us some great players. A-lot of people said Tilmon was a one and done anyway so wouldn't do us a whole lot of good for very long.

So many people were so sure that he was committed to this program. To me, this was a long time coming. All of the other commits came out publically and reaffirmed their commitments. Tilmon was quiet throughout this whole ordeal. It was always, "sources close to the situation...."

For the family to come out and tie themselves to Walker, then do this is tacky....at best.

 

[greger]

So many people were so sure that he was committed to this program. To me, this was a long time coming. All of the other commits came out publically and reaffirmed their commitments. Tilmon was quiet throughout this whole ordeal. It was always, "sources close to the situation...."

For the family to come out and tie themselves to Walker, then do this is tacky....at best.

Yes it is.....but in this day and age recruiting has become a filthy dirty concept and this is just another sad example....

 

[Golfer63]

If he goes to Missouri, they owned us this offseason. Let's be real here.

Wouldn't the fact that they actively tried to recruit a signed player be an NCAA violation?

 

[OldGreg]

Wouldn't the fact that they actively tried to recruit a signed player be an NCAA violation?

If it can be proved...

 

[golferjohn1970]

There may be a chance, but at this point the entire Illini staff (current and future) have to start calling available seniors, JUCOs and 5th Years. We can't go into next season with Finke, Black and two open scholarships.

I agree go after a good 5th year center like Thorne and go from there. I think this kid looks like a good player but might be overrated a little bit he wasnt' even top 3 in Mr. Illinois basketball and he is a 5 star? I'd say he is more of a 4 star player.

 

[Peoria Illini]

Wouldn't the fact that they actively tried to recruit a signed player be an NCAA violation?

I don't think there is proof that they actively recruited him. I'm sure Cuonzo or anyone of his staff didn't contact he or his family directly. I'm sure there were intermediaries, and that can't be proved.

 

[Deleted member 4333]

Not that it matters, but are we sure Tilmon is going to Missouri? Is St. Louis still in play?

 

[greger]

Hopefully we can get Kiir now I guess......

 

[OneTime3]

Meh he gone. W/E I understand making a move when a coaching switch happens, that's a big reason most of these guys commit to certain schools outside of Blue Blood exposure. I wish he would have did it when Groce was initially fired however, that part sucks. Looking forward to waxing him when we play MO.

 

[icengineer]

Not a big, but I'd feel pretty consoled with Jeffrey Carroll.

I thought he already confirmed he was staying at OSU?

 

[chiefhaunting]

Or if we wait one more year to fire our head coach....until after his best class is on campus, none of this crap starts happening either.

We'll see if the decision pays off in the long run. In the interim....not having a center is going to be interesting.

Not this stuff again. So we could've had a mediocre year with some talented freshmen not living up to their potential. Then we could've held onto their coach another year because he had a lot of youth that just didn't know how to win yet. Followed by another mediocre year, but we convinced a few more 4 stars to commit so we'd better give them a chance to turn this around...

Or we fire Groce after next year and Tillmon goes pro or transfers. I mean sometimes you have to face the music instead of continuing to prolong the inevitable.

 

[Deleted member 10676]

Not that it matters, but are we sure Tilmon is going to Missouri? Is St. Louis still in play?

http://247sports.com/Bolt/Jeremiah-Tilmon-asks-for-release-from-Illinois-52159647

247Sports is hearing that a visit by Tilmon to Missouri this coming weekend is a possibility.

 

[foby]

Not that it matters, but are we sure Tilmon is going to Missouri? Is St. Louis still in play?

I think at this point SLU would be out of the picture with all that's going on in the Conzou.

 

[Ubermensch]

I thought he already confirmed he was staying at OSU?

This was already settled.

 

[sacraig]

Hopefully we can get Kiir now I guess......

Or we could re-land Tilmon.

 

[kcib8130]

Not that it matters, but are we sure Tilmon is going to Missouri? Is St. Louis still in play?

IDKWTI

 

[Deleted member 4960]

Didn't he just tweet a post about him staying yesterday????? I don't get it????

 

[bert1991]

I agree with that. I think Tilmon's commitment was big for our program, and keeping him is a HUGE step towards the rebuild. All of that said, and I said this before, I am not convinced he is the player that we all want him to be. He will probably be a good player at some point in his career, but he isn't a program changer in my opinion.

Hopefully he changes his mind back to us, but it's clear he can't make up his mind as we've been dealing with his waffling ever since he originally committed. If he is willing to de-commit because a one year player and a mediocre coach are in his ear for a few weeks, it probably wouldn't have worked here anyway. I'm not convinced the Groce situation is anything more than an excuse to do something he would have done regardless.

Now Brad has to do a bit more work, and Cuonzo (likely) just has to learn how to coach.

EXACTLY - If he was so sold on Groce, then why the hesitation on his original signing. Apologize...this may have been already said like 100 times as I am a zillion pages behind.

 

[Golfer63]

That where I am. It sucks no matter when it happens, but after retweeting the original commitment, I just was not prepared for this. The sky isn't falling. I still love the Coach Underwood hire. If we get Antigua (I'm keeping my cup on for that after today), then that's really big. But this still hurts. Especially for us Illini fans who live in St. Louis and have to deal with the big heads of mizzou fans ever more now. If you haven't before, consider yourself lucky.

Any fan base of a basketball program who has never been to the Final Four and hangs banners in their arena for NIT appearances should be endlessly laughed at and ridiculed if they decide to get "big headed."

 

[Monte Carlo]

I would like for Tilmon to come to the U of I, but I am pretty sure that Missouri, even with all the talent they may be stacking up for next year, will still not be that good of a team. They were not good this year and everything coming in will be freshmen. Do they get better, sure, but not even betting on 20 wins next year even with all that talent and because we know Porter will only be there one year, you can expect a drop-off the next season. Cuonzo moves around so much for a reason, and sadly, if Tilmon goes to Mizzou, he will find out why and wish he had stuck with his original commitment.