Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread (April 2017)

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#1      

Dan

Dan
Admin
Dan
Signing Period: April 12-May 17

rbachhuber's Scholarship Grid (updated 04/30/2017)

Signed NLI with Illinois
Da'Monte Williams (2017 G, committed February 28, 2016)
Trent Frazier (2017 G, committed August 21, 2016)
Mark Smith (2017 G, committed April 26th, 2017)


NCAA Recruiting Calendar

recruiting-calendar-2017-april.jpg




April 5th, 2017
Jeremiah Tilmon requests release from Illinois

April 8th, 2017
Javon Pickett requests release from Illinois

April 26th, 2017
Mark Smith signs with Illinois
 
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#2      

Obelix

Obelix
Obelix
Fighter of the Nightman said:
This might be kind of an annoying post for those of you who follow recruiting religiously, but my dad and I were talking about this the other day: We have traditionally actually fended off Izzo pretty well instate, right? I know the first famous example was him swiping Shannon Brown from us, but didn't we beat them out for Pruitt and even some recruits in the Weber era? My memory is super foggy, and it would be interesting to hear some history of us recruiting against them. :thumb:
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I do not believe we have fended him off, just that we have not recruited the same athletes. They have been generally recruiting at a higher level. You can say that they beat us for Gary Harris (not in-state) and Gavin Schilling but even on those, we did not make the short list, so there have not been recruitments that have gone down to the wire with Michigan State. We both recruited Brunson, but ended up at Villanova.
 
#3      

HC Illini

H
HC Illini
HC Illini
Obelix said:
I do not believe we have fended him off, just that we have not recruited the same athletes. They have been generally recruiting at a higher level. You can say that they beat us for Gary Harris (not in-state) and Gavin Schilling but even on those, we did not make the short list, so there have not been recruitments that have gone down to the wire with Michigan State. We both recruited Brunson, but ended up at Villanova.
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Wasn't Michigan State in the Tilmon recruitment to the end.
 
#4      

Obelix

Obelix
Obelix
HC Illini said:
Wasn't Michigan State in the Tilmon recruitment to the end.
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Ah... I do not think that qualifies. I think for Tilmon, it came down to Illinois, SLU, and Kansas, and you can add Mizzou (although committed) as a late push. If you count all schools that offered scholarships, then it becomes a very long list. But then, it would be the same as saying MSU beat us for someone like Nick Ward, I would not count those.
 
#5      

Love the Illini

L
Love the Illini
I think Smith recruitment is huge not only from the standpoint of potentially getting a really good player, but also I think it would be a great jump start for Coach Underwood and show players and coaches in Illinois that Illinois is going to be a major player with the big time players in the state.
 
#6      

MrOizo

MrOizo
Chicago
MrOizo
Love the Illini said:
I think Smith recruitment is huge not only from the standpoint of potentially getting a really good player, but also I think it would be a great jump start for Coach Underwood and show players and coaches in Illinois that Illinois is going to be a major player with the big time players in the state.
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Certainly, this is huge. It's not like he's a Chicagoland recruit. He's in our breadbasket. Generally speaking, we *have* to win nearly all of the downstate Illinois/non-STL recruitments on this sort if we want to return to prominence.

We're talking NCAA celebrity (Izzo and maybe Calipari) vs. the local school that is on the rise. You hope he takes the chance on the local school, but it gets into personality and personal experience (in person with Izzo vs. in person with Underwood, Jamal Walker).

Without being in the room for those in persons, and without knowing what he thinks about BU's system vs. Izzo/Calipari, it's hard to know what he will decide. He also visited along with Tilmon and has relationships with our incoming class. Not so for MSU. You hope he's had enough of the moments with Illini "click". No way to know until he announces...
 
#7      

illiniknight

I
illiniknight
The thing about these recruitments in our "breadbasket" is we usually win these by forming a long term relationship and then fending off the bigger programs. The problem in this case is that this has been a short recruitment that is further weakened by a coaching change. Winning this recruitment would be quite an accomplishment for Underwood.
 
#10      

westcoastillini

W
westcoastillini
I'm totally confused. AAU season starts immediately after high school basketball finishes?? I always thought it was a summer thing
 
#11      

Bubba Eder

B
Northeast Missouri
Bubba Eder
illiniknight said:
The thing about these recruitments in our "breadbasket" is we usually win these by forming a long term relationship and then fending off the bigger programs. The problem in this case is that this has been a short recruitment that is further weakened by a coaching change. Winning this recruitment would be quite an accomplishment for Underwood.
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I think our other recruits will help in this case though:thumb:
 
#12      

Obelix

Obelix
Obelix
westcoastillini said:
I'm totally confused. AAU season starts immediately after high school basketball finishes?? I always thought it was a summer thing
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It varies depending on teams, location, and ages. It usually starts in March, but we even played in a couple of AAU tournaments in February this year.
 
#13      

MrOizo

MrOizo
Chicago
MrOizo
illiniknight said:
The thing about these recruitments in our "breadbasket" is we usually win these by forming a long term relationship and then fending off the bigger programs. The problem in this case is that this has been a short recruitment that is further weakened by a coaching change. Winning this recruitment would be quite an accomplishment for Underwood.
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Yep, I won't be upset with BU if we don't win but it will really hurt our program. Awful luck for this to happen in this transition year... I hope Walker and the players were able to make enough​of a connection to make a difference.
 
#14      

Kramer116

Kramer116
Chicago
Kramer116
westcoastillini said:
I'm totally confused. AAU season starts immediately after high school basketball finishes?? I always thought it was a summer thing
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There is a spring session, and the summer session.

Most of the big tournaments are in July.
 
#15      

Deleted member 10676

D
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Deleted member 10676
westcoastillini said:
I'm totally confused. AAU season starts immediately after high school basketball finishes?? I always thought it was a summer thing
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NY2LA runs the Swish'n Dish that is going on this weekend and it's open to all teams, shoe-sponsored or club that can pony up the money. Here is some preliminary EYBL info -- doesn't have team members or schedules -- but I think it has which teams are in the 4 divisions. There are 2 weekend sessions in April, 2 in May and Peach Jam is in July.
http://www.d1circuit.com/

and there are lots of other events throughout the spring and summer that are invites, camps etc where all the teams can participate if they want.
 
#19      

Deleted member 10676

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Deleted member 10676
FatGreg said:
NC State? Heirman joining Keatts' staff?
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I don't think anyone knows what's really going on with Bowen, maybe even including Bowen. The NC State offer was from Gottfried. I've heard nothing to indicate Heirman has ties with Keatts and Keatts has no ties with the middle west but I suppose stranger things have happened.
 
#20      

Deleted member 10676

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#21      

chiefhaunting

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chiefhaunting
TIFWIW Just overheard a conversation at a Saluki baseball game. Guy claims to have talked directly with Mark Smith's dad. Claimed Mark had claimed the only 2 teams he'd let in on the recruitment at this point in time was Kentucky and MSU, and of course we all know now that those 2 have jumped into the recruitment. Kind of makes sense now why it was only those 2 who have jumped in late. Didn't make it sound like he's so enthralled by them that no one else had a chance. Sounded more like he was pretty set with those he felt good with but had those 2 he'd give a chance if they came a-callin'.
 
#23      

HC Illini

H
HC Illini
HC Illini
Obelix said:
Ah... I do not think that qualifies. I think for Tilmon, it came down to Illinois, SLU, and Kansas, and you can add Mizzou (although committed) as a late push. If you count all schools that offered scholarships, then it becomes a very long list. But then, it would be the same as saying MSU beat us for someone like Nick Ward, I would not count those.
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I think MSU was more involved than you think. He visited Michigan State for a game if I remember correctly. You also left off UNC, they were very involved in his recruitment and the team I thought he'd eventually commit too. 🤙🏼
 
#25      

TheGMan

TheGMan
TheGMan
Kevin Knox is using his last OV to visit mizzou on April 8.

Not related to Illinois recruiting, but I really hate seeing good things happen to mizzou. Really hope he goes somewhere else.
 
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