illini55
- The Villages, FL
I never did, and I've never regretted it for even an instant.
Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread (April 2017)
- Status
I never did, and I've never regretted it for even an instant.
Not sure if we don't get smith that there are to many Big10 caliber recruits left especially players that can help next year. 5th year transfer vital to success next year IMO
That's a pretty poor argument.
Illinois is a major conference school self-styled as THE state school and certainly the flagship. Having kids high school basketball careers being quests to reach the state finals in the state's biggest college arena reinforces that. And it brings kids to the campus, especially younger players on those dominant teams who may blow up later. You don't forget those first big trips to college environments when you're a high school kid. Illinois is in a position to take advantage of that in a way that Bradley, a small, private mid-major whose arena is off-campus, is not.
Now, this advantage is being overstated by some here. It would only make a difference on the margins, this isn't THE reason we struggle to keep kids in state. But it could only help, and it would be great for the Champaign community. I think it's definitely something we should advocate for.
kcib8130
- Parts Unknown
How many other colleges approached you and asked you to please come play basketball at our distinguished campus for free for 4 years?
Wait, what's this? Now suddenly tOSU is a frontrunner? This is coming out of left field.
EDIT: or does this simply mean he's deciding on how to use his visit? Either way, doesn't look great for us.
kcib8130
- Parts Unknown
Deciding on the last visit
mattcoldagelli
- The Transfer Portal with Do Not Contact Tag
The latter.
The big news in all of this is that he didn't commit while in East Lansing, which is great for us.
Deleted member 10676
D
Guest
Matta was almost a regular at his games in Feb and March --- certainly recruited him harder than Cal did before last week. Poor Tim Miles -- every time I saw a pic of Matta at an Edwardsville game, Miles was sitting with him. No talk of a visit to Nebby.
I'm not jumping up and down quite yet. I will hop tentatively a few times if we get through this workday without an announcement.
But the lack of a commitment over the weekend was definitely a pleasant surprise.
I agree with most of this. There's no real downside to having the tournament here. We have one of the best arenas in college basketball. We should take advantage of it. Having the tournament at the SFC gives a great first impression to younger high schools kids who may become B1G caliber players, and allows a potential handful of kids we're pursuing an opportunity to be on campus one more time. These things obviously won't be the determining factor in recruitments but they certainly would be a positive (however small) for us.
mattcoldagelli
- The Transfer Portal with Do Not Contact Tag
Same - I meant great in a "Hey, we're not dead!" kind of way, versus a "He might be leaning Illinois again!" kind of way.
BU said he's going for fit regardless of ranking. At SFA, he didn't have a single 5, 4, or 3 star yet made the tournament every year and beat Shaka Smart, Bob Huggins, and was 1.5 seconds away from beating Demetrius Jackson and ND. Winning >>>> player rankings.
Might be good for the businesses in the area but when I came down to watch my high school team play in the tournament I still remember all the "high school students go home" (or words to that effect) signs in the dorm windows. Of course I think I did the same thing when I was there.
A kid who grew up and Illini fan, is not choosing Mizz IMO. Unless there i$ more involved. But the Smith family allegedly doesn't play those games.
And you turned down Harvard and Stanford because of your love for Illinois?
I heard this is how the coach at Wichita St. does it as well, supposedly didn't even know the names of the top players. The problem is that you can win a game or two in the NCAA, but if your going against top teams/athletes in your own conference you might not even make the tourney.
That being said, BU offense is pretty awesome and he needs to find players who will learn it and buy into it. A one an done player may never have enough time to really get it. We have recruited players the last 30 years who are 3-4 year players so that should be fine.
mattcoldagelli
- The Transfer Portal with Do Not Contact Tag
He already chose them once for another sport.
I'm not familiar, are the UI and Mizz baseball games high intensity, bitter rivalry games?
BirdDog9048
The Chief Lives
- Chicago, IL
A bit late to the conversation (which has gotten way off track from where it started), but I essentially did this. As a prospective engineering student with a high ACT score, I got mailers from pretty much every University you can imagine, but I still only applied to the Beloved.
Obviously, that was a bit of a different situation though, because UIUC is a blue blood when it comes to Computer Science... :thumb:
Last edited:
First Mizzu and SLU have always recruited the area and at times have had better coaching staff then in recent years so nothing new here.
second the mizzu coach has always recruited other places then STL so nothing new here. is CM better then they have had lately as a recruiter sure but still nothing has really changed
third who impacted the illini most from the area ???? Hill best play sure impact on the illini hard to say he had the best no NCAAs Arch maybe Keen not sure who would been the biggest impact from the area
forth yeah I agree doesn't matter who is the coach at Mizzu, SLU or even timbuk too we wil lstill go after kids there
fifth I think we will recruit just fine as well once we get a full staff and really get to it
finally I am happy with our new coach, will we win whos knows time will tell, but I feel we are better off today then we were 3 weeks ago with or without JT and Pickett. I will wait and see who all we end up with on the team at the start of the year to be excited or not. I still am not worried that CM is at Mizzu no more then I care who is any place else other then coaching the Illini. We have to go out and get the kids we need for our team no matter who we are recruiting against so I just do not care that CM is at Mizzu. I am just happy he is not our coach
One thing I have always found to be true, especially back in my younger days when I had peers that were prospective college athletes: the better the athlete, the worse the fan. I have found that pretty much universally.
The more similar you are to the guys on the TV screen, the harder it is to be irrational in the way true fandom requires.
Kids who are great athletes will watch sports 24/7, but don't become as emotionally attached to "their" team as we slow-footed slobs. And this is usually somewhat sport-specific.
I had a buddy in high school who played college baseball, and he was a die-hard Bears fan, but a fairly tepid White Sox fan who didn't really get all that invested in it. Baseball wasn't escapism for him. Being a sports fan is all about escapism.
The more similar you are to the guys on the TV screen, the harder it is to be irrational in the way true fandom requires.
Kids who are great athletes will watch sports 24/7, but don't become as emotionally attached to "their" team as we slow-footed slobs. And this is usually somewhat sport-specific.
I had a buddy in high school who played college baseball, and he was a die-hard Bears fan, but a fairly tepid White Sox fan who didn't really get all that invested in it. Baseball wasn't escapism for him. Being a sports fan is all about escapism.
BirdDog9048
The Chief Lives
- Chicago, IL
I think I found the problem...
Don't know about that but the SEC sure has great baseball.
kcib8130
- Parts Unknown
We all are anymore.
This was back in the Ozzie Guillen years mind you.
- Status