Heard West Virginia and Kansas were the leaders two weeks ago.
Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread (July 2018)
- Status
Heard West Virginia and Kansas were the leaders two weeks ago.
Thanks.
If that's true I just don't quite understand why he's going to prep school when we have scholarships burning a hole in our pocket. But I hope you're right.
We don't know how strong the relationship is, but it would seem that we at least have a foot in the door, and I'll take that over nothing. I share the perception that UK will be the heavy favorite...and by heavy, I mean a virtual lock.
ChazzReinhold
Mom! The Meatloaf!
Maybe he needs to complete a few classes to qualify.
IlliniDent
- Chicago, IL
Shannon is a tremendous athlete, but as a basketball player, he needs some work. Jump shot is suspect. Left hand dominate. While it’s well documented UI would like to score fast and early in shot clock, that’s not always going to happen. When they need to get into sets and run offense, Shannon would greatly struggle without a right hand or a jumper
So they could take him on and develop him this yr, but I wouldn’t think he’d get much PT. Or he could go to prep, play against top competition, come in next yr and contribute day 1. Jones and Griffin are better all around basketball players at this point. Shannon likely has higher ceiling
If you can avoid giving your competition another year to recruit this kid, you do it.
I had read that he was academically able to make the jump this year, he'd just signed up for prep school as a way to boost his then-lesser stock. The stock ain't lesser anymore. But maybe there is academic stuff, who knows.
The virtual lock just had a 5* forward decommit. UK may be the favorite, but they're no lock, virtual or otherwise.
Hold on a minute.... I would agree with Joel but to be devil's advocate, wasn't the argument for years from MIF that we didn't have "Chicago Guys" on our staff? And we can all agree that they hold quite a bit of influence on their players or at least portray to? I guess we can reserve judgment once the next few targets from MIF make decisions, then we'll see how strong the BU/Chin/MIF relationship really is.
Correct this is and it will also not seem so damning or gloomy when we do lose one of these "tiered" players to another school, as it won't carry the same weight as a 1 and done shunning us.
- So your saying there's a chance?
Illwinsagain
- Cary, IL
"Players like Adam Miller, Moses Moody and Jaemyn Brakefield have dominated the headlines when it comes to possible recruits the Illini can land." I know he is talking about 2020, but is this statement true? I have heard much about Adam Miller, but the other two, not near as much.
sacraig
- The desert
I have no excuse for the typo. I don't even think I typed that from a phone. Sad.
JFGsCoffeeMug
BU:1 Trash cans:0
- Chicago
I know participation ribbons don't mean squat, but it's still encouraging to me that we can make Top 10 lists for recruits that are also considering blue bloods. We have been in a bad place as a program for some time now. Frankly, it's amazing to me that we've retained any relevance to the current crop of kids in high school.
ILL in IA
- Iowa City
And I would rather BU and staff oversee his development and baseline understanding of the system in a RS year vs a prep school coach oversee and control how this plays out. Add in the benefit of a year with Fletch and hopefully a good nutrition program. Be in charge of as much as you can.
Exactly. The benefits seem to outweigh the negatives of coming here and possibly playing or redshirting vs prep school.
Thus seems more likely an academic issue unless he truly wants to improve his game to get to a blue blood.
We talk like the MIF choose where these kids go to school. I am sure they have an influence, but at the end of the day the family makes the call.
Right, that's completely intellectually honest and consistent with what we said about MIF players pre-Chin Coleman. Oy vey.
Just from 2009 - 2014, we had 14 consensus top 100 recruits. Two more were Rivals top 100; which is another reason why using Rivals does not work for this.
Edit: I think this shows, and further analysis will show that prospect evaluation and having the right blend of talent / skills trumps assembling a roster full of top 100 recruits.
Last edited:
The MIF program has a tremendous amount of influence on recruits, as most of high powered showcase shoe sponsored programs. The balance of power has shifted to AAU from HS. But while we now have a very close relationship with MIF, it is not to MIF's best interest to send all of their best players to UI, so they will continue to send some of their top recruits to Duke, UNC, UK, KU, etc. in addition to UI having a better chance. There are many advantages to having your top players play at some of the marquee programs in college basketball. It is good for the AAU program and good for the players as well.
Having a better chance, as opposed to "no chance", does not mean that all of MIF top players will end up at Illinois.
Joel Goodson
- respect my decision™
Right, the MIF's high major recruit widget machine has ruled out family input from the college decision. Oy vey.
IlliniDent
- Chicago, IL
I agree with almost all of this but one aspect I disagree with is that maybe some players get "sent" but its more likely that if the people that surround a kid are in our corner then they help get us a seat at the table by having a positive view of the program. The reverse is true, when coaches/a kids mentor for several years consistently pushes a kid away from a program that can have significant impact as well. Some kids may ignore the advice either way, but most are influenced by the people around them either positively or negatively. When looking at residency programs it worked the same for me, my mentor had opinions about which programs were worth looking at and which he didn't view as positively. In addition, he was connected to some programs more than others and was willing to put in a good word for me at those programs. This doesn't mean he chose my program for me, but I definitely was influenced by his opinion on which programs I should be seriously considering vs which did not make my list. After this, I still went on my interviews and made my own opinions on which programs fit what I wanted and what I was looking for.
This is how I look at MIF's influence. A negative view point has a much stronger say about a program, particularly one that hasn't done well in a long time. A positive one gives someone a shot and a seat at the table with a positive opinion but it's still that program's job to then sell their vision to the recruit and close the deal. Maybe it's naive to assume that players dont usually get "sent" to programs direction from their AAU and/or HS programs, but I couldn't imagine being in a recruit's position and letting that happen to me.
Last edited:
There are 4 blue bloods. That leaves 6 spots open in top 10s. Not saying it isn't good to see our names amongst the best, but we've almost always been in top 10 territory with most of our plan A and B recruits, notoriously so during the Groce era.
UIUC is still the B1G school in Illinois (whether they are in Chicago is apparently up for debate). BU & company are obviously good recruiters. Groce was a good recruiter. Good recruiters get their foot in the door. It takes a great recruiter to be the last foot remaining.
- Status