Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread (November 2020)

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#701      

ProfessorQC

Ace Wolf
UofI
Not good.

But not the end of the world either... 🌎

Gotta hope the transfer market is plentiful this cycle....Mac was THE guy for this class and we recruited him hard, the other misses were whatever but this sucks.

We went all in on Mac and Cardet and are going to miss out on them as well... but the staff has the attentions in other places and has seen this Chips falling this way for a while...

Lets just get thru this week with a couple monogram defining wins and we can go ahead and relax because the contingency plan we start to appear out of the smoke...

and the contingency plan isn’t just to wait around until the portal.

the pipers and sturdy’s don’t even know what or where the contingency plan is going to come from because the staff is not leaking anything anymore! Their not playing with them or anyone else anymore and everything will be tight to the vest!

in this Twitter and social media age you don’t see how something so small as your recruiting “experts” and fan base can make you seem like the most unattractive needy clingy former girlfriend you can possibly think of! And that’s what we are right now...

but the staff has figured it out. This whole cycle is a wash and the staff knows it. They arent happy about it either and I’m going to remind everyone I liked what I heard for the direction. It’s this team 1st and the new levels of prestige will grow from them! Only then and there will we be able to start becoming picky and choosy (“Select”) with our recruits, instead of recruits selecting us...

And there is a few old names that may resurface in the next couple weeks and maybe a new one or two... for 2021

Because the staff has revamped its entire approach now just because of the suffering and losses this cycle has brought?
Do you think this staff takes L’s easily or likes to lose?

just like Ty Ty’s recruitment was, every single high priority recruitment from here on out will go the exact same way... 🤐💯👑

All because this staff has been burned too many times!‼️ 🙆🏽🤦🏽‍♂️

We definitely are the butt end of recruiting jokes right now is AAU coaches circles, looking like desperate clowns... AGAIN 🙄

The whole world knew we weren’t getting Hop, NES, Ty, etc...

We are back to being played for likes and shares fellas...

catch up, because it’s going to get real tight lipped around here 😲🤐 ❌👉🏼🤐🙇🏽‍♂️
 
#702      
Exclude Arizona and to a lesser degree Utah from what I say next.

Big Mac is travelling across the country to play in a conference where nobody really cares. Avg attendance last year UCLA 6,000, USC 4,000, Oregon St 8,000, WSU 3,000, Oregon 4,000. The PAC12 TV network has about 20 faithful viewers.

Yet his official visit to Illinois was in front of a raucous sell out.

So what does California have to offer besides weather, beaches, laid back lifestyle for a poor kid from the Bronx?

Many decisions made by 17 year old elite athletes come from the heart instead of the head and all those decisions have the following thought in the back of their mind, "You all are aware that I am an elite BB player who will be in the NBA next year".
 
#704      
Tough hit for sure. We have alot to sell and this team should allow us to make noise in the next two classes. This staff has done well with later cycle recruiting in the past and should be attractive to some good transfer prospects so I'm confident we'll be able to land enough to hold us over until next year.
 
#705      
Exclude Arizona and to a lesser degree Utah from what I say next.

Big Mac is travelling across the country to play in a conference where nobody really cares. Avg attendance last year UCLA 6,000, USC 4,000, Oregon St 8,000, WSU 3,000, Oregon 4,000. The PAC12 TV network has about 20 faithful viewers.

Yet his official visit to Illinois was in front of a raucous sell out.

So what does California have to offer besides weather, beaches, laid back lifestyle for a poor kid from the Bronx?

Many decisions made by 17 year old elite athletes come from the heart instead of the head and all those decisions have the following thought in the back of their mind, "You all are aware that I am an elite BB player who will be in the NBA next year".
One other thing you forgot to mention is that this past draft Pac 12 had I believe 6 first rounders and 4 second rounders compared to 4 and 2 respectively for B1G. Year before the conferences were even, 2 and 4. So someone is watching and cares about the Pac 12, and those someones are who recruits care about the most — NBA scouts and execs.

Certainly not many schools can match B1G and ACC for game day experience, but UCLA has a good atmosphere as do some other schools in that conference. Would have loved to get Mac, but certainly can’t fault him for going to UCLA.
 
#706      

sacraig

The desert
The title of today's episode:

"The one where our insiders all react differently to the same negative information"

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#707      
Certainly not many schools can match B1G and ACC for game day experience, but UCLA has a good atmosphere as do some other schools in that conference. Would have loved to get Mac, but certainly can’t fault him for going to UCLA.
I have lived in LA for 25 years. UCLA has a great campus and weather, but aside from hot cheerleaders the game experience in Pauley Pavilion is lousy. The place rarely sells out, and even when it does, the crowd often sits on its hands. Simply no comparison to BIG or ACC crowds.

I'll enjoy the team this year and worry about future rosters later. Methinks that if the season shakes out the way that many of us hope, the recruiting "problems" will work themselves out.
 
#708      
You know, when you think you've read it all on here, TODAY happens. I'll bet its physically painful, or should be, to be that uninformed. I love where our program is, and I think our staff has done an amazing job getting us here. I also like the direction we're headed and that is direction UP. I think they have us in a position to stay top 25 and be competitive for a long time to come.
 
#709      
No easy way to spin it, Mac was THE guy you could not afford to lose and you lost him.

Going to be a ton of transfers this year and with the one-time rule getting passed I am less worried

However, simply can't afford to have that many misses in a class especially when you get kids on campus as we did. Inexcusable, plain and simple.
 
#710      
No easy way to spin it, Mac was THE guy you could not afford to lose and you lost him.

Going to be a ton of transfers this year and with the one-time rule getting passed I am less worried

However, simply can't afford to have that many misses in a class especially when you get kids on campus as we did. Inexcusable, plain and simple.
The transfer market is not the answer to this program if we are to sustain top ten rankings. Transfers very rarely make a high impact on our program.
 
#711      

sacraig

The desert
The transfer market is not the answer to this program if we are to sustain top ten rankings. Transfers very rarely make a high impact on our program.

I think the point he was trying to make was that this year, as a one-off case, is going to be a particularly interesting transfer market because of the temporary changes to the rules due to COVID. I would otherwise agree that transfers are not a long-term, sustainable answer, but they certainly can plug gaps.
 
#713      
It sucks, no doubt. But... even if we lost Ayo and Kofi, I think there’s is potential for a top 25 team next year. If we also lose miller, that’ll be tough. If Kofi and Miller stay, potentially top 10 again.

obviously we will need to find a big, but senior Georgi B. Will hold his own
 
#714      
The transfer market is not the answer to this program if we are to sustain top ten rankings. Transfers very rarely make a high impact on our program.

Agree, you cannot build a sustainable program around transfers year in and year out.

However, taking one or two that can really benefit the pieces you already have, can work beautifully and sustain success.

You will see a great example of that in the game Wednesday.

Baylor in my opinion is a great example of building a team in today's day in age.
 
#715      
As long as Underwood and staff understand there is something in their approach that is not working and needs to change that is all I can ask at this point. There have been some big wins (Ayo, Kofi, Miller) but far too many losses. Transfers are never as good as bringing in a high schooler that you want.
 
#717      
There has to be a better way to go about recruiting, and if the coaching staff is making the necessary changes, that is all I need to hear.
 
#718      

illini80

Forgottonia
There has to be a better way to go about recruiting, and if the coaching staff is making the necessary changes, that is all I need to hear.
So many kids want the attention and hype I don’t get how you can make a decision to just not get involved in that. There are a few low profile top recruits, but not many. Time will tell.
 
#721      

ProfessorQC

Ace Wolf
UofI
No easy way to spin it, Mac was THE guy you could not afford to lose and you lost him.

Going to be a ton of transfers this year and with the one-time rule getting passed I am less worried

However, simply can't afford to have that many misses in a class especially when you get kids on campus as we did. Inexcusable, plain and simple.
I absolutely agree! 💯

And for those who don’t know, Mac was always eyeing the west coast aka LA 👀💫
 
#725      
There must be a reason....
Will baker wasn’t tough enough to play for a players coach at a school that doesn’t care about basketball. He’s been consistently overrated since high school (I say this as somebody who coached against him 4 times). He benefited from playing with 3 other D1 players, Matthew Mayer at Baylor, Keonte Kennedy at Xavier, and Brock Cunningham at UT, who actually did all the tough dirty work around the basket so will baker could float at the 3 point line. He would get abused/exposed in the big ten and playing for BU.
 
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