Tilmon is someone that had blue bloods looking for him for a long time. To verbally commit to a Power 5 school in his home state with a close drive and a coach that he developed a long term relationship, then decommit and switch to an A10 bottom feeder (at least the last couple of years) to a brand new coach who has no relationship with said player (I think, confirm?) the day before signing period...wouldn't this scream an investigation by the NCAA all by itself?
If a 5 Star spurned UConn to go to Fordham, or Villanova to go to La Salle, wouldn't that raise red flags irrespective of anything else that could be going on?
Hate to break it to you, but a very strong argument can be made for SLU being in a much better spot than Illinois. SLU is far from an A10 bottom feeder. They've had a 2 year drought, but that's against the norm of late. And that seems to have been resolved with the hiring of Ford. Just take a look at their roster beginning next year. A top 50 player, another 4 star, 3 transfers from Michigan State, Rutgers and UCF that will become eligible, and now possibly add a top 30 guy. The year after that, adding a top 10 guy, and have to feel good about other guys in that area now including Ramey.
I know the A10 is not the B1G by any means. However, it has become a very strong mid-major with pro talent in it. VCU, Dayton, Rhode Island, St. Joe's, Davidson, SLU, with others mixed in from year to year. It is a legit 4-5 bid league. They also now have almost all of their games shown on CBS Sports Network, NBCSN, or an ESPN branch. Not a bad place for a guy to go. They won't go unnoticed, and won't be unchallenged.
In addition, many talk about the better development he would get in a P5 conference. That's true - as far as in game competition goes. However, a lot of development goes on with the coaches - head and assistants - at practice. I don't want to say it, but when you really look at it, how has our staff done with developing players? And as much as we all dislike T. Ford, he certainly has underachieved as far as what his teams have done, but how many guys has he sent to the NBA compared to Groce? I think this is a factor with some of these guys. They like Groce, he's a nice guy, has great energy, but at the end of the day I don't know if they really trust that he can help them to that next level, right or wrong. They're not willing to risk a big part of their future on an unknown, and who could blame them? (Obviously you would still expect they make that choice in a different manner than it appears Tilmon is going to). We all love the Illini, but sometimes you have to come to terms with some tough truths. When this continues to be a theme in recruiting, you have to look in the mirror and ask why this keeps happening. And it's not that everybody else is paying and we're the only ones that aren't.
