When Kiir visited you hardly new it on this board. Everybody had Wilkes mania at the time. Be a sad deal if we miss out on both of them. And yes Mayan does like attention like he has said. Love to see Mayan playing for the Illini.
Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread (October 2016)
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When Kiir visited you hardly new it on this board. Everybody had Wilkes mania at the time. Be a sad deal if we miss out on both of them. And yes Mayan does like attention like he has said. Love to see Mayan playing for the Illini.
That's the most likely outcome. We still would have a very good class, so I'm not sure it would be sad. Maybe disappointing for many that have pencilled one or both in their imaginary future lineup. But, it's better for one's sanity to always take the field against his particular team when thinking about recruiting.
He said that the main two things he was looking for were immediate playing time and relationship with coaches/teammates.
VCU offers immediate playing time. We have Black and Finke at his position for two years.
Kiir & his family care very much about academics as well. Looks like we're on the outside here but there's a chance.
Illinifanatic4ever
- Orange & Blue Blood in my Veins
Would love to have both Wilkes and Kiir but if we miss out bank both schollies for 18 maybe pick up a 5th year guy or two for next season. It will help balance out the classes some as well. Next year as it is not counting walkons be will have 0 Seniors, 5 Juniors, 2 Sophomores and 4 freshman.
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Agree, I also think he likely would play some 5 for both us and VCU though.
Until we can reach a steady state level, of where the program should be, banking scholarships will not be the strategy. Groce has missed the tournament 3 years in a row, so he will keep focus on this year, and recruiting for next year. Groce will not bank scholarships because he has to absolutely win this year and next, he can't afford to build for the future two years from now.
Kiir has brought up academics in a few different interviews/articles, the most recent being a scout article recapping his visit where he and his mom discussed that as an important factor. He mentioned education here as well.
http://www.scout.com/college/basketball/recruiting/story/1665415-mayan-kiir-adding-offers-in-2017
With Thorne and Mav both graduating, either Kiir or Finke will have to play some 5. Kiir may not start but there is playing time available with our two big men leaving. Going just 3 deep at 4/5 is dangerous in the B1G, but Kiir may have more ambitious plans as far as playing time.
I really like what I see from Kiir, high ceiling player who fits a positional need.
I was more asking on comment that stated it looked like we were on the outside on Kiir...but looks like that comment was cleaned out.
My point/ real question at this point is there anything out there that suggests anyone is really leading on this one?
99% of recruits will mention academics. And 99% of them can get a quality education at all of the schools they are looking at. The reality is that unless you're also a top student looking at a specific major (i.e. engineering at Illinois) then it's really not a factor for most recruits.
Well, it depends on what you consider a bigger stage. In many ways, the Big 10 is a bigger stage (TV, national presence, etc.) But if you want NCAA tourney exposure, VCU has had a lot more of that than Illinois lately. Sorry to say..
Very very rarely are you going to see a student athlete at a major school take on something like engineering. Most of the majors and programs in which a recruit will enroll will be fairly similar from school to school.
Yes, exactly. Also it would be interesting to know what position he sees himself as, with a quick look at VCU depth chart he may spend his career at the 5 there, with Tilmon around long term he is a 4.
That was pretty much the point.
Yes, and going from memory, the two engineering students we had in 20+ years were former walkons who earned scholarships at UI (Brian Johnson and Jack Ingram). I do not remember any others.
JCL and his focus on getting into the School of Business was indeed a big deal to him and his family.
Actually I think the attention was pretty reasonable and balanced for both.
Yup. Most recruits will surely claim education is a big factor in their recruiting, no doubt. And the vast majority end up as RST-esque majors, but academics legitimately carry more weight with certain recruits. This may not realistically happen, but a certain fella named Wilkes has a strong interest in engineering :thumb:
BirdDog9048
The Chief Lives
- Chicago, IL
If that were indeed an important factor, IU would have been eliminated a long time ago.
Serious Late
- Peoria via Denver via Ann Arbor via Albuquerque vi
It was a big deal to him. Yet he still chose a school that couldn't immediately guarantee his acceptance into the School of Business.
JCL didn't choose Illinois because he was excited to be wait listed with the School of Business. This pretty much supports the fact that academics, at the end of the day, are not a major criteria.
It's probably not wise to assume that most student athletes care that much about academic program rankings. If anything some are discouraged by the rankings and the word on how competitive it is to get into the program. A lot of times students are just happy to be able to get a STEM degree from any accredited school, especially if they were one of the first to go to college in their family.. It's hard for student athletes to balance a rigorous major and sports, so most of the time the rigor at Illinois is just going to hurt our recruiting IMO. It's completely different than what makes the student appealing for regular students.
I'm not saying this is the case with Wilkes, but it's true for most recruits.
icengineer
- Southern Illinois
I'm not sure any top tier school would guarantee acceptance.
And yet, if he hadn't gotten assurances that he'd be given every bit of possible help to get accepted, would JCL have committed? Had he not gotten accepted do we know that he would not have transferred this year? I'm not sure anyone knows, even JCL.
I agree with you we lose 2 bigs we have plenty of playing time to offer. I really don't see JT playing more the 25 min , so unless Finke or Black are going to take the mins at the 5 there will be plenty fort Kiir. plus with fouls and all he could easily get any where from 15-20 at the 5 and 4. He is so much more a need then Wilkes cause JT doesn't plan on being here 4 years so its likely we lose Black, Finke and JT all at once would Leave only Kiir if we can get him
The playing time is indeed there, but he wants to be a starter and he would be a starter at VCU.
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