Not a starter, but averaged 18 minutes a game at Dayton.
Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread
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Took me a second, thinking of Demonte....
You have a point. I believe Daron was a top 50ish recruit, but an afterthought compared to Wright. I can't recall another player in the last 25 years who improved as much from year to year. (Ayo was close) His ascent just kept going until he was, for a brief time, likely one of the 10 best players in the world.
IlliniwekKDR
- Colorado Springs, CO
I was a freshman when that freshman class came in. I remember going to a kickoff meeting at the beginning of the semester for Illini Pride and Mike Davis being introduced and thinking "who tf is this guy?"
My recollection was that he was on the way to prep school and Weber saw him and was convinced he was ready for college and offered and Davis changed his mind. Essentially reclassed about a week prior to the start of the semester.
Even most recently, I don’t think we expected the kind of person and player Trent Frazier became.
For me, in recent history, the pleasant surprises and who exceeded my expectations were guys like Kevin Turner, Mike Tisdale, Mike Davis, Giorgi, Chet Frazier, Jamar Smith (before Carlwell incident), Robert Bennett, Matt Heldman, TJ Wheeler, Chris Gandy, the Johnson brothers, the late Robert Archibald, Damir, Jack Ingram, Rayvonte, Kipper. Just to name a few.
For me, in recent history, the pleasant surprises and who exceeded my expectations were guys like Kevin Turner, Mike Tisdale, Mike Davis, Giorgi, Chet Frazier, Jamar Smith (before Carlwell incident), Robert Bennett, Matt Heldman, TJ Wheeler, Chris Gandy, the Johnson brothers, the late Robert Archibald, Damir, Jack Ingram, Rayvonte, Kipper. Just to name a few.
Joel Goodson
- respect my decision™
wasn't sure where to put this, lol:
mhuml32
- Cincinnati, OH
Which makes this new recruitment all the more salacious.
I’ve been trying to get the concept of non-committable offer to make sense to me for at least 10 years.
mhuml32
- Cincinnati, OH
It's both dumb and functional. Coaches want a middle ground between "we're not interested" and "we absolutely need to have you in our program". Players have strengths and weaknesses that are tough to project into the future. Recruiting also wades into the game theory of balancing the interest of a sure-fire star recruit with other excellent but not the best recruits without offending anyone. It's an effective tool for the best programs but slowly loses its utility as you move further down the college basketball food chain.
All the names that people have brought up, I am surprised that no one has mentioned Andres Feliz! Don't remember too many people excited about him when he committed.
Joel Goodson
- respect my decision™
salacious?
blackdog
- Champaign
mhuml32
- Cincinnati, OH
Just checking the room's temperature
. Kidding aside, it takes a number of delicate relationships to have an awkward ending to the older brother's recruitment and still get involved in the younger brother's recruitment. We'll have to wait and see if both sides are genuinely interested.You probably need to qualify this a bit more - if you are talking outside top 100 recruit who ended up being very solid/big contributor - then James Augustine comes to mind, he was a 3 star guy who obviously ended up being a huge piece to our best team ever.
If you are talking about the biggest "surprise" as in who outperformed expectations, then Deron has to be at the top of that list, from a 50ish ranked guy (who I think ESPN had at #100 to end the year) to being a top 5 draft pick and one of the all time great Illini players, then it would be him. Kofi is on that list too given he far exceeded what anyone thought to be an all time great here
Agree with this by and large, but I would argue it's mostly functional. You couldn't make a dozen offers and risk getting a dozen guys wanting to commit, especially if there was a lot of overlap with position/need. Everyone (I think) knows that offers include both the guys you'd take on the spot, and the guys you're high on but have to wait to see if the slot is open later in the cycle. And some offers have other factors involved since an offer list can be valuable to the player.
If you think about it, coaches don't even know how many rides they have, and the way recruiting works now, it could be anywhere from a couple to a bunch. Yes, those are actual numbers --look it up.
sacraig
- The desert
Henson didn't get Tony Yates. He was a holdover from the Clean Gene Bartow staff.
GrayGhost77
- Centennial, CO
Augie was ranked in the 70s or 80s iirc.
Well I heard Jeff Finke say that Kendall Gill was the least regarded of the guys in his class when they joined the Illini. Jeff Finke then switched to football. Gill evolved into a lottery pick.
Was looking at the last few RSCI rankings. Was curious what the lowest ranked recruit to get drafted in the last couple years was.
109 Ben Mathurin
113 Tari Eason
129 Christian Braun
145 Johnny Davis
156 Jeremy Sochan
160 Bones Hyland
183 Kenyon Martin Jr
187 Miles McBride
246 David Roddy
324 Ryan Rollins
332 Jabari Walker
383 Jalen Williams
109 Ben Mathurin
113 Tari Eason
129 Christian Braun
145 Johnny Davis
156 Jeremy Sochan
160 Bones Hyland
183 Kenyon Martin Jr
187 Miles McBride
246 David Roddy
324 Ryan Rollins
332 Jabari Walker
383 Jalen Williams
334 Keegan Murray
Didn't realize Nick was that highly ranked coming out of HS...but can remember him as being a really good player
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