Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread

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#301      
Of course you didn't much give an answer. Frazier yes was criticized coming off the seasons we were having. Davis not at all. People were perplexed as he hadn't even appeared on a list for his class.

Weber and you talk as if board would have complained about Van Vleet but you truly can't find an example of a similar case.

So somehow Weber followed the board's guidance in not going after van Vleet but ignored all the questions and criticism in inking Orris.

First, this notion is largely a myth. You quote one poster out of millions of fans.

Second Weber's job was not to listen to message boards but to recruit a winning team. It doesn't get much more pathetic than "I would have offered Fred Van Vleet but I couldn't take the heat from anonymous poster DaveDowney65 on the Illinois Loyalty message board."
Jason Patric What GIF by Wayward Pines
 
#302      

pruman91

Paducah, Ky
If you want to find your posts stating we should have these recruited unhearlded players that became stars, I'm happy to read them. Not sure what your point is. You want me to quote millions of fans? There weren't millions of fans on here in 2006. I'm not defending Weber. I was here through it all. If you were and remember it differently, fine.
7ab.gif
 
#308      
That's what Bruce Weber would have you believe.

Is there a player that Weber pursued hard that the board was critical of that ended up being really good?

McGee wasn't "really good" in college even. The board would have absolutely been disappointed, AT THAT TIME, if we took McGee over Carlwell.
 
#311      
The Illinois basketball coach should not care what a bunch of fans on a chat board say about recruits.

My point was the staff must be able to identify players that can be developed, have good character and fit the program. Its easy if you are Duke/KY and take your pick of top 20/5 star recruits. There was no way that Jabari Parker, Derrick Rose, Jahili Okafor were going to be college busts. Illinois does not get 5 stars. We need to identify early 2 star, 3 star, few 4 star candidates that fit the program and are interested in coming to Illinois. Brad does that very well. Groce and Bruce did not.

Fred Van Fleet and Javale McGee were just examples of unheralded Illinois HS players that did well in college and NBA. I wish they had played for Illinois.

In 9 years Meyers Leonard was only Weber recruit to get drafted and have a significant NBA career. Weber did nothing to develop him. Freshman year 20-14 Sophomore year 17-15.

In 5 years Kendrick Nunn was only Groce recruit to have a significant NBA career.

Both were mediocre recruiters/program builders. We were spoiled by Lou Henson / Lon Kruger / Bill Self. Glad to have Brad here!
 
#312      

pruman91

Paducah, Ky
Of course, in fairness, Carlwell had his Illini career cut short.l under extremely unfortunate circumstances. He turned out pretty good in the end.
Didn't Carlwell end up transferring to the West Coast , maybe San Diego State...........That's what popped into my head ..............It really really did.........
 
#313      

sacraig

The desert
Didn't Carlwell end up transferring to the West Coast , maybe San Diego State...........That's what popped into my head ..............It really really did.........
Yes. Also I exaggerated how he turned out. He did okay there and then played some lower level pro ball in primarily Australia.
 
#317      
Brian Carlwell SDSU (Mountain West)
FR ILL 2ppg 1 rbg
SO ILL DNP
JR SDSU 5 ppg 3 rbg
SR SDSU 4 ppg 3 rbg

I think I would have preferred Weber sign JaValle McGee

Javale McGee Nevada
FR 3ppg 2 rbg
SO 14 ppg 7 rbg
1st round NBA draft pick (18th) 14 year NBA career
 
#318      

ChiefGritty

Chicago, IL
Unheralded players that did well is subjective, but I’d throw Chester Frazier in that column. Until his senior year, he was treated brutally on this board.
Well until his senior year we were playing 4-on-5 on offense whenever he was in the game.

Now, it wasn't remotely his fault that the team was in that position, like so many other players who were seen as disappointments when they should have been stud supporting cast members (Randle, Pruitt, McCamey, Frazier, Tisdale, Richardson, Bertrand, Rice, Black, Egwu, Abrams, you could go on and on and on).

And now you have to love the irony that someone so symbolic of the recruiting failures of that era like Chet is now crushing it on the trail for us.

The entire Mike Davis recruitment lasted like 2 weeks. It was so fast that 247 has him enrolling before he committed...
That's essentially literally true. The public first heard anything about Mike Davis after he was in Champaign and enrolled and was already practicing.

The story was that he had decided to go to a 5th year prep school to try and generate more recruiting interest, but was academically eligible and when we reached out way after the signing period he just kinda showed up.

Brian Carlwell SDSU (Mountain West)
FR ILL 2ppg 1 rbg
SO ILL DNP
JR SDSU 5 ppg 3 rbg
SR SDSU 4 ppg 3 rbg

I think I would have preferred Weber sign JaValle McGee

Javale McGee Nevada
FR 3ppg 2 rbg
SO 14 ppg 7 rbg
1st round NBA draft pick (18th) 14 year NBA career
I mean, guys, we can't talk about Carlwell without making note of him being severely injured and nearly dying in the Jamar Smith incident.
 
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#320      

blackdog

Champaign
The Illinois basketball coach should not care what a bunch of fans on a chat board say about recruits.

My point was the staff must be able to identify players that can be developed, have good character and fit the program. Its easy if you are Duke/KY and take your pick of top 20/5 star recruits. There was no way that Jabari Parker, Derrick Rose, Jahili Okafor were going to be college busts. Illinois does not get 5 stars. We need to identify early 2 star, 3 star, few 4 star candidates that fit the program and are interested in coming to Illinois. Brad does that very well. Groce and Bruce did not.

Fred Van Fleet and Javale McGee were just examples of unheralded Illinois HS players that did well in college and NBA. I wish they had played for Illinois.

In 9 years Meyers Leonard was only Weber recruit to get drafted and have a significant NBA career. Weber did nothing to develop him. Freshman year 20-14 Sophomore year 17-15.

In 5 years Kendrick Nunn was only Groce recruit to have a significant NBA career.

Both were mediocre recruiters/program builders. We were spoiled by Lou Henson / Lon Kruger / Bill Self. Glad to have Brad here!

Yea no. We can and already are doing better than this. I think its going to be the exception to see them taking guys outside the top 100 unless they are late bloomers or very obviously under-rated. At this point I'm expecting an almost yearly dose of guys in the top-50 with the occasional top-30/5 star commit.
 
#321      
The Illinois basketball coach should not care what a bunch of fans on a chat board say about recruits.

My point was the staff must be able to identify players that can be developed, have good character and fit the program. Its easy if you are Duke/KY and take your pick of top 20/5 star recruits. There was no way that Jabari Parker, Derrick Rose, Jahili Okafor were going to be college busts. Illinois does not get 5 stars. We need to identify early 2 star, 3 star, few 4 star candidates that fit the program and are interested in coming to Illinois. Brad does that very well. Groce and Bruce did not.

Fred Van Fleet and Javale McGee were just examples of unheralded Illinois HS players that did well in college and NBA. I wish they had played for Illinois.

In 9 years Meyers Leonard was only Weber recruit to get drafted and have a significant NBA career. Weber did nothing to develop him. Freshman year 20-14 Sophomore year 17-15.

In 5 years Kendrick Nunn was only Groce recruit to have a significant NBA career.

Both were mediocre recruiters/program builders. We were spoiled by Lou Henson / Lon Kruger / Bill Self. Glad to have Brad here!
Doubt were looking at an 2 star prospects.....a couple 3....mainly 4....a few 5.
 
#322      
I have nothing new to bring to this discussion other than I can't emphasize enough how happy I am that Weber & Groce are no longer our coaches lol.

Have a great weekend folks and GO ILLINI!
 
#323      
Yea no. We can and already are doing better than this. I think its going to be the exception to see them taking guys outside the top 100 unless they are late bloomers or very obviously under-rated. At this point I'm expecting an almost yearly dose of guys in the top-50 with the occasional top-30/5 star commit.
I think the exception may be international recruits, where rating services often provide ratings either very late or never.
 
#324      
Weber made a lot of poor recruiting decisions. Backing off Hummel after signing Cole. Not pursuing Van Vleet. Pursuing Orris. Not recruiting Alec Peters.

I heard some Illini contacts from Rockford were high on Van Vleet, but Weber was not interested for some reason. Van Vleet had more than 2 offers too. Besides Witchita and Colorado State; Kent State, Northern Illinois, Drake, and Southern Illinois offered.

btw, Mike Davis was overlooked in part because he was thought to be headed for prep school. At that point, iirc, he was known as a raw, but very athletic big man.
 
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