Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread
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Illini92and96
- Austin, TX
DC is counted as its own state in the 247 rankings. He would have been 3rd, 3rd, and 4th in the Maryland 2020-2022 rankings at his current ranking, so apparently a down year at the top of that state.
Oops. Glad that typo was on here and not Twitter. Don’t want to be starting unfounded rumors.
Are we sure that he even plans to play for Sunrise? He isn't listed on their roster and their first game is tomorrow: https://www.sunrisechristianhoops.com/roster
Edit: Already posted above.
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Joel Goodson
- dawgville
Lon was a great coach. I loved him. But Underwood is recruiting better than Kruger. And by a good margin. Self v Underwood? Tougher call. Self lost out on a lot of kids during his short tenure. Ultimately, it doesn't matter. I love where our recruiting is now and, the kicker is, it's only gonna get better.
sacraig
- The desert
I like how it's all coaches and Goode.
skyIdub
Winged Warrior
And Plummers head.
Kruger recruited three McDonald’s All Americans plus Bradford, Archibald, Johnson, Sergio, Krupalija, Harrington, etc. in a four year period. He also got Roger Powell to commit who then stayed with Self after Kruger left.
I wouldn’t say Underwood “by a good margin.” Those McDonald’s All Americans are a level Underwood hasn’t reached yet.
That said, I’m thrilled with the way recruiting is going these days.
Joel Goodson
- dawgville
True, but Kruger was the beneficiary of virtually unbelievably great timing wrt the downstate McD AAs. Also, we we're in provincial mode back then. Not so much now.
But they misspelled baseketball
Except the Manual kids were thought to be IU leans. Imagine Frank Williams playing for Knight?
Meanwhile, Kruger found himself locked out of historically strong Chicago talent.
Joel Goodson
- dawgville
Sergio was, but Grif, most definitely, was not. Yeah, Kruger had to deal with major CPL sour grapes fallout, through absolutely no fault of his own.
JFGsCoffeeMug
BU:1 Trash cans:0
- Chicago
Don't be silly. The correct way of misspelling basketball is "basketeball."But they misspelled baseketball
The CPL wanted Collins to be the head coach if memory serves me correctly.
The irony of it is Illinois has been at it's best when not reliant on CPL talent and is recruiting countrywide.
Collins got the UIC job instead. CPL did next to nothing to steer players his way.
There best teams have always had a key CPS player. 89- Anderson, Liberty- 05 - Head- 21- Ayo
Kruger was a great coach, but objectively that should have been Collins' job, except to the extent that it should have remained Henson's job.
Guenther hired his way out of a mess of his own making with Kruger and Self, I think that's a fair way to describe the scenario.
Come on man.. A key player is not reliance on the CPL.
It's common knowledge that Simeon & MP have been good for us and have led to a lot of wins.
The larger (and more interesting) point is that the CPL is overvalued when we talk about Illinois recruiting and this is exemplified by our best teams being accentuated by it, not solely reliant.
Those teams do not reach their level of success without Anderson, Head and Ayo but point taken. 2001 team did it without CPS talent and most of the top players in the last 20 years have not been from CPS. Get the most talented players now matter where they are from.
Always? Are you one of those guys who believe that Illinois basketball began with the Flying Illini? Take a look at some of Combes' teams or Mills' teams. Plenty of nationally ranked teams that rarely had CPS players.
This is right. Sergio was definitely an IU lean. One of my fraternity brothers ran into Griffin and McLain on their recruiting trip at Brinkley Hall. He was also a Peoria guy. He talked to them about Peoria and Champaign for over an hour. He thought nothing of it. They committed and a day or two later he got a handwritten note at his dorm from Lon Krueger thanking him for everything he did when talking to Sergio and Marcus. He still has the letter.
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