Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread

Status
Not open for further replies.
#26      

alaskaillini

A
alaskaillini
jumpingjack said:
I graduated from a highest level D3 hoops school. Played pickup games for years with the guys that those starters cooked in practice. Play against some D3 guys still. And I swear on the Bible, Brandon Lieb would have dropped 30/10 easy on the best D3 schools every week and twice on Sundays. If Blieb wanted to be the Bill Russell of Whitewater, I don't think he'd have spent 3 years in Champaign. He's earned a bigger shot than that.
Click to expand...
Downey's reply: Three CCIW centers who would have devoured Lieb: IWU's Jack Sikma, North Park's Michael Harper and Millikin's Leon Gobcznski. Carthage Point guard and scoring machine Steve Djurickovic would have been highly successful at any Big 10 school. He turned down D1 offers so he could play for his dad in college. I apologize for answering twice. Sometimes I'm not quite sure how to edit or delete.

Downey's post took me down memory lane. I watched Sikma and Gobczynski play several times including against each other when I was a kid. While Gobzcynski was 6-10 and might have been listed as a center, I do not recall him being much of an interior player at all though it was a long time ago. He was a fantastic shot - saw him drop 60 one night. He would have been tough for Lieb to guard. I recall him as an unathletic Larry Bird. It was uncanny how he could catch a pass then turn and shoot before the defender could react. IWU successfully defended him by going for the block immediately when he caught the ball. Seem to recall Sikma blocking him more than once. That IWU team was pretty darn good - there was another guy besides Sikma that I think got a hard look by an NBA team as well.
 
#27      

IMPE ALL STAR

I
IMPE ALL STAR
illini0440 said:
Brad likes Hunter a lot 🤷🏻‍♂️ fwiw
Click to expand...
April Fools Prank GIF
 
#30      

Joel Goodson

Joel Goodson
respect my decision™
Joel Goodson
alaskaillini said:
Downey's reply: Three CCIW centers who would have devoured Lieb: IWU's Jack Sikma, North Park's Michael Harper and Millikin's Leon Gobcznski. Carthage Point guard and scoring machine Steve Djurickovic would have been highly successful at any Big 10 school. He turned down D1 offers so he could play for his dad in college. I apologize for answering twice. Sometimes I'm not quite sure how to edit or delete.

Downey's post took me down memory lane. I watched Sikma and Gobczynski play several times including against each other when I was a kid. While Gobzcynski was 6-10 and might have been listed as a center, I do not recall him being much of an interior player at all though it was a long time ago. He was a fantastic shot - saw him drop 60 one night. He would have been tough for Lieb to guard. I recall him as an unathletic Larry Bird. It was uncanny how he could catch a pass then turn and shoot before the defender could react. IWU successfully defended him by going for the block immediately when he caught the ball. Seem to recall Sikma blocking him more than once. That IWU team was pretty darn good - there was another guy besides Sikma that I think got a hard look by an NBA team as well.
Click to expand...

The Jim Molinari era! (GW alum, sorry)...

All frivolity aside, IWU had some great teams back then. And Sikma was only part of the story.
 
#31      

Mr. Tibbs

Mr. Tibbs
southeast DuPage
Mr. Tibbs
can those in the know , explain how Sikma went basically unnoticed from all B1G schools from tiny St Anne (near Kankakee) and ended up at IWU ?
 
#32      

DAM1298

D
DAM1298
RabidDawgClassic said:
I was thinking about that when people were (still are?) frothing over Brandon Murray. The last thing I want is for the staff to successfully recruit a guy, only to find out he won’t be able to play for a year. Michigan may find that out the hard way with Nimari Burnett.
Click to expand...
I thought if your coach got fired it was pretty easy to get an exemption?
 
#34      

ChiefGritty

ChiefGritty
Chicago, IL
ChiefGritty
My under-informed theory would be that there probably aren't many if any 7-footers in D3.

If you're 7 feet tall you're either good enough at basketball that you're D1 material or you're so bad you can't really play in college at all.

And remember, D3 is non-scholarship.

Lieb had a pretty legit offer list out of HS. Us, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Utah, DePaul. Developing his functional strength and agility hasn't gone as well as he and BU and Fletch would have hoped despite everyone's best efforts, but he still had 17 rebounds and 7 blocks in 58 minutes on the floor this year.

Lots of good D1 coaches will be intrigued by what they might be able to do with him.
 
#35      

IlliniCub 16

IlliniCub 16
IlliniCub 16
ChiefGritty said:
My under-informed theory would be that there probably aren't many if any 7-footers in D3.

If you're 7 feet tall you're either good enough at basketball that you're D1 material or you're so bad you can't really play in college at all.

And remember, D3 is non-scholarship.

Lieb had a pretty legit offer list out of HS. Us, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Utah, DePaul. Developing his functional strength and agility hasn't gone as well as he and BU and Fletch would have hoped despite everyone's best efforts, but he still had 17 rebounds and 7 blocks in 58 minutes on the floor this year.

Lots of good D1 coaches will be intrigued by what they might be able to do with him.
Click to expand...

I've been covering Division III basketball at North Central College for 8 years and I can count on one hand the number of 7-footers that walked into Gregory Arena. And the ones that did walked very, very slowly.

I think Lieb would obviously do very well in D-III but he would still need good players around him. I don't think he has the strength, shooting touch or athleticism to flat out dominate if he were consistently double teamed without other options to worry about. You couldn't just throw him on any D-III roster and expect him to average 25 a game. He would easily average double digit rebounds though.
 
#37      

KenR

K
KenR
I remember Jack Sikma playing his high school basketball at tiny St. Anne high school which is located less than an hour east of us. I believe St. Anne beat Toluca, which is located within 1/2 hour from us, in the Class A Super-Sectional, then they beat Cerro Gordo in Class A quarter finals at Assembly Hall. They lost badly to Ridgeway and ended up 4th in Illinois Class A after losing to Venice in the 3rd place game.

I had the honor of watching Sikma play in both high school and at Wesleyan. Sikma was recruited by several Division IA schools but he had a very close relationship with the Wesleyan coach and chose to stick with the D3 school. It didn't seem to hurt his stock with the NBA crowd.

An interesting fact that most do not know is that Sikma played guard for St. Anne his Freshman, Sophmore & Junior year. He didn't move to center 'till his Senior year in high school. It was apparent that Sikma was a special player early in his high school career.
 
#41      

MDchicago

MDchicago
Lake Norman NC
MDchicago
NEIlliniFan said:
Wasn't unnoticed at all. Recruited to D1 schools, including UI, but developed a very strong bond to Dennie Bridges (Titans' bball coach) who convinced him to go to IWU
Click to expand...
Mr. Tibbs said:
can those in the know , explain how Sikma went basically unnoticed from all B1G schools from tiny St Anne (near Kankakee) and ended up at IWU ?
Click to expand...

From an interview in Illinois Wesleyan's alumni magazine: Sikma link

>>>Since learning as a student that Sikma was a fellow graduate, I had wondered why a 6-foot-11 top prospect, with offers from some of the most reputed college basketball programs in the nation, would choose instead to attend a small, liberal arts university in Central Illinois....

Sikma graciously agreed to take the time to answer that question, as well as many others.

Not surprisingly, the first Wesleyan name he mentioned was Athletic Director Dennie Bridges, who retired as the Titan men’s basketball coach in 2001 after 36 seasons. Sikma was a senior playing basketball for St. Anne High School in Kankakee County, Ill., when he first met the man he still refers to simply as “Coach.”

“My Illinois Wesleyan success starts with Coach, who was a very important person in my life” — and remains so, Sikma said. In fact, he and Bridges still get together for the occasional round of golf and remain close friends....

While Bridges was the first college coach to seriously recruit Sikma, he wouldn’t be the last. In March 1973, Sikma scored 100 points in the four-game state Class A tournament series in Champaign that saw St. Anne take a 30-1 record into the semifinal round. After that, several big-time programs recruited Sikma, including the University of Illinois. But, in the end, he was persuaded by Bridges’s arguments that at Wesleyan he would be a “real college student,” and that he would be able to play as a starting center his freshman year. (“In 36 years, Jack was the only player that I promised a starting job,” Bridges wrote.)

Sikma also factored into his decision the fact that IWU’s schedule at that time included several Division I schools. “In recruiting me, Coach said that the issue of me being seen and recognized was not going to be a problem, and I agreed with him there,” Sikma said. “Back then you could schedule majors a lot more easily, so we played a lot of the major schools in the area. We usually took a trip over Christmas break and played a couple majors then as well. That was really important.”

The kicker for Sikma, however, was that he wasn’t going to ride the bench behind other prospects at a bigger school. At Illinois Wesleyan, there would be no doubt as to who would lead the team.>>>
 
Status
Not open for further replies.