Illinois Hoops Recruiting Thread

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#576      
Boskydell
SescIllini said:
Believe he may have started elsewhere, possibly Kenwood. Haven't heard his name in awhile. In days prior to portal he would likely be a higher priority, now with national recruiting and portal he probably falls down the list of priorities. Illinois is likely looking for a seasoned scorer in the mold of TSJ and not a freshmen.
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Heard's a '25. Pretty sure he has an offer.
 
#578      
sacraig
CV Illini said:
Definitely a Finnisher.
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GIF by Giphy QA
 
#584      
NarrowJ
sacraig said:
7'0" with only 5.3 rpg?
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He is apparently more of a wing / perimeter player, so that number isn't terribly alarming to me. When I see these stats for foreign players, it also makes me wonder how many minutes the games are (four 10 minute quarters?).
 
#585      
blackdog
#586      
john1952
Fighter of the Nightman said:
Agreed ... we lived in Peoria when I was young, and my dad said the state tournaments with those great Manuel teams were absolutely electric. I think it is having way too many classes that tanked it.
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Agreed. Moving to a 4 class system, embraces the idea that "everyone gets a trophy.," Kind of like there are often 10 to 15 high school valedictorians in a graduated class these days.
 
#587      
BashCtIllini
john1952 said:
Agreed. Moving to a 4 class system, embraces the idea that "everyone gets a trophy.," Kind of like there are often 10 to 15 high school valedictorians in a graduated class these days.
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I don't agree with that. There are 1,300 high schools in Illinois. I don't think it was unreasonable to go from 2 champions to 4. There used to be what, 6 classes for football that was expanded to 8, or maybe it was 4. But you could question why aren't there the same amount of classes for all sports?

With the huge difference between the smallest 1A school and the largest 1A school, especially when you factor in private schools with small enrollments, there were a lot of schools that would just never have a legit chance to win a title. I think given, they didn't expand the total number of teams, just the number of championships, it was a very positive change.
 
#588      
Fighter of the Nightman
BashCtIllini said:
I don't agree with that. There are 1,300 high schools in Illinois. I don't think it was unreasonable to go from 2 champions to 4. There used to be what, 6 classes for football that was expanded to 8, or maybe it was 4. But you could question why aren't there the same amount of classes for all sports?

With the huge difference between the smallest 1A school and the largest 1A school, especially when you factor in private schools with small enrollments, there were a lot of schools that would just never have a legit chance to win a title. I think given, they didn't expand the total number of teams, just the number of championships, it was a very positive change.
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Even so, SOMETHING has changed. Nobody talks about Illinois high school hoops in the same breath as Indiana high school hoops anymore, and they used to. Maybe it's a failure of IHSA marketing? Not enough intentional fanfare around the event? Either way, it's depressing to see your average young Illinoisan not grow up with an understanding of this state's rich high school basketball history, IMO. My dad grew up (graduated from Kewanee HS in 1980) thinking Illinois high school basketball hysteria was even better than Indiana's and they just got a bit more publicity because of "Hoosiers" but WE were the original home of March Madness. I'd argue your average high school kid now has zero perception of that in Illinois, whereas the lore is still as strong as ever in Indiana.
 
#589      
21ChampaignSt
Fighter of the Nightman said:
Even so, SOMETHING has changed. Nobody talks about Illinois high school hoops in the same breath as Indiana high school hoops anymore, and they used to. Maybe it's a failure of IHSA marketing? Not enough intentional fanfare around the event? Either way, it's depressing to see your average young Illinoisan not grow up with an understanding of this state's rich high school basketball history, IMO. My dad grew up (graduated from Kewanee HS in 1980) thinking Illinois high school basketball hysteria was even better than Indiana's and they just got a bit more publicity because of "Hoosiers" but WE were the original home of March Madness. I'd argue your average high school kid now has zero perception of that in Illinois, whereas the lore is still as strong as ever in Indiana.
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I've talked about this before, I think, but I went to school in Indiana until I was 12 or 13, then moved to Illinois. Basketball was literally part of the curriculum at my school in Indiana. We took field trips to the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame, Conseco Fieldhouse, and the NCAA headquarters. We had guest speakers like Dr. James Naismith's grandson and the Guinness World Record basketball spinner come talk to our school. We wrote reports about different college basketball teams. We watched Hoosiers. We had a Hoosier Hysteria tournament where each classroom had its own 3 on 3 team and the school basically shut down for a day to watch and participate in the tournament.

It was total basketball indoctrination. The basketball fanaticism in Illinois really didn't compare, in my experience.
 
#590      
SeattleSlim
BashCtIllini said:
I don't agree with that. There are 1,300 high schools in Illinois. I don't think it was unreasonable to go from 2 champions to 4. There used to be what, 6 classes for football that was expanded to 8, or maybe it was 4. But you could question why aren't there the same amount of classes for all sports?

With the huge difference between the smallest 1A school and the largest 1A school, especially when you factor in private schools with small enrollments, there were a lot of schools that would just never have a legit chance to win a title. I think given, they didn't expand the total number of teams, just the number of championships, it was a very positive change.
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Hearken back to the days of one class. It was (almost) never the goal of the tiny school to win the state title. The “goal” was to have an opportunity to play a “big” school and potentially beat them. Heck, even a close game would have provided enough memories for a lifetime.
 
#591      
BalloonsTheElephant
SeattleSlim said:
Hearken back to the days of one class. It was (almost) never the goal of the tiny school to win the state title. The “goal” was to have an opportunity to play a “big” school and potentially beat them. Heck, even a close game would have provided enough memories for a lifetime.
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If you haven't read it, check out a book about the Macon Ironmen named "A Shot at Forever". Great story that discussed this a lot, but I think playing like competition for championships is best.
 
#593      
BashCtIllini
Fighter of the Nightman said:
Even so, SOMETHING has changed. Nobody talks about Illinois high school hoops in the same breath as Indiana high school hoops anymore, and they used to. Maybe it's a failure of IHSA marketing? Not enough intentional fanfare around the event? Either way, it's depressing to see your average young Illinoisan not grow up with an understanding of this state's rich high school basketball history, IMO. My dad grew up (graduated from Kewanee HS in 1980) thinking Illinois high school basketball hysteria was even better than Indiana's and they just got a bit more publicity because of "Hoosiers" but WE were the original home of March Madness. I'd argue your average high school kid now has zero perception of that in Illinois, whereas the lore is still as strong as ever in Indiana.
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the biggest issue is that the best players are leaving for prep schools.

There is still plenty of excitement from the smaller schools, it's just even if you empty town, that's not a lot of people in the grand scheme of things.
 
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