Not to start a meltdown or anything, or have everyone start saying here we go again (I know a lot of the negative bandwagon jumpers will do just that and give up), but here is a link to a Chicago Sun-Times news story.
Many have asked why are we still recruiting for 2009 and 2010? The Gordon thing was a lesson learned, you never stop recruiting.
Right now I think it's just a kid wondering out loud what if. But whereas Gordon had his folks (and handlers) steering him to IU, Richmond's folks are still in our corner (they're Illinois grads). I'll worry when I hear the parents of this 16 year old echo the same sentiments.
Also what's the difference now? We've got Jerrance on board and that is a BIG plus that wasn't part of the equation before. And when it comes to the influence of Jerrance v. Tracey Webster - - I'll take Jerrance all day everyday.
Kid's confused. He says he doesn't want to be in the limelight, yet he goes around talking about possibly retracting his commitment which would surely put him back in the light. He doesn't like the attention he gets for being an exceptional, young athlete, yet he speaks longingly about what he missed out on by skipping the recruiting process.
My conclusion: He says he doesn't like all the publicity, but he does. As for his commitment to UI, I think it's just his teammates telling him about all the possible schools that he could go to and him seeing them go through the process. His teammates are questioning his decision more than he actually is.
Yep, I agree with all that Hellrzr. A bit confused and a lot going on in his life. Especially going to back to the same school that he had problems with last season.
I think he does like the spotlight more than he wants to admit, and wonders what it'd be like to be in the headlines mentioned with schools like UNC, Memphis, UCLA, KU, UK and the like, and everyone even more hotly on his trail (schools haven't stopped recruiting him). Don't blame him there.
Some kids are glad not to have to go through the entire process for 2 or 3 years, some miss it when they don't.
So now I go back to Rivals, and Rivals (premium) has already talked to Jereme and he says he was pressured/lead into some of those responses (keep in mind sometimes it's not hard to do that to a 16 year old if you are a veteran/savvy reporter) and that his answers didn't come out the way he intended.
He says quote, "FAMILY wants everyone to know they are FULLY committed and excited about playing at Illinois."
I think the key words are family and fully. There's more but I've already spilled enough premium stuff. Just wanted to stave off the possible meltdown (and so did the Rivals guy).
Bsisko, You're dead on about him possibly being lead into those answers on the topic of recruiting. I'm a journalism student at the U of I and I know first hand that as a reporter or a journalist, we can get pretty much whatever answer we want to hear from interviews.
The questioning probably went along the lines of: "Really? You don't miss any of that recruiting attention? Scouts at every game, scholarship offers, the buzz it generates. Don't you miss it just a little? Things could have been like that if you hadn't committed so early, don't you think?"
Still, it's only final when they arrive on campus. And not even then sometimes.
Well, it seems to me that alot of organizations like to put IL down, get the kids to go to another place. Working him like that only arouses his curiosity about other schools.
It almost seemed like he is being forced by his parents to attend IL.
When I checked on 2011 prospects, I noticed no information on players (just height and weight), except for maybe one individual on page one. But on page 2, there was that 25 point stat on D Stewart. Guess what, UNC and others are already recruiting him. So did he want the stats given so others would be interested in him besides IL, or did the organization want him looking at other schools? One thing, the cat is now out of the bag on him.
What happened to the stats on other freshmen? Not that hard to get.
it doesnt matter, ohio state, michigan state, and wisconsin will be at the top of the big ten for the next couple of years. Better coaches, better players. Simple as that. Purdue and Minnesota will also be good. Scratch that, purdue is already a good team (and young as well)
Yea what you say might me true for next year, Illinois might not crack the top five, but they will be back in tournament contention if not in the tournament. But in two seasons Illinois will be in the top three and make the the tournament for sure and will make the second if not sweet sixteen. Then when Jereme Richmond gets here ( if he does) and Crandall Head gets here we will be elite eight final four. That is all possible if Illinois stays healthy and the recruits keep their commitments. We also need Bruce to stay so the recruits stay with Illinois. Yeah I know I'm optimistic but those are my long term predictions.
i say thats a far stretch....izzo, motta, ryan are better coaches and recruiters than weber......enjoy that LONG wait until u guys say they become good
Why is Motta a better coach? He had one of the best recruiting classes ever and lost in the championship game. He can recruit pretty well, at least acording to the recruiting websites, but that only gets you so far. Wisconsin might be alright next year, but they were hardly one of the nation's elite last year and they lost theit best player. Ohio State was fifth last year and may be okay this year but you never can tell because Thad is still a question mark in my book as far as his coaching abilities. Purdue is okay...nothing spectacular and has an unproven very young coach. Michigan State has a good coach but lost a lot of starters and wont be as good as they were this year. Illinois will be better than they were last year. They lost 15 games by ten or less points last year. If they can improve just 5.2 points on offense (which would put them in the top three in the conference) and just 3 to 5 points a game on defense, then they will be one of the best in the conference and have a great record going into the tournament. Illinois may be losing some seniors, but they were not really all that great anyway. I look at last year as a rebuilding year and this year will be oneas well. However, if Jamar returns to his former self and the other additions contribute, then we will pick up those extra points we need. Make no mistake, Illinois will be deep on the bench and good on the court. No one is going to score on our guards and they wont be able to stop our guards either.
I predict at least 26 wins for Illinois next season. Leading scorer, McCamey with 14 points per game and at least 3 others in double figures.
Dont worry about 2009 or 2010 people. Next year will be better than you think. Confidence is high!
I'm not worried. Hell I was reading predictions on some of the other Rivals/Scouts sites (Indiana and Michigan St. to name a couple) and a couple of the longer ones from established posters were predicting we'd finish no worse than 4th next year.
Tosu lost Koufus and w/o Oden you see how far they got, Michigan St. lost Neitzel (but Izzo reloaded as usual), Indiana won't be near the top again for awhile, Wisconsin lost some good players but they always bounce back. Purdue is picked by quite a few to win the conference (I really like their squad). Minnesota has some momentum going, but that being said, even with our bad team last year we boat-raced them twice, the worst one being in their own house. Hell we'll win about 5 or 6 more games just with our impending improvement from the free throw line.
That Big Ten tourney run wasn't a fluke and McCamey led the charge (and he's already lost more weight too). Next season (5 months) ain't too long to wait. As for recruiting I don't think too many Illinois fans are worried about that anymore. Oh there are some still out there, but they point BACKWARDS to 2005 and 2006...but going forward Weber and JERRANCE, Coach Price & Co. have been doing a great job. And I'm not worried about any decommits because that's only happened to us once in the last 30 or 40 years and it's nice to know we've got all kinds of backup plans in place theses days.
26 wins might be a bit much though. But I think between 18 to 20 wins is VERY VERY possible and would be a nice turnaround.
And until then we've got a top 15 ranked FOOTBALL team to watch!
I do not work for the DI (know a couple people who do - mostly news and entertainment stuff), but I agree with you. Those sports guys continue to produce worthless dribble that is, in fact, boring to read. Especially the columns on the MLB. That paper is a joke.
