Weber will do fine with the recruits he is getting. He tends to get guys who will play for four years rather than the top 10 recruits. More concerned with qualifying academically, playing his type of motion offense, playing tough defense, etc.
This year's team is getting no respect but they are returning 3 starters and several others with good experience, and should be competing for the B10 title at the end of the season.
Watch them the next couple of weeks and see what they do. You might be surprised, but I won't.
I guess it's a good recruiting class if the intention is just to continue with having winning seasons but no ambition to win national championships because you can't win national championship and/or maintain an excellent program that will constantly knock on the door of NC without TOP recruits...and IL hasn't got any TOP recruits.
To say this class is a disappointment is an understatement. What we shouldn't do, however, is slam the kids who elected to play here and honor their committments. Dmac will make an immediate impact and Cole and Tisdale after a couple of years will be great inside.
That said there is something sorely missing in our recruiting approach. The near missess reads like a who's who with Livingston, Scheyer, Wright, Collins, Rose, Turner, Tucker and the straw that broke our back EJ the liar Gordon.
This staff NEEDS a recruiter on staff. A dynmaic former Illini personality who bleeds O & B and that has a recognizable name. Kenny Battle or any of the Flying Illini would qualify among others.
Yes, Weber can coach but we have absolutely NOTHING to show for our recent success on the recruiting trail. Turner took us to the B10 title and the Sugar Bowl but was summarily dismissed for recruiting failures and a ruined program just 3 years later.
I don't see a plunge in basketball like football as Weber is a better coach and we do have some solid players. and no we don't need two 5 star players a year ( which would be nice) but for a program to succeed you typically need at least one if not two on the roster which means a 5 star player at LEAST every other year.
Matta and OSU are building a dynasty in Columbus while Painter and Sanctions will lift PU and IU. We are not just getting out-recruited by national teams but in our own conference AND even DePaul!!
We have no room for "near misses" and shoulda or coulda for 2008. Basketball is our bread and butter program and we can't afford to watch it slip into mediocrity.
Although i am not too thrilled about cole or tisdale (although they could prove me wrong), demetri could be something. He will be a good backup to frasier and possibly have some significant playing time early in his career.
Something that we gotta remember is that dee brown is the only five star recruit in recent history (i believe deron and luther were only 4 stars), augustine was a three star, and guys like mcbride and randall were also 4 stars. my point is that we dont need a bunch of 5 star players to compete, because we havent in the past. look at jamar smith, for example, a three star player, and now hes the best scorer on the team and the best three point shooter possibly in the country.
however, i do think that we need some big talent because im sick of never actually getting excited for the upcoming season, its like we're always just looking for a 20 win season that gets us to the sweet sixteen and then get beat. thats why i will always remember our majestic run in 2005.
I hear very good things about McCamey and I like Tisdale's size. Is this recruiting class great? Of course not but it's as good as Weber could have done to regroup after the Gordan and Rose issues. This recruiting class could have been spectacular but that's the way it is. Illinois has always found a way to be a competitor with mediocre talent. But Weber will land some great recruits, I guarantee it. I'm sure there is an Illinois kid who loves the Illini and dreams of playing for them no matter if Duke or Carolina offers scholarships. There just has to be.
Please sstop blaming the coaches and put the blame where it belongs...right at the door of our worthless and incompetent Athletic Director, none other than Loser Ron Guenther.
This terrible AD has hurt IL sports in every imagineable way during his long tenure and it simply is time for him to go. The fact that he is still around is a sad reflection on the U of I Ad ministration, but more imoprtantly on the crooked stae of Illinois media that continue to give him a pass instead of blowing his miserable cover.
The simple reason we don't get top recruits is that these kids and their parents look at our sport programs and see right through it that IL is not COMMITED TO SUSTAINED EXCELLENCE in sports and/or WINNING NATIONAL CHMPIONSHIPS, thus they'll walk away and go to colleges that are serious about their programs. One can write a book about the way this creep has destroyed our sports programs...and didn't even have enough guts or brain to save our proud symbol the CHIEF (even after Florida State university showed this brainless sole him way on how to do it).
The big question mark is that how this loser of an AD continue to keep his job at IL...UNBELIEVEABLE!!!
NO more links to anything written in the pantagraph. Kindred is a bitch.
Being a "great" recruiter does not win basketball games. Get over it guys.
IU lost to Butler, whoops! Seems like an upset.
KU lost to Oral Roberts, whoops! You have to be kidding, with all those future NBA players?
What other team with a great recruiter or recruits will lose next?
It is a disappointment that IL could not land either Gordon or Rose. And it is a disappointment that Weber has had trouble getting the cream of Illinois high school basketball to commit to IL. That said here are my thoughts on the 2007 players. I think Weber did a pretty good job.
McCamey is a quality player and he wasn’t offended that IL saw him as their third (maybe 4th if we were to include OJ Mayo) choice at the guard position. Mc Camey is a 4 star top 100 recruit He is ranked as the 11th best PG in high school. That speaks volumes in itself. With Smith and Frazier running the show out front, Mc Camey his going to spend most of his time his freshman year just learning the ropes.
Tisdale is a 7-0 center. 3 stars and 26th at his position. That’s not bad. It just means he has room to grow. I personally think it is normal for big men to take a little longer to develop. When I looked at the higher ranked high school centers most of them were 6-8 or 6-9. I like the idea of getting a true big man on the team. He is a bit light but perhaps he will add some bulk in the form of muscle over the next couple of years. Brian Cook was a bit scrawny when he showed up at IL and it wasn’t until his Jr and Sr years that he developed into a dominant player. One of the benefits of being a little lighter is that Tisdale may be able to play the up tempo game better that the centers who weigh 280-290. I don’t care how good the player is he doesn’t help his team if he is sitting on the bench trying to catch his breath.
Cole is an interesting choice. He too is a 3 star player. He is 6-9 which says PF but he is only 185 pounds which means he would be banged around big time. Fortunately he too is going to have time to add some muscle. The thing I like about him is that he has a nice jump shot. Cook didn’t develop a good one until his Sr year. That creates some match up problems for the opposing PF. You can bring him out onto a wing and minimize the rebounding and help defense effectiveness of the other teams big man. If you have him play SF he has a nice height advantage over the other player and you can take him inside more.
A few points about the players who did not commit:
1. A 5 star, top 10 player is great to have on your team but it is more vanity for the coach and fans than it is production on the court over the course of 4 years. What I mean by that is they will be long gone by their Jr year. They may even skip out before their Soph year. With the offer of millions of dollars who can blame them? A 5 star freshman for the most part, is not that much better than a 4 star Jr and I seriously doubt that he is better at all than a 4 star Sr. There is a lot to be said for experience. You only have to look at the past players at IL to see that for the most part the players were better in their Jr and Sr years than they were as Fr and Soph. And by and large it is the Jr and Sr that start and play the most for IL. Still and all, landing some of those top 10 players will certainly make you feel like you have turned the corner in the recruiting war. But all we have to do is look to Kansas to see that it doesn’t matter how many 5 star players you have, you will still lose the game if you don’t play like a team. And teams like Kansas certainly need more than their share of these players because they can not keep them on campus long enuf for the players to earn their degree.
2. The NBA has their new rule that they are not going to draft any players out of HS. It is not because they are afraid of the college coaches getting mad at them. And it is not because they are afraid of Congress imposing some regulations on them. They made the new rule simply because they know these kids are not ready for the NBA. They need time to develop. And they don’t want to pay them while they learn.
3. The 5 star player certainly has the potential for greatness but they have the tendency to make mistakes as well. I have heard the tv commentators say on several occasions that college teams that are lead by freshmen guards do not make it to the Final Four very often. Yes it is true that “They are no longer freshmen” when they get to the end of the season. But they still are inexperienced in the post season game. It is a bit different than the college game that they play the rest of the year. As good as Dee and Deron were, as freshman they made a lot of mistakes and against the better teams it often is enough to cost them the game.
4. The star rating system is not perfect by any means. There are plenty of 4 star players that don’t have great college careers. Aaron Spears is one that comes to mind. Nice kid and all. And it is too bad that he was injured while at IL, but his college numbers are not eye popping even after he transferred.
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