I have always felt that it is better to have players that will fit into the system.
To be fair, based on the Sagarin Rating system, it looks like Scheyer has played against slightly stronger teams.
the season just started. scheyer has much better players around him to do the scoring. scheyer's a freshman. meacham is a transfer and has played more at this level.
i don't understand why there is denial about this. weber just isn't getting top recruits. in some instances the top recruits won't pan out and you'll have lesser regarded guys who become stars, but in the long run you're better off with top rectruits. look at north carolina. a year after playing in the championship they went deep into the tourney with a bunch of freshman.
Noted that Duke/Scheyer managed to lose to Marquette last night. It was in Kansas City, close enough to Chicago that Daddy Scheyer could have made it to the game. And its warm enough in Chicago that Daddy just may be able to sneak out to the golf course on Friday. So I hope Dad will be braggin' on his kid to all his buddies, just like he hoped he could.
"Hey, MY kid went to Duke and helped them to a loss!!"
I think Weber is a damn good coach and if he can get "lower talent" to play good or at least right now damn good then we will be able to strive in the big ten and don't forget Bruce knows all about the big ten men he needs he was an assistant to gene for twenty some odd years and personally I don't want kids that will leave early I want four star recruits or maybe even three star recruits that want to learn want to win and willing to put in the time and effort to play and win.Basically all I am saying is that weber is a awesome coach and he has great fubdimentals.
a year after playing in the championship they went deep into the tourney with a bunch of freshman.
I thought UNC lost in the second round last year? Either way, I would note that Weber didn't recruit Meacham. Rather Meacham transferred despite Weber's protests that he should stay at Dayton. I'm very happy with Meacham's play, and think he's a good testament to Bruce's coaching ability. Despite this, I'd still like to have Scheyer on the team.
Comparing Meacham to Scheyer at this point is silly because (a) Weber didn't recruit Meacham, (b) Meacham is in his third year of college basketball, and (c) Scheyer and Meacham are supposed to play different roles on their teams. I happen to think Weber has collected plenty of talent on our team, but this is a bit ridiculous.
Of course we would like to have Scheyer. We did recruit him, after all. It would also be nice to have LeBron. That doesn't mean we won't be fine without them. But there's no need to disrespect every player who decides not to play for us.
Lets go Illini! Big support of your coach.
Thought we could "trade sights" and post links to our pages on each others blog. Keep up the good work.
WU
It's true: Weber can't recruit. He took the amazing run to the national championship and came out with exactly nothing in terms of recruiting.
Not to say I don't like him - I think he's an amazing coach, and the things he can do with guys who don't have all the bells and whistles.
That being said, if he can make a good player out of someone like Rich McBride, I can't even begin to dream of what he'd do with someone like Greg Oden.
Coaching matters, but in the long-term health of the program, recruiting might matter just as much. Just like Illinois (and other places like Southern Illinois) has become known as places that can get coaches into "better" schools (like, ahem, KU), none of us want Illinois to turn into the school where only 3-stars go and manage to get to the Sweet 16 every year.
Sweet 16 every year? Considering the volatility of the NCAA tournament, I'd take it.
I like the comparison and it's a great point: these two are very comparable right now.
I think your premise is a little off tho: BAM didn't recruit Trent at all. He came in gift wrapped. In fact, BAM has said he encouraged Trent to stay at Dayton because he was only going to be a walk-on at UI.
The story I read was UI liked Trent but was holding the offer for someone else and Trent tired of waiting and signed with Dayton.
There are some who are talking about how Weber can develop kids, and that's all well and good, but without being able to recruit the big boys like Scheyer when his own brother is the high school coach, one year removed from a 39-2 season in which you finished runner up to the national champ, that pretty much tells you Weber will never land a 5 star recruit. In case the people talking about how he is still a good coach haven't noticed, Illinois went from being ranked in the top 10 year after year and always being a top pick for winning the Big 10, to being predicted to finish in the middle of the pack in the Big 10 and not even ranked. Weber can coach all he wants, but while he is taking his 3 star and 4 star guys and trying to coach them up, Ohio State is taking the Carolina and Duke strategy of just signing guys who don't need to be "coached up" and can win now, and are doing so. Illinois just had the longest home non-conference winning streak snapped. There was still all of the same home court advantage there that had been there during the duration. The only thing different was the players on the court were not at the same level as the previous players we have had out there. Someone said:
Sweet 16 every year? Considering the volatility of the NCAA tournament, I'd take it.
If you are saying that you accept mediocrity that's fine, that is your personal choice, but there are a lot of Illini alum and fans (myself included) who firmly believe that we should challenge to win the Big 10 every season. We should have someone on the team as a strong candidate for Big 10 player of the year every seaon. Any season that we don't is a disappointment, even if it means we got a 5 seed in the tourney, and made it to the second round or even sweet 16 in the tourney.
Anyone can see there has been a steady decline since the 39-2 campaign, and with the players we are bringing in, that decline will only continue, as the talent gap between the Illini and the top of the Big Ten is growing.
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