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No reason for John Groce to do that. He's made big progress. He'll get one. It might be Charles Matthews next year.

And he'll leave for the NBA the year after that. What's the point.

No reason for John Groce to do that. He's made big progress. He'll get one. It might be Charles Matthews next year.

And he'll leave for the NBA the year after that. What's the point.

I don't think he's an NBA guy, but as we saw with Brad Stevens you never know. He just seems to love recruiting. But if you're going to even be in the NBA conversation, it means you're extremely successful already.

And the Alexander recruitment was different than any of the other recent big-time Chicago recruitments for Illinois. They have a real good shot at breaking through the Chicago barrier next year with Charles Matthews, Groce will get the job done soon enough, Illinois basketballis in a good place right now.

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No reason for John Groce to do that. He's made big progress. He'll get one. It might be Charles Matthews next year.

And he'll leave for the NBA the year after that. What's the point.

No reason for John Groce to do that. He's made big progress. He'll get one. It might be Charles Matthews next year.

And he'll leave for the NBA the year after that. What's the point.

I don't think he's an NBA guy, but as we saw with Brad Stevens you never know. He just seems to love recruiting. But if you're going to even be in the NBA conversation, it means you're extremely successful already.

And the Alexander recruitment was different than any of the other recent big-time Chicago recruitments for Illinois. They have a real good shot at breaking through the Chicago barrier next year with Charles Matthews, Groce will get the job done soon enough, Illinois basketballis in a good place right now.

I meant the player would leave for the NBA next year. Unless you're Kentucky and can flat out buy entire 5 star recruiting classes every year this is not a sound long term team building strategy.

On 8/1/2010 at 4:01 PM, winters in buffalo said:
You manage to balance agitation with just enough salient points to keep things interesting. Kind of a low-rent DG_Now.
On 1/2/2011 at 9:07 PM, Sodboy13 said:
Today, we are all otaku.

"The city of Peoria was once the site of the largest distillery in the world and later became the site for mass production of penicillin. So it is safe to assume that present-day Peorians are descended from syphilitic boozehounds."-Stephen Colbert

POTD: February 15, 2010, June 20, 2010

The Glorious Bloom State Penguins (NCFAF) 2014: 2-9, 2015: 7-5 (L Pineapple Bowl), 2016: 1-0 (NCFAB) 2014-15: 10-8, 2015-16: 14-5 (SMC Champs, L 1st Round February Frenzy)

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No reason for John Groce to do that. He's made big progress. He'll get one. It might be Charles Matthews next year.

And he'll leave for the NBA the year after that. What's the point.

No reason for John Groce to do that. He's made big progress. He'll get one. It might be Charles Matthews next year.

And he'll leave for the NBA the year after that. What's the point.

I don't think he's an NBA guy, but as we saw with Brad Stevens you never know. He just seems to love recruiting. But if you're going to even be in the NBA conversation, it means you're extremely successful already.

And the Alexander recruitment was different than any of the other recent big-time Chicago recruitments for Illinois. They have a real good shot at breaking through the Chicago barrier next year with Charles Matthews, Groce will get the job done soon enough, Illinois basketballis in a good place right now.

I meant the player would leave for the NBA next year. Unless you're Kentucky and can flat out buy entire 5 star recruiting classes every year this is not a sound long term team building strategy.

Well there's a big difference between building your entire team around a 5-star one-and-done, and trying to get a stud player to compliment a bunch of 3- and 4-year players.

There's a reason Quentin Snider's de-commitment hurts worse than Cliff Alexander choosing KU (even if Snider's also made more sense). And that's because Groce wasn't all in with a one-and-done player. Cliff would have been a cherry on top (a great big one of course) of the recruiting class. But Groce has brought in very good 3- and 4-star players in addition to transfers that have anywhere from 1-3 years of remaining eligibility.

He's not depending on the 5-star one-and-done to have a good program. But you'll usually have a better team if you land one, so it certainly makes sense to make the effort, especially when they're within 2 hours.

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Who's the last 5 star guy Illinois got from Chicago?

On 8/1/2010 at 4:01 PM, winters in buffalo said:
You manage to balance agitation with just enough salient points to keep things interesting. Kind of a low-rent DG_Now.
On 1/2/2011 at 9:07 PM, Sodboy13 said:
Today, we are all otaku.

"The city of Peoria was once the site of the largest distillery in the world and later became the site for mass production of penicillin. So it is safe to assume that present-day Peorians are descended from syphilitic boozehounds."-Stephen Colbert

POTD: February 15, 2010, June 20, 2010

The Glorious Bloom State Penguins (NCFAF) 2014: 2-9, 2015: 7-5 (L Pineapple Bowl), 2016: 1-0 (NCFAB) 2014-15: 10-8, 2015-16: 14-5 (SMC Champs, L 1st Round February Frenzy)

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Who's the last 5 star guy Illinois got from Chicago?

Dee Brown was from Maywood, but obviously didn't go to a CPS. Off the top of my head, I'd say Deon Thomas in the late 80s.

Adding to the upsets today, North Carolina lost to Belmont and the Mayor and Iowa State took down Michigan.

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Who's the last 5 star guy Illinois got from Chicago?

And when's the last time they won a national championship?

The point is you keep trying to do things to better your program, to take your program to new places.

John Groce shouldn't stop trying to get 5-stars out of Chicago because the last few coaches before him haven't be able to. Groce will get some.

In fact, I'm pretty sure that the next 5-star player that comes out of Simeon will be playing basketball at U of I. Groce came in too late to get Jabari. In these last couple classes, Simeon has had 4-star players, not 5-star, but they'll have a 5-star again before long, and I'd anticipate them winding up in Champaign. It's actually possible DJ Williams will get bumped to 5-stars, and it's also possible Charles Matthews may transfer to Simeon next year, making him even more likely to find his way to Illinois.

Other than the Chicago papers falling over themselves to make fun of Illinois in the headlines, going after Cliff Alexander didn't do John Groce ANY harm. It may have done some good, although not tangibly since they lost. Again, Groce isn't putting all his eggs in one basket, so there's no reason not to go big after the 5-stars as well.

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I'm looking at it more in terms of a cost/benefit standpoint. Don't get me wrong, the IU fan in me loves to see Illinois piss away valuable recruiting time and resources in quixotic attempts to land the very very very best players in Chicago and appease the stupid alumni donors by doing so. But there should be enough in-state talent available below that tier of player that could be molded into a championship contender with competent coaching. And by focusing in on the biggest fish you're potentially letting those guys slip away.

Yes, you won't convince the one-and-done lottery picks to come to Illinois, but by golly it shouldn't take much coaxing to get everyone else to come to Illinois and more importantly, stay for four years. Hell, since the tournament's such a crap shoot anyway you want as many chances as possible. But of course this won't happen because, again, the alumni donors are stupid.

On 8/1/2010 at 4:01 PM, winters in buffalo said:
You manage to balance agitation with just enough salient points to keep things interesting. Kind of a low-rent DG_Now.
On 1/2/2011 at 9:07 PM, Sodboy13 said:
Today, we are all otaku.

"The city of Peoria was once the site of the largest distillery in the world and later became the site for mass production of penicillin. So it is safe to assume that present-day Peorians are descended from syphilitic boozehounds."-Stephen Colbert

POTD: February 15, 2010, June 20, 2010

The Glorious Bloom State Penguins (NCFAF) 2014: 2-9, 2015: 7-5 (L Pineapple Bowl), 2016: 1-0 (NCFAB) 2014-15: 10-8, 2015-16: 14-5 (SMC Champs, L 1st Round February Frenzy)

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I'm looking at it more in terms of a cost/benefit standpoint. Don't get me wrong, the IU fan in me loves to see Illinois piss away valuable recruiting time and resources in quixotic attempts to land the very very very best players in Chicago and appease the stupid alumni donors by doing so. But there should be enough in-state talent available below that tier of player that could be molded into a championship contender with competent coaching. And by focusing in on the biggest fish you're potentially letting those guys slip away.

Yes, you won't convince the one-and-done lottery picks to come to Illinois, but by golly it shouldn't take much coaxing to get everyone else to come to Illinois and more importantly, stay for four years. Hell, since the tournament's such a crap shoot anyway you want as many chances as possible. But of course this won't happen because, again, the alumni donors are stupid.

But they didn't miss any of those four year guys by going after Alexander. They had already used all their open scholarships so it was Alexander or nothing. And they already have a commitment for next year from Chicago in that next tier. Bruce Weber isn't the coach anymore, Groce has made big strides with coaches from Chicago, and the best high school basketball program in the state loves Illinois. They're going to start getting the top kids and it'll be sooner rather than later.

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I'm giving them points just for trying something new and not obviously stupid. Whether it's good, I haven't decided yet. Whether it will work or not in practice, I obviously don't know.

I think the surest way to make it work is to not just hire national talent and tell them to focus on one of the participating teams. It would be to hire people close to the participating programs. The easiest thing to do would be to utilize the local teams radio broadcasts, though I know that's not a perfect situation, with some of the things that have to be tailored to a local market and sponsorships and such.

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I'm giving them points just for trying something new and not obviously stupid. Whether it's good, I haven't decided yet. Whether it will work or not in practice, I obviously don't know.

I think the surest way to make it work is to not just hire national talent and tell them to focus on one of the participating teams. It would be to hire people close to the participating programs. The easiest thing to do would be to utilize the local teams radio broadcasts, though I know that's not a perfect situation, with some of the things that have to be tailored to a local market and sponsorships and such.

There are so many guys (and a few gals) who work the conference games that they have spent enough time with them to know about a team, especially for a Power 7 Conference*.

Just look at the CBS/Turner TV announce list and the WestwoodOne radio announce list for 2013 to see there is a lot of experience by conference

*-I now say Power 7 since the American has Memphis, UConn and Louisville this season.

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Big Ten/ACC Challenge starts tonight. I've got the Big Ten winning 7-5 even with the ACC sitting out three teams at the bottom of their conference.

Indiana vs. Syracuse

Illinois vs. Georgia Tech

Penn State vs. Pittsburgh

Michigan vs. Duke

Notre Dame vs. Iowa

Florida State vs. Minnesota

Maryland vs. Ohio State

Wisconsin vs. Virginia

Northwestern vs. NC State

North Carolina vs. Michigan State

Boston College vs. Purdue

Miami vs. Nebraska

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