Illinois basketball fans

[IlliniFan]

Wow. Dunnigan and Shumpert are both 5 star recruits now according to Scout.com. Dunnigan is the 5th center in the rankings and Shumpert is 4th in the SG rankings. Now there's about 5 more schools on each of these guys' lists. If we can land these guys that would be great.

[wang4three]

I just graduated from UI over the weekend.. Strange feeling knowing I won't be there anytime in the forseeable future.

[IlliniFan]

I just graduated from UI over the weekend.. Strange feeling knowing I won't be there anytime in the forseeable future.

Congrats man. What did you major in? Do you already have a job elsewhere?

[wang4three]

Thanks IF. I graduated in East Asian Language and Culture/Business Administration, and I do not have a job lined up. For atleast the next three months I'll be traveling and plan to take care of the life stuff when I get back.

[wang4three]

bump.

[TheGame414]

There was a feature in the News-Gazette yesterday about Matt Humphrey. He and Michael Dunigan are apparently fairly serious about wanting to go to college together, and Illinois is the school recruiting both of them, combined, the most.

[wang4three]

If they're as good as touted to be, I say give them both the scholarship. Rather take the sure bet instead of waiting on Suggs, Miller, Shumpert, Liggins. It's still a good to great recruiting class. Or do we still have a third available? Did CJ take the football scholarship?

[TheGame414]

C.J. hasn't decided yet, but I'm betting he ends up with football. I think the ball is probably in Zook's hands at this point as far as that goes. C.J. is probably ready to go for football, but Zook is very, very careful with his scholarships, and wants to make sure C.J. is worth one. He was a big-time footballl prospect out of high school, but he hasn't played the sport for nearly three years.

[IlliniFan]

According to scout.com we have already offered 6 kids scholarships. Matthew Humphrey, Scott Suggs, DeAndre Liggins, Darius Miller, Michael Dunnigan, and Iman Shumpert. How many do we have?

[TheGame414]

We've probably offered even more than that. Weber has changed his recruiting philosophy; instead of holding out for the Derrick Rose or the Sherron Collins and missing out on a really good, but maybe not great, player who was a backup plan (Alex Tyus and Armon Basset come to mind, among others), he's pretty much offering every really good prospect that's interested, and it's first-come, first serve.

Of course, the 2008 class doesn't have any big-time megastars in the state of Illinois like a Rose, Scheyer or Collins- some excellent players, but no Top 10 types- so that may be why.

According to the N-G's Paul Klee, who covered the Illinois Shootout on Sunday, Illinois appears to be in excellent shape with Dunigan, Humphrey and Suggs. He made it clear that it wasn't a prediction we'd get all of them, but we're in good shape with them, and the parents of all of them really like Illinois.

[wang4three]

I like the first come first serve policy, because it puts pressure on the recruits to commit early if they want to come here instead wavering around and that makes us look like fools.

I hope CJ gets the football scholarship and takes it. I know basketball is his first passion and it sucks to let go of that, but I mean at some point you gotta do what you have to do. If he was such a high recruit in high school, he might be able to find a profession out of it, whether it be a player or eventual coaching job.

I only seen Shumpert, Liggins play, but what I read from Humphrey and Dunigan is equally impressive. If we get them coupled with Suggs, who everyone seems to have nothing but raves for, I'll be very excited.

I just want somebody to commit!

[TheGame414]

I just want a strong '08 class and '09 class leading into what should be a monster '10 class, headlining Jereme Richmond.

Perfect world:

'08: Dunigan, Suggs/Shumpert/Liggins/Miller, Humphrey (we REALLY need a big-time outside shooter, that's why I separate him from the swingmen/combo-guard types, that, and him and Dunigan want to play together)

'09: Joseph Bertrand (think Pierre Pierce, but makes more than 54% of his free throws and doesn't rape women; plus, he may be the most highly-touted athlete from Sterling High School to go to Illinois since my dad came here in the 1970's, so that'd be kind of cool) and Tyler Griffey

'10: Richmond, McCamey, Head

[wang4three]

What are your thoughts on DJ Richardson? He seems to be high on Illinois' radar.

[TheGame414]

I've seen him play once. He scored only 13 points, and 10 of them were in about a stretch of 1:15 or so. He was being defended by Lewis Jackson pretty well, though, and he had very little help.

The talent's definitely there but there's a lot of people that follow Peoria basketball that think he's overrated. Again, I've only seen him play once so I can't really refute that or agree with it. Right now, it's hard to say if any of Richardson, Marcus Jordan, Joseph Bertrand, Dmitri Riggs or anyone else will separate themselves from the pack in the '09 class, but those are the four names that come up the most.

Anyway, Shumpert is on a visit to Illinois this weekend. He said he has a really good impression of Illinois right now, and reiterated how the schools that recruited him early are the ones he's likely to look at closest. This is just an educated guess, but it looks to me like it'll come down to Clemson, Georgia Tech, Illinois, and possibly Marquette.

Shumpert visits Illinois

More on Shumpert

[TheGame414]

Pruitt officially withdraws from draft

Good news. I was starting to get a little worried. Not a lot, but enough that I was gonna be a little antsy about this going into tomorrow had I not read this tonight.