Illinois basketball fans

[wang4three]

It's been awhile since I've been this amped for incoming recruits.

[TheGame414]

It's been awhile since I've been this amped for incoming recruits.

Yep. Seven years, to be precise.

I don't think anyone is expecting them- D.J. and Brandon in particular, since those two are going to make an immediate impact- to be saviors, nor should they. But they represent a huge upgrade both athletically and skillwise and with the continued development of the juniors could allow us to get back to a more uptempo game, hopefully average 72-75 points a game.

Barring injuries or discipline/academic problems, there is no doubt we should be a markedly better team than last year.

[TheGame414]

Sounds like Chandler Whitmer impressed big-time at the Elite 11 camp.

Most Accurate award, and third overall in the MVP standings. We could have a Todd Reesing/Chase Daniel type on our hands here. With him, Charest and Scheelhaase, we're fairly stacked at QB going forward.

EDIT: forgot the link.

[IlliniFan]

Yeah, I've been looking for how he was doing and came across that. He's been getting great reviews all summer.

I was looking into why he didn't get in the latest rivals 250 and came across this.

From Illiniallstars in Champaign, Ill.: Why were Safety Corey Cooper and Defensive Tackle Bruce Gaston Jr. left out of the Rivals250? Also, what does Chandler Whitmer have to do to get into the Rivals250?

Hey Illiniallstars,

Here is your three-for-one response. Love the enthusiasm.

Corey will still be a four-star player. He was outside the Rivals250 for the last rankings release. There is not really any movement there. I would have liked to seen him separate himself from the pack of defensive backs at the Illinois NIKE camp. I don't think he did that. It was a talented group however.

Gaston is someone that we really are just beginning to learn about. He performed well at the Illinois NIKE camp. His film is pretty good. I think he is one of the better defensive tackles out there, and I think the best in the Midwest. But at this time, we will put him at a 5.7 three star. Not sure if he is an elite guy.

With Chandler, let me be frank. He needs to get stronger and grow two inches to be a four-star prospect. And Chandler would be the first one to tell you that. He is fun to watch in drills because is so fluid in his drops and his mechanics. He is very accurate, and has a good, but not great arm. He oozes leadership skills. Great kid, someone that people just want to be around. He could be that shorter quarterback that ends up being a Heisman candidate, like we saw from multiple players last college football season. I would never rule that out. But, when we have quarterbacks who are taller, have similar ability and as good or better arm strength, we have to go with them as the higher ranked prospects.

My bet is that Chandler will fare very well at the Elite 11. He deserves to be there.

http://footballrecruiting.rivals.com...asp?CID=967579

I think this is a couple days into the camp. I guess they give stars based on arm strength rather and height than overall ability.

[TheGame414]

I'm glad you brought up that up.

I originally posted this at Illinihq, so I guess I'll repost it here. It's a fairly lengthy rant that was something I first thought of when Chase Daniel was named national high school POY and was only a 3-star recruit according to Rivals and Scout and has always bugged me about how the recruiting services evaluate QBs. The fact that it's an Illinois recruit is, I swear to you, merely incidental because this annoys me to no end....

Chandler Whitmer apparently balled hard all week at the Elite 11 camp (granted, a way down year for QBs), winning the accuracy award and finishing third in the camp MVP tallying. There was a glowing report and a full-length story about him on ESPN.com. Any chance either Rivals or Scout considering him as a Top 100 player or even a 4-star?

Probably not.

Now, granted, that question was answered before the Elite 11, but they've already made up their mind on him. That dude acknowledges IN THE SAME F-CKING ANSWER IN WHICH HE RULES HIM OUT AS A FOUR-STAR RECRUIT THAT HE COULD BE A HEISMAN CANDIDATE, because he's a little on the short side. (And it isn't like he's tiny, he's over 6'.) Like that's ever stopped a college QB from being good. I'm not even going to bother starting a list. There's too many examples.

Hell, there are exceptions to the rule in the NFL. Drew Brees, for god's sake. Even Joe Montana was barely over 6' tall. He says they go with bigger players who have similar ability, which is fine on the surface. Except it's not really true. Sure, the Matt Staffords of the world should be ranked higher. Of course. But then you have a damn minefield of guys who are overrated because they look the part, and guys who are underrated because they don't.

If this was based in part on pro potential like with basketball rankings, that's one thing. But that's really not the case with the ranking of high school football players. They're 4-6 years away from the NFL when they're being evaluated as high schoolers.

Obviously the guys with obvious NFL potential like Seantrel Henderson will be highly-rated, as they should be, but so will the guys that you can already see when they're in high school would be tough NFL fits, like Terrelle Pryor.

This rant kind of only applies to QBs, but that's also kind of, y'know...the most important position in sports. As if we haven't learned time and again that accuracy, a quick mind and leadership ability- areas in which Whitmer reportedly shines- is more important than being 6'5" with a cannon. Especially when you can, in fact, make all the throws, like they say Whitmer can. You've got an extraordinarily flawed process when you can see guys like Chase Daniel and Todd Reesing be great college QBs, acknowledge that this kid could be exactly like that....and still wildly underrate him because he doesn't look exactly like you want him to.

[IlliniFan]

http://www.bigtennetwork.com/videos/...id=30857833001

Zook's Big Ten Media Day press conference video.

[TheGame414]

7-to-9.com

Website hyping Juice and Rejus for awards that the SID put together. Solid job.

[IlliniFan]

Dick Vitale has us at #10 in his early rankings. I think it's a bit high for us but what do I know.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/dickv...ory?id=4361336

[wang4three]

Dick has always been kind to us.. maybe too kind, but I'll take it. Even though these preseason rankings mean squat.

[TheGame414]

I was gonna laugh at the senile old man yesterday for not having us in his Top 40, since he'd only released 11-40 at the time.

10 does seem way too high. But it's nice to know, for what very little it's worth, that a supposedly objective/neutral national observer (objective neutral in that he doesn't cover a specific team or conference, no matter what biases we might- rightly- presume him to have) has that high of an opinion about Illinois.

[InspiredLebowski]

6 Big Ten teams in the top 33, 4 in the top 11? If the final rankings ended that way I think we'd all be pretty happy.

[TheGame414]

I would be, but I expect it to work out at least that well for the Big Ten this year. It should be the best conference in America, and frankly I think Dickie V is severly underrating Minnesota (but that's balanced out by a slight overrating of Michigan and Illinois, so whatever).

[InspiredLebowski]

I would be, but I expect it to work out at least that well for the Big Ten this year. It should be the best conference in America, and frankly I think Dickie V is severly underrating Minnesota (but that's balanced out by a slight overrating of Michigan and Illinois, so whatever).

I agree, I think Sota's a wire to wire top 25 team (at least should be). The amount of quality coaching the B11's acquired in the last 5 years or so is ridiculous, I really don't see how anyone could argue a better coached conference with a straight face. Imagine that group in a coastal/warm climate, or Kentucky. Only thing I dislike is the persistent overrating of Michigan, they're good, but not a top 15 team at any point IMO.

[TheGame414]

Too many people place too much emphasis on the previous year's tourney performance. I don't think Michigan State's a Top 5 team because they went to the title game. Kansas could've made a couple more plays and knocked them off in the Sweet 16 and I still think Michigan State is a Top 5 team this year because they have tremendous depth and athleticism at every position except center.

So I guess people are high on Michigan because they had a strong showing against Clemson and Oklahoma, and not as high on Minnesota because they weren't so great against Texas.

[IlliniFan]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HkuPCjYyQo

We have a freshman cornerback named Walt Aikens from North Carolina who is probably a better dunker than anyone we have on the team and we have some very athletic players on the bball team this year. Watch that video of Aikens throw some RIDICULOUS dunk down in games. I want to see this kind of player on the basketball team! I've seen highlights of all our bball recruits, but none of them throw down like this kid.