things are not good in Evanston ...
- Thread starter Max_Power
- Start date
Yup, Despite all the drama today, we will ultimately be fine. We have people in charge who know what they're doing, and I have confidence in them. The tenor of this board reminds me a lot of the football board after back to back 5-7 seasons. We know what happened after that.
It could be worse...about a month ago, there were rumblings of a player mutiny at Cleveland State where players were going to transfer unless Dennis Felton was fired. Four players left, including All Conference PG, Tyree Appleby, they went ahead and fired Dennis Felton, and his entire coaching staff...and players kept leaving, including SG, Rasheem Dunn, who never even played a game at CSU (sat out last year as a transfer). With the announcement today that sophomore wing Dibaji Walker has entered the transfer portal, Cleveland State presently has 3...yes 3 players presently on the roster.
12 players have left the program in the last month and a half...that is a transfer depleted roster!
12 players have left the program in the last month and a half...that is a transfer depleted roster!
So NU is now relegated to Cleveland State comparisons to fell ok about how things are going?
I personally like CCC, but the sun hasn’t hit his *** in quite awhile. Hopefully, the law of averages will eventually swing his way.
It will. This is a blow, but there are months left to recover. Half the conference doesn’t have a commit and most recruits haven’t started taking official visits yet.
And besides, it sucks when a recruit flips... but what is worse: landing a guy and having to deal with fending over programs off (and occasionally seeing one get picked off) or filling up on guys that nobody else has much interest in? NU needs way more talent, and I do think Collins is doing the right thing by getting guys who can compete in the Big Ten, even if it means he’s gonna see a few of them get scooped by better programs. (Although obviously keeping them around matters, too. Hard to stack classes and build a roster if you have high attrition.)
That said, I do think he will do himself a lot of favors by rebounding quickly. If 2019-2020 is a tough year, he will have more equity to play with if he’s got a decent class incoming.
A lot of people seem to feel like the sky is falling over Welsh-Ryan Arena...I was simply providing an example of what it actually looks like when the sky is falling, and it just happens to be over Goodman Arena.
It isn’t like Joe Bam flipped 3 weeks before he was going to report to campus, the staff has time to fill out the 2020 class.
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Out of curiosity, what do you consider "fine"? Think we'll make the NCAA Tournament within the next four years? Because I'm not so sure anymore.
Absolutely. We will make it in 2021-22 if the current recruiting trend continues, if not sooner.When you are constantly recruiting top-100 guys, you are going to have decommitts-- it is a fact of life, they are so in demand and are going to be pursued heavily.
Look at our current 2020 offers. There are only two guys that are NOT top-100, and one of those is 139. We've had two consecutive classes (18 and 19) where our average 247 recruit rating was above .90. Miles ahead of what we have done before...
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Right well, I guess we are better than Cleveland State. Are there any other programs that we might be better off than in the universe of organized basketball?
In terms of scholarships quite a few, actually; with this new paradigm of grad transfers and other players transferring in bunches, a lot of teams are quite short now. Heck, even Illinois, who is supposed to contend in the BIG this year supposedly, has just one less schollie open than us, and their 10th and 11th slots are filled by a project from a private school in NY with no other offers, and a Belgian player they took sight unseen; I'll bet even our lacrosse player outperforms those two...
The program returned to making the postseason every year, as it had done in the five previous years before 2013, under the same coach?
Not what I was saying. But, of course, you knew that, But I would not be surprised that their lack of depth comes back to haunt them.
Yes. But, judging from the posts at that time (except for a few rational posters such as myself), we were doomed
And, if our current recruiting trend holds, you'll be getting them In bunches. Patience.
Oh Mikey, you’re on a roll tonight! I did want to point out that nobody rational has suggested Illinois will be good enough to contend in the B1G; I believe most expect they’ll play themselves into the tournament field but be in the second tier of the conference this year behind MSU, MD, OSU. (Of course, as obsessed as you are with Illinois, I’m sure you’re aware of this too. You’re just manipulating the reality to better serve your argument.)
Night night Mikey, don’t get too wound up telling everyone that all is well. It’s a long offseason, you might not want to shoot your entire load in one evening.
No one is saying they will contend in the BIG? Guess you haven't read the Loyalty board lately-- they've been discussing Sweet 16!
Haha you must’ve missed the part where I said nobody rational is saying they’ll contend for a conference title. Every fan board has irrational fans (Exhibit A: Miley Webb).
But to be fair to the denizens of Loyalty, a sweet sixteen appearance wouldn’t necessarily imply that a team finished in the top tier of the B1G during the regular season.
Have a good day, Mikey.
And the posts move again. BC 2.0, the college basketball version of the Cubs. Minus the lovable part.
What's our current recruiting trend? We don't have any recruits. Our current recruiting trend is to miss out on all our top targets except for one, who then eventually decommits.
This is a monumentally important year for CCC. I don't expect a lot of wins, but we better see outstanding improvement from the two big sophomore recruits and that at least one of the freshmen look like a future star. I was very nonplussed with our hyped recruiting class last year as freshmen. That has to change or else I don't see the CCC era lasting much longer.
Uh, there is no 2020 trend until there is actually a 2020 class; that's how trends work. It is extremely early in the cycle; Bam signing was the exception, not the rule, for a player of his caliber. And though I agree that this is an important year for momentum purposes, as long as we win more BIG games, which I believe we will; we will be once again trending in the right direction from a wins and losses standpoint, and that's all that matters.It is NOT and important year otherwise as long as the talent development is there to supplement the vastly improved recruiting.
Cool, our average 247 recruit is above .90, unfortunately there are 9 other Big Ten teams in 2018, and 10 other Big Ten teams in 2019, that are above .90 as well and ahead of us.
Definitely better than we have done before, but how are we gonna pass these other 9 or 10 teams on the actual court and win enough games to make the tourney in 21-22?
Yup, just like football. Amazing that people don't learn the lessons from that!
Best record in program coaching history Fitz? Not good enough, we need a Bowl win!
Bowl win? Not good enough Fitz, we need a number of them in a row!
5-7 Fitz? Seriously? FIRE Fitz!
Multiple bowl wins in a row? Not good enough Fitz, we need a division title!
Division Title? Not good enough Fitz, we need a BIG championship?
And once we win that, there will be the predictable:
Not good enough Fitz, how about a College Football Playoff?
The CC cycle is just rinse-repeat for these posters, imo.
Same way we've done in football. Think about it, we made the Dance without having recruiting numbers anywhere near this level. (our 2014 class, which contained all the key players in our NCAA run, was, by comparison, a .8664 class, an absolutely cavernous gap from our current recruiting level). That must mean we coach and develop talent extremely well
I think you’re already forgetting that amazing 4 win conference season in Carmody’s last year. He was fired. Let it go.
The Belgian player is really good. He is on campus and has done very well in practices leading up to Italy trip. I watched him last week. Handles the ball, good passer, and can really shoot it. 40% three point shooter on longer three point line last year in Europe. He is 6-8 and played on the Belgian junior national team. He was not really sight unseen as scouts in Europe recommended him to Underwood and plenty of video is available.
Kouma is a project big who had 29 points and 17 rebounds against Khalil Whitney and his highly ranked prep school. 6-10 and recent to the USA from Africa.
I’m sure you would have said similar things last year about the unranked big Illinois took who averaged about 8 points on his prep team as a recent arrival from Eastern Europe. You know: Giorgi? Is your lacrosse player better than him? Actually, is anyone on your team better than him? Answer is no, by the way.
Tell me about your lacrosse player’s basketball background.
By the way, I don’t expect Illinois to contend this year. Hope for first division and NCAA tournament. That would be a nice bump.
Maybe. Who do you or any of our other recruit watchers think NU may target? Who's out there?
I think NU needs to uncover non-tradional sources to supplement their roster. This could be the overseas route. NU isn’t getting CPS kids coming for a number of reasons.
I have no idea if this Belgian kid is the real deal or not. However, it is a risk probably worth taking as filling a class with top level recruits hasn’t been An Illini forte recently. They lack depth, so the chance seems reasonable. If he doesn’t work out, he’ll go back to Europe next year. A one year experiment for depth, just like a LaCrosse player.
BTW, the Giorgi signing was nearly universally frowned upon by your own fans last year. Underwood was taking all kinds of heat for reaching on the kid. Let’s not get puffy chested like all of us Illini followers were on Giorgi bandwagon before he stepped on campus.
i still think NU is in a position to have a strong class. it will always be skewed now because of a kid like bam leaving. he could have been a program changer.
there are multiple visits scheduled for august for kids we would be very excited for to be at NU if bam was never committed. just because we're not hearing about them doesn't mean they are not happening.
there are multiple visits scheduled for august for kids we would be very excited for to be at NU if bam was never committed. just because we're not hearing about them doesn't mean they are not happening.
I’d go international. Tons of talent out there, way less competition. The trick is staffing up with assistants with lots of international connections. Most from Western, first world countries have good academics. It can be a little tricky bc they often have late graduation dates so they can’t often enroll until after the summer session before their freshman year.