COLUMN: Illini Fans Need to Stop Caring Where Recruits Are Born
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- One of the most confounding and frustrating arguments of Illini fans nearly raised its ugly, homogenetic head this week.
And there’s no nice way to put this: it needs to stop now.
Upon announcing the signing of four-star point guard Andre Curbelo, who was described by Illinois head coach Brad Underwood as “the best passing guard in the country” and compared him to former NBA most valuable player award winner Steve Nash, the Illini fourth-year head coach was asked Wednesday a historically familiar question.
Underwood was asked if when he was hired, on March 18, 2017, if he knew he wanted to recruit players from all over the country instead of just focusing on in-state talent. Now, it should be noted I know the talented reporter who asked Underwood this question and I couldn’t be firm of the belief that the reason the question was asked was to quell this ignorant Illini fan argument: “Why isn’t Underwood recruiting more Illinois kids?”
This was Underwood’s answer: “I don’t think there’s been a plan to do that. I think it has been need-based and you go where you have connections. We’ve got a very diverse staff with a lot of different ties all around the world. That connection just happens to have this young man in Long Island, New York.”
While I applaud the Illini’s third-year head coach in being diplomatic with his answer, I’d like to offer my services on how this kind of question should be answered from now on.
Question: Why are you recruiting another player from outside the state of Illinois?
The correct answer: “Why in the blue hell does it matter where he’s from?
Here’s a reality for Illini fans to get used to in future years. This Illinois men’s basketball roster being put together by Underwood and specifically lead assistant coach Orlando Antigua will perfectly represent the university image. The current starting five has a player born in Chicago (Ayo Dosunmu), Florida (Trent Frazier) and three international players from Dominican Republic (Andres Feliz), Jamaica (Kofi Cockburn) and Georgia. The bench has players born in Ohio (Kipper Nichols), New York, (Alan Griffin) Belgium (Benjamin Bosmans-Verdonk) and Peoria, Illinois (Da'Monte Williams)
Here’s another reality: Illinois will be signing a 6-foot-10 stretch forward named Coleman Hawkins tomorrow and he’s from Antelope, Calif. Hawkins’ Prolific Prep team will be playing in Champaign this weekend. So, during the 2020 early signing period, Underwood will bring in two players whose hometowns are 2,857 miles apart but eagerly want to be at Illinois. What’s the problem again?
And last I checked, those players have volunteered to wear a jersey that has “Illinois” or “Fighting Illini” on the front and in doing so, represent their university to the best of their ability. In turn, they’re more than effectively representing their background, heritage, and hometown with the name on the back.
The University of Illinois announced this past September that a freshman enrollment of 7,665 was the most diverse in the history of the university. The freshman enrollment includes students from 43 states and 949 international students hailing from 40 different countries. University officials constantly regurgitate its commitment to diversity in its student body and rightfully so. Therefore, why wouldn’t Underwood and his staff do his part to promote such an image as well?
Try telling Andres Feliz, who grew up in literally nothing but poverty in the Dominican Republic that he’ll likely give a lesser effort than a player born and raised inside the Illinois state lines. Why isn’t it a point of pride for Illini fans that Kofi Cockburn and Giorgi Bezhanishvili couldn’t be more happy to promote Illinois athletics? Try telling Antigua, one of the highest-paid assistant coaches in the Big Ten Conference, to not use his recruiting connections in the Caribbean nations and around the country to find talent just like he did for John Calipari at Kentucky.
Feel free to tell Underwood, Antigua and the rest of the Illinois staff to spend the majority of their time properly inflating and greasing the massive egos of Illinois high school and AAU coaches. For the record, they’re doing that too. You’ll likely see that too when four-star Morgan Park guard Adam Miller, who was born in Peoria, selects his college destination.
Would Illinois be better served for Underwood turning away players like Curbelo, the sixth four-star recruit he’s signed since accepting the Illinois job, for an in-state player? In fact, we all know the answer to that last question is no. John Groce and Bruce Weber had a majority of their recruiting talent from inside the state. In an eight-year period from 2009-10 to 2016-17, Illinois produced a 62-82 record in league games, two NCAA Tournament berths and wins and no season with more than 23 overall wins. All of those rosters were made up of a majority of Illinois born student-athletes and I’m sure there’s no doubt Illini fans were the opposite of pleased with the men’s basketball program. Groce and Weber were consumed by the pressure to recruit a majority of Illinois players. And they were promptly fired for not winning enough.
Which brings me to the final angle of this infuriating point and it goes a little bit like this: Illinois native playing at another school puts up a massive amount of points and is in a national highlight package of a school winning a big game so, why, of course, didn’t Illinois get that kid?
Just watch and see it happen this year when Ohio State’s E.J. Liddell, the pride of Belleville, Illinois, goes for a double-double. Or God forbid Mark Smith or Jeremiah Tilmon have big, productive games for Missouri.
It’s nothing more than a convenient argument when your team isn’t winning. And there’s the rub. Do you know when Illinois fans get mad about the in-state talent (whether it’s Anthony Davis, Jalen Brunson, Cliff Alexander, Jahil Okafor, Jabari Parker or any other in-state McDonald’s All-American since 2004) filling up box scores at other schools? When Illinois isn’t winning big.
I can tell you what the response of Calipari or Mike Krzyzewski when the best in-state talent goes elsewhere and it sounds a little like this: We’re happy for them but honestly, we don’t care.
The most successful Illinois men’s basketball season was the 2004-05 squad. Sorry Stephen Bardo, but it’s true. The best player on that team was from The Colony, Texas and his name was Deron Williams. How do I know this? He’s the highest-drafted Illinois player of all time (taken third overall in 2005) so professional basketball people looked at that Illinois team and said he’s the premier talent. Yes, the other four starters on that Illini squad were from Illinois and their contributions were significant but what does it say when Williams was the one with the ball in his hands the most. That’s the same Deron Williams who is proud to have his jersey hanging in the State Farm Center, is in the newly-formed U of I Athletics Hall of Fame and was happy to return to campus as recently as Jan. 2018 to be honored at a game.
Deron Williams is a proud alum of the Illinois basketball program in the same way that Kofi Cockburn, Giorgi Bezhanishvili, Andres Feliz and Andre Curbelo will be remembered as Illinois players. If they help turn around a sleeping basketball giant, where they were born 17-18 years before they signed should be as irrelevant to Illini fans 17-18 years after they leave.