By Roy & Harv Schmidt

While the class of 2009 has shown significant improvement in comparison with where it was a year ago, we have long said that it lacks a true headliner. There is no player in this class who can immediately stop traffic in a crowded room-- no one who can make you turn your head and immediately take notice. At the same time, the competition for the #1 spot in 2009 is fierce right now, with several players capable of laying claim to being tops in the class when it is all said and done.

When it comes to basketball recruiting, the strength of a class is usually built on depth and star power at the top. The argument can be made that most all of the recent classes in Illinois were headlined by a marquee player. The class of 2004 had one in Shaun Livingston, while the class of 2005 had Julian Wright, the 2006 class had Jon Scheyer, and the class of 2007 had Derrick Rose. Livingston is already in the NBA, and it is a pretty safe assumption that ultimately Wright, Scheyer and Rose will all be there as well. Right now we are not aware of anyone who is saying that there is a can't miss prospect in Illinois out of the class of 2009.

There is no question that the 2009 class is extremely deep at the guard position, with hardly any gap between any of them as far as talent level goes. However, the class lacks true post players, with the top post prospect in the class being 6'8 Jordan Prosser from Eureka High School. With all of this being said, we believe that any of the top six or seven guards in this class are capable of emerging as the #1 player in the class when it is all over. Among the players that we would include in this group are 6'2 Marcus Jordan and 6'2 Chris Colvin, both from Whitney Young High School in Chicago, 6'3 D.J. Richardson from Peoria Central High School in Peoria, 6'2 Darius Smith from Marshall High School in Chicago, 6'3 Diamond Taylor from St. Joseph High School in Westchester, 6'4 Joe Bertrand from Sterling High School in Sterling, and 6'3 Brandon Paul from Warren Township High School in Gurnee.

Jordan possesses the best physical tools of any guard in the 2009 class. He has tremendous upper body strength, which he combines with outstanding speed and athleticism. We are amazed that at the present time Jordan has not yet attracted a scholarship offer from a high major D1 program. However, Jordan lacks the consistency which would warrant him being labeled as a marquee player. Colvin, Jordan's high school and AAU teammate, may have had the most productive summer of any player in the class and showed us at both the NIKE Peach Jam in North Augusta, SC and the 17-Under National AAU Championships in Orlando, FL that he is capable of playing either guard spot effectively.

Richardson was absolutely spectacular when we watched him recently at the Illinois Spot-Lite Fall Shootout. Simply put, it may have been the best that we have ever seen him play. When he plays with the fire and aggressiveness with which we saw at that event, there is no doubt in our mind that Richardson is the best player in the class. The down side is that he does not do this all the time, which is why we still cannot say that Richardson is a clearcut #1.

Smith did not play on the AAU circuit this spring or summer, but we are well aware of what he can do from watching him with his high school team. He is a leader on the floor, one of the best lockdown defenders in the state and has the ability to bring out the best in his teammates. Yet, we have to ask the following question: Who was the last 6'2 guard to be ranked as the #1 player in his class despite lacking big-time scoring ability (as Smith does)? We honestly don't remember!

No player has shown more steady improvement over the course of a year than Taylor. He turned in especially strong performances with his Illinois Wolves AAU team during the spring, which explains why several high major schools have been flocking to gyms to see Taylor play. Having only played sparingly on St. Joseph's varsity squad last season, it goes without saying that Taylor will be the main cog in the wheel for Charger head coach Gene Pingatore once the 2007-08 season rolls around. Taylor has proven that he can get it done in an AAU setting; we now want to see him do the same with his high school team before we go any further.

Bertrand is a great athlete who knows how to attack the basket and is particuarly effective in the open court. While his mid-range game is most solid, we would now like to see him become a more consistent perimeter shooter and continue to work on improving his ballhandling in order to take the next step. Paul remains the mystery man in the class for us, as we admittedly did not get a good look at him during the summer and he still has yet to play a varsity game at Warren. However, several other sources have reported on how he "blew up" in front of several college coaches at prominent events during July. As a result, Paul has received scholarship offers from Illinois, Northwestern, Loyola, and Wisconsin-Green Bay and is being heavily pursued by a number of others, all of which is indicative of a player who is capable of becoming the top player in his class.

So there you have it--a breakdown of all of the top players in Illinois from the class of 2009 who are capable of laying claim to being #1 at the end. The bottom line is that right now the race for the top spot is wide open. With that being said, we are most anxious to see how the 2007-08 high school basketball season in Illinois plays out in regards to the 2009 class.

FOLLOWUP:

We recently received an e-mail from a Chicago Public League coach who wanted to let us know that not all of the coaches in the Public League are portraying the hiring of Jerrance Howard as the new assistant coach at the University of Illinois with the negative sentiment and pessimestic outlook that has been indicated in other circles. With that being said, we would like to make it clear that when we wrote our blog offering our thoughts on the Howard hire it was certainly not our intent to make it sound like the skepticism that was offered by a few Public League coaches over Illinois' hiring of Howard is representative of how all Public League coaches feel. We are well aware that there is only a segment of Public League coaches who are speaking about Howard and Illinois in a negative fashion, while a number of other coaches and prominent figures in the Public League are supportive of the decision and willing to give Howard a fair shake.

Posted by Roy & Harv Schmidt at 10:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

By Roy & Harv Schmidt

It seems as though everyone in the state of Illinois has an opinion on the recent hiring of Jerrance Howard as the new assistant basketball coach at Illinois. With that being said, now is the time for us to offer our thoughts. Let's just say that they don't coincide with what appears to be the prevailing attitude throughout Chicago.

First of all, we are well aware of the sentiment that exists throughout the Chicago Public League when it comes to how they perceive recruiting at the University of Illinois. There is no question that they feel that they have been disrespected and on the short end of the stick ever since Bruce Weber arrived in Champaign. While they are certainly entitled to their opinion, that doesn't make it right.

Anyway, this blog is about Jerrance Howard, so hopefully everything that follows will be geared toward that subject. We begin with the laughable comments from Chicago Public League coaches saying that they don't even know who Howard is. Are you kidding us? If this is true, then it is obvious that these coaches don't follow Illinois high school basketball too closely, as Howard played on some outstanding teams at Peoria Central and while he may not have been a household name during his four years at Illinois, he was regarded by everyone who follows Illini basketball as one of their most dynamic and charismatic personalities. Therefore, to say that you don't know who Howard is must mean that you have been living in a cave.

As we could have predicted, Public League coaches are already knocking the Howard hire on the grounds that he is not a "Chicago guy" and doesn't know the Chicago way. While Howard is not a Chicago native, to make this argument sound to us like a classic case of putting the cart before the horse.

Now for our thoughts on the hire. Is Jerrance Howard the perfect hire or even the right hire? Our response to that is how can anyone realistically answer that question? It is simply way too early to tell. What we do know is that if Howard doesn't succeed as a recruiter at Illinois, it won't be from lack of enthusiasm or lack of effort.

Simply put, Howard has a passion for Illini basketball that might unequal any of his predecessors. He bleeds Orange and Blue, which is more important than most people can even begin to realize. He knows how to relate to recruits and knows how to speak their language. What this means is that Howard arrives in Champaign already having a knowledge of how to sell Illini basketball to prospective recruits.

We know that detractors will counter this argument by saying that Howard has absolutely no experience as a recruiter. Our response to that is how do you define experience? Granted, Howard has never been out on the road recruiting. However, for the past three years he has learned under one of the best recruiters in college basketball in Billy Gillispie and we are willing to bet that during that time Howard has picked up on more than a few tricks of the trade.

Furthermore, we can't emphasize enough how important it is that Howard has the endorsement of two of the most prominent AAU coaches in the Chicago area in Larry Butler with the Illinois Warriors and Mike Mullins with the Illinois Wolves. It is amusing that Public League coaches are saying that Butler doesn't have any pull in Chicago. Once again, are you kidding us? Have they checked any of Butler's recent Warriors rosters? Two of his best players in recent memory, Sherron Collins and Brandon McGee, both hailed from the Public League, as does one of his current players, that being Stan Simpson from Simeon. If that isn't pull, we don't know what is!

As for Mullins, has everyone forgotten that he coaches two of the top in-state prospects in the class of 2009 in Diamond Taylor from St. Joseph and Joe Bertrand from Sterling, who are both strong Illini recruiting targets? The fact that Mullins is speaking favorably about Howard can only be an added bonus when it comes to this situation.

Now let's get back to the issue of experience as it pertains to Howard. We have always felt that experience is overrated as it relates to a coach's recruiting ability. What is even more important is energy, passion and enthusiasm, all of which Howard possesses. Not only that, but if Public League coaches are going to use the experience argument as a means of alienating Howard, it simply doesn't hold water, particularly when reading the list of candidates that they were lobbying for. The bottom line is that with maybe one or two exceptions, none of them have any more experience than Howard and certainly don't know all of the ropes when it comes to recruiting.

Make no mistake about it--there is no question that Chicago will always be an important recruiting battleground for the University of Illinois when it comes to basketball recruiting. At the same time, who do these Public League coaches think they are to automatically assume that Illini recruiting has to begin and end with Chicago? Up until now, we have long thought that the Public League is an absolute recruiting necessity for Illinois and it probably still is. However, in light of the way Public League coaches continue to talk, we are now wondering if perhaps the downstate people are right when they say that Bruce Weber should simply cut off all ties with Chicago and concentrate primarily on trying to land top-tier recruits nationally with the hope that he could consistently win by doing so.

It seems to us that the Public League coaches are trying to chastize Howard before they even get an opportunity to meet him. We find it ironic that these coaches constantly stress the importance of having "one of their own" as an assistant coach at Illinois when it was long thought that they had just the guy in that regard in Tracy Webster. After all, Webster had developed a reputation (and one that was rightfully earned) throughout the Public League as being someone who players and coaches could relate to and someone who would be able to reestablish a recruiting pipeline between the University of Illinois and the Public League. Nevertheless, through no fault of Webster's own, this still wasn't enough to sway a single Public League recruit to Illinois during his tenure there. That is why we are firmly convinced that at this point it doesn't matter who the assistant coach at Illinois is, as it will never change the existing mindset of most Public League coaches. Therefore, we must ask why Bruce Weber doesn't have the right to hire an assistant who brings more to the table then just the ability to recruit Chicago.

In conclusion, we continue to be amazed at how much scrutiny the University of Illinois continues to receive for its recruiting inefficiency in Chicago, when the truth is there are some other prominent college basketball programs in the Midwest who have been shut out on Chicago recruits as well, some of whom (unlike Illinois) haven't even made the Public League that big of a recruiting priority. Yet you never hear about that from anyone around the Windy City.

The bottom line is that more than anything else, Jerrance Howard deserves to be given a chance. He has earned the right to prove himself both as a coach and a recruiter, not only to coaches in the Chicago Public League, but to everyone in college basketball.

Posted by Roy & Harv Schmidt at 01:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (13) | TrackBacks (0)

By Roy & Harv Schmidt

It was a huge recruiting weekend at Northwestern University, as the Wildcats had four in-state prospects from the class of 2009 on campus for unofficial visits. When it was said and done, two of them came away with scholarship offers.

Extremely reliable sources have informed Illinois Prep Bulls-eye that Northwestern University offered scholarships this weekend to both 6'3 Brandon Paul from Warren Township High School in Gurnee, IL and 7'0 Kyle Rowley from Lake Forest Academy in Lake Forest, IL. The offers were made yesterday while both players were taking unofficial visits to the Evanston campus, which included watching Northwestern's football game vs. Duke.

The offer from Northwestern brings Paul's scholarship count to four, as he has also been offered by Illinois, Loyola-Chicago, and Wisconsin-Green Bay. In addition, a number of other schools continue to recruit Paul hard and could offer at any time, including Iowa, Purdue, Southern Illinois, USC and Xavier just to name a few. Rowley now has a total of three offers, as he has also been offered by Baylor and Southern Illinois in addition to the Wildcats.

Besides Paul and Rowley, Northwestern head coach Bill Carmody and his coaching staff also had 6'5 Cortney Bell from Lincoln Park High School in Chicago and 6'8 Jack Cooley from Glenbrook South High School in Glenview, IL on campus for unofficial visits this weekend. While neither Bell nor Cooley have received offers from Northwestern as of yet, they both remain high recruiting priorities.

Carmody and his assistants have been absolutely relentless on the recruiting trail and are well positioned with many of the top in-state prospects from the class of 2009. They also had 6'8 forward Jordan Prosser from Eureka High School in Eureka, IL on campus recently.

Posted by Roy & Harv Schmidt at 03:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

By Roy & Harv Schmidt

As first predicted by Illinois Prep Bulls-eye in our most recent recruiting blurbs from this past Friday, Luke Fabrizius, the 6'8 forward from Hersey High School in Arlington Heights, IL, has verbally committed to the University of Dayton. Fabrizius reached his decision while on an official visit to the Dayton campus this past weekend.

Prior to taking his visit to Dayton, Fabrizius had announced this past week that he was down to two schools, those being the Flyers and Northwestern. However, after obtaining information from most reliable sources, we knew that Fabrizius would not be going to Northwestern. Therefore, the commitment to Dayton was pretty much inevitable.

Fabrizius enjoyed an outstanding official visit to Dayton and cited the fact that he feels most comfortable with the coaching staff, the surroundings and the players at Dayton.

There is no question that Fabrizius gives Flyer head coach Brian Gregory a superb shooting big man who can face up and knock down 3-point field goals with regularity. While outstanding shooters are always at a premium in college basketball, it is even more of an added bonus when the player has the size of someone like Fabrizius.

Fabrizius competes on the AAU circuit with the Illinois Warriors and the fact that Gregory enjoys a strong relationship with Warrior head coach Larry Butler also played into Dayton's favor with respect to landing Fabrizius. This is evidenced by the fact that another player who played his AAU ball with the Warriors, 6'2 guard Philip "Mickey" Perry, is also on the Dayton roster.

Posted by Roy & Harv Schmidt at 08:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

By Roy & Harv Schmidt

While campus visits are unquestionably important in the recruiting process, history has shown that in-home visits can often prove to be the difference when it comes to getting a player to commit.

Home visits with prospective high school basketball recruits will occur throughout the month of September and often offer a college head coach a final attempt to make his sales pitch to the recruit, his family and significant others.

Unlike campus visits, which are often much more informal, home visits tend to be more personalized in nature. Again, the college coach is trying to sell everything about his basketball program and the university to the recruit and his family. As opposed to campus visits, there is more one-on-one communication during a home visit. Thus, it allows recruits, their parents and anyone else who may be influential in the recruiting process an opportunity to ask pertinent questions centering around why that particular school stands out in comparison with others. How the coach's presentation is received can often dictate whether that school ends up receiving a commitment or whether they end up looking elsewhere.

Anyone looking for an example of how important home visits are should only need to remember how Julian Wright's recruitment went down. Wright committed to the University of Kansas during an in-home visit with head coach Bill Self despite the fact that he never visited the Lawrence, KS campus in any capacity. Furthermore, up until that time it appeared as if Wright's relationship with Kansas was on rocky ground, as he had previously not even mentioned the Jayhawks being among his final three schools. However, within the course of three hours, Self was able to sweep both Wright and his mother Gina off their feet. The result? Self left Wright's home that evening with a commitment in place.

We aren't saying that any college coach is going to visit a recruit's home this month and pull off what Self did three years ago with Wright. However, we are saying that home visits are indeed an important part of the recruiting process, and with that in mind there are a number of them that we will be paying close attention to before the month ends.

Posted by Roy & Harv Schmidt at 09:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)