By Roy & Harv Schmidt

Ricardo Patton and his assistants at Northern Illinois continue to get it done when it comes to landing in-state talent from the class of 2008. Last night, Patton received his third commitment from this class in the form of an unheralded point guard who plays on a high school team which is sure to be ranked by virtually everyone as the preseason #1 in Illinois.

Illinois Prep Bulls-eye has learned through most reliable sources that Bryan Hall, a 6'1 point guard from Whitney Young High School in Chicago, has verbally committed to Northern Illinois University. Hall's commitment actually became official late last night.

Playing on a high school team which is absolutely loaded with D1 talent, it is easy for Hall to go unnoticed. However, Hall turned in solid performances at several prominent events during the July evaluation period, most notably the NIKE Peach Jam in North Augusta, SC. In doing so, he confirmed in our minds that he is undoubtedly a D1 prospect.

Hall has proven to us that he can definitely play the point at both the high school and college levels. He is a team player first and foremost and simply does a lot of the little things that aren't going to show up in a box score. We think that defense is his greatest attribute, although as the summer progressed Hall also showed us that he has good ball handling skills, can consistently get to the basket and most importantly possesses the leadership traits that are necessary of a D1 point guard.

Hall becomes Huskie head coach Ricardo Patton's third commitment from the class of 2008, as he will join forces with 5'11 Mike Dinunno from Von Steuben High School in Chicago and 6'6 Tyler Storm from Geneseo High School in Geneseo, IL. In fact, Hall and Dinunno could prove to be the back court of the future for Northern Illinois, because although they may be on the small side, their styles provide the perfect compliment to one another.

Once again a ton of credit must also go to Northern Illinois assistant coach Dennis Gates on helping to secure Hall's commitment. Gates is an alum of Whitney Young High School (having played on their 1998 state championship team) and as we have mentioned numerous times, has strong connections throughout Chicago and the Public League.

Posted by Roy & Harv Schmidt at 07:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

By Roy & Harv Schmidt

With Iman Shumpert, Stan Simpson and Josh Crittle all having offered verbal commitments over the past couple of weeks, most all of the top-tier talent in Illinois from the class of 2008 is now off the board. Forget the fact that the Fall signing period is still over two weeks away. A question that beckons is "What will be available in the spring?" As of now the answer appears to be "Not much", as it looks like slim pickings.

Prior to their commitments, Shumpert, Simpson and Crittle were to the top three prospects in the 2008 class from Illinois who were still undecided. With all of them now in the fold, most all of the remaining uncommitted prospects from this class are mid or low major Division One recruits. In fact, the only one left who is currently receiving high major attention is 6'3 point guard Verdell Jones from Central High School in Champaign, IL. Jones' primary interest at this level has come from Minnesota and Kentucky, who have both offered scholarships. Jones has also taken visits to both schools.

However, one gets the feeling that if the University Of Illinois decides to make Jones a recruiting priority over the next few months, that they could stand a reasonable chance of landing him. This could especially happen if Jones enjoys a terrific senior season at Champaign Central. Remember, Illinois still has scholarships to fill in the 2008 class. Of course, this scenario would be contingent on Jones waiting until the spring before making a decision.

After Jones, the top two uncommitted prospects in Illinois from the class of 2008 are 6'2 guard Jeremy Montgomery from Lincoln Park High School in Chicago and 6'3 guard Dion Dixon from Crane High School in Chicago. Both Montgomery and Dixon have received scholarships offers from various schools in the Mid-American Conference and continue to be recruited hard by those schools. Dixon is also drawing heavy interest from Texas A&M Corpus Christi and Colorado.

What all of this once again indicates is the accelerated pace that college basketball recruiting continues to take. The bottom line is that most Division One programs, especially high majors, can no longer afford to wait on recruits who choose to make last second decisions. That is why you see more and more schools offering scholarships to recruits at an earlier age, as well as flocking to open gyms to evaluate prospects before some of them have even played a high school basketball game.

Getting back to those players from Illinois' class of 2008 who are still available, perhaps one (or more) of them will "blow up" this season and as a result sign with a school that is at a higher level than where we currently project them. However, rarely do you see a player catapult to elite status this late in the game. Players like Patrick Beverley, who ended up signing with Arkansas primarily as the result of a spectacular senior year, are the exception rather than the norm. With that being said, here is to hoping that those programs that are still scrambling to fill out their 2008 recruiting classes are able to find that "diamond in the rough."

Posted by Roy & Harv Schmidt at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

By Roy & Harv Schmidt

Wow, talk about keeping things close to the vest! Throughout his entire recruitment, Iman Shumpert did that and then some. At no point in time did he or anyone in his camp ever tip their cap as to which way the 6'4 guard from Oak Park-River Forest High School in Oak Park, IL was leaning. As a result, it may have come as a surprise to some when Shumpert announced early this evening that he has verbally committed to Georgia Tech University. Shumpert chose the Yellow Jackets over Marquette and North Carolina.

While Georgia Tech had been in on Shumpert from the beginning, we are willing to bet that if you surveyed everyone who covers basketball recruiting for a living, that most of them would have said that the Yellow Jackets were running third among the finalists in the Shumpert sweepstakes. However, there is no question that when it was all said and done, that Georgia Tech head coach Paul Hewitt and his staff had a lot going for them in enabling them to land Shumpert.

Perhaps the biggest factor that Georgia Tech had in its favor was the opportunity to offer Shumpert immediate playing time in a conference that he says he has loved since he was a young boy. As Shumpert said while announcing his decision live on Comcast Sports Net in Chicago, Georgia Tech is short on guards and therefore presents him with the opportunity to come in and play right away.

Another factor that aided Georgia Tech tremendously was the close relationship that Shumpert had developed with coach Hewitt. Simply put, Shumpert indicated that he had taken an immediate liking to Hewitt from the first time he had met him. This feeling was reinforced even further on Shumpert's official visit to Georgia Tech, where he felt extremely comfortable with Hewitt, as well as the rest of the coaching staff and the players. In addition, Shumpert also stressed how much he liked the overall campus environment and atmosphere.

Shumpert ranks as one of the top two prospects in Illinois from the class of 2008 along with 6'9 Michael Dunigan from Farragut Career Academy in Chicago. Some have regarded Shumpert as a "late bloomer" as a result of him blowing up nationally this past spring at the King James Classic in Akron, OH. However, we believe that Shumpert's stock started rising much earlier than that as the result of an outstanding junior season at Oak Park.

The bottom line is that Shumpert has all of the skills which are prototypical of an ACC guard. He has ideal size, superb athleticism and the ability to play either guard spot effectively. With his outstanding shooting range, passing and ball handling as well as his team-first mentality, it goes without saying that he is the type of player who will make an immediate impact at Georgia Tech. Above all else, Shumpert has the work ethic and constant desire to get better, which is a necessary ingredient for any elite-level guard who plays in the ACC and has NBA aspirations.

There is no question that all three of Shumpert's finalists did a tremendous job of recruiting him. Shumpert stressed how difficult it was for him to inform the head coaches of the two runners-up. Marquette, in particular, pulled out all of the stops in their efforts to land Shumpert and from the get-go Golden Eagle head coach Tom Crean let it be known that Shumpert was a high-priority recruit.

Many had thought that the desire to stay close to home so that his family could see him play on a regular basis would be a huge factor that would play in Marquette's favor. In the end, however, Shumpert let it be known that distance from home was not as important as immediate playing time, stating that his family will follow him wherever he goes.

Finally, we believe that Shumpert and the people in his camp deserve to be commended for the manner in which they handled this recruitment, as they treated everyone on an equal playing field and didn't let news concerning the commitment leak out ahead of time. In our minds, this is the way that the recruitment of any high-profile player should be dealt with.

Posted by Roy & Harv Schmidt at 07:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

By Roy & Harv Schmidt

Illinois Prep Bulls-eye has learned through multiple sources that Josh Crittle, the 6'8 forward from Hales Franciscan High School in Chicago, has verbally committed to the University of Oregon. Crittle chose the Ducks over Minnesota.

There is no question that Oregon head coach Ernie Kent has established a strong recruiting pipeline with the Mean Streets AAU program, of which Crittle is a member. With Crittle's commitment, he becomes the third Mean Streets player from the class of 2008 to announce for the Ducks, joining forces with 6'9 Michael Dunigan from Farragut Career Academy in Chicago and 6'5 Matt Humphrey, also from Hales.

Crittle kind of played in the shadows of Dunigan, Humphrey and 6'0 point guard Kevin Dillard (Southern Illinois) this spring and summer playing with Mean Streets and we still regard him as being quite raw offensively. While Crittle does need to play with more intensity at times, he rebounds well as the result of his strong body and is capable of being a physical presence in the post. He also has the ability to score around the basket and intimidate at the defensive end.

There is no question that there were two primary factors that helped Crittle decide on Oregon: 1) his desire to play college basketball at the highest possible level and 2) the fact that Oregon already had AAU teammates Dunigan and Humphrey in the fold. Minnesota made a last-ditch effort to try to lock up Crittle and were undoubtedly strong at the end, but the fact that Oregon had gotten in earlier proved to be the difference.

In addition to Oregon and Minnesota, Crittle had also taken official visits to Kansas State and Southern Illinois. However, Crittle ended up having some reservations with respect to both schools. He did not come away overly impressed with his visit to Kansas State and while he recognized that Southern Illinois is the elite program in the Missouri Valley Conference, he ended up having some reservations about the conference as a whole.

Posted by Roy & Harv Schmidt at 09:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

By Roy & Harv Schmidt

Things are really beginning to fall into place for Bruce Weber and the University Of Illinois. After receiving three commitments from the class of 2009 in one day last Thursday, Weber kept the good times rolling today by securing a verbal commitment in the class of 2008 from 6'9 Stan Simpson from Simeon High School in Chicago. The commitment has been confirmed by Larry Butler of the Illinois Warriors, who is Simpson's AAU coach.

Simpson had taken an official visit to the Champaign campus the first weekend of October. Not only did he have a great visit, but it had been rumored that Simpson would return to Illinois this past weekend for Midnight Madness. While he did not do that, we became firmly convinced that Simpson would ultimately choose the Illini because of the fact that both Butler and Simeon head coach Robert Smith were pushing Illinois as Simpson's future college destination. That and the fact that Arkansas, which was the Illini's foremost competitor for Simpson, received a commitment from 6'8 class of 2008 prospect Brandon Moore from Holy Cross High School in New Orleans this past weekend.

Simpson's commitment undoubtedly gives coach Weber an abundance of front court players to build around down the road (Simpson, Brian Carlwell, Mike Tisdale, Richard Semrau, Billy Cole) and while the knock on Simpson is that he doesn't always play with intensity, we have reason to believe that when it is said and done Simpson could very well emerge as the best of the bunch.

Simpson is a solid back to the basket scorer who protects the ball well and has good shooting touch in the paint area and along the baseline. He also has the ability to run the floor and finish with authority, and can intimidate at the defensive end. This will be Simpson's first season at Simeon, as he transferred from Leo High School in Chicago this past summer. He showed astronomical improvement between his sophomore and junior years at Leo.

While Weber now has Simpson in the fold, there are still some concerns about Simpson's academic status as it would relate to his eligibility at Illinois. However, as we have indicated before, there are ways that Illinois can work around this issue and considering the position that Weber is now in recruiting-wise, he could probably even afford to redshirt Simpson should he be susceptible to the idea.

Simpson's commitment once again further illustrates that Larry Butler is clearly supportive of the Illini basketball program. This premise has been greatly strengthened by the recent hiring of Jerrance Howard as an assistant coach at Illinois. Simpson becomes Weber's first commitment from the 2008 class.

Posted by Roy & Harv Schmidt at 07:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

By Roy & Harv Schmidt

Ryan Hare wondered why no television cameras had shown up at Marshall High School last Thursday when he, as well as several other basketball players and students, organized a rally outside the school to voice their support for recently fired basketball coach Lamont Bryant. After some serious deliberation, we have decided to offer some publicity of our own to this situation, although we are sure it isn't the kind that Hare and his fellow teammates are looking for.

Before we go any further, we wish to stress that this blog is not about taking sides and deciding who is right and wrong with respect to why administrators at Marshall decided to fire Bryant as the school's varsity basketball coach. We still do not know all of the facts behind the decision and therefore we are not going to go there.

What we are more concerned with are the comments coming from Hare and some of the other Marshall basketball players in the midst of Bryant's firing, words which were repeated at the rally. More specifically, we are talking about Hare and other players saying that if Bryant isn't reinstated as their coach at Marshall, that they would either boycott the upcoming season or transfer to another school. We have to wonder what kind of message is being sent to the youth of our society--not just high school basketball players, but all students in general--when one hears remarks of this nature.

Simply put, Hare and his teammates' threats carry most negative overtones and set a dangerous precedent concerning how students should deal with an adverse situation. It says that if something doesn't go your way, or if you are faced with a situation that you don't like, that you can walk away or quit rather than tackling the problem head on. Not only that, but it also says that students don't have to respect authority (regardless of whether they think a decision is right or wrong) and discourages responsibility and accountability.

What really scares us here is that students are faced with adversity almost every day of their lives, and it usually involves things of far greater importance than who your basketball coach is going to be. We are willing to bet that it is inevitable that Hare and his teammates will face more adverse situations in the future.

With that being said, we know what most of you are probably thinking at this point. This is supposed to be a recruiting blog, right? And thus far nothing that we have said has anything to do with recruiting, right? Well, actually it does. Granted, Hare has already committed to Oregon State, so therefore it would seem that if he were to sit out the upcoming basketball season at Marshall that it would have no impact on his recruitment. However, what happens after Hare gets to Oregon State if he is faced with another situation that is not to his liking? It could be something that happens at basketball practice, it could be an academic issue, it could be a problem with his girlfriend, or something else--we don't know.

Based on what Hare has said he will do if Bryant isn't reinstated as Marshall's basketball coach, how would he handle any of these situations? Would he leave and come home? We hope and pray that this wouldn't happen, but again, based on what Hare has said, one has to wonder. Basketball-wise, college coaches will not recruit players who are perceived as being "quitters." Therefore, has Hare given any thought to the fact that while he may be signed, sealed and delivered to Oregon State, there are other talented basketball players at Marshall who are still unsigned and run the risk of not being recruited by certain schools or do we dare say not being recruited at all? Why? Because rather than being looked at as being tough, they will instead be perceived as being weak because they are running away from a problem.

Furthermore, if Hare were to actually transfer, we can almost guarantee that Calvin Davis , who we think is the best Sports Director that the Chicago Public League has seen in recent memory, would never allow him to play basketball at his new school, as it would be obvious that the transfer was made solely for basketball reasons.

We compare Hare and his teammates' comments to the reaction of the kid on the playground who doesn't like a call that goes against him in a pickup game and rather than continuing to play he takes his ball and goes home. Here is to hoping that all of the Marshall basketball players who are threatening to either sit out the season or transfer rethink the situation and choose to deal with it like men, because right now they are handling it like children.

Posted by Roy & Harv Schmidt at 07:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

By Roy & Harv Schmidt

Oh, boy--we wonder what all of the Bruce Weber critics are saying now! Ever since Weber took the head coaching job at the University Of Illinois, no coach in college basketball has been under more constant scrutiny for perceived recruiting inefficiencies. Weber and the Illini have gone a long way towards silencing a