There may be no player in the state who has been more scrutinized from the time he was in eighth grade until now more than Schaumburg's Cully Payne. In fact, the debate will probably forever linger on regarding how good of a college player he will be at Alabama. However, after watching him turn in two clutch performances at the prestigious Pontiac Holiday Tournament, we wonder if anyone else is thinking what we are thinking.

The basketball recruiting world today is largely controlled by handlers and people who often times have nothing but their own self-serving interests at heart. As a result, they overhype recruits primarily for the purpose of feeding their own egos and trying to put additional money in their pocket. That is why it is so refreshing to see players who don't buy into the hoopla, recognize their true level of ability and turn out to be successful without the outside influences. Such is the case with Michael Black and Xavier Humphrey, who are both class of 2009 recruits from Fenwick. As a result, we believe that they made outstanding college choices.

The persona of De LaSalle's Dre Henley began to rise this past summer when he earned an invitation to the prestigious Reebok All-American Camp on the basis of an outstanding performance at Reebok's underclassman camp in June. But even then, there were still people who were questioning whether or not he was worthy of the invite. However, make no mistake about it--after watching Henley last night at the Windy City Showdown, there is no doubt that he has hit the big time.

We told everyone in a previous blog back in October that Jerrance Howard and the University of Illinois had completely turned the tables in the recruitment of Tracy Abrams. Right then and there we knew that the Illini were the leader for Abrams' services. What we did not know was that the Illini coaching staff would be able to close the deal so quickly. With that in mind, we firmly believe that the dominos are just beginning to fall into place regarding Bruce Weber's recruitment of the 2011 class. Quite frankly, while we don't know what the time frame will be, we would be surprised at this point if other prized 2011 recruits don't ultimately pledge their commitments to the Illini.

While we never base an overall scouting evaluation of a player on one game, there are some things that you can immediately conclude after watching a prospect for the first time. Such is the case with 6'10 class of 2010 center and University of Illinois commit Meyers Leonard. After taking in Leonard's performance yesterday at the Shootout At The Hall in Champaign, we believe that it is a no-brainer when we say that he is the best big man in Illinois right now regardless of class. Illinois Prep Bulls-eye offers further commentary on Leonard as well as other impressions from yesterday's event at the Assembly Hall in this blog.

The glut of high school basketball shootouts in the state of Illinois during December may be greater than the holiday shopping rush. There are three in particular that stand out--the Shootout At The Hall on December 13, the Loop Capital Markets Shootout on December 14 and the Windy City Showdown on December 20. They are all must-see events and should be among the highlights of the month.

Don't get us wrong--every single player that University of Illinois head coach Bruce Weber has recruited in both the classes of 2009 and 2010 will be a vital piece to the puzzle when it comes to Illini basketball two or three years from now. However, we are thoroughly convinced that no player will be more influential in determining the Illini's future success than Jereme Richmond. We will even go as far as to say that it begins and ends with him. Anyone who saw Richmond play at the Waukegan Thanksgiving Tournament this past week should know exactly what we mean.

The Illinois high school basketball season is now in full swing, but it is still early and nothing has really stood out just yet. Therefore, in this blog we offer up small portions of everything, some Thanksgiving leftovers if you will. Included on the plate are our comments on what is happening off the court, observations on what we have seen in the way of Thanksgiving tournaments thus far, as well as a couple of recruiting notes.

At long last Chris Colvin's recruitment has come to a merciful end. After months of hearsay and rampant speculation, Colvin finally laid everything to rest by announcing his college choice live on a local sports talk show. As a result, he will be playing his college basketball in the Big 12. Illinois Prep Bulls-eye has all of the particulars behind Colvin's decision in this story.

Considering how often the recruitment of Whitney Young's Chris Colvin has gone back and forth, the bottom line is that at this point nobody really knows when he will announce his college decision. It could be on the last day of the Fall signing period or he could opt to wait until the spring. Either way, what we are about to do is break down our thoughts on what we think the recruiting positives and negatives are should Colvin end up holding out until April or later.

One big reason why Marquette University has enjoyed tremendous success on the basketball court in recent years is because of their ability to recruit the Chicago area. They did so under Tom Crean and are making every effort to do the same under new head coach Buzz Williams and his coaching staff. The latest recruiting development offers even further proof of that, as the Golden Eagles are now in the picture for both Chris Colvin and Darius Smith.

When we came across a recent internet report calling Fenger "the best team in the Chicago Public League that no one knows about," stating that they will give Whitney Young a run for their money because they will be adding Michael Haynes and several other transfers to their roster and saying "you heard it here first" we nearly lost our breakfast at the time. Why? Because we have every reason to believe that it won't happen.

In today's fast-paced world of college basketball recruiting, the most successful programs are ones that are already looking two years down the road. What we mean is that they aren't still looking for prospects in the class of 2009 but instead are setting their sights on the class of 2011 and beyond. With that being said something that is always in the back of our mind is if one of the top prospects in Illinois from the loaded 2011 class might offer an early verbal commitment. While we are inclined to say that in all likelihood it will not happen, at the same time we realize that it is not out of the realm of possibility.

It is absolutetly impossible to diminish the significance of this Saturday's festivities at the University of Illinois following the Illini's football contest vs. Minnesota. We are talking about what has been dubbed "The World's Biggest Basketball Practice." It is an event which will have virtually all of head coach Bruce Weber's primary in-state recruiting targets from the class of 2010 all the way down to the class of 2013 on campus at the same time. While each recruit's attendance is noteworthy, the one that we believe could have the greatest impact is Mt. Carmel's class of 2011 point guard Tracy Abrams. We say this because it is indicative of how the Illini have undoubtedly turned the corner in the Abrams recruiting sweepstakes.