Taylor Bell: April 2008 Archives

It is a subject that is hush-hush among college football coaches. It is the issue about why they don't recruit white athletes to play certain skill positions--running back, cornerback and wide receiver. Even the media often doesn't want to go down that road.

Wheaton North's Mike Trumpy was confronted by the stigma while he was scrutinizing the recruiting process and weighing all of his options before he opted to commit to Northwestern last week.

Bloomington-based recruiting analyst Bill "Flash" Flanagan has been hosting his Flash's Spring Hoops Review at Illinois Wesleyan in Bloomington for 12 years. It is a showcase for many of the top high school basketball players in the state.

His most recent camp, by his own admission, was one of the best. "Based on talent and depth, it was one of our better camps," he said. "Out of 250 kids who participated, there were at least 75 Division I prospects."

Mike Mullins, coach of the Illinois Wolves' AAU program, boosted the talent level by bringing three teams of 15, 16 and 17-and-under players.

Most college football coaches haven't completed their task of offering scholarships to the top-rated players in the class of 2009, next fall's seniors. But recruiters already are scouring the country, evaluating the leading prospects in the class of 2010, next fall's juniors.

It is a process that is never-ending. Coaches realize a fundamental rule in recruiting, something that Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest understood during the Civil War almost 150 years ago. "Get thar the firstest with the mostest," he said. Forrest might not have been eloguent but he was very effective. He didn't lose any battles.

Bill Self is universally regarded as a big-time recruiter, one of the best in college basketball. The coach of the newly crowned NCAA championship team once signed Dee Brown, Luther Head, Deron Williams and most of the players who took Illinois to second place in the 2005 NCAA tournament and wooed Julian Wright and Sherron Collins to Kansas.

But Self isn't the most accomplished salesman who ever sold a high school prospect on spending four years in Lawrence, Kan.

Meet Sam Miranda.

In 2000, longtime sports columnist Loren Tate of the Champaign News-Gazette conducted an exhaustive survey of high school football in Illinois. Even today, it makes for compelling reading.

Tate selected his all-time teams from 1934-1959 and from 1960-1999 and came to the conclusion that an overwhelming percentage of the best players being produced in Illinois high schools weren't choosing to attend the University of Illinois.

I'm sure Illinois coach Ron Zook is aware of the history. The Illini football program doesn't command a loyal following within the state as Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State do within their borders. Perhaps that is why Zook has become more of a national recruiter.

Tom Lemming, the recruiting analyst, and I have had a friendly disagreement for years.

He claims that Illinois is one of the leading states in the nation for producing high school football talent. And he always reminds me that the Chicago area has sent more players to the NFL than any other metropolitan region outside of southern California.

I insist that Illinois talent is overrated. Check the recent college All-America teams. Even the All-Big 10 listings. There are very few, if any, representatives from the Chicago area. Basketball, I argue, is taking good athletes away from football.

Bob Gibbons of All-Star Sports and Van Coleman of Hoopmasters, who have been evaluating high school basketball talent for 30 years, know a good thing when they see it. And they agree that Derrick Rose is one of the best point guards in the history of the game.

Based on his freshman performance, Gibbons and Coleman rank the former Simeon star in a class with--are you ready for this?--Oscar Robertson, Magic Johnson, Isiah Thomas, Chris Paul and Jason Kidd. And you can toss in Allen Iverson is you want to.

As a prelude to Monday night's NCAA championship game between Memphis and Kansas, which will put two former Chicago Public League backcourt stars, some readers wondered if Memphis' Derrick Rose would make the All-Simeon team and if Kansas' Sherron Collins would make the All-Crane team.

Yes and no.

Roy and Harv Schmidt of Illinois Prep Bullseye pose an interesting question: Is Simeon's Derrick Rose the best player ever produced in the Chicago Public League?

Why not take it a couple of steps further? Is Rose the best player ever to come out of the Chicago area? The best player ever developed in Illinois?

It is wonderful fodder for debate. Can you compare the great players of the 1950s and 1960s to the recent Rose era? How many people who marveled at Rose's athleticism also saw Centralia's Bobby Joe Mason or Parker's Tommy Hawkins or Carver's Cazzie Russell?