Taylor Bell: February 2009 Archives

Yes, I'm the guy who wrote that Derrick Rose was overrated.

That was back in 2006, when Rose was a junior at Simeon.

I don't regret what I wrote at the time. I still stand by it.

As a senior, however, Rose changed my mind for me.

Let's explain.

As a junior, Rose was rated among the top five players in the nation, a class that included O.J. Mayo, Blake Griffin, Michael Beasley, Kevin Love, Kyle Singler, James Harden and Eric Gordon.

Bob Gibbons offered his opinion on the state of Big 10 basketball recruiting, Illinois coach Bruce Weber and the Illini program.

From all of the reaction, he struck a nerve.

Now Van Coleman of Hoopmasters.com, who also has been evaluating high school players for 30 years and is one of the McDonald's All-America selectors, weighs in with his point of view.

What does it say when the Big 10 fails to land a single player on the McDonald's 24-member All-America team?

In an unprecedented development, the Big 10 failed to land a single player on the McDonald's 24-member All-America high school basketball team for 2009.

"It says whether you are a McDonald's All-American or a top 50 player, you find few players in this class going to the Big 10," said widely respected recruiting analyst Bob Gibbons of All-Star Sports, who has served as one of the McDonald's selectors since 1978.

"That isn't to say that the Big 10 won't do well in 2010 and get future McDonald's All-Americans. But this year is unprecedented. I can't recall a year when the Big 10 didn't get at least one or two All-Americans. In my view, it is just an off year, not a long-term issue.

I delivered this message more than a year ago when this blog was introduced. Unfortunately, some readers ignored it. Consequently, they are wasting their time.

I enjoy a good argument or an intelligent debate. We can agree to disagree on any subject and I have made a practice of responding to any reader who provides a valid e-mail address.

If it is valid, the e-mail is retained--as long as it isn't profane.

However, if it isn't valid, the e-mail is omitted.

It's up to you.

Sometimes kids say the strangest things. I've been talking to high school athletes and observing the recruiting process for more than 40 years. I understand there is a lot of pressure involved in selecting a college and kids handle it differently. Some handle it better than others. Some can't handle it at all. Kids always are concerned about what they say to the media, just as coaches are, but for different reasons. Kids worry that they will say something that their friends will tease them about. Coaches worry they will say something that will end up on an opponent's bulletin board.

Someone on Illinois' fan Website posed an interesting question the other day: Does Illinois' sports program--its total sports program, men and women--rank among the top 25 colleges in the nation?

While the high-profile Illini football and basketball teams battle to earn sports among the top 25, how does the entire Illini package--wrestling, tennis, track and field, swimming, gymnastics, volleyball, baseball, softball, all sports--compare to the rest of the Big 10 and to the best of the Pac-10, SEC, Big 12, ACC and Big East?

Good question.

I must not have been doing something right. I hadn't been criticized by Illini Nation in so long, I had to check to make sure they hadn't been tossed off the reservation like Chief Illiniwek.Then I wrote a positive blog on football coach Ron Zook and--wouldn't you know it?--Illini Nation perceived it as a back-handed compliment.

Oh, they're still there, all right, cheering Ron Guenther, Ron Zook and Bruce Weber one day and treating them like dirt the next. Like Mike White, Neale Stoner, Harv Schmidt, John Mackovic, Lou Tepper and Bill Self. The hits keep on coming. You're either for us or against us.

I've read a lot of university Websites and I must admit Illini Nation is the most hypocritical, least objective and most uninformed group of all. They are shameless cheerleaders when the team is winning and uncompromising critics when it isn't.

There must be a reason or reasons why none of the top four football prospects in the Class of 2010 in the Chicago area are seriously considering the University of Illinois.

There must be a reason or reasons why Illinois coach Ron Zook signed only one of the top six players in the Class of 2009.

There must be a reason or reasons why the Illini landed only two of the top 12 players in the Class of 2008.

Is the Chicago area overrated? Is Zook focusing on other regions where the talent is richer and more promising? Are the homegrown athletes who are being recruited by Notre Dame, Northwestern, Purdue, Michigan, Michigan State, Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota not good enough for Illinois?

I wish Ann Marie Lipinski had attended the Larry Hawkins Memorial Service last Saturday at the University of Chicago's Rockefeller Chapel.

If she had, she would have experienced the outpouring of love and affection and respect from hundreds of family, friends, athletes, students and colleagues that filled the magnificent sanctuary to overflowing.

Lipinski is the former editor-in-chief of the Chicago Tribune who is the newly appointed Vice President for Civic Engagement at the University of Chicago. Among her duties, I am told, is to determine the future of the Office of Special Programs, which was founded in 1968 when Hawkins was hired to run it. It was (and still is) designed to help young people, particularly African-Americans.

National signing day for high school football players has turned teenagers into rock stars, college coaches into used car salesmen and television networks into shills for the NCAA.

If you watched the carnival atmosphere that was Wednesday's nine-hour show on ESPNU and CBS College Sports Network, you know what I mean. The coverage was longer than the Super Bowl preview. You'd think Barack Obama was conducting a press conference, announcing his decision to play quarterback at Illinois or Notre Dame.

Is there anything more annoying or unsettling than watching a 17-year-old kid play a "hat dance" in front of a live TV camera with his family, friends, coaches and posse surrounding him? Will he choose hat A or hat B or hat C? Couldn't he have just faxed in his letter-of-intent and avoid stressing out so many alumni?