Where is the state of Illinois?

[JonDMiller]

Two commits from the Land of Lincoln in this class. One last year. Three the year before that and all three of those players (Willies, Goebel and Spearman) are gone.

Illinois has to be the top or next to top state for Iowa to land players from...and it's been a big time disappointment in recent years.

 

[StanziUSA]

With the new recruiting coordinator, Wallace, haven't they changed their recruiting techniques? They want to expand across the country don't they?

 

[MoseSchrute]

We've had some darn good players from Illinois. Need to do better there.

 

[JonDMiller]

We've had some darn good players from Illinois. Need to do better there.

That, and there are a lot more of them there than in the state of Iowa....and always will be

 

[lightning1]

We found a lot more deserving prospects within the borders of Iowa......apparently.

 

[Chickenlounge]

And with all the other Chicagoans in Iowa City, it should be just like playing before a hometown crowd...

 

[tksirius]

Must not be much funds in Illinois. In Kirk We Trust.

 

[Benddontbreak]

It’s a wonder we don’t make Chicago a priority the way Fran does.

 

[FCAS]

Two commits from the Land of Lincoln in this class. One last year. Three the year before that and all three of those players (Willies, Goebel and Spearman) are gone.

Illinois has to be the top or next to top state for Iowa to land players from...and it's been a big time disappointment in recent years.

If you put much weight on Rivals, it is interesting to note that Illinois had only 5 4-star players and no 5-stars. Seems low.

 

[Hawkfnntn]

If you put much weight on Rivals, it is interesting to note that Illinois had only 5 4-star players and no 5-stars. Seems low.

That was going to be my question. What was there to pick from there this year? I had no clue. If this was a down year there and we weren't in on any of them or had no chance then it just is what it is.... But yea if there were 30 some 3 and 4 star kids surely we can out arm wrestle Illinois/NW for some more.

 

[hawkinn3]

Hey, we are drawing a line in the sand and keeping all our in state prospects in state. Unless they are really good then they go other places, but the other ones, we keep them. We are like the U with South Florida, if South Florida was cold and full of slow white guys.

 

[FCAS]

I actually spent a little more time looking at Rivals. Again, I'll caveat this by how much credence you actually place on their ratings.

Assuming their rankings, in aggregate, are a fair representation of the overall talent distribution, then the picture is really pretty bleak for Iowa. Of the 36 5-star recruits, only 1 is from a BIG state. Only 61 of the of the 354 4-stars (or 17%) are from a BIG state.

 

[1977Hawkeye]

Illinois is a talent-rich border state.. I've always felt that it's been critical for Iowa sports to be able to recruit effectively there. I'm not sure how much football talent there is in IL (gotta be more than in Iowa though, right?) but hoops for sure.

Maybe not as easy as recruiting in-state, but you would think our coaches could get some decent talent to cross the border. It's only an hour drive from Iowa City to Moline, IL.

 

[hawkinn3]

When I was at Iowa the Illinois students were the most annoying, specifically the Chicago ones. I heard many arguments between about whether they actually lived in Chicago or in a suburb, and that matters for some reason. I was talking to one of these guys at College Street Billiards back in the day and he wouldn't shut up about how lame IC is to Chicago. I eventually asked him loudly why the eff he was here then. The bouncers came over and when I told them why we were shouting they kicked him out, good times.

 

[Billso]

Because Bruce Pearl.

 

[iowalaw]

If, by expanding across the country, you mean signing more corn fed kids from the state of Iowa than ever before under Ferentz, then yes, the new recruiting coordinator really cast a wide net.

With the new recruiting coordinator, Wallace, haven't they changed their recruiting techniques? They want to expand across the country don't they?

 

[1hawkeye1]

But didn't they see our shiny new buildings?

 

[ibahawkeye]

Let's get our bball recruits from Illinois and our football recruits from the south. For sure that's too simplistic of an approach but just kind of what came to my mind.

 

[ohhawk]

Using 247 Sports as the source.......

* They would show less than a 1/2 dozen of next year's Top 400 players reside in IL. I'm not so sure IL is fertile grounds for next year but certainly we should have been doing better in this state the last several years. Only gets tougher if the U of IL can build on their season's improvement.

* On the flip side nearly 25% of our offers in the class of 2015 went to prospects in the East (MD, VI, DC, NJ, NY). None of our commits ended up coming from this area.

 

[trj]

When I was at Iowa the Illinois students were the most annoying, specifically the Chicago ones. I heard many arguments between about whether they actually lived in Chicago or in a suburb, and that matters for some reason. I was talking to one of these guys at College Street Billiards back in the day and he wouldn't shut up about how lame IC is to Chicago. I eventually asked him loudly why the eff he was here then. The bouncers came over and when I told them why we were shouting they kicked him out, good times.

Easy there tough guy.