In-State Battle Lines Being Drawn For Class Of 2011 Recruits In Illinois

May 24, 2009

12:00 P.M. CST

Make no mistake about it--the class of 2010 in Illinois will undoubtedly be important to the future of D1 college basketball programs throughout the state.  However, it pales in comparison when assessing how vital the loaded 2011 class will be in dictating the future success of every D1 school located in the Land Of Lincoln.  The reality is that knowing how the recruiting game operates in today's day and age,how well each school does with signing prospects from the class of 2011 could ultimately determine whether or not the members of that particular coaching staff will be receiving pay raises or looking for new jobs some time within the next five years.

With this being the case, we already notice an interesting trend developing amongst virtually all D1 schools in the state of Illinois at both the high and mid-major levels.  Simply put, the battle lines are being drawn as every single one of these schools scramble in their quest to land prized recruits out of Illinois from the 2011 class.  All of them are "jockeying for position" so-to-speak, which is once again indicative of how accelerated the pace of college basketball recruiting has become.  What it means is that there are going to be some most exciting in-state recruiting battles over the course of the next couple of years. 

Not withstanding the strong efforts that plenty of other D1 programs from around the country are making when it comes to recruiting the 2011 class in Illinois, throughout the rest of this story our focus will be on examining how crucial this class is to all in-state universities at the D1 level and how we think things could ultimately work out for all of them.

Common Ground

We begin at the top and what immediately stands out is the striking similarity in players from the 2011 class who are all being recruited by the University of Illinois, DePaul University and Northwestern University.  At the present time, prospects that are being recruited by all three schools include 6'9 center Nnana Egwu from St. Ignatius College Prep in Chicago; 6'2 combo guard Chasson Randle from Rock Island High School in Rock Island, IL; 6'7 forward Mike Shaw from De LaSalle Institute in Chicago and 6'5 shooting guard Sam Thompson from Whitney Young High School in Chicago. 

Meanwhile, several other top prospects from the 2011 class are being recruited by at least two of the three aforementioned schools.  6'5 forward Wayne Blackshear from Morgan Park High School in Chicago, 6'5 shooting guard Jacob Williams from St. Patrick High School in Chicago and 6'5 swing man Dre Henley from De LaSalle Institute in Chicago are all being pursued by both Illinois and DePaul,  while 5'11 point guard George Marshall from Brooks High School in Chicago was recently offered a scholarship by DePaul and is also receiving heavy interest from Northwestern.

Being Well-Connected

There is a simple explanation as to why the Illini, Blue Demons and Wildcats are currently all well-positioned with many of the top in-state prospects in the class of 2011.  It is because all three programs have assistant coaches with extremely strong connections--Jerrance Howard at Illinois, Tracy Webster at DePaul and Tavaras Hardy at Northwestern.  All of them have developed solid relationships with not only the players' high school coach and family, but perhaps even more importantly with all of the AAU coaches throughout the state who have become the driving forces behind the recruitment of so many prospects in today's day and age.

This phenomenon also holds true at schools such as Southern Illinois, Northern Illinois and Illinois State.  SIU assistant coach Lance Irvin is extremely well-connected with the Mac Irvin Fire traveling team program seeing as though his father is the CEO and his younger brother Michael is the head coach and also has strong relationships with many of the other top AAU programs in Illinois.  The same can also be said of Dennis Gates at NIU, who is particularly strong with the Illinois Warriors program on account of having played for Warriors head coach Larry Butler while he played his high school basketball at Whitney Young.  Illinois State has a dynamic duo in this area in assistant coaches Rob Judson and Paris Parham.  There may not be an assistant coach in Illinois that is more well-known and established and respected amongst coaches at all levels (both high school and AAU) than Judson.  Parham, meanwhile, also has extremely strong connections with AAU coaches throughout the state and even has coaching experience at that level, having coached with Full Package Athletics prior to his arrival at ISU.

Assistant coaches at other D1 programs in Illinois who are also well-connected and extremely well-respected include Pat Baldwin at Loyola-Chicago, Tracy Dildy at Illinois-Chicago, Eric Buescher at Bradley, Mark Allaria at SIU-Edwardsville and Chad Altadonna at Eastern Illinois. 

Secrets To Success

We have long said that in addition to being well-connected, there are two key areas that influence how successful any college program can be when it comes to recruiting the state of Illinois, especially the city of Chicago.  While they may sound simple on the surface, both require more thought and effort than most people can ever envision.

Of foremost importance in today's recruiting game is to offer prospects as early as possible.  No assistant coach out there understands this better than Jerrance Howard, which is why the Illini have already extended scholarship offers to most every top in-state prospect from the class of 2011.  Webster has also come to understand this extremely well and is a big reason why the Blue Demons have already offered 6'9 Nnana Egwu from St. Ignatius as well as 6'4 mega-athlete Macari Brooks from Rich South High School in Richton Park, IL.  And we can guarantee that the DePaul coaching staff isn't done yet, as we think that it is only a matter of time before they extend offers to Jacob Williams, Chasson Randle and Dre Henley and perhaps others as well.  Hardy also recognizes the importance of offering early, as the Wildcats have currently extended offers to both Egwu and Randle and could very well come forward and offer several others in the class by the conclusion of the July evaluation period if not sooner.

The second all-important factor is to get recruits on campus as often as possible.  Once again, Howard, Webster and Hardy have all been able to do this repeatedly.  Howard was instrumental in getting most all of the Illini's top in-state recruiting targets in the class of 2011 in Champaign last Fall after a football game for an event which was dubbed "The World's Largest Outdoor Basketball Practice".  There has never been a greater assemblage of underclass basketball talent in Illinois in the same location as there was that day.

Since Webster's arrival at DePaul, he has been instrumental in not only getting several recruits on campus for unofficial visits, but also in conducting a number of open gyms which allow prospective recruits the opportunity to work out with current Blue Demon players.  This is exactly how DePaul went about offering a scholarship to George Marshall last week. 

Hardy has also been vital in getting a multitude of prospective 2011 recruits to take unofficial visits to the Evanston campus, including Marshall, Egwu, Randle, Shaw, Thompson and 6'2 Hayden Hoerdemann from Bloomington Central Catholic in Bloomington, IL.  In fact, most of these prospects have visited Northwestern on multiple occassions.

Another manner in which schools will try to get recruits on campus over the course of the next month is by hosting team shootouts and elite camps.  Practically every D1 basketball program in Illinois will conduct one or the other some time during June.  The Illini will actually have two such events--a team camp at the Assembly Hall in Champaign the first Sunday in June (June 7) and their annual satellite camp at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago towards the end of June.

Plenty Of Talent To Go Around

When one looks at the class of 2011 in Illinois as a whole, there is no doubt in our mind that there is enough talent and depth for every D1 program in the state to be able to reap the benefits.  As far as the current scholarship situation stands other than what we have already discussed, Illinois State has offered both Marshall and Hoerdemann; Southern Illinois  has extended offers to Henley and 6'6 forward James Siakam from Brehm Prep in Carbondale, IL; Bradley has offered Randle and Eastern Illinois has come forward with an offer to Hoerdemann.

Given each school's scholarship situation with respect to the 2011 class and depending on how the chips fall, we truly believe that there is enough to go around for everybody.  Of course the one factor that we have not taken into consideration is how many prospects ultimately end up signing with out-of-state schools.  However, that is a story for a later time.  Right now what we do know is that there are plenty of interesting recruiting battles shaping up over the course of the next year, many of which will involve the loaded class of 2011 in Illinois.   

Continue to check in with Illinois Prep Bulls-eye for all of the latest as it pertains to recruiting and high school basketball in Illinois.

Editor's Note:  Since publishing this story, we have learned that Dennis Gates has decided to leave Northern Illinois University, where he worked the last two years (including being promoted to Associate Head Coach this past season)  to accept a coaching position as a member of David Carter's staff at the University Of Nevada.