Thumbs Up Bruce

Today was signing day! For the record, the 4 players we signed were DJ Richardson, Brandon Paul, Tyler Griffey, and Joseph Bertrand. The first three are considered to be top 100 recruits, and Bertrand has a lot of potential as a 6'5 swingman.



Bruce's thoughts on his recruiting class and video of the recruits. These are actually the first thoughts from Bruce since it against NCAA rules to talk about your recruits until you receive their letter of intent.

You gotta love the NCAA. You can't talk about you recruits, but if you are Indiana, you can hire a known and convicted cheater, let him cheat again, and then tell the NCAA that by firing him and his assistants you have already taken care of the punishment. The bitch of it is, is that Indiana will get off without any further punishment from the NCAA. Sorry, but I will take every oppertunity to bash Indiana.

Here are Q&A'a with each one of the recruits by Paul Klee of Illini HQ

DJ Richardson #57 on Rivals Top 150

Brandon Paul #44 on Rivals Top 150

Tyler Griffey #127 on Rivals Top 150

Joseph Bertrand #116 on Rivals Top 150

Here is more from Bruce about his thoughts on this class.

Scout has all of our the Illini recruits ranked differently than Rivals, with Griffey in the top 100 and Richardson ahead of Paul, but it doesn't matter. All that matters is that we signed 3 solid guards for the next few years, and a solid post player who can develop, something that Illinois has been lacking since the Final Four run. Not to take the wind out of Illini fans sails, but Richardson still has to take the ACT in December to qualify. Everyone around the program and Richardson don't see this as a problem though.

I feel that it is worth mentioning before everyone gets all hot and bothered that this class is not going to come in and set the roof on fire. Paul and Richardson will have a chance to start or at least get solid minutes as reserves, but this class does not have the "one and done" capability that the 2010 class has. Although there is a lot of debate on whether or not you want one and done players. I would much rather have players who are going to stay for 3 or 4 years.

In 2007-2008 of the 11 teams that had players leave after their Freshman year:

2 had losing records (NC State and LSU)
2 More missed the NCAA Tournament (Ohio State and Syracuse)
3 Lost in the First Round of NCAAs (Arizona, Indiana, and USC)
2 Lost in the Second Round of NCAAs (Kansas State and Texas A&M)

Only UCLA and Memphis made it past the second round. Both made it to the Final Four, but both teams had upper classmen who helped lead the teams. Kansas State and USC each had 2 Fresman who went early in the draft, yet neither team could make it to the Sweet 16. Kansas won the title with Juniors and Seniors

In 2006-2007 you had only 5 teams with Freshman who left:

1 team missed the NCAAs (Washington)
1 lost in the First Round (Georgia Tech) which had 2 freshman leave
1 lost in the Second Round (Texas)
1 lost in the Elite 8 (Carolina)

Ohio State made it to the Championship game and lost to Florida. OSU had Mike Conley, Greg Oden and Daequan Cook all leave after only one year. Florida won with a great Junior class.

In 2005 only 2 freshman left early for the NBA

Tyrus Thomas of LSU and Shawne Williams of Memphis

LSU lost in the Final Four and Memphis lost in the Elite 8

You have to back to 2004 -2005 to find a Freshman who won a title and then left, and that was Marvin Williams of UNC. North Carolina had 4 players drafted in the first 14 picks that year.

Now since there has only been 3 drafts since the NBA said that players had to be out of high school 1 year before they can be drafted, I understand the sample size is pretty small. However, I still like the idea of building a solid team rather than trying catch lightning in a bottle for one year. Although this is also coming from the guy who thought that Illinois was going to be a constant Elite 8 team after the 2004-2005 Final Four run. Hopefully we will be surprisingly good this year, instead of staring into the future all winter waiting for 2009 and 2010.