Kofi Commits to Illinois | Page 10 | The Boneyard

Kofi Commits to Illinois

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I signed up here to fill you in with a few things that may explain why Kofi went to Illinois.

Just like UConn, I'll has been recruiting him for several years. However, Ayo, Illinois 5star pg knew him, and Griffin (son of the NBA player) is a friend who played with him. Also, Illinois backup center played on same team too. So, this was not your typical recruitment.

I only bring this up because we have gone through the same thing over and again. It sucks. But, sometimes finding out there was more to it than coaches alone or cheating makes it easier to swallow. Heck, half of Missouri's starting lineup were committed to Illinois until they hired cwonzo and he pulled in the class. Then, the players that were left graduated or transferred. That is literally why we are now 4-11.

Underwood isn't getting fired anytime soon. He rebooted the entire team this past year. Most of the relevant players are freshman or sophomores,. I believe 7/11 scholarship players are new this year, then we played a hell of a tough schedule. But, freshman mistakes are so prevalent.. though getting better.

UConn has always been a solid basketball school and I have no doubt your recent woes will be overcome. Hopefully, we will meet in the tourney in a few years. Our fan bases have been doing through a lot of the same crap. Good luck!
 
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Illinigoat said:
Our fan bases have been doing through a lot of the same crap. Good luck!
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Maybe if Illinois reaches the absolute zenith of college athletics, attaining damn near blue blood status, only to watch its conference fall apart, damning it to some Frankenstein conference of misfits. Otherwise, life is peachy for the Illini.

P.S. Does Illinois’s have any extra money lying around? We probably could use it.
 
It's kind of funny some of the same people saying he was paid (sounds more like sour grapes) hope we can snap him up if his coach is fired.

I don't buy into the "he was bought" stuff, and it does make our fans look foolish. But why would anyone thinking he was paid want to bring him to UConn. He'd have already shown a willingness to jeopardize a program for personal gain.

I don't get it.

TL;DR. I doubt he was paid. Some of y'all are morans.
 
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upstater said:
I don't like those words.

Have heard them before.
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Typically happens when you receive an offer you can't refuse. You are right though, we have heard those words before. What I learned is these sort of shotgun weddings never end up well.
 
husky99 said:
Best of luck... move on...

Did hear this changed in motion very quickly. Staff is shocked.
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Illinigoat said:
I signed up here to fill you in with a few things that may explain why Kofi went to Illinois.

Just like UConn, I'll has been recruiting him for several years. However, Ayo, Illinois 5star pg knew him, and Griffin (son of the NBA player) is a friend who played with him. Also, Illinois backup center played on same team too. So, this was not your typical recruitment.

I only bring this up because we have gone through the same thing over and again. It sucks. But, sometimes finding out there was more to it than coaches alone or cheating makes it easier to swallow. Heck, half of Missouri's starting lineup were committed to Illinois until they hired cwonzo and he pulled in the class. Then, the players that were left graduated or transferred. That is literally why we are now 4-11.

Underwood isn't getting fired anytime soon. He rebooted the entire team this past year. Most of the relevant players are freshman or sophomores,. I believe 7/11 scholarship players are new this year, then we played a hell of a tough schedule. But, freshman mistakes are so prevalent.. though getting better.

UConn has always been a solid basketball school and I have no doubt your recent woes will be overcome. Hopefully, we will meet in the tourney in a few years. Our fan bases have been doing through a lot of the same crap. Good luck!
Expand ...


If both of these posts are true I’m disappointed in the staff...
 
Illinigoat said:
I signed up here to fill you in with a few things that may explain why Kofi went to Illinois.

Just like UConn, I'll has been recruiting him for several years. However, Ayo, Illinois 5star pg knew him, and Griffin (son of the NBA player) is a friend who played with him. Also, Illinois backup center played on same team too. So, this was not your typical recruitment.

I only bring this up because we have gone through the same thing over and again. It sucks. But, sometimes finding out there was more to it than coaches alone or cheating makes it easier to swallow. Heck, half of Missouri's starting lineup were committed to Illinois until they hired cwonzo and he pulled in the class. Then, the players that were left graduated or transferred. That is literally why we are now 4-11.

Underwood isn't getting fired anytime soon. He rebooted the entire team this past year. Most of the relevant players are freshman or sophomores,. I believe 7/11 scholarship players are new this year, then we played a hell of a tough schedule. But, freshman mistakes are so prevalent.. though getting better.

UConn has always been a solid basketball school and I have no doubt your recent woes will be overcome. Hopefully, we will meet in the tourney in a few years. Our fan bases have been doing through a lot of the same crap. Good luck!
Expand ...

So are you the bag man?
 
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“Brian Bowen Sr. said Thursday that Christian Dawkins, an aspiring sports agent and one of the defendants in the trial taking place in Manhattan, conveyed that former OSU associate head coach Lamont Evans was willing to offer $150,000 in cash, $8,000 for a car and money to buy a house for the commitment of five-star forward Brian Bowen Jr., ESPN reported.”

Current Illinois head coach Brad Underwood was the Head Coach at Ok State when this transpired and had hired Lamont as his assistant. Bowen latter testified under oath that these incentives were offered for Bowen Jr to commit to play for Underwood and OK St.

With all of the testimony coming out from these investigations, its clear this was the norm in college hoops, however Im suprised it would continue with actual convictions dropping.

That being said, I cant come up with any other rational arguments why Kofi picked Illinois. To be clear, Im not saying UConn was the the best choice, but if his priority was playing primetime minutes in a power conference, why bottom feed? It’s like deciding you want a fancy steak dinner and choosing Ruby Tuesday’s over any of the big boy’s (Lugers, Ruth Chris, S & W). Leaves me thinking that the salad bar mustve had a lot of fresh green in it down in Champaigne Ill last weekend.
 
huskiesNhoos said:
Anyone ever stop and consider our playing style over the last decade is not particularly appealing to any high talent big? We haven't/don't run any offense through them, and unless they're a decent rim protector they're left out to dry constantly by our guards poor defense (bazz and boat aside...and even they gambled a lot).

Doesn't appear to be something that's going to change either with hurley saying he wants to emmulate nova
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You've got the causal relationship backwards.

The reason we don't run offense through our bigs is because our bigs have been terrible for nearly a decade. If we got one who could score, we'd run offense through them.
 
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Waquoit said:
He's an Ollie guy. He likes to shade Hurley whenever possible.
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Who is an Ollie guy? Before you make accusations you should check people’s post history.
 
..............and he'll stay I Illinois for how long...................1 year?, 2 at the most? As the old 60's song said...........................there's too many fish in the sea. Another one will come along, and isn't a true 5 now no longer a big deal? Aren't most 5's really a big forward. No real true centers out there. Everyone wants to be a ball handling 3 point shooting Lebron/Durrant/Dirk/Greek Freak type players.
 
ARIDE said:
NIce response! Thats the same effort we had to get into this predicament!
Were not losing recruits because of the coach or facilities , its because kids want to play in the big time and on the big stage. We are now a tweener. In between mid major and elite conference. Just the hard facts! Sorry you dont agree!
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The number 1 recruit signed on to play in the AAC next year. Just the hard facts!
 
MervthePurvis said:
Armstrong was not only on another plane athletically I think he was longer as well not to mention he has his own standard of measurement.
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Yeah Carlton’s athleticm means he’d have to have swannigan type production to even sniff a first rounder. There’s no way he reaches Hilton level picks unless he becomes a much better athlete. Dropping some lbs ain’t gonna cut it.

None of that is particularly likely.
 
ARIDE said:
NIce response! Thats the same effort we had to get into this predicament!
Were not losing recruits because of the coach or facilities , its because kids want to play in the big time and on the big stage. We are now a tweener. In between mid major and elite conference. Just the hard facts! Sorry you dont agree!
Expand ...
I agree, but right now, I'd even say that the "NEW" Big East, is NOTHING like it was a number of years ago. Football has co-opted big time basketball. Power conferences, ie. Big 10, Pac-12, ACC, SEC, powers big time basketball now. Maybe different teams, in those conferences, but those conferences, nonetheless. AAC, Big East, Conference USA, etc, are on the edges. with only a few teams breakng into the top polls. Yes, you have your Gonzaga's, Villanova's, and such, but they are the exception, not the rule.
 
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yukonfan4 said:
if you're referring to bouk and gaffney, who have both signed their LOIs, it doesnt seem like either were very tight with kofi seeing as how the announcement caught them by surprise
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Chief00 said:
They may have been told by UConn - he would likely be coming a month or two ago.
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are you saying that the staff may have told bouk and gaffney that kofi was not coming a month or two ago, so the announcement didn't catch them by surprise?
OR
are you saying that the staff may have told bouk and gaffney that kofi was coming a month or two ago, so that's why they signed LOIs? meaning now that kofi isn't coming there's cause for concern that bouk and gaffney might decommit?

sorry i just don't know how to interpret your comment because then you said that the staff pivoted to wahab/mitchell mere days ago, which isn't consistent with the staff knowing what kofi was gonna do two months ago
 
Time to move on folks. He made his choice. Maybe the Illinois co-eds impressed him, who knows?

We need Mitchell or Wahab, and I would very much like to know if there is anybody from Serbia, Croatia, or any other such place we could potentially get. This team could really use a high skill, physical, European big.
 
Ewekon said:
I think the guy was pretty straight forward and provided a lot of background. Also. It's the B1G stupid. Kofi stated as such himself.
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A little too practiced maybe? As if he was prepared just in case FBI investigators come calling?

Actually, I'm with Tom on this. The whole he got paid thing is a little too knee jerk. I appreciate fans from other boards stopping by, and this one was reasonable enough, I guess, though the timing seemed a little victory-lappish to me.
 
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