Five star SF Kris Wilkes (from Indianapolis North) will announce his college choice by Twitter this Sunday at 3 P.M Eastern time....(Noon in Westwood). You can access that here:
https://twitter.com/kadw31
There have been no changes to his final three of UCLA, Indiana, and Illinois (with many people predicting that's the current order of his preference). Here's a viewpoint from Champaign, as reported in The Daily Illini, and you'll like the part where from The Daily's basketball columnist Matt Gertsmeier:
"A commitment from Wilkes would be a dream come true for Illinois......The only problem is Illinois seems like a long shot at this point.
The bad news for Bruin fans is Wilkes would join a great freshman class the Illini staff has signed up already. Possibly worse news would be that Wilkes is the only SF they're recruiting with the only scholarship SF onboard a 3 star freshman who being red-shirted. He'll not only start, but also be the focus of their offense.
Gertsmeier also makes a good point about Champaign being far enough away from Indy (not to mention in another state) to feel like he's going away to college, yet still only about two hours away by car for home visits.
In the end however, there's been nothing recently to indicate the Illini have moved up in the pecking order.
http://dailyillini.com/sports/2016/11/10/decision-day-illinois-basketball-quickly-approaching/
Indiana is virtually every prognosticator's choice for the real competition to UCLA. Which brings up a surreal phenomena. Rivals' IU board has lots and lots of action on basketball, and that's no surprise. Basketball in the Hoosier State is treated with a reverence comparable to how football is loved in the states of Texas and Alabama combined !
Multiple threads on IU's game against Kansas, including a slick video the school put out for their big opener. Then are threads announcing the Hoosier staff received LOI's from 3 star 6'10" PF Clifton Moore from Pennsylvania, and also 3 star SG Al Durham from Georgia.
If you're seeing a trend here for OOS recruits, you're right and Tom Cream is getting some heat for missing out on the top Indiana kids for the second year running. Fortunately Cream got a third LOI for this year is a SF like Wilkes....3.5 star Justin Smith from Lincolnshire, IL, who he beat out the Illini and Villanova to sign and may turn out to be better than advertised.
So at least the Hoosiers won't be shut out at the position a la the Illini. Plus they're still in the running for 4 star SF Jordan Tucker from Georgia, who's all but guaranteed to be leaving the Peach State for college. So Wilkes isn't going to be feeling bad about leaving his home school team high and dry.
The surreal thing I mentioned above? What wasn't being talked about on the Rival's IU board? Keith Wilkes, and you'd have to go all the way back to last Saturday on page 4 to see his name even mentioned. Even that was a thread initiated by the moderator to link a story on Wilkes by Rivals basketball analyst Rick Bossi.
You can read that here, but keep in mind the piece is now 11 days old:
https://basketballrecruiting.rivals.com/news/starting-five-decision-set-for-five-star-kris-wilkes
Hoosier fans seem to have given up on Wilkes, and moved on. All their current recruit speculation is centered on Billy Preston, a 5 star PF from Oak Hill Academy who was originally from LA. Which then leaves the last finalist UCLA.
The stars seem aligned and Wilkes would be the pièce de résistance of this year's class. He would be UCLA's top rated recruit, and possibly push the Bruin class to the top spot. (Bossi currently has them at No. 5). He also fills a huge need for a go to SF scorer, and his high flying athletic game was tailor made for the fans at Pauley Pavilion.
However we cannot underestimate the importance of the Yogi factor.....don't celebrate until it's over:
https://twitter.com/kadw31
There have been no changes to his final three of UCLA, Indiana, and Illinois (with many people predicting that's the current order of his preference). Here's a viewpoint from Champaign, as reported in The Daily Illini, and you'll like the part where from The Daily's basketball columnist Matt Gertsmeier:
"A commitment from Wilkes would be a dream come true for Illinois......The only problem is Illinois seems like a long shot at this point.
The bad news for Bruin fans is Wilkes would join a great freshman class the Illini staff has signed up already. Possibly worse news would be that Wilkes is the only SF they're recruiting with the only scholarship SF onboard a 3 star freshman who being red-shirted. He'll not only start, but also be the focus of their offense.
Gertsmeier also makes a good point about Champaign being far enough away from Indy (not to mention in another state) to feel like he's going away to college, yet still only about two hours away by car for home visits.
In the end however, there's been nothing recently to indicate the Illini have moved up in the pecking order.
http://dailyillini.com/sports/2016/11/10/decision-day-illinois-basketball-quickly-approaching/
Indiana is virtually every prognosticator's choice for the real competition to UCLA. Which brings up a surreal phenomena. Rivals' IU board has lots and lots of action on basketball, and that's no surprise. Basketball in the Hoosier State is treated with a reverence comparable to how football is loved in the states of Texas and Alabama combined !
Multiple threads on IU's game against Kansas, including a slick video the school put out for their big opener. Then are threads announcing the Hoosier staff received LOI's from 3 star 6'10" PF Clifton Moore from Pennsylvania, and also 3 star SG Al Durham from Georgia.
If you're seeing a trend here for OOS recruits, you're right and Tom Cream is getting some heat for missing out on the top Indiana kids for the second year running. Fortunately Cream got a third LOI for this year is a SF like Wilkes....3.5 star Justin Smith from Lincolnshire, IL, who he beat out the Illini and Villanova to sign and may turn out to be better than advertised.
So at least the Hoosiers won't be shut out at the position a la the Illini. Plus they're still in the running for 4 star SF Jordan Tucker from Georgia, who's all but guaranteed to be leaving the Peach State for college. So Wilkes isn't going to be feeling bad about leaving his home school team high and dry.
The surreal thing I mentioned above? What wasn't being talked about on the Rival's IU board? Keith Wilkes, and you'd have to go all the way back to last Saturday on page 4 to see his name even mentioned. Even that was a thread initiated by the moderator to link a story on Wilkes by Rivals basketball analyst Rick Bossi.
You can read that here, but keep in mind the piece is now 11 days old:
https://basketballrecruiting.rivals.com/news/starting-five-decision-set-for-five-star-kris-wilkes
Hoosier fans seem to have given up on Wilkes, and moved on. All their current recruit speculation is centered on Billy Preston, a 5 star PF from Oak Hill Academy who was originally from LA. Which then leaves the last finalist UCLA.
The stars seem aligned and Wilkes would be the pièce de résistance of this year's class. He would be UCLA's top rated recruit, and possibly push the Bruin class to the top spot. (Bossi currently has them at No. 5). He also fills a huge need for a go to SF scorer, and his high flying athletic game was tailor made for the fans at Pauley Pavilion.
However we cannot underestimate the importance of the Yogi factor.....don't celebrate until it's over:
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