The beauty of the NCAA Tournament is that it lets teams from across the country play one another. At 68 campuses across America, students, players, and fans celebrated the best day in college basketball: Selection Sunday.
But Illinois did not celebrate. Instead, we mourned the death of big-time college basketball in our home state with every college staying home for a consecutive year. However, it’s not an issue of talent, or lack thereof, coming from Illinois.
Chicago is known as a basketball hotbed, consistently one of the best cities in the country at producing talent. Stars Derrick Rose, Anthony Davis, Dwyane Wade, Jabari Parker, and Jahlil Okafor all grew up in Chicago, yet none of these five players went to college in Illinois, decisions that have all worked out.
However, it is true that Illinois basketball has never been one of the best states for college hoops. The only college from the state to win an NCAA Championship is Loyola, who beat Cincinnati in 1963. Since their march to the championship game in 2005, University of Illinois has struggled recently missing the tournament the past two years. Recruiting, or lackthereof, has played a big role in their regression.
The Illini have missed out on recruiting the top players from Illinois to Champagne. At his college announcement, Cliff Alexander, the number 2 recruit per ESPN for the class of 2014, even picked up an Illini hat in mockery before placing it down for a Kansas one. This was just the latest miss for the Illini in recruiting.
“Illinois should be owning the city in recruiting,” said diehard Illini fan and senior Landon Wilneff. “But if you have the opportunity to go to a Kentucky or a Kansas, a program with a coach who has sent multiple players to the NBA and you know you’ll be one of the best teams in the country, why would you come to Illinois and have to compete for an NCAA Tournament bid?”
Wilneff elaborates that players could come to Illinois or other schools in Illinois to be “the guy”, but they would rather choose the path that ensures an NBA future.
And he’s right. The one and done rule allows players to go to school for just one year, and they pass through simply as mercenaries, paying their dues at college for a year before they cash in their first round paycheck. Where has the loyalty to your college gone? It has become all about the NBA.
Basketball beyond college plays a huge role in recruits’ decisions in where to attend college. This was seen in star Stevenson guard and the best player in Illinois, Jalen Brunson and his commitment to Villanova. Senior Kevin Fortin has been a lifelong Wildcats fan and has even attended a few of Brunson’s biggest games this year.
“He likes the family environment of the Villanova program and the staff,” Fortin said. “Of course what [head coach] Jay Wright has done in the past with guards helped contribute to Brunson’s commitment, whether it be with Randy Foye, Scottie Reynolds, or Kyle Lowry.”
When Brunson chose Villanova over a host of schools, including Kansas, Michigan State, and Illinois, he kept his NBA future in mind.
And this is impossible for a team like Northwestern to compete with. as the Wildcats are the only power conference team to never make the NCAA Tournament.
However, would be unfair to go through this article by just mentioning Illinois and Northwestern.
DePaul was a lock for the tournament throughout the 80’s, though their last appearance was in 2004.
Senior Dante Chakravorti grew up going to DePaul games, which he says were often the highlight of his winter.
“I think the problem with DePaul basketball in recent years stems from a complete breakdown in tradition,” he said.
DePaul was hit hard by their lack of recruiting as colleges from across the country reached into their backyard, Chicago, to recruit some of the best talent. Chakravorti can’t blame these kids for leaving.
“It’s tough to recruit kids to play for a school who was playing in the Big East when it was arguably the best conference in basketball and DePaul was getting walked on night in and night out,” he added.
Besides DePaul, Illinois State, Bradley, Loyola, Eastern Illinois, UIC, Northern Illinois , and Southern Illinois have all been absent from the tournament the past 8 years.
This all surmounts to quite a drought for Illinois college basketball, and one that will not be broken this year. And as more and more top recruits from Chicago leave the state for other top colleges, it’s a trend that we are tired of seeing but will likely continue.