Could big-name coaches keep state's talent here?
The college basketball season is over, and as a proud native of Chicago and the state of Illinois, I want to know when are we going to start keeping our talented players at home?
We need coaches and programs in place that will keep our kids here because they are all leaving to play elsewhere.
I remember a few years ago when Glenbrook North's Jon Scheyer was Mr. Basketball, and there was a campaign to keep him in Illinois.
At the time (2005), Bruce Weber was coaching at Illinois, and his brother Dave was coaching Scheyer at the high school level. Scheyer selected Duke over the Illini, and he took plenty of heat over the decision — even getting booed at Cubs game for leaving the state.
Scheyer, now an assistant coach at Duke, was a guest last week on my Foxsports radio show and I told him he made the right choice.
Recruits know that playing at Illinois, Northwestern or DePaul offers them little opportunity to participate in the NCAA tournament. So hometown high school players such as Derrick Rose, Anthony Davis, Jabari Parker, Frank Kaminsky, Tyler Ulis, Chris Collins, Jahlil Okafor, Ryan Boatright and Patrick Beverly all leave because they don't have enough confidence in any of the programs to stay home.
Some kids have stayed home, such Benet Academy's Dave Sobolewski, who attended Northwestern, playing first for Bill Carmody and then Chris Collins. He will have that impressive Northwestern degree, but as a collegiate basketball player he never got the chance to play in one NCAA tournament game.
The basketball programs in this state need to bring in big-time coaches with swagger, and acknowledge that their college athletic programs should be more than just an opportunity to print money.
Until that happens, the programs in this state will stay right where they are — irrelevant.
Can DePaul's new hire Dave Leitao keep the big-time Chicago players home? I doubt it. Can Chris Collins overcome the high standards of academics at Northwestern and bring in some blue chippers? Maybe. And the Fighting Illini, coached by John Groce, might as well be in Siberia.
Those three schools get the most exposure in Illinois, but let's not forget about Loyola, which won the CBI Championship. At this point, that's all basketball fans in this state have to brag about.
If I were to pick one of the three programs that might be on the upswing, it's Northwestern. I still expect good things from Collins, who just finished his second year,(15-17 and 14-19) and athletic director Jim Phillips.
So far, though, I can only give Northwestern a D because the results are spotty as far as basketball goes.
Unfortunately, the bottom line is our fair state has some of the greatest basketball talent around, but the kids just don't want to play here.
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