http://blogs.suntimes.com/hoopsreport/

This is the analyst that the Star sourced in its recruiting story. Things seem to be changing since that article came out.

"Northern Illinois basketball has taken some hits in the last year, both on the floor (10-20 last season) and off of it with some player movement and some negative feedback from those personnel moves. However, the staff has become more aggressive on the recruiting front, getting more kids on campus and being mentioned with potential recruits more and more of late.

This week Northern Illinois offered the Glenbard East tandem of 6-3 Johnny Hill, one of the Hoops Report's top 20 prospects in the Class of 2011, and point guard Zach Miller, the DuPage Valley Conference Player of the Year last season. In addition, NIU has been involved with Whitney Young's versatile 6-7 Luke Hager, Mount Carmel guard Adonis Filer, Evanston's rising 6-7 James Farr, big men Devon Hodges of Bolingbrook, Josh Piper of Champaign Centennial and Max Bielfeldt of Peoria Notre Dame, along with University's Michael Turner.

A lot of credit goes head coach Ricardo Patton's staff. Assistant coach Todd Townsend, one of the impressive young assistants in the business, has done a terrific job in his short time in DeKalb of generating NIU interest with recruits along with assistant coach Sundance Wicks."

That's positive news. However, I really don't know how much is changing in regards to what the NIU basketball staff is doing. I think they were always looking at and going after players they felt were good for them. I think what has changed is someone noticed the positive instead of the negative. Sounds more to me like the reporter is fixing a situation he maybe unfairly helped create, than the staff is fixing something that was perceived as needing fixed more than it really did. NIU was involved with a lot of potential recruits before, they just weren't getting mentioned like they maybe are now, that could be different if recruits are taking a serious look at NIU. But I still think the view people have (or this guys has) is different more so than the actions of the staff are different. In any case, it is positive news.

(06-05-2010 10:56 AM)NIUdogs Wrote:  http://blogs.suntimes.com/hoopsreport/

A lot of credit goes head coach Ricardo Patton's staff. Assistant coach Todd Townsend, one of the impressive young assistants in the business, has done a terrific job in his short time in DeKalb of generating NIU interest with recruits along with assistant coach Sundance Wicks."

Isn't Sundance gone to Oklahoma? I know he was down there for a final interview

Nope. Sundance is staying. Withdrew his name at Oklahoma. He's still a HUSKIE!
He's doing a great job and is an energizer. I'm glad he is staying with us.

You can offer who ever you like. It does not matter till you land a big fish.

(06-05-2010 10:56 AM)NIUdogs Wrote:  http://blogs.suntimes.com/hoopsreport/

This is the analyst that the Star sourced in its recruiting story. Things seem to be changing since that article came out.

"Northern Illinois basketball has taken some hits in the last year, both on the floor (10-20 last season) and off of it with some player movement and some negative feedback from those personnel moves. However, the staff has become more aggressive on the recruiting front, getting more kids on campus and being mentioned with potential recruits more and more of late.

This week Northern Illinois offered the Glenbard East tandem of 6-3 Johnny Hill, one of the Hoops Report's top 20 prospects in the Class of 2011, and point guard Zach Miller, the DuPage Valley Conference Player of the Year last season. In addition, NIU has been involved with Whitney Young's versatile 6-7 Luke Hager, Mount Carmel guard Adonis Filer, Evanston's rising 6-7 James Farr, big men Devon Hodges of Bolingbrook, Josh Piper of Champaign Centennial and Max Bielfeldt of Peoria Notre Dame, along with University's Michael Turner.

A lot of credit goes head coach Ricardo Patton's staff. Assistant coach Todd Townsend, one of the impressive young assistants in the business, has done a terrific job in his short time in DeKalb of generating NIU interest with recruits along with assistant coach Sundance Wicks."

While it does depend on getting the big fish this is a positive sign. One of the remarks scouts said before this year was that NIU was missing out on a lot of local talent. It seems from Henricksen that NIU is going after more local talented players. Really have to give praise to Townsend and Wicks for this. From the couple AAU coaches I know they said Townsend has been everywhere and making as many connections and that Wicks is a great guy.

(06-06-2010 09:51 AM)Ben Gross Wrote:  

(06-05-2010 10:56 AM)NIUdogs Wrote:  http://blogs.suntimes.com/hoopsreport/

This is the analyst that the Star sourced in its recruiting story. Things seem to be changing since that article came out.

"Northern Illinois basketball has taken some hits in the last year, both on the floor (10-20 last season) and off of it with some player movement and some negative feedback from those personnel moves. However, the staff has become more aggressive on the recruiting front, getting more kids on campus and being mentioned with potential recruits more and more of late.

This week Northern Illinois offered the Glenbard East tandem of 6-3 Johnny Hill, one of the Hoops Report's top 20 prospects in the Class of 2011, and point guard Zach Miller, the DuPage Valley Conference Player of the Year last season. In addition, NIU has been involved with Whitney Young's versatile 6-7 Luke Hager, Mount Carmel guard Adonis Filer, Evanston's rising 6-7 James Farr, big men Devon Hodges of Bolingbrook, Josh Piper of Champaign Centennial and Max Bielfeldt of Peoria Notre Dame, along with University's Michael Turner.

A lot of credit goes head coach Ricardo Patton's staff. Assistant coach Todd Townsend, one of the impressive young assistants in the business, has done a terrific job in his short time in DeKalb of generating NIU interest with recruits along with assistant coach Sundance Wicks."

While it does depend on getting the big fish this is a positive sign. One of the remarks scouts said before this year was that NIU was missing out on a lot of local talent. It seems from Henricksen that NIU is going after more local talented players. Really have to give praise to Townsend and Wicks for this. From the couple AAU coaches I know they said Townsend has been everywhere and making as many connections and that Wicks is a great guy.

I need to ask why any of you would put one ounce of stock in any assessment that is coming from this so-called recruiting analyst. This is a guy who absolutely lambasted the NIU men's basketball coaching staff over their perceived inability to recruit in the Chicago area and now he is trying to say that the tables have suddenly turned? PLEASE!!

We know this guy and we can assure everyone that his true opinion has not changed whatsoever. What all of you need to be aware of is that the only reason he is suddenly praising NIU's recruiting efforts is because he is the brother-in-law of the head coach at Glenbard East, the school in which the two players that he reported NIU offering play at. And one of those players just happens to be the coach's kid--end of story.

Here is the deal--had the offers been to any players other than these two players from Glenbard East this analyst would have never even reported the news and would still be singing the same tune.

(06-06-2010 09:51 AM)Ben Gross Wrote:  

(06-05-2010 10:56 AM)NIUdogs Wrote:  http://blogs.suntimes.com/hoopsreport/

This is the analyst that the Star sourced in its recruiting story. Things seem to be changing since that article came out.

"Northern Illinois basketball has taken some hits in the last year, both on the floor (10-20 last season) and off of it with some player movement and some negative feedback from those personnel moves. However, the staff has become more aggressive on the recruiting front, getting more kids on campus and being mentioned with potential recruits more and more of late.

This week Northern Illinois offered the Glenbard East tandem of 6-3 Johnny Hill, one of the Hoops Report's top 20 prospects in the Class of 2011, and point guard Zach Miller, the DuPage Valley Conference Player of the Year last season. In addition, NIU has been involved with Whitney Young's versatile 6-7 Luke Hager, Mount Carmel guard Adonis Filer, Evanston's rising 6-7 James Farr, big men Devon Hodges of Bolingbrook, Josh Piper of Champaign Centennial and Max Bielfeldt of Peoria Notre Dame, along with University's Michael Turner.

A lot of credit goes head coach Ricardo Patton's staff. Assistant coach Todd Townsend, one of the impressive young assistants in the business, has done a terrific job in his short time in DeKalb of generating NIU interest with recruits along with assistant coach Sundance Wicks."

While it does depend on getting the big fish this is a positive sign. One of the remarks scouts said before this year was that NIU was missing out on a lot of local talent. It seems from Henricksen that NIU is going after more local talented players. Really have to give praise to Townsend and Wicks for this. From the couple AAU coaches I know they said Townsend has been everywhere and making as many connections and that Wicks is a great guy.

I am not surprised they were missing a lot of local talent. I am going to take a wild guess is that they were going for players around the country because the players in Chicago were avoiding NIU like the plague because of our recent "success" and the MAC's reputation(ie. lack of national press, one bid conference, etc). THe avoidance of NIU started long before Patton got here.

Quote:We know this guy and we can assure everyone that his true opinion has not changed whatsoever. What all of you need to be aware of is that the only reason he is suddenly praising NIU's recruiting efforts is because he is the brother-in-law of the head coach at Glenbard East, the school in which the two players that he reported NIU offering play at. And one of those players just happens to be the coach's kid--end of story.

Here is the deal--had the offers been to any players other than these two players from Glenbard East this analyst would have never even reported the news and would still be singing the same tune.

Who is we? Henricksen is the most credible analyst around.

(06-06-2010 12:17 PM)NIUdogs Wrote:  

Quote:We know this guy and we can assure everyone that his true opinion has not changed whatsoever. What all of you need to be aware of is that the only reason he is suddenly praising NIU's recruiting efforts is because he is the brother-in-law of the head coach at Glenbard East, the school in which the two players that he reported NIU offering play at. And one of those players just happens to be the coach's kid--end of story.

Here is the deal--had the offers been to any players other than these two players from Glenbard East this analyst would have never even reported the news and would still be singing the same tune.

Who is we? Henricksen is the most credible analyst around.

Yeah, right. If you believe that then your credibility is immediately called into question.

(06-06-2010 04:33 PM)for the love of the game Wrote:  

(06-06-2010 12:17 PM)NIUdogs Wrote:  

Quote:We know this guy and we can assure everyone that his true opinion has not changed whatsoever. What all of you need to be aware of is that the only reason he is suddenly praising NIU's recruiting efforts is because he is the brother-in-law of the head coach at Glenbard East, the school in which the two players that he reported NIU offering play at. And one of those players just happens to be the coach's kid--end of story.

Here is the deal--had the offers been to any players other than these two players from Glenbard East this analyst would have never even reported the news and would still be singing the same tune.

Who is we? Henricksen is the most credible analyst around.

Yeah, right. If you believe that then your credibility is immediately called into question.

So far I've read him in the Sun-Times dozens of times and heard him on the Mully and Hanley show on 670 The Score...yeah, he must be a bum.

(06-06-2010 09:22 PM)NIUdogs Wrote:  

(06-06-2010 04:33 PM)for the love of the game Wrote:  

(06-06-2010 12:17 PM)NIUdogs Wrote:  

Quote:We know this guy and we can assure everyone that his true opinion has not changed whatsoever. What all of you need to be aware of is that the only reason he is suddenly praising NIU's recruiting efforts is because he is the brother-in-law of the head coach at Glenbard East, the school in which the two players that he reported NIU offering play at. And one of those players just happens to be the coach's kid--end of story.

Here is the deal--had the offers been to any players other than these two players from Glenbard East this analyst would have never even reported the news and would still be singing the same tune.

Who is we? Henricksen is the most credible analyst around.

Yeah, right. If you believe that then your credibility is immediately called into question.

So far I've read him in the Sun-Times dozens of times and heard him on the Mully and Hanley show on 670 The Score...yeah, he must be a bum.

Didn't say he is a bum--said he is hardly the most credible recruiting analyst. Just because he is in the Sun-Times and on the Score doesn't make him credible. It is easy to buffalo the media in Chicago if you have people helping you do it. You aren't too smart yourself, are you?

There is no way ANY recruiting analyst can know every player that well, know every coach who is talking to whichever players, know which coaches are even interested in each player on their list, know how hard staffs are or aren't working, etc. They can only go on bits and pieces of info that they know, or hear, or heard that someone else heard someone else say, etc.

I would bet that our coaches have been going after any and all players that they liked and thought would be a good fit all along. But, someone had a beef or an axe to grind and negativity was what people heard, so it was passed on to others and soon to those "experts" who write or post things. Then it gets put on here and people get all worked up. Then, some positive things are noted and all of a sudden our coaches are doing things different? I doubt they are doing things too differently. The positive pub is definitely nicer to have, but don't put too much stock into any rankings or rumors or statements that appear to come from people who "know". We have coaches with good character, who recruit good character, and who want to get the highest quality player with good character that they can get to come to NIU. Those players are hard to get because everyone wants them and with our past record, our lack of support from students and fans at games creating a dead atmosphere, and any bad pub that may or probably may not be earned makes it difficult. We have to find ways to win and ways to create a better environment that recruits will like with players that aren't the top of everyone's lists. But our coaches are still going after them and it is nice to see that some positive pub about it is out there.

(06-06-2010 07:19 AM)klake87 Wrote:  You can offer who ever you like. It does not matter till you land a big fish.

From prepbullseye.com: Recruiting interest in Frank Kaminsky, the 6'10 class of 2011 center from Benet Academy in Lisle, IL, has reached a fever pitch. As a result the number of high major programs that are now involved with Kaminsky continues to increase. According to Illinois Wolves head coach and CEO Mike Mullins, two more programs from the Big East conference can now officially be added to the list of schools recruiting Kaminsky--Notre Dame and Pittsburgh. Kaminsky has indicated that he would like to take an unofficial visit to the Notre Dame campus in the near future.

Kaminsky's first Big East scholarship offer was courtesy of DePaul University. In addition, Kaminsky has received offers from Wisconsin, Northwestern, Northern Illinois and Bradley. Other schools that have shown strong interest include Xavier, Illinois and Indiana. Kaminsky has also discussed the possibility of visiting the Hoosiers campus in Bloomington, IN around the same time that he travels to Notre Dame.

You can't land a big fish if you don't try. So, despite the attempt by some to bring negativity to NIU's recruiting efforts, I think it is a positive that we are out trying to land the big fish and falling back on guys that others are also going for. If our name is out there with the big guys, other guys may take more notice. But, it has taken a few years to get our name with those guys, even though some uninformed "experts" thought it was just that they weren't out trying to get them because they didn't realize it may take a few years to overcome the hurdles of recruiting to NIU and because a few noisy folks with an axe to grind caused an unfair perception (that some on here were glad to hear and jumped on board with - how sad.....)