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Illinois Basketball: Thoughts on the Talen Horton-Tucker situation

By Rees Woodcock

NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 18: Head coach Brad Underwood of the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks reacts in the first half against the West Virginia Mountaineers during the first round of the 2016 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Barclays Center on March 18, 2016 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 18: Head coach Brad Underwood of the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks reacts in the first half against the West Virginia Mountaineers during the first round of the 2016 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Barclays Center on March 18, 2016 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images) /
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LAS VEGAS, NV – MARCH 10: Basketballs are shown in a ball rack before a semifinal game of the Mountain West Conference basketball tournament between the Fresno State Bulldogs and the Nevada Wolf Pack at the Thomas /

Mac Irvin Fire

There is a lot of confusion and a little anger in what happened last night with the recruitment of Talent Horton-Tucker. This kid obviously wanted to go to Illinois but there were other forces behind him not coming to Champaign.

From what I have read the AAU team Mac Irvin Fire had a lot to do with Horton-Tucker not coming to Illinois. In the article by Michael O’Brien of the Chicago Sun-Times, when Horton-Tucker decided to join a different AAU program because he wanted more of the spotlight to get noticed by college coaches, the Mac Irvin Fire didn’t like that. Also, from reports around the college basketball world, there was the ultimatum of if Illinois brings in Horton-Tucker then they would lose Ayo Dosunmu.

Let me lay this out for you again. The Mac Irvin Fire had sour grapes because an extremely talented player left their program to get more notoriety with another program. So, Mac Irvin Fire decided to lay down the hammer on that kid and forced Illinois’ hand.

This does not sit well with me. As an AAU program, your job is to help develop kids and get them noticed by college programs of THEIR choosing. Shame on the Mac Irvin Fire staff for doing this to kids who are making some of the biggest life decisions they will ever make.

Mac Irvin Fire should be guiding these young kids not getting back at them. This was an AAU program having way too much power over sub 18-year old lives. It is a shame that some AAU programs, like the Mac Irvin Fire, decide to abuse that power by controlling the players that play for them. They should want the best for every player that plays for their program and in this case, they clearly didn’t.

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