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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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CHAMPAIGN, IL – JANUARY 27: Illinois Fighting Illinois fans cheer against the Michigan Wolverines during the game at Assembly Hall on January 27, 2013 in Champaign, Illinois. Michigan defeated Illinois 74-60. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /

Illinois Basketball

As an Illinois basketball fan, there is a lot to digest here. There are so many elements to what happened last night and it all came out to a kid losing out on a program he wanted to commit to because adults couldn’t act their age.

Looking at the Illini and what their role in this was, I am kind of disappointed in how they handled the entire situation. The recruiting game is difficult and getting top players is the top priority, I understand that completely. They could have had two top 60 players after last night but things didn’t work out that way.

I understand the way the Mac Irvin Fire handled this was inappropriate and I put most of the blame on them for this situation. But, Illinois has some blame here too. One of two things needed to happen throughout the recruiting process. Either you stop recruiting Horton-Tucker completely when you found out Mac Irvin Fire would have control or you welcome in a commitment from Horton-Tucker and put the ball in Dosunmu’s court.

These are the two options you could have gone with but you let Horton-Tucker’s recruitment come down to the wire and then we all know what happened at the end. This does hurt the image of the Illinois basketball program to some extent. I think time will heal all wounds but, right now, this looks bad.

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