2. Eric Gordon
Now we get to the top two. It was tough not to put this guy No. 1 on the list, but the impact he had in college is less than what the No. 1 player had. Nonetheless, Eric Gordon will always be a painful recruitment.
Gordon was a 6-foot-4, 215-pound shooting guard coming out of Indianapolis. He was rated as a five-star recruit and ranked as the No. 2 player in the class of 2007. Illinois was coming off a little bit of a bad season after a great run in the early and mid-2000s. It was time to get back on the horse and win some games.
In December 2005, Illinois received the commitment from Gordon. This was huge for the program, just months removed from a national title run and in the midst of the final season of Dee Brown and James Augustine. Things were going to be fine.
This was still early in his recruitment process, though. Gordon was a member of the class of 2007, so we needed to lock him in. In October 2006, everything changed.
Indiana swooped in and flipped Gordon. This was one of the biggest flips I can ever remember. The Hoosiers hired Kelvin Sampson, and he illegally recruited Gordon at the time. This got Gordon to flip the commitment.
Sampson would spend not even two full seasons at Indiana before being fired in disgrace. If he isn’t super shady and doesn’t flip Gordon, Illinois has a special year with this kid in Champaign. That changed everything.