Gamble pays for both Weber, Richmond

Posted In: Herald & Review Mark Tupper Illini
Date: Thursday, November 12, 2009

Signing date brought no surprises for coach Bruce Weber Thursday, and he was just fine with that.
His three-year “extended engagement” to Jereme Richmond was consummated when Richmond’s signed letter of intent peeled through the University of Illinois fax machine. Another from Crandall Head arrived as expected, too. Ditto for the signed letter from Meyers Leonard.
It was a happy day in the Illini basketball office Thursday, not only the official welcoming of three outstanding recruits, but an indication that a program-wide change in recruiting strategy implemented three years ago is working and working well.
Three years ago. November of 2006. That’s when Richmond accepted Weber’s surprisingly early scholarship offer before the 6-5 player at Winnetka North Shore Country Day had played his first high school basketball game.
Three years later, Richmond is pushing 6-8. He’s at Waukegan. And he’s as good or better than Weber could have dreamed.
The change in strategy came when Weber listened to his staff and decided to stem the tide of in-state prospects leaving for other programs, he needed to get involved earlier and gamble by offering scholarships earlier.
Richmond was the first target.
To be honest, there are not many prospects that young who are good enough or worthy enough to offer at that age. And from Weber’s perspective, I think it would be deemed too risky if a fairly strong family or family figure were not involved.
In the case of Richmond, they gambled that he was both good enough and was from a family that understood the concept of commitment was a two-way proposition. Turns out Illinois was right on both counts. The Richmond family was right, too.
Even when assistant coach Tracy Webster left for Kentucky and Richmond had a moment when he wondered if he should look around, Illinois provided an answer. Jerrance Howard approached Richmond as the new Illini assistant and focused solely on Richmond as a person. He did not broach the subject of basketball, focusing solely on the program’s caring of Richmond as a person. And once Richmond found he could trust and believe in Howard, he lost his desire to look anywhere else.
Since then, it’s been a very good story of player and family loyalty to the program, and of loyalty by the program toward Jereme Richmond.
His high school coaches will tell you he has grown up a ton in the last two years. He has matured. And he has also grown as an elite player.
Crandall Head and Meyers Leonard are two kids who really want to be a part of the program. Leonard is just scratching the surface on his potential. He told me earlier this week he was measured at 7-feet, 231 pounds when Robinson High School practice began on Monday. Check out my story about him that ran on Thursday morning in the Herald & Review.
The question on Head involves his surgically repaired knee. Will there be any diminishing of skills from the two surgeries and a long rehab that will cost him his senior year of high school basketball?
And after this outstanding group, Weber has verbal commitments from Tracy Abrams and Nnanna Egwu in the bank. On Thursday, Weber said he hopes to have another early commitment in hand soon. Could it be Thomas Hamilton Jr., Class of 2013, who has yet to play his first freshman game at Whitney Young?
Weber said he will continue to look at young players, including 7th and 8th graders. He said he doesn’t feel comfortable offering scholarships until they are in high school, and that’s probably a good idea for both sides. But he likes getting prospects on campus early, involving their families early, building the relationships early, and is willing to risk the travails of a long engagement to reach the final destination.
It’s not a strategy that will be used all the time. But in special cases, it can be the answer. On Thursday, Illini fans got a reward for Weber’s gamble and for Richmond’s loyalty.

(Read More ... )