Steve, I was told initially that he

Alan, you are probably right. And it is also obvious that most of the great black athletes in Chicago prefer basketball. Call it the Michael Jordan syndrome. Add in the fact that a metropolitan area like Chicago is easily reached by recruiters from everywhere. Somebody noted:

Reborn Z, I

Jim, as long as the Cardinals are more than 10 games over .500, I figure this team is doing about as well as can be expected. They have holes, and one of them is starting pitching at the back of the rotation. They needed Westbrook. Did they give up too much? That depends on how Craig and Jay do. They may not have Ludwick

Charley, we jumped the gun on Travis. He was in the process of being released by the New Orleans Hornets when he agreed to do the blogs as a part-time job. Now he has accepted a full-time job with the Boise Stampede (with health issurance, thank heavens) and reports there Aug. 19. The Stampede is in the D-League and is supported by the Denver Nuggers and Portland Trail Blazers.He won

Illinigator, there is nothing I've heard to indicate Illinois might soon be playing Florida in basketball. The Illini have precious few home-and-road games with major opponents.

Vernon, all of the above. Clearly, the offense struggled last year as Schultz proved to be a non-fit. But so many things have gone wrong after the Rose Bowl year that I could spend days enumerating them.
It isn't only players underachieving. It is players leaving. If you check some of those highly-touted recruiting classes, you'll find a number of quality prospects gone. So as we look back, it was Mendenhall leaving early, it was Juice falling short, it was an offensive line that was mediocre, it was erratic coaching from the sideline, it was downright ineptness on defense, it was a failure to come through in the fourth quarter ... you name it, the Illini did it.

Brucks, the time limitation on these chats doesn't allow me to track down questions in which I don't have the immediate answers. When school starts, we'll check on things like this in the non-revenue sports. Sorry, I'm just not on top of gymnastics and tennis at this point. Jeff Huth is checking with Spring and we could have a response on Maestas later.
P.S. To Brucks, we found out that Maestas won't enroll until January, so he'll be available for the gymnastics championships in this school year. Typically, there are no gymnastics matches in December beyond intrasquad stuff.

Vernon, the Mendenhall incident couldn't have helped, but probably had little to do with all those recruits that decommitted. This had more to do with the rumors that Zook would be fired, or at least wouldn't be around a lot longer, and the shakeup in the staff that took the recruiting coordinator, Reggie Mitchell, and others. All those losses really hurt. If Illinois had kept winning, the Mendenhall business probably wouldn't have mattered.

Russ, the main source was Notre Dame, and after due consideration (and cooling down), Guenther and others made a decision NOT to pinpoint the source of those rumors. Schools don't like accusing others for obvious reasons.

Steve, Tisdale would be recruited on his offensive potential. He's way ahead of Meyers Leonard in that regard. Leonard has more athleticism and may be a fine center, but he has nowhere near Tisdale's offensive moves and accuracy.
McCamey has point guard skills and a level of physicality that set him apart at the position. Abrams is a work in progress as a point guard.
As for Davis, you don't overlook athletes with his size who can jump and shoot. Illinois has no power forward who comes close, and while Shaw would be more of a power guy, he hasn't shown a lot of offensive scoring potential.
In the final analysis, Weber would have certainly taken Tisdale, probably would have taken Davis, and was hopeful of getting both Turner and McCamey from Westchester St. Joe, although Turner was clearly the No. 1 pick there. Based on your question, you may be overrating the young players, with the exception of Richmond.