So Illinois picked up a basketball recruit last week.  I wanted to write something at the time, but a little birdie had told me that Rivals and Scout would be updating their rankings this week.  And given that Mychael Henry was unranked by either service at the time, I wanted to wait until those rankings hit so I could either “um, yay, I guess” or “MY GOD WILL ANYONE BE ABLE TO STOP US IN 2012/13?”

Well, the rankings hit yesterday.

MY GOD WILL ANYONE BE ABLE TO STOP US IN 2012/13?

Wednesday, Mychael Henry debuted at #66 in Scout’s rankings.  Yesterday, he debuted at #18 in Rivals rankings.  As in, 5-star.  As in, highest ranked Illini recruit on Rivals since Dee.  As in, MY GOD WILL ANYONE BE ABLE TO STOP US IN 2012/13?

Let me first say this:  I’m one who believes that recruiting rankings matter tremendously.  80% of everything you need to know about a team can be determined by looking at the recruiting rankings for each player on the roster.  Ranked kids = wins.  The other 20% is important too – it’s what separates the really good teams from the disappointing teams – but without talent, a team can only go so far.   Kansas State basketball was awful for 20 years until Bob Huggins and Frank Martin started recruiting top-100 kids, and this year they nearly made the Final Four.  It’s not a perfect equation – Michigan under Tommy Amaker had tons of ranked kids and couldn’t even make the tournament – but 19 times out of 20, highly ranked recruits = highly ranked teams. It’s science.

So when history looks back on Illini Basketball in the first 25 years of this decade, and history sees a dip at the end of the aughts, history needn’t look any further than this statistic to understand why:  In his first five recruiting classes at Illinois, Bruce Weber had three consensus top-100 recruits – Shaun Pruitt, Brian Carlwell, and Demetri McCamey.  In his next three recruiting classes (2009 through 2011) he had eight. (so far)

Let’s put it this way: using Rivals’ recruiting rankings…

Fall 2007 Illini Roster
Calvin Brock (unranked)
Brian Carlwell (#77)
Bill Cole (unranked)
Chester Frazier (unranked)
Jeff Jordan (unranked)
Demetri McCamey (#72)
Trent Meacham (unranked)
Shaun Pruitt (#78)
Brian Randle (#53)
Richard Semrau (unranked)
Jamar Smith (unranked)
Mike Tisdale (#125)

Fall 2011 Illini Roster
Tracy Abrams (#54)
Joseph Bertrand (#128)
Nnanna Egwu (#57)
Tyler Griffey (#120)
Crandall Head (#84)
Mychael Henry (#18)
Meyers Leonard (#31)
Brandon Paul (#42)
DJ Richardson (#38)
Jereme Richmond (#35)

MY GOD WILL ANYONE BE ABLE TO STOP US IN 2012/13?

OK, I’m getting ahead of myself.  Chester Frazier was nowhere near the Rivals 150, but his heart and determination (and defense) took an otherwise mediocre team and put them in the tournament.  Without skill development and heart (and defense), these are just numbers.

But what great numbers they are.  Probably some of the best numbers ever accumulated on an Illini roster.  And we still have three scholarships to give.

The best news?  That 2011 roster probably has a starter and a backup at every position:

PG – Abrams, Bertrand
SG – Richardson, Paul
WG/WF – Henry, Head
SF/PF – Richmond, Griffey
C – Leonard, Egwu

Wait, this post was supposed to be about Henry. If you haven’t seen him before, watch his sweet stroke in this video:

Admit it – on that three in the corner, when he kicked out his feet a little bit, you thought of Luther, didn’t you. Me too.

My player comparison for him? Deron’s backcourt mate with the Jazz – Wesley Matthews (Marquette). Long arms, high release, fluid, the ability to score around the hoop with a little wrist flick – it looks like it’s all there.

Where does that fit in on future Illini teams? When we go big (Richmond at the 3, with Griffey and Leonard in the frontcourt), he allows us to go even bigger in the backcourt with a tall, lanky 2. When we go small, with Richmond at the 4 and Leonard/Egwu at the 5, it gives us the perfect WF for the motion (paired with any combination of Abrams, Richardson, Paul, Bertrand, and Head). Options, options, who wants some options.

And we still have 3 more scholarships to give.