Wayne McClain on the Peoria Pipeline

[Buesch N Chips]

The Chicago Sun Times today has declared the Peoria Pipeline closed...

"Now, with Peoria basketball in a tailspin when it comes to high-level, individual
talent, you wonder just where our next downstate power will come from and
when it will be."
http://blogs.suntimes.com/hoopsrepor...ketball_4.html

I wonder if coaching turnover has anything to do with it.....

[tornado]

I also hate seeing the kids from Rock Island area get away..
Chasson Randle was strong on Bradley at one point, and it would have been nice to get Fred Van Vleet.

[Deadguy35]

after seeing what people say and even talking to a few others who know the local scene...
it's pretty apparent that we have no obvious D-I player coming up who is older than junior high right now here in Peoria.
There's supposed to be a couple junior high kids with the potential but that's so far off it's hard to know...

I'm not trying to put down any of the area players, but it truly is slim pickings for D-1 talent. Terrence Shelby (6'3 G) of Limestone is getting looks from NIU and DePaul, but there really isn't that much D-1 talent in the city right now.

These things can be cyclical. Outside of Smith, Cole and Dehm, the talent in the city was not great for the mid part of the 00s, but it really turned around with the 09-12 classes.

I know a lot of High Major fans would consider that to be a down period for Peoria as well, but outside of the two high major players, a lot of kids from Peoria (especially Manual) ended up playing at D-1 schools.

I'm not sure what can be done to reverse this trend, but if the talent is not there, I don't know what can be done regardless of how great the coaching in the area is.

[tornado]

the city schools have seen demise steadily for a decade with shrinking enrollments, closure of Woodruff, and unfortunately more and more lack of discipline and less parental input...
while the schools of the Mid-Illini (the suburban schools) have grown to dominate the competition between Mid-Illini and MidState.

Just as recently as a few years ago - Manual (Gulley, Alexander, White, Roddy, Jordan, Riley), Central (Livingston, Lee, Miranda), Notre Dame (Les, Bielfeldt), and Richwoods (Smith, Cole, Dehm) each had MULTIPLE D-I-caliber kids on their teams at simultaneously.
Now - none have certain D-I talent while the Mid-Illini schools are each producing someone every year or so...

I predict that for the next decade Washington, Morton, Pekin, Limestone, etc. will produce more D-I prospects than the MidState schools - the exact opposite of the way it has been for decades.
The District 150 schools have too many issues and they are in decline. I hope they can successfully overcome their problems but I have doubts.