SIU commit renegs

[tornado]

Chicago Uplift Demarius Jacobs had verballed and signed to SIU
now he decommits

https://twitter.com/scottybscout/status/839902494524329984

what's odd is that he has already signed his Letter of Intent so he will need to get a full release from Barry Hinson and SIU - or else he cannot play at any other NCAA institution this coming season...

This is reminiscent of Justin Dentmon who signed to ISU, then thought he could go higher and changed & went to prep school

http://thesouthern.com/sports/salukis-officially-add-jacobs-for---season/article_7664f944-bfde-539c-96e2-e3fd0a811a3d.html

so- maybe it's academics but more likely someone's in his ear telling him he can go higher


gotta hurt because this one cost Barry Hinson TWO scholarships..
one that has been tied up all year on Jacobs and now he decommits and Barry will be hard pressed to find any quality replacement..
but also Barry has spent a couple years tying up another scholarship on Jacobs' teammate - LINK

[Da Coach]

Demarius Jacobs immediately becomes one of the better remaining 2017 recruits in Illinois if he gets his release. He will get plenty of interest from schools with scholarship openings if he is back on the open market.

[tornado]

I don't know for sure, but it is already being said by at least one generally reliable source that he needs to do an extra year of prep school for his academics

https://www.prephoops.com/2017/03/demarius-jacobs-decommits-siu/

[Da Coach]

6'2" guard Demarius Jacobs (see above) had committed to Barry Hinson and SIU as a 2017 recruit out of tiny Chicago Uplift High School. But then he decommitted, went to a relatively new prep school, Hillcrest Prep, a Nike-sponsored basketball academy in Phoenix, Arizona, and reclassified as a 2018 recruit.

Now very late in the 2018 recruiting cycle, he remains uncommitted, and is still rated just a 2-star recruit with a few more mid-major offers. One recruiting service just listed him as the #330 player overall, and the #76 ranked shooting guard in the class of 2018.-

http://verbalcommits.com/players/demarius-jacobs

But University of Illinois head coach Brad Underwood, has only 1 player committed for 2018 (Ayo Dosunmu) and has missed out on a number of his other top recruiting targets. So he might be getting a bit desperate. Yesterday, Illinois offered Demarius Jacobs with their only remaining open scholarship.
Illinois is the worst team in the Big Ten this season and they have a roster full of mid-major caliber players, and they are extermely guard-heavy already with no real quality inside players. If Underwood wants to make them competitive with the top teams in the Big Ten, he needs to be landing higher rated players than he seems to be targeting, and he needs to land some impact big men like all the other good Big Ten teams have, IMO. Next year doesn't look much better for the Illini.

[tornado]

Jacobs could have been a very good Valley player - look what Milton Doyle or Walt Lemon are doing - and Baker, Van Vleet, Cleanthony, Toure Murry, Tolliver, Korver, & Blake Ahearn all got to play in the NBA!
Now if he goes to Illinois he will be the next Mike LaTulip or Jaylon Tate.