D.J. Richardson commits to Illinois

[Da Coach]

As OrangeandBlack74 reported in the other long thread about D.J. Richardson, WHOI channel 19's Jim Mattson has scooped everyone with an interview that reports that D.J. Richardson will make his college decision today, and it will probably be Illinois.--

http://www.whoitv.com/sports/sports_story.aspx?id=56453

Congratulations to Bruce Weber, Jerrance Howard, and Wayne McClain for landing Peoria's top player for 2009. He will not be able to sign a letter of intent until November of 2008.

[Da Coach]

Scout.com has updated their profile page on D.J. to show that Illinois is the only school with high interest, though no commitment, yet. Interestingly, it shows that Bradley and DePaul are "low interest", and all the other high-majors that were in his Top 10 "no interest".

http://illinois.scout.com/a.z?s=169&p=8&c=1&nid=2751224

[BUBraves06]

Wow this is surprising to me, I figured this would be just another recruit that Bruce and Co. would lose out on. Congrats to him and the staff at U of I.

[DannyCooksey]

So did Brandon Paul

http://www.chicagohoops.com/articles1/brandonpaului.html

good 24 hours for Brucey

[Da Coach]

The front page of the Illinois Scout site has a story on the commitment of D.J. Richardson--

http://illinois.scout.com/

They don't yet mention the Brandon Paul commitment. But with getting commitments from D.J. Richardson and Brandon Paul, 2 somewhat similar 6'3" guards, I assume Illinois would no longer pursue these other 2009 guards-- Diamond Taylor, Joseph Bertrand, Nik Garcia, D'Mitri Riggs, or possibly Chris Colvin. Even Marcus Jordan, is a similar player to all these other guards.

Brandon Paul--

http://illinois.scout.com/a.z?s=169&p=8&c=1&nid=3362969

[DannyCooksey]

The front page of the Illinois Scout site has a story on the commitment of D.J. Richardson--

http://illinois.scout.com/

They don't yet mention the Brandon Paul commitment. But with getting commitments from D.J. Richardson and Brandon Paul, 2 somewhat similar 6'3" guards, I assume Illinois would no longer pursue these other 2009 guards-- Diamond Taylor, Joseph Bertrand, Nik Garcia, D'Mitri Riggs, or possibly Chris Colvin. Even Marcus Jordan, is a similar player to all these other guards.

Brandon Paul--
http://illinois.scout.com/a.z?s=169&p=8&c=1&nid=3362969

Yep

I expect Bertrand to be a Saluki for sure. I'll be surprised if he's not.

[Da Coach]

I am not as sure as you are about this, Cooksey.
In the past it has been a given that Bertrand would end up at SIU. We have heard the stories about his coach being a friend and former roommate of Chris Lowery, and reports of Bertrand taking unofficial visits to SIU. In fact, there were reports on the SIU fan site that Bertrand was going to verbally commit back in early August. That didn't happen, and he is still entertaining interest from a number of schools.

Of all these very good guards that Illinois is producing in the classes of 2008 and 2009, Bertrand is now a 4-star and rated higher than all the others I mentioned (they are all 3 stars, except Marcus Jordan who is 2-stars). I have heard that his bond to SIU is not as strong as it was, and he is getting wooed by some pretty good schools. Even Bradley may still be in the picture.

http://illinois.scout.com/a.z?s=169&p=8&c=1&nid=3142873

Illinois recruit list for 2008--

http://illinois.scout.com/a.z?s=169&p=9&c=4&cfg=bb&yr=2008

2009, including Bertrand--

http://illinois.scout.com/a.z?s=169&p=9&c=4&cfg=bb&yr=2009

[MacabreMob]

http://www.chicagohoops.com/articles...donpaului.html

good 24 hours for Brucey

Yea - for their sake, I hope BAM is still there in 2 years.



note: for all those in Rio Linda and for Chico, BAM is an acronym used on the internet mainly at Message Boards to refer to Bruce-All-Mighty which is Bruce Weber.

[collegehoopjunkie]

Doesn't seem to take much to get an Illini fan happy. DJ is a very thin, 6-3 sg with a suspect outside jumper. He's a fine midmajor get, but at Illinois he'll be a 6-3 version of Brian Randle.
He has had some injury issues, can't score well from outside but doesn't have the bulk to get inside in the Big Ten like he does in the defenseless AAU circuit. Let's see if he can help Central to a .500 record this year.
Paul is also underwhelming. I ain't saying he won't be good, but it is a risk, as the kid has played only a handful of games at the varsity HS level averaging 5 points. Plus, isn't he essentially the same player as DJ, only he's 6-2, and isn't going to help a lot at the point?
Landing a couple 2 and 3-star undersized sg's is not the answer, especially as MM says, there's still a long time before they sign loi's. If Illinois goes 9-20 a couple coaches could lose a job and with no loi, these guys are fair game.

[bert notorius]

I'm surprisingly happy, but I was never really concerned about IL's recruiting anyway. Ya' just never know where the next scion of Michael Jordan may come from.............

[Da Coach]

I am not as sure as you are about this......he is still entertaining interest from a number of schools.
I have heard that his bond to SIU is not as strong as it was, and he is getting wooed by some pretty good schools.

Indeed, Joseph Bertrand's bond with SIU was not so strong. He committed to the University of Illinois tonight to become the 3rd shooting guard from the class of 2009 to commit today to Bruce Weber.--

http://www.chicagohoops.com/articles1/ui3.html

[tornado]

Here is some video coverage of DJ Richardson

http://www.week.com/sports/college/10492762.html

http://hoinews.com/sports/sports_story.aspx?id=56493

http://hoinews.com/sports/sports_story.aspx?id=56453

http://centralillinoisproud.com/content/fulltext/?cid=4425

[thefish7]

Good luck, DJ. Would've liked to see you as a Brave-- now I'll just like to see the Braves taking you and the Illini down.