Big Ten facing big challenge

Illinois coach Bruce Weber’s strategy of recruiting the best the state has to offer in the Classes of 2009 and 2010 already is showing results.
(Daily Southtown)

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The Big Ten never has been in a class with the Atlantic Coast Conference in basketball. But until recent years, it didn't rank behind the Southeastern Conference, Big 12, Big East and Pac-10 in the eyes of most evaluators.

Big Ten teams won five NCAA titles from 1976 to 1989, but they have won just one in the last 19 years (Michigan State in 2000).

What happened? More important, what can the Big Ten do to get back on top? Or has the turnaround already begun and is all of this fretting much ado about nothing?

Has the Big Ten fallen behind because its academic standards are higher than those of the Big 12 and SEC? Because Michigan and Wisconsin have stricter entrance requirements than Alabama and Oklahoma?

Is it because Big Ten coaching staffs aren't as aggressive or as personable as those of the Pac-10 or ACC? Will the recent additions of coaches such as Purdue's Matt Painter, Iowa's Todd Lickliter, Minnesota's Tubby Smith and Indiana's Tom Crean give the Big Ten a fresh approach to recruiting?

''The real key,'' recruiting analyst Van Coleman of Hoopmasters.com said, ''is keeping the great players at home, something they haven't been able to do in recent years. It's not that they can't recruit dominant players, but they need more of them.

''It has to do with the core recruiting areas of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio. They produce the depth of talent necessary to compete nationally with other areas. It is important to persuade their elite players to stay at home because it is more difficult for cold-weather schools to get Southern, Southwestern and Western athletes to come to the snow belt.''

Bob Gibbons of All-Star Sports, who has been evaluating high school basketball talent for 30 years, said he can't explain why Big Ten schools have trouble recruiting players from the South, New York and California.

''Academics are a reason,'' Gibbons said. ''The Big Ten has more stringent requirements, but so does the ACC. In the end, elite players want to go to schools where they have a chance to play in the Final Four, win a national championship and be prepared to play in the NBA.''

Gibbons said people are being overly critical of the Big Ten. He and Coleman agree there already are signs that the conference is in a recovery mode, that it is bouncing back with assists from Smith, Painter, Crean and Lickliter.

Ohio State's Thad Matta and Michigan State's Tom Izzo are proven recruiters. They have demonstrated they can recruit successfully on a national scale.

Matta has signed two McDonald's All-Americans in the Class of 2008 (B.J. Mullens and William Buford) and has commitments from two of the top four players and three of the top 10 in the class of 2010 (Deshaun Thomas, Jared Sullinger and Trae Golden). Izzo has one McDonald's All-American from the Class of 2008 (Delvon Roe).

But there is a red flag waving. In the 2008 recruiting sweepstakes, the Big Ten (nine) ranked behind the SEC (20), Pac-10 (16), ACC (15) and Big East (14) in number of top-100 commitments.

Smith and Crean, who were national recruiters when they coached at Kentucky and Marquette, respectively, could change the scheme of Big Ten recruiting because they are hooked into areas from coast to coast.

Smith protected his home base by landing a commitment from the top junior in Minnesota, 6-7 Royce White of Minnetonka. And Crean already is having an impact at Indiana. He recently signed 6-5 guard Nick Williams, the 2008 player of the year in Alabama, and 6-9 junior Stephen Van Treese of Indianapolis, who wasn't seriously considering Indiana before Crean was hired, now says he will choose Indiana or West Virginia.

Illinois' Bruce Weber has turned to a new strategy that already is paying dividends. He has recruited the daylights out of the Classes of 2009 and 2010 in Illinois to the point where Gibbons and Coleman agree there is a definite resurgence in the Illini program.

''Illinois has turned the corner,'' Coleman said. ''[Waukegan's] Jereme Richmond is a top-10 player in the sophomore class, a difference-maker in his age group. And [Rich South's] Crandall Head is a top-25 player, an elite guard in the sophomore class.''

Weber also has commitments from four top-100 players in the Class of 2009: 6-8 Tyler Griffey of Wildwood, Mo., and guards Brandon Paul of Warren, D.J. Richardson of Peoria Central and Joseph Bertrand of Sterling.

In his second year at Iowa, Lickliter protected his base by landing 6-5 Matt Gatens of Iowa City, Iowa's Mr. Basketball, and he figures to battle Iowa State for 6-7 sophomore Harrison Barnes of Ames, a top-25 prospect.

But Lickliter also has branched out to get 6-7 Aaron Fuller, the big-school player of the year in Arizona, and is recruiting Dick Russell, a top-50 guard from Dallas.

''When you talk about history repeating itself, this sounds like 1995 all over again,'' Coleman said. ''It was then that the Big Ten was on the verge of crumbling in everyone's eyes. But it rebounded behind Michigan State's resurgence to rank among the top three conferences in the country from 1998 to 2002.

''The problem at that time was the Big Ten didn't go out and establish new areas to recruit when their core areas dropped off. ... To have another resurgence, to get back on top, all Big Ten schools have to go out and persuade the elite players to stay home.''