So the question now becomes why did the Illini not take Talen Horton-Tucker? The #54 player in the country at a position of need. There is no way that they wouldn’t take him. But then it happened.
We know about the AAU team switch. There are rumors about personal relationships and breakups between family members, there are rumors about anger and hatred between the Fire. Simeon. Morgan Park. The list goes on and on, but here’s how it went down. The reasons are really irrelevant and some can't be shared on here or anywhere else. Hopefully, you get the jist of it.
Illinois has always been recruiting Ayo and THT. They wanted both guys and wanted both badly. There is little doubt that they saw Ayo as a huge recruit and a 5 star kid out of Chicago, but they also saw a kid in THT that filled a huge need as a skilled wing and wanted him maybe just as much. As they progressed in their recruitments, stories that they would not play together littered the internet.
Last week, possibly Tuesday, Illinois knew they were getting Ayo Dosunmu. They had made him a priority and killed it on his official visit, and then he would decide on Thursday. Prior to that decision the Illini staff made a trip to Chicago and sat down with Shirley Horton and sold her on the Talen coming to Illinois. Now, they just had to sell Talen. When he arrived on his official visit he was hooked. On Friday night he saw all of the past Simeon greats in the #25 on the jumbotron. On Saturday morning, 150 random people packed Ubben to watch him workout by himself. They had never seen this type of attention and by Saturday night he was the Illini’s to lose. By Sunday and into Monday, everyone knew he was coming to Illinois as he listed a final 3 and an announcement date.
By Monday afternoon word had surfaced that the Dosunmu camp, which would include Ayo’s parents and Morgan Park and Mac Irvin Fire head coach Nick Irvin, put out some information that they weren’t happy about THT coming to Illinois. Illinois staff made a trip to Chicago and tried to soothe fears. One source even tells us that the Dosunmu’s were finally alright with it and that they had agreed that Ayo wanted to be at Illinois, so that’s where he would go.
The crazy part was that on the Horton-Tucker side, they heard the rumors and didn’t know about them. They were flabbergasted and didn’t understand where all of that was coming from. They said they had talked and thought they were past any animosity. In fact, we were told by BOTH sides that this wasn’t an issue and it would be fine on Thursday night. He would be coming to Illinois. Clearlyu, at least on one side they were not telling the truth.
Late Wednesday evening, it began to unravel a bit as word leaked that they couldn’t play together. Illinois coaches continued to stress to Simeon coaches how badly they wanted Talen, however.
Word Thursday morning came that Illinois was given an ultimatum. Ayo or THT. Some sources will tell us that it was from the Dosunmu’s but most believe it came from Nick Irvin. Was it in so many words saying one or the other? I believe so. And worse, Illinois would be done at Morgan Park and with the Mac Irvin Fire. So, Illinois and Brad Underwood had to make a difficult decision.
Let’s say they choose to take THT, and then lose Ayo as well as Khalil Whitney, Adam Miller and Francis Okoro (more on him later)? But if they take Ayo and not THT they lose out on Chicago Simeon and a few other programs that saw this power play and were bothered by it. One coach said….”I can’t believe they would stoop to this.” Another…”It’s always the adults that screw it up for the kids.”
It was truly a lose-lose situation.
There were other factors as well. Some ‘important people’ were very happy about landing Dosunmu and say a Chicago pipeline. They didn’t want to see that busted for one player. They depth of pressure to make sure they secured and kept Ayo was very strong.
So at 11AM the Illini let Talen know that they couldn’t take him. I’m told he was frazzled, as expected, and Simeon head coach Rob Smith was livid. Illinois will have a hard time getting back into that program. I’m told there were some behind the scenes wrangling this afternoon because this is a player that had fallen in love with the dream of becoming an Illini. He was visibly shaken at his press conference tonight, apologizing to some Illini media. I also heard they had to go find an Iowa State hat and sweatshirt as well.
Kudos to him and good luck at Iowa State. He handled it with class tonight
“My mom raised me to not speak out on things that are not in my control. God has a plan for everything so that’s the approach I took. I didn’t have a problem playing with Ayo. We could have done something at Illinois, I just chose a different school.”
The fallout in the short term is great, but the Illini are now front-runners for Francis Okoro, Khalil Whitney, and Adam Miller, not to mention EJ Liddell. Relationships with the first 3 are extremely strong with the Dosunmu and Fire camps, which means the Illini loss today may pay off down the road. That’s what made this decision a long term one.
It’s tough to see this happen to a great kid like THT, but we have to remember that it’s a business in college basketball, for better or for worse. It’s disappointing to see the underbelly of this situation and know that Illinois was played a bit. At the end of the day they made the decision they had to make, even if it was the wrong decision.
We know about the AAU team switch. There are rumors about personal relationships and breakups between family members, there are rumors about anger and hatred between the Fire. Simeon. Morgan Park. The list goes on and on, but here’s how it went down. The reasons are really irrelevant and some can't be shared on here or anywhere else. Hopefully, you get the jist of it.
Illinois has always been recruiting Ayo and THT. They wanted both guys and wanted both badly. There is little doubt that they saw Ayo as a huge recruit and a 5 star kid out of Chicago, but they also saw a kid in THT that filled a huge need as a skilled wing and wanted him maybe just as much. As they progressed in their recruitments, stories that they would not play together littered the internet.
Last week, possibly Tuesday, Illinois knew they were getting Ayo Dosunmu. They had made him a priority and killed it on his official visit, and then he would decide on Thursday. Prior to that decision the Illini staff made a trip to Chicago and sat down with Shirley Horton and sold her on the Talen coming to Illinois. Now, they just had to sell Talen. When he arrived on his official visit he was hooked. On Friday night he saw all of the past Simeon greats in the #25 on the jumbotron. On Saturday morning, 150 random people packed Ubben to watch him workout by himself. They had never seen this type of attention and by Saturday night he was the Illini’s to lose. By Sunday and into Monday, everyone knew he was coming to Illinois as he listed a final 3 and an announcement date.
By Monday afternoon word had surfaced that the Dosunmu camp, which would include Ayo’s parents and Morgan Park and Mac Irvin Fire head coach Nick Irvin, put out some information that they weren’t happy about THT coming to Illinois. Illinois staff made a trip to Chicago and tried to soothe fears. One source even tells us that the Dosunmu’s were finally alright with it and that they had agreed that Ayo wanted to be at Illinois, so that’s where he would go.
The crazy part was that on the Horton-Tucker side, they heard the rumors and didn’t know about them. They were flabbergasted and didn’t understand where all of that was coming from. They said they had talked and thought they were past any animosity. In fact, we were told by BOTH sides that this wasn’t an issue and it would be fine on Thursday night. He would be coming to Illinois. Clearlyu, at least on one side they were not telling the truth.
Late Wednesday evening, it began to unravel a bit as word leaked that they couldn’t play together. Illinois coaches continued to stress to Simeon coaches how badly they wanted Talen, however.
Word Thursday morning came that Illinois was given an ultimatum. Ayo or THT. Some sources will tell us that it was from the Dosunmu’s but most believe it came from Nick Irvin. Was it in so many words saying one or the other? I believe so. And worse, Illinois would be done at Morgan Park and with the Mac Irvin Fire. So, Illinois and Brad Underwood had to make a difficult decision.
Let’s say they choose to take THT, and then lose Ayo as well as Khalil Whitney, Adam Miller and Francis Okoro (more on him later)? But if they take Ayo and not THT they lose out on Chicago Simeon and a few other programs that saw this power play and were bothered by it. One coach said….”I can’t believe they would stoop to this.” Another…”It’s always the adults that screw it up for the kids.”
It was truly a lose-lose situation.
There were other factors as well. Some ‘important people’ were very happy about landing Dosunmu and say a Chicago pipeline. They didn’t want to see that busted for one player. They depth of pressure to make sure they secured and kept Ayo was very strong.
So at 11AM the Illini let Talen know that they couldn’t take him. I’m told he was frazzled, as expected, and Simeon head coach Rob Smith was livid. Illinois will have a hard time getting back into that program. I’m told there were some behind the scenes wrangling this afternoon because this is a player that had fallen in love with the dream of becoming an Illini. He was visibly shaken at his press conference tonight, apologizing to some Illini media. I also heard they had to go find an Iowa State hat and sweatshirt as well.
Kudos to him and good luck at Iowa State. He handled it with class tonight
“My mom raised me to not speak out on things that are not in my control. God has a plan for everything so that’s the approach I took. I didn’t have a problem playing with Ayo. We could have done something at Illinois, I just chose a different school.”
The fallout in the short term is great, but the Illini are now front-runners for Francis Okoro, Khalil Whitney, and Adam Miller, not to mention EJ Liddell. Relationships with the first 3 are extremely strong with the Dosunmu and Fire camps, which means the Illini loss today may pay off down the road. That’s what made this decision a long term one.
It’s tough to see this happen to a great kid like THT, but we have to remember that it’s a business in college basketball, for better or for worse. It’s disappointing to see the underbelly of this situation and know that Illinois was played a bit. At the end of the day they made the decision they had to make, even if it was the wrong decision.
