Watchin' A Recruit

It's been so long since I've done this. It used to happen all the time, but now I almost never do it. Once the transfer portal changed college basketball recruiting, the obsession over high school recruiting dropped by 70%. If you miss on a guy the first time, just grab him from the portal in a few years (like Kylan Boswell).

In the past, if you lost in the hat ceremony (remember when I told my boss I had a meeting back in 2009 and drove to the Bradley Beal hat presser?), the recruit was gone for good. And so it all felt so vital. In 2026, that urgency is gone. It's still important, but, well, just look at the Peach Jam this summer and how there will be 1/5th the reporters than ten years ago. It's all changed so much.

But when there's a U18 or a U19 FIBA tournament and there's an Illini recruit participating, I'm all in. I was like that with Ayo and I was like that with Ty Rodgers and I was like that with Morez and I was even like that with Jeremiah Fears before he decommitted. More than 5-star ratings, you want your recruits to be playing in these games. You want them picked as one of the twelve best players 18 and under. And this week, Quentin Coleman is playing in these games.

I couldn't watch on Monday (I'm currently in Idaho visiting the latest grandchild) but I was able to watch the entire game last night because it started at 8:30 pm after the kids had gone to bed. So this one is an old fashioned "here's what I thought about our recruit playing with the top players in his class" post. After watching an entire Quentin Coleman game – that's "pride of the Metro East from O'Fallon, Illinois" Quentin Coleman, mind you – here are my thoughts:

First off, he was starting. That's always a good sign.