Chris Monter Q&A: Eighth Grader Alex Illikainen Is Already on Gopher Radar

[GopherHole Staff]

Alex Illikainen is another young talented big man from Minnesota. Illikainen, a 6-foot-7 ½ and 192-pound eighth grader, helped lead Grand Rapids to the Class AAA state boy’s basketball tournament. He has started to attract interest from several schools, including Minnesota. GopherHole.com caught up with Illikainen to learn the latest on his development and early recruitment.

http://www.forums.gopherhole.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1395

 

[Mulligan]

Interviewing an 8th grader? I'm sorry, this is ridiculous.

 

[Go Gophs eh?]

Times are changing. If you dont start recognizing them early, there are others such as indiana, north carolina, and kentucky that don't have the "morals" to wait til hes older. Tyus Jones has probably had scholarship offers under the table since his freshman year, including us.

 

[corcoran1]

Times are changing. If you dont start recognizing them early, there are others such as indiana, north carolina, and kentucky that don't have the "morals" to wait til hes older. Tyus Jones has probably had scholarship offers under the table since his freshman year, including us.

I agree completely, the discouraging thing to me is we have sent him a letter saying we want to meet him sometime. Boy, that is really building a realtionship with a kid. I like Tubby a lot, but I don't get the recruiting strategy nationally or locally. They apparently do not want to be involved with a kid until he is a junior, that is not going to work with four or five star local kids, let alone national kids. Apparently Jones is the only local kid they have felt confident enough about to spend time building a relationship before high school. They will probably get away with that with most local three star type kids, but the really highly recruited kids won't buy it.

It would be great if college coaches could only scout kids before their junior year, and could not contact them. Carolina, Duke, Kansas and maybe a few others get away with coming in and offering their junior year. We don't and we won't; MSU does not even think they can get away with this. When Izzo outworked Monson for Dahlman including multiple trips to northern Minnesota, it is an indicator of what coaches who are really serious do to succeed. They recruit their ass off, which is apparently not our strategy.

If somebody knows my beliefs are incorrect, I would love to hear evidence to the contrary.