Only 2 Illinois College teams rated nationally

Wow...Looks like its time for some changes at D1 programs in Illinois.

As of April 3rd, NCAA D 1 standings.

Big 10- Northwestern in 7th, Illinois 9th.

Horizon- UIC 1st ( nice job Flames )

Mid American - NIU, last place, western conference

Mid Continent - Western Illinois, 3rd place. Chicago State last place.

Missouri Valley - Illinois State, 3rd place (behind Wichita State, and Creighton) Nice Job Redbirds, Southern Illinois, 4th place, Bradley 6th Place.

Ohio Valley - Eastern Illinois, 8th place

Has Itch Jones let the program pass him by at Illinois ?

I think so.

He has done very little at Illinois for the past 14 years (347-351 going into this year and a losing season so far this year).

I'm happy for him and his days at SIU, but I'm not impressed with his results with the Illini.

Tons of kids on his roster from schools you never heard of while the star players from Illinois schools go elsewhere...not to Illinois.

I follow the game pretty closely in the Chicagoland area and he rarely gets the "stud"!

Why did Perinar head for Minnesota? Schultz to UIC? Wolff to Michigan State? Baughmann to Indiana? Dunigan to Oklahoma? Was Illinois even in the picture for any of them?

agree,reluctantly as itch is a good guy but their current rpi of 157 is like the cubs....overrated

Couldn't believe anything could be worse than Illinois football but baseball is worse than football.

Will be interesting to see what happens with Illinois basketball and Weber after the other coaches recruits are gone. I think I could have won 20+ games with the team that was left this year and for another couple of years.

Standings Update....

As of April 18th:

BIG10: Northwestern (5-7 Big10 record, 15-16-1 overall) & Illinois (5-7 Big10 record, 12-19 overall) tied for 7th, 8th or 9th (out of 10) or see Big Ten Standings

HORIZON: UIC 1st (out of 7) with a 6-2 conference record, 23-11 overall or see Horizon Standings

MAC: NIU is in 4th place (out of 7) in the MAC western conference with a 5-4 MAC record, 18-17 overall. 3 games from the cellar and 1 game out of 1st in the loss column or see MAC Standings

MID CONTINENT: Western Illinois 5th (3-5 MidCon record, 16-27 overall) & Chicago State (7th) out of 7 (1-7 MidCon record, 3-32 overall) or see Mid Continent Standings

MVC: Southern Illinois (5th) out of 9 with a 6-9-1 MVC record, 11-22-1 overall; Bradley (7th) 4-7-1 MVC record, 19-12-1 overall; Illinois State (8th) 5-11 MVC record, 11-20 overall or see MVC Standings

OVC: Eastern Illinois tied for 2nd or 3rd (out of 10) with a 8-4 OVC record, 13-20 overall or see OVC Standings

NJCAA Polls (excluding California and Washington) as of 4/14 (they update weekly so check again tomorrow for the latest poll info):

NJCAA Div I

NJCAA Div II

NJCAA Div III


Congratulations to NJCAA DI's #14 Olney Central College & honorable mention John A. Logan College, NJCAA DII's #11 College of Lake County, #15 Kankakee Community College & honorable mention Oakton Community College and NJCAA DIII #7 Joliet Junior College.

Rumor has it starting next year, the NJCAA Region IV, Div II regional champion will get an automatic bid to the NJCAA DII World Series since Region IV has approximately 15% of the DII's in the US (excluding California and Washington).

My son has scholarshiped to Olney, and will play for coach Conely next year. We are excited about the possibilities.

Cant wait to see him play college ball.

After reading your post's, I think they are a inacccurate in many cases. There has been a lot of changes in Illinois baseball...as Illinois has faded UIC and NIU have been moving up, look what Mike Dee has done at UIc in the last few years and they will keep getting better, I mean who would have ever thought they would have done what they did last year and from what I have seen they will be doing it for a very long time, to show how good they are, they have a kid like Mike Bruzner coming off the bench. Ed mathey has been at NIU for two years, and had to deal with players and coaches from the lackluster shrage era....last year they suprised a lot of people and I can see them making a late run this year, and the best part is that two of their best pitchers followed Mathey from North Central. Now yes eastern and ISU have faided in the last few years, seeing it first hand I do not think that ISU will be succesful until brownlee is gone, a pluthera have players have left the program because of the way he treats players and they will continue to as long as he is here, and I believe that first place in the valley will be locked up by the shockers for a long time to come.

yes in deed its Jones's time to go, and word has it he is not leaving because the AD will not let pitching coach Dan Hartleb take over the program. To say that his tenure at Illinois has been bad, is not the truth. A lot of those loses have come in the last few years, when the battle began over who will get the program when he leaves. I was young, but around for when Itch first was at Illinois, with guys like Mark Delesandro, Scott Spezio, Sean Mulligan, yes they were leftover from Coach Gueredo (pardon my speeling) so they had a good program for a while...I beleive in 1998 they won the big ten, and then slowly faded. Illinois, prior to the last 2 years, has had some of the top pitching prospects in the midwest. Jason Anderson, Drew Dickenson, Matt Vorwald, Jimmy Journal and former Naperville 2 sport star Tim Lavery.

So to conclude, yeah some things have changed, but other schools have came up, and yes itch is way past his time, but to say his stay at U of I has been unproductive, isnt right. he has had a few bad years in a fading conference, that shouldnt overshadow the sucess that he had for a long time

When you talk about illinois Teams fading, how can no one mention Triton College? Its no accident that ever since one of the best pitching coaches around left the program, they have started to drop. in the early 90's tritons roster may have feauture one or two local kids, now..its the other way around

NAIA Baseball Rating week 6 - April 21, 2004

Olivet Nazarene #7 with a record of 38-6-1

Go Tigers!

tar, i cant believe anyone outside of illinois would want to go to ui. lousy weather, mediocre town,corn fields rule. on top of that it is tough to get into. the big ten stinks except for the gophers (who play several games in the dome and practice their as well=recruiting advantage)and you are in the middle of nowhere.so is it any wonder why they can't be competitive off the bball court? seems obvious to me. btw, bring back a garrido and the players would follow.

Intresting thread. Not being from Il and not knowing the player pool, I have 1 question.

How many D1 schools does the State have?

In the 2003 HS class....
How many Illinois players went D1?
How many went D1 in State?
How many went D1 out of State?

Like I said, I'm an outsider, but it looks like the problem is not that players are leaving the State, but, that the talent pool is spread between many teams at all college levels within the State. I this bad? He11 no. The kids are for the most part staying in State, getting playing time, having fun, and getting an education. Reality predicts, it will be a cold day in he11 before an IL D1 team wins the CWS, enjoy what you have. I come from a State that has 1 D1 team that uses HS facilities. In the past 3 years our HS talent has gone to Ark, U of MI, Evansville, S. Carolina, Clemson, Okl, Missouri, NC State, U of MN, Northwestern, UIC, New Orleans, Purdue, and many others.

As far as kids leaving IL to play elsewhere, that's going to happen. However, there are IL teams that have the coaching, and program dedication, but, the kid also has to want to be part of the program. So many times the high profile kid is lured away by promises of greatness, then finds he is only a number in a Southern program. Most mention UIC as a program that has made the committment, and other schools may not be far behind. Now it is the players turn to step up and make that committment to those schools.

RZ...I know quite a few players/parents that have asked me about UIC. Mostly high profile kids in the state.

No one has asked about Illinois.

Without getting specific or personal, I dispute the negative comments that indians08 has said about ISU baseball and Coach Brownlie. The ISU program will steadily improve in the coming seasons.

Grateful, you have a pm

RZ--you have one, too!

Hey big ,

You forgot to mention Parkland ranked # 8 in dII poll . It is in Champaign , they have had a pretty good track record the last 4 or 5 years ,my son cannot wait to go there next year .

jmjvj,

That's because they weren't ranked in the 4/14 poll but have re-emerged in the 4/21 poll. The link I posted will always display the latest poll. To view earlier polls scroll to the top of the page and select the "polls" dropdown box to view the particular dated poll of interest.

ND has one player from the Chicago area (LT). They are drawing from all over the country. You can't compare that to an Illinois. Plus if you were a stud kid from Illinois why would you want to play there if you can play someplace warmer? Let me see...... should I go to Illinois to play baseball or Arizona State? That's a tough choice!!

On the other side of the equation, I don't think U of I actively recruits--at least not in the Chicago area. My 04 is part of a high profile HS team with some high profile players and none of them were approached by U of I. A parent I know told me of a conversation that he'd had with Itch last summer and he had never even heard of Baughman. Other schools like Purdue, ND, Michigan, Indiana, UIC, Northern, Eastern, ISU etc. were recruiting players though, and not because players had contacted these schools first.

I will say with a straight face that ND is equal to or better than UI academically. The average ND grad makes 2X the UI grad in his/her lifetime. There is no comparison in the recruiting wars with itch on the wain and Paul Maineri now recognised as one of the best coaches/recruiters in the land. Simply put, the vast majority of Catholic kids in the U.S. grow up dreaming of playing at ND. ND is selling a super-regional probability while UI is close to the bottom of a very overrated conference.

Sox...You are showing your Catholic "bias"...

What you say about "all of the Catholic kids growing wanting to go to Notre Dame" was true in the '50's and '60's and that was because most Catholic schools still had nuns running the place and you were interested in Notre Dame because of their football stature...which has been virtually non-existent as a national power here recently. No one that I know ever considered ND a national power in basketball or baseball...even the years they had AD in basketball and Yaz in baseball. Great individual players but not teams.

I agree with you about ND's recent success and their recruiting prowess. I still think their schedule, in baseball, leaves much to be desired to "think" that they will perenially be a Top 25 national baseball fixture. I like what they are doing but how many times can you play Purdue and Valpo and Butler and be considered a national power?

I happen to be a big fan of the Illini and ND. Not sure why you would think that ND grads would make 2X what an Illinois grad would make in their lifetime. In engineering? Computer science? Accounting? I would think just the opposite!

I agree that Illinois will start doing better in baseball when they focus on recruiting kids from Chicagoland (from the better, more high profile programs). I don't think Itchy is up to it any more. In football, that program is now an official "disaster" in my book.

Tar, I suggest that you visit Eck Stadium in the near future and compare it to the dump at UI.Next I suggest you check on the budget disparity.My guess is ND spends about 100K more than UI yearly! Next read Harvard magazines report about graduates and networking(article within the past year or so). Only IVY league schools are in ND's class when it comes to success. Finally, check out the grad rate at each school and keep in mind all the other UI schools you did not mention and the size of the school in Urbana.UI is a great state school in a lousy location with a BAD D1 baseball program. Pretty good Bball tho!!!

I gotta go with soxnole on this one. My own observation is that ND is an E-Ticket to success. Of course, I am a catholic from Indiana and part Irish so for me to come to any other conclusion would be shocking.

Soxnole, I just got off the Illini Baseball website and you just might be mistaken about the "dump" that you call Illini Field. It seems that the entire facility has undergone a facelift which includes lights (the only Big 10 baseball field with such), a new infield designed and installed by none other than one of your White Sox heroes Roger Bossard,and a state of the art drainage system which includes undergroud sprinklers. Also, the dugouts have been refurbished, there is a new weight room and other improvements. You might want to check it out. There is no debating the fact that the program is down, that the top Illinois prospects are either not being recruited or just are not interested, but from what I just saw and read, the facility seems fine.

If the U of I tennis team came become the best tennis program in the country there is no reason that baseball can't do the same(2003 NCAA Champions). Wrestling has also come along way there.

tar, must admit i did not know about the new facilities @ ui. my experience with ui baseball was an away game for my oldest in 91. ya got me on that. harvard magazine is just that. alums get it monthly,my wife is an alum so i read it often. btw, what bridges?

I have been to Eck and vouge for how great of a facility it is. I cannot say anything about U of I since I have not seen it. It is obvious that the facilities are a huge recruiting tool. If U of I does have the facilities that were described in a previous post, there must be something else going on to result in no local players going there...poor recruiting? coaching staff? who knows.

I was at the UIC/ISU game last night and would have to say that their facility is the best in the Chicago area. It was actually the first night game I was at there and the field was beautiful...except for the sprinklers going off just outside the dugouts. I am not one to spread rumors, but I hear NIU will close their field this summer (and next spring??) for a significant rehab. Anyone else hear of the plans?

I think Mathey and Dee have done a good job recruiting the area. Mathey in his second year, I think all (or most of) this recruits from next year are from the Chicago area. If they do a nice upgrade to their facility out there, look out for NIU. With continued success at UIC, they will be a program on the rise for years to come.

Saw Saturday afternoon ISU/UIC game. Bundle of scouts on hand - rhp for ISU was 87-89 and likewise for UIC lefty Haehnel. Also got lucky and got to see St. Ignatius' Joe Dunigan bat at HS field across parking lot. He hit a weak grounder but looks very powerful.

Soxnole, you have a pm.

TAR,

So, if one kid makes his own way through Illinois and another kid makes his own way through ND, which one would you hire?

Hanehl has gotten a lot of looks, went from starter, to the pen, now starting again...shows how that on any given day, anything could happen...isu drops one to IWU, but takes 2/3 from uic. As far as the UI/ND debate, ive been to Illinois games many times, and the facility is pretty cool, great place to watch a game, and the also benafited from the new indoor practice facility the football team got. They use that instead of the bubble. Anyone going to be around for the NIU/ISU game?

I, too, would take the most qualified of the two which would be the kid from ND, of course.

I'm just havin' some fun, TAR. May the luck of the Irish be with you.