Snider joins Black in a great recruiting week for Illinois

With Quentin Snider, the star senior point guard out of Louisville, now in the fold, Illinois coach John Groce has surpassed any and all expectations as coach at Illinois — at least any and all on-the-job-for-17month expectations.

In a little over 17 months since his hire, Groce has overachieved in his first year and secured the shortterm, while winning over fans, media and — most important — players within the program.

But more than anything, because recruiting is the lifeblood of any program, Groce put together the ideal recruiting blueprint for building the Illinois basketball program — not relying on one single recruiting area and targeting the right prospects in all of the still-must-berecruited areas for this program to succeed: the Public League, Downstate and the area within a 5-6 hour drive of Champaign.

But now Illinois basketball has done something that has been difficult to do: Land top-notch, elite, out-of-state talent.

For Illinois basketball to thrive in today’s culture, it absolutely needs Chicago. Despite the frustrating recruiting battles in the city and suburbs, you’re a fool to think you can ignore it; over time there is too much talent to truly succeed at a high level without it if you’re the head coach at Illinois.

But while Illinois basketball needs Chicago, it cannot solely depend on it. You’re going to have your share of misses in the nittygritty, tough-as-nails, make-your-stomach-turn recruiting battles that take place there, which is why to succeed at a high level at Illinois, the out-of-state star crossing over the border at some point is imperative.

Illinois has never had that on any consistent basis. In the last 30 years, Derek Harper in the early 1980s and Deron Williams, who signed in 2001, have been the only difference-making out-of-state players at Illinois.

Snider is the highest-ranked, biggest-profile recruit to commit to Illinois since ... well, since last week when Memphis prep star Leron Black pledged to the Illini.

That’s amazing when you think about it — a pair of consensus top 50 recruits commit within a week after all the out-of-state recruiting shortcomings in the past three decades?

With the addition of Black and Snider, Groce jumped over an Illinois recruiting hurdle in landing high-profile, out-of-state recruits. They were coveted, recruited heavily by other elite college programs, are consensus top-50 prospects nationally and have created a buzz locally and around the country.

Now, is asking for Cliff Alexander too much?