Henricksen: Five offseason hype stories we’re seeing every year

There is no question a lot of hype is built during the offseason months of high school basketball.

There is player ranking hype, recruiting hype and building team hype based on the ascension of individual players and transfers. Some is legit; some is, well, just hype and soon fades away.

But these are high school kids and it’s difficult to both forecast and, in some cases, “call out” publicly or mock some of the hyperbole that maybe isn’t all that real.

Scholarship offers that were made months ago that are no longer there for the player.

A club coach stating “School A, B and C are hot after my guy” but when talking to the college coaching staff school A and B have zero interest.

Maybe it’s talk and discussion by others that “a school is right there for a player, right at the top” but the reality is that school has been out of the picture for months.

Regardless of the situation there are always offseason hype stories. Here are some of the hype storylines we see on a regular basis –– nearly every year, it seems –– and how they particularly fit for this 2017-2018 season.

THE TEAM WITH ALL THE TALENTED TRANSFERS NO ONE IS GOING TO BEAT: The instant reaction when a superpower adds more to its arsenal is, “Well, no one is going to beat them.”

In Class 4A, Simeon added a mid-major point guard in Xavier Pinson, who transferred in from St. Patrick, along with big-bodied wing Zion Young. The powerful and athletic Young is another mid-major prospect who is from Merrillville, Ind., but played last season at Wasatch Academy in Utah.

And, yes, it is Simeon, so the cupboard was already stacked with the likes of high-major talent Talen Horton-Tucker, mid-major recruit Messiah Jones, Chicago State commit Kezo Brown and Division I prospect Kejuan Clements.

Despite all the talent and the upgrades with the transfers, this isn’t an unbeatable team. Oh, it’s going to be one of the big favorites in Class 4A, maybe even the preseason No. 1 team in the state. But coach Robert Smith has had teams that were more intimidating and Goliath-like than the 2017-2018 group. The Derrick Rose group and the Jabari Parker-led teams looked the part of unbeatable.

THE MUST-HAVE IN-STATE RECRUIT FOR ILLINOIS: Corey Maggette. Jon Scheyer. Sherron Collins. Julian Wright. Cliff Alexander. Jalen Brunson. Jeremiah Tilmon.

After so many historical, gut-wrenching misses of in-state stars in Illinois over the past 25 years (and a few hits –– i.e. Brian Cook, Frank Williams, Dee Brown, Jereme Richmond, Meyers Leonard), the attention turns to Morgan Park’s Ayo Dosunmu.

Here. We. Go … Again.

The 6-5 point guard has been a focal point for Illinois, both with the old John Groce staff and the new Brad Underwood staff. Illinois has been a constant in the Dosunmu recruitment for years.

But it hasn’t taken long for Underwood and his staff to feel the pressure other Illinois coaches have faced in trying to keep the state’s top player home. It’s not easy.

Illinois would have loved to have had Dosunmu, a top 30 prospect nationally, locked up before the recruiting stretch run of September and October when official visits are taken and crazy recruiting stories emerge.

Illinois has long been considered one of the small number of favorites for Dosunmu while others thought to be in there have faded a bit. But it appears official visits to Wake Forest and USC will first need to be taken. Is it for comparison sake? Is it to build drama? Is it legit? Is Illinois the leader?

The feeling here is Illinois is still in really good shape with Dosunmu, who is yet another in-state prospect being hailed as “the one.” But there doesn’t appear to a rush to end things quickly.

Illinois fans can feel some assurance in a few things that may help and ease their minds.

First, they are experts in following the chase of high-profile in-state recruits. Illini fans are pros at this by now. They’ve been down this road so many times they’ve become slightly immune to the hysteria surrounding in-state recruits (at least for now, in mid-September).

Second, there just isn’t a heavy hitter or “Blue Blood” in the lineup of schools that amps up the process or forces the issue for anyone. Yes, there is always a threat in recruiting no matter what school is in the mix and has put its best foot forward. But there isn’t a school on this list that will shut down the Dosunmu recruitment because they have better options on the table or force Dosunmu’s hand because of it.

And third, if Dosunmu does land somewhere else, they can take solace in knowing that the point guard position and perimeter is pretty stacked with Te’Jon Lucas, Mark Smith, Trent Frazier and DaMonte Williams all either freshmen or sophomores in the program.

What’s better? Being in the chase or not having anyone to chase? With the weak, paltry Class of 2012 a few years back, as an example, there wasn’t even a must-get recruit in Illinois for the Fighting Illini to chase. You always want to be in the sweepstakes for an in-state player of this magnitude.

THE METEORIC RISE OF A PLAYER –– AND ITS LEGITIMACY: Maybe a “meteoric rise” doesn’t happen every year, but the rise of a player or two in some capacity is commonplace. These are developing, teen-aged basketball players we’re talking about here.

Edwardsville’s Mark Smith was last year’s “meteoric rise.” There is no other way to describe a player who visited NIU, SIUE and Wright State in the fall and ended up with Illinois, Ohio State, Kentucky, Michigan State and other big hitters heavily involved three months later.

Now it’s Zion Griffin’s turn. The Hinsdale South star opened eyes during his junior season. The City/Suburban Hoops Report boosted Griffin up its rankings last December and billed him as a bonafide mid-major prospect heading into the spring evaluation period.

But even after some mild hype and the conclusion of the spring evaluation period, there were only a few mid-majors knocking on his door. It wasn’t until a breakout performance in the first weekend of the July evaluation period where mid-major programs realized, “Uh-oh, this is going to be an uphill climb in keeping the lid on Griffin and his talents.”

High-major programs soon got wind of Griffin’s athleticism and talents. The high-major programs came in droves over the final two weekends of July when Griffin displayed his much-improved perimeter jumper and rising confidence.

There were some who questioned the interest of particular high-major programs as it pertained to Griffin. But this hype, this interest surrounding Griffin is real. The offers were legit. But Griffin and his people didn’t allow for the process to get out of hand, didn’t entertain everyone and narrowed it down quickly.

More importantly, Griffin didn’t waste people’s time in the recruiting process. While many prospects “narrowed” their lists in August and September to double-digit schools, Griffin kept his recruiting list neat and tidy, meticulously clean. He quickly cut it to four schools: Illinois State, Iowa State, Kansas and Pitt.

Griffin took official visits to both Illinois State and Iowa State and saw enough. He committed to the Cyclones ahead of planned visits to Pitt and Kansas.

As far as the player hype and recruiting legitimacy? It’s warranted.

THE COLLEGE PROGRAM [ENTER SCHOOL NAME FROM PAST YEARS] WITH AN EMERGING PRESENCE IN ILLINOIS: When coach Archie Miller was at Dayton, the Flyers singled out certain individual prospects in Illinois and hit them hard in the recruiting process. Miller, along with valued assistant coach Tom Ostrom, did their homework, locked in on a few and landed their fair share.

Simeon’s Kendall Pollard and Morgan Park’s Kyle Davis helped fuel those highly-successful NCAA Tournament teams in Dayton. Now Morgan Park’s Josh Cunningham is at Dayton.

There are other examples like this in the past –– SMU had a run with the likes of Sterling Brown and Ben Moore –– but there are also plenty of schools who have cast a wide net, tried and tried, offering anyone and everyone, and came up short.

Thus, a school “being strong” and having a “presence” in Chicago is sometimes overblown due to simply getting their name thrown around by throwing around offers.

But what Iowa State has been able to do leading up to this Class of 2018 in Illinois is impressive. In two years in Ames, coach Steve Prohm and his staff have taken a page out of Archie Miller’s staff days at Dayton in identifying and targeting players it can land.

There are few legit high-major prospects in the Class of 2018 in Illinois. Iowa State has landed one of them (Hinsdale South’s Zion Griffin) and is in very good shape with two others in the City/Suburban Hoops Report top five.

Late-blooming George Conditt of Corliss has visited Iowa State already and has the Cyclones among his final three schools. Conditt says he will make a decision in early October, though an official visit to Illinois is this weekend.

And Prohm and his staff are a not-talked-about-enough contender for Talen Horton-Tucker. The Simeon star has a bevy of schools on his list, but Iowa State has been there through it all and been consistent in its recruitment of the versatile wing.

So Iowa State is deeply involved with three of the top four prospects in the state of Illinois. Yes, that offseason storyline is legit.

CLASS 3A WILL BE A CAKEWALK FOR MORGAN PARK: In the past five seasons in Class 3A, Morgan Park has now won three state championships and finished third once. In each of those seasons the Mustangs were projected as the “team to beat” in 3A –– before the season started and once the state tournament began in March.

Last year that type of talk was toned down a bit with the return of a loaded Belleville Althoff team coming off a Class 3A title the year before. But when Althoff star Jordan Goodwin went down with a season-ending injury midseason, the bulls-eye fell directly on coach Nick Irvin’s Morgan Park team once again last year. The Mustangs answered with a state title run in March.

Maybe calling it a “3A cakewalk” is a bit much. But with Fenwick bumped up to Class 4A this season and the best “downstate” team, Belleville West, also being a Class 4A school, Morgan Park will again head into the season as the prohibitive favorite in Class 3A.

Follow Joe Henricksen and the City/Suburban Hoops Report on Twitter @joehoopsreport