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PF EJ Liddell (All B1G, All-American, Chicago Bulls)

Thanks for the fix, Smudger!

With EJ and the Illini, I will say this:

-Recently, I think being closer to home has become a bit more of a priority for EJ.
-The Illini staff have been as relentless as anyone in their pursuit of EJ.
-The Illini's projected roster, where strength is much more at guard, almost guarantees EJ a ton of PT right off the bat and potentially even starting, day one.
-Last visit usually wins

This is gonna be a tough pull. Really wish Holtmann had saved his in-home for after the Illinois visit. Tactically, I think he was trying to wrap things up and get EJ to commit before going to Illinois next weekend, and I understand where he was going with that, but ultimately that doesn't look like it's going to happen and Illinois will have all the momentum before EJ makes his decision. Will that momentum, and the other factors I mentioned, be enough to overcome what I believe is a very strong affinity on EJ's part for OSU and our coaching staff? Very possibly, but I wouldn't make a bet either way at this juncture.
 
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Eric Bossi of Rivals believes it is now a Illinois vs. Mizzou battle for EJ. Illinois' 247 Insider Derek Piper confirmed something similar this morning.

What I'm gathering is that this is basically a distance from home factor. This wasn't much of an issue previously in the recruitment but it has become a bigger priority recently with EJ's mom having some health issues.

Unfortunate but if that's the way it breaks, I totally respect and admire EJ's commitment to his family.
 
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I agree that Bossi's statement is not strongly worded, but there are back-channels that are leading some others to believe it is an Illinois vs. Mizzou battle now, and what Bossi says in that article correlates with that.

I haven't seen anyone claiming that OSU is for sure out of it, and I don't think OSU is, but it seems that distance from home has become a more important factor than it previously was, and that might be starting to handicap OSU in this race.

I think we will know soon enough, and I'm just putting this out there now so people don't get too surprised if we start to see some of those OSU CBs for EJ flipping at some point in the next week or so.
 
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