re: tOfficial LSU 2015/2016/2017 Basketball Recruiting Thread

Elijah Thomas blogs about Illinois visit, Urban Outfitters, crazed fans and more

Elijah Thomas is the No. 8 power forward in the ESPN 100 and anchors the paint for Lancaster (Lancaster, Texas). A dominant AAU season and an equally dominant junior year has nearly every major college in the country putting on the full-court recruiting press. He’s agreed to give USA TODAY HSS exclusive access into his world by chronicling everything from intimate details about his recruitment to his everyday life in a monthly blog.

What’s up world!

Right now I’m focusing a lot on where I’m gonna go and when I’m gonna decide while staying on top of my schoolwork and everything like that.

I know y’all saw my big bro Waka Flocka shouted me out saying that he thought I was the No. 1 player in the country and I appreciate him for that. He cares a lot about me and he’s passionate about my work ethic. He’s, obviously, a big star but we check in pretty much every other day and he knows what kind of work I’m putting in to be the best.

It’s big to have a guy like him believe in me to that degree, so I definitely appreciate that he said that.

I told y’all I’d be back with another blog after my visit to Illinois so I had to let y’all know how everything went.

I got there on Thursday and me and my mom hung out that night because the rules only allowed my visit to start that Friday. We had a good time hanging out though.

That next day the visit started and I had a ball!

We went to breakfast and talked and hung out with the Coach Groce and he talked to me about how he wants to come in first and start winning. He said he doesn’t want to come in second for me or second in anything; he wants to win.

I really liked that!

We ate at a Japanese steakhouse later and that was really cool; just hanging out with the coaches and laughing and joking at dinner and all the fans coming up to me at the restaurant was fun.

The fans really love Coach Groce there too; I like to see that.

Then that next day we went to the stadium for the game and the whole place had the hashtag that they made up for me to come there, #ILLijah, all over the place. It was crazy!

I told y’all in my last blog that Illinois had the craziest fans in the country and they more than lived up to that on my visit.

The fans went ballistic when they saw me at the game. I mean it was crazy! Then, all around campus, I saw my name written all over the concrete in the streets, on the walls, everywhere. I can’t even describe how crazy it was.

I was walking down the street and people would just yell from their cars, “Elijah! We need you here!”

I took so many pictures I felt like I was at the Nike EYBL again.

There were so many things that I loved about that visit, but the best thing I liked about Illinois is how family oriented they are. They’re different with how they recruit too; they don’t tell me things that they tell other recruits and vice versa.

We all talk anyway and you get so many schools that just say the same things to all of us, so it’s nice to have a school be more genuine with their message.

They told me that they want me to be the face of the program and that was big for me to hear.

You know what else I loved… They actually have an Urban Outfitters store on campus! Do y’all know that’s my favorite store? Man I was TOO excited about that!

Then I got to see their new arena and that thing is gonna be so big; I loved it.

All in all it was a great visit and, as I said before, I could definitely see myself playing there. I would have to say that, so far, this visit has stood out the most to me.

Next visit is to SMU this weekend; I get to hang out with THE Larry Brown so that will be fun.

This stuff is so hard man!

I can honestly say that I don’t have any idea where I want to go because these visits are really perfect. I don’t know a decision date either, but after the visits I’ll definitely be letting y’all know more about that.

Thanks again for all the support on Instagram and Twitter from all the fans; that means a lot.

As always thanks for reading and check back soon so I can let you know about my SMU visit.

I’m out.

Follow Elijah Thomas on Twitter and Instagram: @edotcash

Elijah Thomas blog/USAToday