Miss Manners wouldn’t exactly approve of a lot of the tacticsused in the college basketball recruiting game.

The way it is now, coaches have to do (almost) anything and(nearly) everything to reel in the best players they can find.

And that’s why Northwestern coach Bill Carmody and his staffcan’t feel bad about taking advantage of this week’s coachingchange at Illinois.

New Fighting Illini boss Bruce Weber is a solid coach and willprobably continue to do a fine job raking in the talent from thestate of Illinois, just as he did at Southern Illinois. But thedeparture of superstar coach Bill Self has given NU a chance to getits foot in the door when otherwise it might have found a brickwall.

“Any change is probably good,” Carmody said, “because Self hadit going there.”

NU isn’t going to get the players that Illinois will year in andyear out — no big surprise. But Carmody has the opportunity toleverage the instability, or at least the appearance ofinstability, in Champaign to convince recruits that NU works as aviable option to play Big Ten basketball in the same state.

It might sound flimsy, but the stars actually — for once –appear to be aligning in NU’s favor.

Stability is beginning to swing NU’s way, really for the firsttime in decades. Carmody has been around as long or longer thanfive other coaches in the conference. And he has all of hisoriginal assistants still on board.

More importantly, however, the 2004 recruiting class in Illinoisis shaping up to be the best in years.

Dave Telep, the director of scouting for The Insiders and one ofthe nation’s top college basketball recruiting gurus, said he hasalready identified 10 “high-major” prospects in the Illinois Classof ’04 as well as 20 others he tabs as Division I talents.

That’s really unusual for Illinois. Moreover, Telep assertedthat the class isn’t dependent on four or five stars — it happensto be a deep group of prospects spread from the top of the key tothe low post.

Carmody’s assessment of the talent in the state matches Telep’s.The coach estimated that of those 10 prospects, just four areNU-eligible. But 10 may be a conservative estimate.

“Maybe the 15 to 20th guy are as good in a year,” Carmody said.”When you get in the mix with 10 good guys, eventually you’re gonnaget some of them. I think we’re in the mix with some of those kidsnow.”

Next year’s recruits could in fact be the most important ofCarmody’s career. The kids he gets to start in the 2004-05 seasonwill be sophomores when almost all of his current top players areseniors, potentially putting the team in the thick of the NCAATournament mix.

Of course, the lone certainty in recruiting 17-year-olds is thatthere is no sure thing. But make no mistake, Bill Self’s departurefor Kansas may have helped open the door the slightest bit forCarmody to nab one extra guy.

And when your program has been permanently one guy or one yearaway, that alone is enough to make a difference.

Back to the present: As far as the Class of 2003 isconcerned, NU hasn’t reeled in any recruits aside from fall signeeVince Scott of Arizona.

Two weeks are left in the spring signing period, and it appearsthat Carmody’s options are beginning to crystallize. The programhas a few offers out right now — both in the U.S. and in Europe,where Carmody spent four days this week. This weekend, the coachingstaff will probably move to nail down a commitment or offer morescholarships to make sure they fill the class.

Either way, the picture should look a lot sharper by thebeginning of next week.

A possible transfer: Tim Doyle, a 6-foot-5 small forward fromMerrick, N.Y., opted to go to St. John’s over NU a year ago. Now,he has been granted a release from St. John’s and will transfer toeither NU or Dayton. Doyle said he didn’t leave St. John’s becauseof playing time –the self-described point forward started one gamelast year. Instead, it was more a style-of-play issue.

“We were basically a playground basketball team,” Doyle said.”And I am not a playground type of player.”

Doyle was recruited by a number of schools but opted to stayclose to home without visiting a single school. The 20-year-old’sfirst trip to NU was on Monday.

Doyle said he was “blown away” by his NU visit, and is leavingtoday for Dayton. He said NU’s academics and campus would be majorfactors, and that it would “take a lot” for Dayton to surpass NU ashis top choice. Doyle said he expects to have a decision byThursday.

As a transfer, Doyle would have to sit out next season and wouldbe a redshirt sophomore in the 2004-05 season.

“They run that Princeton offense that I think I can flourishin,” Doyle said. “If Northwestern gets two more players along with(T.J.) Parker and Vedran (Vukusic), they can finish in the top halfof the league easily.”

And finally … San Antonio Spurs point guard TonyParker, T.J.’s older brother, made People’s 50 Most Beautifullist.