THANK YOU!!! Someone agrees with me on him!!!!

He has made public comments about BW that would indicate he is a big fan of BW and you would hope he would be if he is recruiting with him. loyalty could me measured if he has to choose between assisting BW at a new destination or assisting a new coach at UIUC if a change is made and he has that option.

He also understands recruiting at least at the high school level.

So soon to be 5-6 in conference (currently being blown out by Florida) in his third year is growing on you? If he is the #1 option we might as well keep Weber.

Welp, the way Bama started the 2nd half isn't making our thought look too well...YIKES!

Regardless of how they've played in the first 6 minutes of the 2nd half, it just seems likle they are always playing highly rated teams tough and the guy has at least made Bama bball relevant.

Klee has also reported that there is a real strong bond between Howard and Weber if I remember correctly.

And I believe that the most likely scenarios (assuming he does not become a HC at Illinois or elsewhere) are in descending order:

1. He gets an assistant's job at a marquee program with a veteran coach who has a history/track record of placing assistants at good schools
2. He remains at UI as an assistant
3. He follows Weber at his new destination (if any)

I'd actually venture to say that #1 is the most likely scenario by far and #3 is the least likely by far. I think #1 may happen even if Weber is miraculously retained for another year.

They were tied at half and couldn't hit a shot to start the 2nd while Florida couldn't miss...literally.

He did very well at VCU before moving to Bama and won their division last year before finishing runner-up in the NIT (probably shoulda been in the NCAA).

That's always the case, but for someone in the coaching profession, a willingness to entertain the possibility of relocating is part of the deal. Doesn't necessarily make it easier, but it really does come with the territory.

If those are the options (and I think you have them covered), I would agree with the order. Obviously a lot of variables impacting each. JH has primarily recruited Illinois IIRC. Would he be as effective elsewhere? I could see an argument either way.

If Weber gets fired, I'm leaning towards hiring JH. Why go through the whole drama of waiting to see who isn't interested. I'm for taking a chance with an up and coming star assistant who happens to be on our own bench. JH was at Texas AM and Kentucky. It's not like he was under Weber the whole time so he may have other ideas on how run offense/defense schemes. For the lack of X's and O's he may have, the right hiring of assistants would be important.

I'm just so happy that we have Mike Thomas driving the ship that is Illinois athletics. No more settling for mediocrity. The guy just gets it.

Time to generate some excitement and go out and get Shaka Smart. Yes, he turned down NC St. in the past, but recruiting that region next to Duke and North Carolina would be brutal. NC St. isn't a bad program but there is no way they could be successful recruiting nationally. Illinois, on the other hand, is by far the best program in it's state and the recruiting ground is more fertile. For some reason, I think kids in the Chicago Public League would be drawn to Shaka in a similar way that they are drawn to Jerrance. IMO, Shaka Smart would be an absolute home run hire. It could be the start of something really special.

Id rather have a coach on the upswing and not stalling.

Agree. Grant would be an excellent choice.

He suspended his top 2 scorers and rebounders, and they only lost by 9. He holds his players accountable and is a good coach. I think it would be a great hire.

soon to be 0-3 in making the NCAA tournament while at Alabama.

Thank you for pointing that out to "Jcool." I have totally forgot about him suspended what 4 players correct? I knew 2 of them were scorers and he is still doing a damn good job. Plus, I would rather have Grant than his predecessor in Smart. However, Smart would be the number 2 option for me.

Pipe dream is of course Brad Stevens.

Get this through your thick skull. It is very hard to make a tourney when your school doesn't give two sh!ts about the basketball program. When the donors are basically only donating for the football program. Like Leonardite said his top players are suspended. At least he is putting his foot down and doesn't just care about the performance on court. So you must be that type who wouldn't suspend players and all you would care about is results, right?

Calm down its just a basketball coach. And the previous coach Mark Gottfried made the NCAA tournament 5 years in a row including the elite eight in 03-04 season, so saying the school doesn't care about basketball just isnt true. Also when Alabama suspended its 4 players they had lost 4 of there last 7 games, so cant really blame that for the reason they aren't having as good of season.

Frank Martin = Garbage. This guy is the going to turn in the same results we are getting now. After losing to Kansas last night they are under .500 in conf play. Also can make the same argument he has only be successfull with Huggins players. Just feels to much like what we have going on right now.

The more I listen to everyone and try to get a national feel for what's going on I think Shaka Smart is the best hire we can make. I'm not sure why he passed on the NC state gig. I read what someone else wrote about the recruiting, but Gottfried is killing it there already in recruiting. I'm also tying not to get caught up in the JH has to stay or get a shot at the head job. It's awful curious he hasn't even gotten an interview with all the mid major jobs in the great state of Illinois that came open last year. I think he's been the only reason we have been able to recruit the kids we have, but that said I'm pretty sure a new coach can get kids ranked 50 to 100 to commit to Illinois. However, I'm looking for the hire that can the players ranked 1 to 25 to commit. Hope everyone sees where I'm going with this.

Ok my bad after reading my post it was overboard. I am just stating my feelings on the situation and I would much rather have someone who has experience at a major D1 college than a mid-major.

Shaka, A.Grant, Jerrance, Stevens, and Buzz are my only 5 I really consider with Shaka and Jerrance essentially being 1A and 1B. I really don't like many of the others unless someone big-time wants a change.

I hope that having an ethical coach with integrity and one who can coach a team to their highest potential are not mutually exclusive; i.e. I hope we can have BOTH.

In our house, we have been wondering about UIC's Head Coach Howard Moore:

http://www.uicflames.com/sports/m-ba..._howard00.html

What do you all think?

Um. No. Not even close. His UIC team last year was 7-24 (2-16) in the vaunted Horizon league. They are 7-17 this year.

If anyone listened to Mike Thomas's interview with McNeil and Spiegle yesterday, it was strongly hinted that the financial resources and the BOT will NOT be a hindrance to getting the best and brightest names out there. To me, that seems to eliminate many of the "reaches" discussed in this thread.

If this is, in fact, the end of Coach Weber's tenure here, then I think the coaching search will actually be very interesting to see who among the big name coaches finds us attractive.

Not enough success to be considered yet. His only season as a head coach was a 7 win season. Potential without results is still just potential. Its why I don't favor JH or Shaka Smart (until he sustains success at VCU its still just a historic run in the tourney).

Howard is not a serious candidate. Thomas is not going to risk his job on an unproven assistant with an above average recruiting record. Neither is Robert Smith, if this actually needs to be said.

To hell with BOT members and their political stand for a a black coach hire. This is reverse discrimination. I'm tired of seeing the same posters name Smart, Grant, and Romar as the only candidates. If based on merit, and not color, then fine, hire one of those guys. Can some of you stop naming them as the only candidates? Our boosters' voice and money, collectively, means a lot more than some BOT posturing.

Smart is intriguing, and I do see potential, but his regular season finishes have only been 4th and 5th place. I'm not sold on him because of one great tournament run. However, VCU is having a good season despite all the players they lost from their Final Four run.
Stevens is not having a great year, but his ability to coach and lead is indisputable. Back-to-Back National runner-ups is not a fluke. He can coach/
Grant is doing nothing spectacular at Alabama. I don't understand the infatuation some of you have. He's even in the the weaker of the two SEC divisions. No NCAA appearances. I'm not impressed.
Williams is doing a great job at Marquette, IMO. His teams play hard, with tenacity. They seem mentally tough as well. His ability to recruit Chicago is still undetermined,though he has landed Steve Talyor(Simeon) in this year's class and landed Reggie Smith(Thorton) who has since transferred.
Marshall is having a very good year at Wichita State. His teams have improved every season he's been there. He also did a great job when he was at Winthrop.
Romar is highly unlikely to leave UW. His teams are exciting, though they still underperform in a weak Pac-12. I can't see him leaving.

These are just a few names being mentioned. If the time comes, I hope, and believe that Thomas will be able to hire whomever he sees most fit to lead our program to the top of the Big Ten on a consistent basis. We should be competing for Big Ten titles with OSU and MSU on a regular basis.

First, relax.

Second, I'm not sure I see anyone posting these names because they are African American head coaches over potential white head coaches just based on color. Some people, believe it or not, think Smart or Grant would be the better option because of their coaching skills.:rolleyes:

Finally, Grant hasn't made the NCAA's at Bama (although they probably should have last year) but at VCU they made it twice and beat Duke in the tourny one of those years. He's also suspended his 3 best players/scorers the last couple games and still was tied at half with Florida and lost by 9 after Bama couldn't score in the 2nd half (think those players would have helped?)

I'm not Grant is the 2nd coming, I'm not even saying he's my first choice, but he's certainly a viable option that wouldn't be a bad hire.

Reverse descrimination???? This from a university that has not hired a black coach for basketball or football ever? Thinking such as yours is why Chicago coaches give no love to Illinois basketball.

The school has a chance to do so many rights, let's not blow it.

I don't agree with this sentiment either in that it seems like you are advocating hiring a black candidate just to appease the chicago coaches.

I worked for Lou in '81 & '82 and the BW tenure has been so-0-0 painful to watch down here in Florida, that usually I just don't anymore. I do hope that folks up in Illinois don't attribute the 2005 squad's success to BW - that was totally a foundation set down by Self + extraordinary talent and chemistry. The hand wringing shame is that the current squad has potentially very good talent on it but it will never flourish under the present coaching staff circumstances. Didn't Illinois' administration learn anything from the retrograde Zook experience? BW didn't sit in GK's shadow all those years because he was a catalytic coaching talent! We've seen the BW show. It's high time for a laggard administration to step up and get with the program before the Illinois' current talent heads for the hills or develops a catastrophic case of players anemia.

To be fair, the BOT comments were mentioned much earlier in the thread and did drive a significant number of AA posts and have likely added focus to the candidates above.

Not disagreeing with the fact that they are good coaches, but there has been added focus on race in this thread.

I'd put it this way: If there are three very good finalists, each with distinct positives and negatives, and no one is clearly ahead of the others, we need to hire the African-American candidate.

I agree. There's no reason this can't be a win-win.

That doesn't solve anything! Then you're just discriminating against the non-black candidates for the sake of political correctness. What if one of them is Hispanic and the other Asian? Can they be chosen fairly then?

In GHD's scenario, choosing the black candidate is best for UI's hoops program. It gives us the best shot at landing 4- and 5-star Chicago HS players.

This is a fact, a black candidate helps recruiting.

I dont buy it. Its different in every situation. Getting a black head coach could be tremendous for recruiting, if its the right guy. Or it could be a non factor. The one thing that will help is that Weber is such an average recruiter that its hard to imagine whoever the next coach is, not doing a better job, white or black.

I'm assuming the other two are white.:rolleyes:

What this solves is the perception that Illinois is unwilling to hire African-Americans because we haven't done so in 100+ years of mens football and basketball.

What this also solves is the more general problem that African-American coaches are underrepresented in head coaching jobs at the college level. In the past (and in the present at some institutions), African-American coaches DID face discrimination. Advancement in coaching is strongly tied to social networks. Hence past (and present) discrimination can ripple into present hires that don't appear to be guided by overt prejudice. One way around that problem is to make an attempt to high African-American coaches, all else being relatively equal.

It appears the attempt was made in football, not sure what the trustees were so angry about.

As others have pointed out, perhaps the primary purpose of raising a stink about the football hire (Thomas clearly tried to hire Sumlin) was to put pressure on Thomas should a new basketball coach be hired. If anything this is more important in basketball, a sport where African Americans dominate relative to their proportion of the general population.

Round robin Indian leg wrestling and the problem is solved!:D

I'm sure, and has been said many times, there was probably a better way to do it.

I agree with the bolded as well.

I wouldn't disagree with that but I think that would be a very difficult scenario to come about. It sucks that this whole thing is even an issue.

Yes, it sucks that African-Americans have faced discrimination for centuries, and for the past century in college football and basketball (playing, then coaching).

What sucks is a black coach was never been given a serious shot at the job. I know RG met with Calvin Sampson but we don't know how much interest was from both parties. Thank the man up stairs that didn't happen. Jimmy Collins wasn't taken seriously even though he had coach Henson's blessing.

So the answer to discrimination is more discrimination? :rolleyes::rolleyes:

Two wrongs don't make a right, seems like I have heard that somewhere before, and hiring a black coach just because he is black doesn't make it right. Hire the best guy, regardless of race. That's how it should be. I realize that it hasn't always been that way, but to go the route you are suggesting just to satisfy the race issue is as wrong as it was in the past to disregard a coach just because he was black.

Agree totally. I mean, recruiting sure hasn't suffered at Duke, North Carolina, Florida or Kansas or Syracuse or Connecticut who all have white coaches.

This school has a white coach. Recruits better then ANYONE hands down. And is doing things like this....

http://www.ukathletics.com/sports/m-...021312aaa.html


This is the kind of thing that makes me angry, jealous, and intrigued all at the same time. My guess is that myself and most all other UI fans would be crazy excited if something like this happened for us. Say what you want about the man, but this is awesome.

And turns out Jimmy Collins was a really average HC.

The fact that this is turning into a racial issue is making us look silly. My guess is that no matter who the next coach is, if he is an improvement over whats going on right now, white or black, he is going to have a lot of fans in Illinois

Two wrongs don't make a right. But making a sincere effort to hire African-American coaches (reaching out to them in the interview process, hiring the AA coach if all else is equal) is one way to correct a problem with historical roots. Unless you believe that African Americans can't coach, discrimination (past or present) is the only way to explain the relative lack of African American head coaches for the revenue sports.

This is NOT a racial issue. The primary concern is to hire a good head coach. But race is a factor to consider.

So I ask you. If all things are equal when the administration goes through the process of hiring a new coach, and if they choose a white coach over a black coach, are you going to say they didnt choose the black coach because he is black?

Maybe im not understanding correctly, but lets say they have a white coach and a black coach as the finalists for the job. Both are equally qualified, and look to be perfect for the job. You would want them to automatically pick the african american coach just because he's african american, basically just because we have never had one?

I've been pretty positive about the possibility of JH as our next HC, but it just occurred to me that wrt to JH as a possible HC candidate, how responsible is JH for this year's lack of leadership?

He's ID-ing the "right" kids to recruit, which must include an assessment of their leadership potential.

He's the closest to a peer-level mentor, which would give him a critical role in developing the leadership of the kids on the current team.

A proper assessment of JH must include answers to these type of questions in addition to his potential re: the X's and O's.

No.

If they look equally qualified and look to be perfect from the perspective of someone on the inside, someone who has interviewed and done background checks on both candidates, then YES I think we need to hire the AA coach.

Does JH pick the kids to recruit?

Good question.

But regardless, assessing their leadership potential would seem to be a key thing he'd need to do, right?

I dont know. I see your point. As someone who has never had to make a decision on hiring a coach, just guessing, there has to be a lot more to it then just what we're talking about. Like both candidates might look perfect, but maybe one aspect of the white coach stands out moreso then the black coach, and likewise the other way. Something small about either perfectly qualified candidate could be the tipping point in choosing either one.

UI may very well hire an AA coach, and Im going to be happy. Likewise with another white coach, but by no means will I be upset if they seem to do their "homework" and choose the white guy over the black guy. And it IS a racial issue, not one in which we are being nasty or discriminatory, but there is surely a racial issue in the last page or two of this thread.

It shouldn't be a race issue and that was my point when I brought it up. If you look back at many of the posts about new coaching candidates, there are many people who have named black coaches ONLY. As if it was a foregone conclusion that MT would/could only hire a black coach.

The board members made this a public issue with their no vote on the Beckman hire(they were posturing towards the next basketball hire). To say they aren't trying to force his hand is being oblivious. Should the white board members demand that there be white assistants hired if a black head coach is hired?

The point is that the best guy should be hired, no matter his race or color, by the people put into the position of hiring, which is MT. A coach of any race should not have that be the factor for him being hired. It should be based on merit and whomeevre MT is most comfortable with leading the program. The problems with racism in this world is a two way street. The actions by these board members show that they will use the race card to get what they want.

He was average at an average university. Chicago elites were never going to down grade to UIC.

Your point is taken and understood, but if I may offer another perspective on this. I do not believe that there is a problem at the level of Head Coaches - if there is a problem it lies in the entry level positions. That may be linked to the head jobs being largely white men, but not necessarily.

Why do I say this? This ethnicity report shows that ~ 16% of head coaches are African American and notes that ~ 21% of Assistant coaches are African American. The report also notes that in 1995, 18% of assistant coaches were African American so the number of African Americans heading programs is right about what I would expect it to be. At 2% points difference we are talking about what, 6 positions?

We cannot expect African Americans to take 50% of the Head coaching until several years after 50% of assistant coaches are African American.

I'm not sure this was my original intention. Picking Howard over others was to keep us from embarrassing ourselves like we did with the Football head coaching job or so we don't have to hear Crean calling a press conference letting everybody know he's not interested in the open head coaching position. We have a young, up and coming assistant sitting on the bench. Why not give him the reins and let him have his shot. It's working a Memphis. Just show a little appreciation to someone that lives and breath Illini basketball.

On top of that, the program has a black eye for not hiring a black head coach. Most of the top athletes we recruit are black. What's the message the unversity is sending? You can play ball for us and make the university millions in revenue but you'll have to go somewhere else to make millions for a coaching career.

Nice find. I see that minor Head Basketball Coaches increased 3% in the 15 year span. This is a shame.

But you cannot expect faster growth than that given the few number of assistant coaches. If we want more minorities running programs the first step is to get them jobs as assistant coaches. Given the numbers you would EXPECT 80% of first time head coaches to be white.

Recruiting is funny. He's been on the elite kids from Chicago but for one reason or another, those kids didn't pick Illinois. We can all agree Weber has to be the one to close the deal. You'll never here a bad thing come out of the mouth of any recruit/coach when it comes to JHoward.

As for X's and O's, you can hide that by having assistances that are strong in those areas. Example being, Bill Self. We saw this first hand. He couldn't coach his way out of a paper bag. Next thing you know, he wins a championship and he's labeled with best of the best coaches. I will say, this has to be Self's finest job to date.

Agree! There has to be an opportunity for minorities on a staff.

The only time not hiring a black coach was an issue was after Henson, when Collins wasn't hired. After his stint at UIC, and the job Kruger and Self did, this wasn't looked at as a nonhiring mistake. I don't think there's a black eye because of that.

As for the players that play ball for us. Hmm? You can come to our university, get a free education, a great experience, a degree, and a better opportunity to succeed in life, no matter what you do. Not to mention the alumni you'll meet and the networking you'll have to succeed after you graduate. A University isn't obligated to give a former player a coaching job just because he played there. There's no basis for you stating this.

Today's Seth Davis mailbag

Wake up and smell the coffee. How many Chicago kids have been the roster since Henson's time? How many top tier Chicago kids misses have we had during that time? Oh, wait, you think there is no black eye?

You missed my point. You are correct about not having a basis for my comment. But it would be terrific if we kept former players within our program and gave them a real look at the head coaching position. Actions speak louder than words.

Davis mentioned Gregg Marshall from Wichita State. Good track record building winners at C of C and WSU.

Um what????? :huh:

Talked to someone yesterday who was very high on Marshall as well.

He is a winner plain and simple.

More interesting tid bits from Davis:

Not easy to improve on a 29-8 record but so far he has. Wouldn't really be the up and coming coach at 48 yrs old. But seems like a really good coach. Only thing is can he recruit?

The result of not hiring Collins angered many of the city coaches at the time and understandibly so. He had built the pipeline to the CPL. That doesn't necessarily mean we should have hired Collins though.

Kruger was fortunate to get a few quality Chicago players along with a loaded Peoria crop of recruits.

Self could've recruited anywhere and he did. He had no trouble with the Chicago area. If he had stayed the pipeline to Chicago would've probably been better than in the Henson days.

BW has never been a strong recruiter. Add this to the fact that we have been an average team for six years. Our Chicago performances have been pathetic. The Chicago players that have gone to Illinois are not having the impact hoped or expected. Off the top of my head I think of Carlwell, Simpson, Richmond, Head, and this year's freshmen class(outside of TA who is getting so much time beacuse BW has no other choice). Winning is the biggest problem for BW, but these other things have an impact.

I love keeping former players on staff. They are loyal and passionate to the program. I just don't think you give the job to someone because of that. IF JH were white, I'd still say he is not qualified. I hope he does stay if a new coach is hired.

Marshall would be a great candidate. His teams have always improved the longer he's been there. He is doing great at Wichita St. this year. He did a fantastic job at Winthrop while there. Recruiting ability would be the biggest question mark.

Would the fan base be happy if Marshall was the replacement? I think you can get away hiring a guy that most fans have never heard of in football, but not basketball. If Weber isn't the guy and we are a Top 15 program, you can't settle for another unknown mid-major.

I would be, yes.

But the general public, hell no.

He is a very good coach though imo. I have no idea how he would do recruiting Chicago/Illinois though.

I'd be willing to give the guy 5 years to get a whole class of his own guys through the program before calling for his head. I wouldn't be thrilled but not too disappointed.

There's only 2-3 names right now that are realistic targets that would excite the general population.

Also who knows if someone gets super hot in March and springboards to be the hot new thing.

He's now built two mid-majors into powerhouse programs for that level. I've only seen his teams play a few times, but they play an exciting brand of b-ball, defending tough at one end and using transition points and an attacking halfcourt style at the other end.

If JH stuck around as his top recruiting assistant, he certainly could succeed recruiting Chicago.

If BW gets fired, the coach that I personally like hearing about as a successor the most is Smart. But a guy like Marshall could be a solid second/third choice hire.

I think that's how all of Illini nation would be thinking. Everyone wants Shaka and due to his combination of characteristics, he should be our #1 target. But if he says no, you gotta move on.

I don't know the comings and goings of the DIA but I'd think you'd have to at least call Brad Stevens, through back channels. If he says No then god bless and move on

Grant has the AA background, and as displayed recently, the integrity I would want in our coach.

I don't know much about Marshall. I only saw Wich St play in 3OT vs Drake, since I was flipping channels and saw that Drake was playing. My Fiance is a Drake alum. Just don't enough about him to move my needle either way. I have been known to be wrong on many occasion though.

Sounds to me like another 5 years of .500 ball in the B1G. Just doesn't sound like an improvement to me. He might be a great coach, but I don't think he would make Chicago recruits line up to come to Champaign.

Word is that Marshall really had an abrasive personality before, but he is getting much better with how he presents and handles himself, and how he talks nowadays.

There was also some concern of Smart wanting to go back to Madison once Ryan retires...

I have never hired a coach, but I have participated in making many hires. You are correct that the final list of 2-3 candidates are "apples and oranges" in terms of what they bring to the table. The final decision often comes down to how "comfortable" the search committee feels with the individuals. And often white males feel more comfortable with other white males, from similar backgrounds, similar ways of speaking, similar social exchanges, etc... More often, they have common friendships. That is how historical discrimination can bleed into contemporary hires when the people doing the hiring are not consciously aware of how race may color their perceptions.

Couldn't you put a clause or a big buyout in his contract in regards to leaving Illinois for Wisconsin? Not to mention, Smart is not a Wisconsin alum, correct? Do we know that he would have a desire to go back to his hometown? Things change. I have no desire to go back to Decatur. :laugh:

I'm not sure that Self would have done as well in Chicago for Illinois as he has for Kansas. Remember that he really chafed under the compliance department at Illinois and Chicago recruiting can be very down and dirty.

I would say that is a very low to no concern.

Big 10 coaches almost never move from one school to another in the league. If they did, it would have to be a big step up. If we hired Smart at Illinois, I wouldn't worry the least about him leaving for UW-Madison.

I would think Rob Jeter would get a look before Smart in Mad-Town

His Info


Guy's assisted under Bo for 10 of his 11 years as an asst. Played for Bo at UW-Platteville for 4 years. Just won Horizon League coach of the year 2011.

You would think that when someone who is a program (like the way Bo is wisky bball right now) chooses to step down, that they would be able to name their own successor (K at Duke, Boeheim at Cuse, Not one dime Calhoun at Uconn).

I would think Bo would rather hand over the results of more than a decade's worth of work to someone who's been by his side for 14 years.

You never know about his recruiting. But there is enough talent on our roster now, to be better than tied for 7th in the B1G and there will be next year too. We'll still have 6 RSCI 100 players, so the cupboard is not exactly bare for the next coach.

Self was already getting big time recruits to Illinois (Charlie Villanueva was a top 5 player), the big time Chicago players would of came the same way some go to Kansas and Kentucky.

This confuses me. Are you saying we got a black eye in Chicago for not hiring Collins, or another AA coach since, and this is why we are losing Chicago kids? I might feel there was some merit to this, except these kids haven't exactly been filling the rosters of teams coached by AA coaches. Have any of our top misses from Chicago gone on to play for a black coach? Dunnigan and Humphrey out to play for Ernie Kent, but I don't know of any others.

Yea, I think there was a backlash to not hiring Collins, but I don't think it was as an AA coach, more of a relationship and what was felt to be the right thing to do.

Self made progress with the Chicago coaches but he still wasn't a point where he had his choosing of a kid from Chicago. I would've selected Dee Brown over Villanueva. He came from the outskirts of Chicago and he was one of the main reasons Villanueva nearly played ball at Illinois. Once Self left Illinois, it was open doors with Chicago talent.

Many of the old school CPL coach never forgave Illinois for not hiring Collins. The old school coaches had most of the good players and wouldn't support/approve of sending their players to Illinois. They wanted one of their own in the program. If you want Chicago kids, then hire a Chicago guys, was their thinking. The last few years, we've seen the CLP getting newer and younger coaches. I don't think balance is what it was in the past but Chicago can hold a grudge for a long time. There was an article when JHoward was hired where CPL coaches didn't think highly of the hire and were outspoken. So bad feeling certainly are still there and their hasn't been closure. JHoward being JHoward can wow the best of them but until CPL feels part of UI they'll never fully support the program. Even when DePaul hired Purnell, the talk was negative until Purnell had a chance to meet people.

Self was able to get Julian Wright, Sherron Collins, Mario Little & Jamari Traylor all from the Chicago area. Granted its Kansas and maybe they get them anyway but would of been nice to have Wright and Collins at Illinois.

I'm not saying this is right or wrong, but:

We claimed we went after Sumlin as our #1 choice, offering him big money. We then sign Beckman at $9 mil over 5 years. Sumlin ends up at aTm for $10 mil over the same 5 years. So from that perspective, it looks like we could have had him for another $200K/season or so, well within the budget MT had claimed to have. At least that's what I think the trustees are claiming. Of course Sumlin simply may have preferred aTm and wouldn't have picked us even if we offered the much talked about $3 mil/season. But it's not unreasonable to claim (as Bardo has) that our offer to him was not the best we could have done.

Self at KU was a perfect match. Self stopped recruiting Julian Wright for a bit and still makes his final 5. DePaul and Illinois really didn't have a shot with Wright. I thought Arizona was in the lead going into Self's home visit and magic happened. Collins recruitment was well documented so we don't need to bring that up. Traylor and Little, there was little that we could do when KU was a team that was a national contender.

You said previously that we needed to hire a black coach to get Chicago kids. You also stated you'd like to see JH hired. DePaul hires a black coach and CPL coaches still aren't happy. You refute your own argument with this post. A lot of CPL coaches will never be happy unless there's something in it for them. I like JH as an assistant. We need a coach that can win. It shouldn't take long, seeing that there is some talent on this team. Winning will help recruiting. Combine winning with a great recruiting coach and Illinois will be a perennial Top-15 program, consistently battling for the Big Ten title.

I'm still confused at how much of an uproar there is about AA head coaches. Do we know how many AA make the decision to get into coaching? What if there are 5 non-AA for every 1 AA that make the decision that coaching is what they want to do with their life? What would be an acceptable % of AA head coaches, then? To me, it's like everyone is looking at these figures in a vacuum.

You have to compare it to, say, the number of minority coaches in high school or at JUCOs, or even compare the ratio of minority assistants to their white counterparts to that of head coaches. If you have 25% of asst coaches are black, but only 10% of head coaches are black, that's a statistically significant difference that AA should be trying to correct.