Larry Sanders--15th overall pick Milwaukee & Eric Maynor--20th overall pick Utah. 2 in 2 years not bad.

What can I say... Illini through and through. I guess I just don't want to get my hopes up too much cuz I think that is the only homerun hire out there.

I loved his show. Didn't seem like he was the NBA type.

This is moot, because Collins is gonna get nary a sniff (from MT). I'm decidedly not intrigued by Collins. Here's why:

1. There isn't a scintilla of evidence he'd be a strong recruiter, especially in the city. He's a north shore-ish (Glenview, Northbrook?) product and there's a world of difference between that area and the city. He played on Tobacco Road and has lived there pretty much since HS graduation. Yeah, he has some name recognition, but I submit that most 16-17 YOs could care less. Obviously, Duke rakes in the talent. But that's because they select. I don't think Collins is a master recruiter. Once he's separated from Duke, he's going to be just another young coach desperately trying to land his targets.

2. The Coach K coaching tree hasn't had much success.

3. His dad was an even better player than coach. What does that have to do with his son?

I don't think Collins would bring much excitement to the fanbase. The program will be better off under someone else (and, most likely, a lot better off). I certainly hope (and expect) we never find out.

Okay
 

For the tournament VCU's shooting percentage on 3 pointers was 42.7%, approximately 6.8% higher than during the regular season, and they shot 23.8 per game vs. 22.8 during the regular season..so 42.7% on the extra shot gives me an extra 1.28 per game, plus an extra 4.65 from the higher percentage.

Their two point shooting declined from 48.7% to 43.4%, costing them on the 31.5 attempts they averaged 3.34 points. Using the lower of the two percentages, it cost them an additional 1.30 points because they took 1.5 fewer shots.

Total gained from 3 point shooting 5.93, total lost from 2 point shooting, 4.64 points...net increase in tournament over regular season from shooting 1.29 points per game. Forgive me for not finding that compelling.

Smart never coached Maynor at VCU. Smart took over in 2009, the year Maynor left. Grant was Maynor's coach.

Sanders was coached for two years by Grant (who specializes in coaching big men) and one year by Smart. Sanders improved from his sophomore to junior year, but his big improvement came between his freshmen and sophomore years at VCU.

Smart hasn't coached for very long and even great mid-major coaches don't turn out many NBA players, but let's not pretend he has a record of accomplishment in this area.

You analysis neglects opponent strength. One would expect shooting percentages to fall when VCU is going up against teams that generally play much better defense than most schools in the Colonial.

The next 5 years in my opinion look very good, with the freshman, Hill and James, if the next coach loses these recruits the coach probably won't do as well as Weber would have, in order to make a change you have to feel like over the next 5 years a new coach will do better than Weber would have, or don't make a change. These recruits as Henrickson has said are game changing recruits, if the recruiting wasn't any good I would let Weber go but that's not the case. The new coach has to do well and quickly or it wasn't worth making a change. The future is all that matters. Has anyone that wants Weber gone commented on what Henrickson had to say, or does he not know what he's talking about

GHD, you are the best!! I thought SS had been there longer than 2 drafts. OK then what's your take on Bradford Burgess' chances??

What if Leonard said he'd stay predicated on Weber's retention this year?

KenPom has a great stat up about how little defense has to do with other teams' 3 point shooting percentages. His analysis is only for in-conference games, so to some extent it's not relevant here. It's interesting nonetheless; the gist of things is that there's essentially no correlation between a team's shooting from the first half of the conference season to the second. This is true from both a defensive and offensive standpoint, but most strongly from the defensive point of view.

You can't have it both ways....
 

Either they owed their success in the tournament to their shooting or they didn't. My point is that those who believe that they advanced because they shot lights out is that -on the whole - it doesn't hold water. Who they were playing is irrelevant to that....and besides, if you want to argue that shooting percentages should fall as a result of better competition, but, oh, ONLY to two-point shooting percentages, how do you do that? I confess to not watching all of the VCU games, but in those I saw I do not recall seeing 10 players on defense against them - an NCAA tournament team defending inside the arc, and a Colonial team defending outside the arc....but I just must not have been paying attention since I can think of no other circumstances where your orbservation makes sense.

I just wanted to point out that you earlier argued, 'but most of the run was due to getting hot from the arc.' Does that assume it was a lucky streak, and not due to running plays to get their shooters the ball in favorable positions? Maybe they realized they would struggle rebounding against schools from bigger conferences, and purposely took extra shooting practice and made it a point of emphasis to try to score 3's. If the 2 point pct. should go down because of better defense, then so too should the 3 pt. pct.. I would guess they were playing better for a number of reasons, and if we could figure it out so easily, we too could be coaching for large sums of money.

I think someone would tell him that coercion could get him kicked out of the university.

Then I assume he would likely be gone

Rim shot.

That would be great, we would have a very good team

Their PG Rodriguez improved dramatically the last couple of years...he was spectacular in the tournament run, and, IMO, the biggest reason for their run. I was surprised he didn't get drafted in the second round, but like many, he was probably better off going to Europe as a rookie with the uncertainty of the NBA season.

I wouldn't be at all surprised to see him make a team in the future.

I was also surprised last year when Shaka was offered a couple of big jobs, because he was so young and his team kind of lucked into the tourney to begin with. I really thought the team was more a reflection of Grant than him. That said, the more I have learned about him, the more I like him.

I am impressed with the way his team has turned around this year after losing so many pieces. I believe he is the candidate that will create the most excitement for the program, which is very important at this time.

Can he coach at this level? Can he recruit at this level? Not 100% sure, but I think he has the best chance of all that have been mentioned in this thread.

After nearly 6 seasons of B1G and NCAA Tournament mediocrity and 9 losses in 10 games to land us in the bottom third of the conference this year, BW has run out of second chances. He's a good coach, good ambassador for the program and will do well in his next coaching gig, but his continued employment at UI can't keep relying on future potential to extend his stay. If we don't make the Dance next month, we'll have missed the tourney 3 out of the last 5 years. That shouldn't happen at UI.

They DID shoot lights out from the perimeter. More than anything else that was the difference between their 4th place colonial finish and the final four run. The terrific perimeter shooting was enough to overcome offensive struggles in other areas... something to be expected when they faced better defenses. We would expect ALL of their offensive numbers to fall against better competition, much as our numbers this season fell once we entered the Big 10, the fact that they actually shot much better from the arc means they were hitting shots that they were unlikely to hit over the course of a season. That is even more evidence that Lady Luck was on their side for that run.

You might have a 50% chance of getting a head every time you flip a coin, but that doesn't mean it isn't possible to get 10 heads in a row. Getting 10 or even 100 heads in a row is improbably ("lucky") but certainly possible. When a team that normally shoot 37% from the arc hits 48% from the arc, there is some luck involved.

The 3-point shot has added a significant amount of randomness to NCAA basketball. It allows a team like Illinois to beat OSU when the latter team is actually much better. Brandon Paul hits a bunch of shots he wouldn't normally hit, and we have an upset. VCU strung together a bunch of Brandon Paul vs. OSU games and beat better teams. This is highly improbable, but certainly possible. It doesn't happen very often, but it happens.

If VCU had won those games through turnovers and easy baskets, then perhaps their success could be attributed to the "havoc" defense that received so much attention. That probably played a role, at least in some games. But getting hot from the arc was the bigger factor.

We would have roughly the same team we have now, less Sammy and Selus. How exactly should we have higher expectations for next year with the same players and same coach?

Tried to lead you to the answer, but you still won't see. VCU had their 3 best games from the 3 point line of the season in the NCAAs. They made 12 3 pointers, which was a season high, vs Georgtown, FSU, and Kansas.

Taking the cumulative stats is misleading and misses the point.

The only shot average from the 3 point line in their other 3 games, but there's no question it was a huge part of their post season run.

having Meyers, a more experienced Egwu and Griffey as big men...having Abrams (again more experience getting ML and the big men the ball) and DL and Orris coming in to get the big men the ball...more time playing on the court together...I think that we would be solid as well...even better if ML would stay if someone like Grant or Smart could teach him. Pipe dream but hey a guy can dream. :D

Ahhhh yes. The Chitwood Gambit. Don't see it happening. We're not the Hickory Huskers, and ML is a lottery pick - no reason to stay. It may be time for a change but I hate to put Hill and James back into play. The new guy had better be able to make an immediate impression.

U can't be serious