He claimed MT sent out a feeler to Romar (which shocked me -- figured the guy is at his alma mater I think and is 55 or 56), and Romar's response was if he ever left UW to go elsewhere that he'd want a long-term contract at more money than he's making right now (I think he said $2.2 mil/year). Romar has to know that he's probably hit his ceiling at UW with a mediocre Pac-12. If he were to make one last coaching move, going to a recruiting hotbed like UI in the best conference in the country would make some sense.

There's conjecture about whether Buzz Williams would be a good hire, too. He also makes $2.2 or so mil, I'm told, but those in CBB supposedly rave about what he's done in the Big East at a small private school in Milwaukee that doesn't have a campus arena and doesn't have a big recruiting budget or fan base. People on campus think he won't stay at Marquette for the duration (a la Crean).

Buzz Williams would be a very good hire, but i wonder if eventually he ends up down south given his Texas roots. Even at MU, most of his recruits have come from the south. Vander Blue, the Madison PG, is the only high profile midwest recruit he has landed.

Romar has spent most of his life on the west coach. He has turned down a lot of opportunities to leave UW. I just don't see him at Illinois.

Agreed on Romar. Was surprised to hear about a feeler to him. He's a great recruiter and offensive mind, but I don't like how his teams play D, to be honest. They seem to try to win too much with O, imo. They have done well considering UW is not in a great region of the country for recruiting. Getting JP to come here would be nice, though that's far from a guarantee imo.

Smart and Romar were the only names I was given that had supposedly received feelers. Williams was just speculation on the source's part. Smart was supposedly the first one whose handlers he contacted, fwiw. Maybe he sees him as a BB version of Beckman.

I can't figure out what everyone sees in Romar. Either I have watched poor examples of his overall work as a coach or I'm just missing something. I'm not that impressed with Romar. I think he would get eaten up in the Big Ten.

I like Buzz's offensive system.. have not seen a lot of MU games but they run and push the ball a lot!!! Cant rule out anyone really- who would have though Purnell would leave Clemson for horrific Depaul and the bigeast. ?

I think Smart is a BB version of Kevin Sumlin.

I love Buzz William's system as well.

I watch a lot of Marquette games as a bunch of my friends went to Marquette and I have always kind of followed them as my second team I guess. But they are skilled, hard nosed, and tough as nails. They have a ton of interchangeable players. He let's them play free and open and they make plays. They are all just mentally and physically tough.

They had a rough stretch right around the time when we won at NW, they blew like a 17 point lead to Georgetown and blew another game. They were getting crushed by Syracuse but made a huge comeback to make it a game on New Years day iirc.

Off topic, but Marquette alums sure know how to party and enjoy themselves!

I think one thing we can all be confident in is that Thomas won't make a change unless he feels he can get someone better with pretty good certainty. Too many times I've seen a team attempt to make a change only to whiff of their targets and set themselves back...or they just make terrible hires to begin with.

sounds good to me, I have really grown to hate our style of play, like we are whisky south.. no way, not with the atheletes we have we should have been running more and killing the ISU, Cornell, and St. Boni's of the world on pure talent level alone.. weber to controlling and keeps games close that should not be.. Any of those three teams play in an open gym with no coaches, Illinois wins 10 out of 10 and all by atleast 15 points. jmho

Buzz also seems good at player development. His players progress nicely at Marquette outside of Blue, who hasn't become the star I thought he'd be out of HS. They play hard-nosed D but also push the tempo.

Romar could be interesting. Style of play is conducive to recruiting and he has a connection to Jabari Parker. Think the asking price is too high though.

Williams at Marquette is also a good name. But I think there is a lot of pressure to hire an African-American coach or another coach of color. (And not Williams' suits)

Always surprised that with all the talk of Smart that Anthony Grant doesn't get more conversation.

Purely speculating from Mike Thomas' perspective here, but Buzz Williams has always relied on JUCOs to supplement his team, which might not be ideal for two reasons. One, any coach who is hired needs to make it "cool" to attend Illinois for Chicago kids, and using juco players over Chicago incoming freshmen is not a perfect fit. Two, Thomas inherited the post-Bob Huggins/Kennedy mess at Cincy and saw first hand what awful APR numbers can do to a program. JUCOs are more often than not strain APR numbers. Obviously, Illinois under Weber has a great APR, especially compared to the dastardly situation at Cincy that Thomas had to come in and clean up. There is no denying Williams success, familiarity with the area, and energy he would bring to the program (and he did take a long look at the Oklahoma job just last summer, even though Marquette to Oklahoma is a lateral move at best)-but it may not be an ideal candidate to Mike Thomas.

One thing I saw recently I liked about grant is that he suspended a bunch of his good players for discipline.

Guy's got guts. Gotta like that. Wouldn't mind seeing him as a candidate.

HOC - do you think any feelers have or will be sent Grant or Brad Stevens' way?

How strange! We had been discussing the likelihood of losing Jabari Parker to UW because of his connection with Romar, and now we bring up UW possibly losing Romar to us.

I wonder if the reliance on JUCO players is due to a philosophy reason or merely circumstantial. Did he simply not have the pull to get good recruits at the time?

Buzz would not recruit as many juco players if at UI..He would not have to. Maybe one here and there to fill a major void (xtra pg maybe?) but that would not be the normal.. he would be great,imho, young, energy, different mind set, would most likely recruit well, and the chicagohandlers and hangerons would still be upset some how some way:tsk:

no way should MT give in to the two BOT who wanted a AA coach.. he tried his best in sumlin and he refused..those two probably did not even know he tried , they were simply looking at skin color when it was clear MT was not!!!

Get the best man for the job- black, white, purple, blue, red, etc. end of story

my list would be

1) buzz
2) smart
3) Stevens--- drop cuz his offense sucks, imho
4) Grant

would be happy with any of these 4. however, I am rooting for weber to turn it around but still dont think the future is bright with him at the helm.. he is to stubborn and controlling even with good recruits.. his refusal to change and adapt with better players is discouraging to say the least.

Admittedly, I know very little about contracts and buyouts and the like, but I feel like it's noteworthy that each of the guys discussed in this thread are making good money already. Even Smart at VCU signed something like an 8-year/$1.2 mil per season deal after last season with something like an $800,000 buyout. Maybe that's not too bad in today's college bball landscape, but it sounds like a lot.

Whether or not he would, I don't see him considering Illinois unless the terms were just otherworldly, which I can't imagine. As much as I respect and admire him, I also think Illinois will do better with a younger, rising candidate. That's my subjective perspective.

I'd be shocked if we landed Romar, fwiw.

Mine, too.

Not to mention that getting Romar would take more money and more commitment. I'm fine with allocating a big contract for a new coach, but doing so for a coach that would arguably not bring fresh energy to a program is tenuous at best. There are candidates that while they may have more risk, can bring much more reward to the program. Smart has to be at the top of Thomas' list. Young, extremely energetic, smart... just look at this

Tell me that guy wouldn't be huge in recruiting, and tell me that guy wouldn't invigorate a fan base that sorely needs it. When you combine that with his success and good recruiting at VCU - it's a no brainer. What's the worse that could happen? Average basketball that we've seen for 5 years?

All the rumors/speculation are getting me excited about Illini hoops again. Most would appear to be an upgrade at this point. Trash talking from NW alums at work is getting unbearable. Make a move at season's end! I-L-L!

I too am not sold on Romar. I may not be fair, but I don't want Illinois to be his golden parachute.

As for Smart, I don't like guys that don't wear a suit coat with a shirt and tie, so cross him off the list. :)

Not sure where the low opinion of the recruiting base in the Pacific Northwest is coming from. Over the past 10 - 20 years there's been a boatload of talent from this region ... and Romar has gotten his share (as have Pitino, Williams, K, and others).

I definitely believe there is a ton of talent in the pacific northwest, but I think the bigger issue is that Thomas wants to own Chicago. Romar is a good recruiter and I'm sure he could adjust, but I just think that no one wants to shift our recruiting philosophy (at least in the short term) to grabbing those kind of prospects. Personally, I don't care about any of it as long as we get a coach who can revitalize our program. The rest could take care of itself.