Fred Hoiberg fired by the Bulls, going to be the hottest name in the coaching carousel for a while
Basketball Coaching Staff / Coaching Carousel Thread
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He will likely take a commentator's job with one of the networks and then land in college again as a HC, it will not take long. I doubt he would have considered Illinois though even if we had an opening. Given his experience with the Bulls he will look for a clean start at a different state. Undoubtedly, he will land a good HC job.
mattcoldagelli
- The Transfer Portal
I think his hypothetical pass on us would have more to do with our job being much worse than literally any other he'd be considering as opposed to sharing the same state with Chicago.
Well, I do not think anyone could argue about the current state of the program, but I still think the Illinois "HC job" is a great opportunity with much potential for the right coach. Not what it once was, but much better than what the current state of the program would indicate. JMO.
FeelYourPaign
- So Cal
Agreed. Better than the opportunity that got him started at Iowa State, as well . . . except for the fact that ISU is his alma mater. Yeah, that might have factored into it.
mattcoldagelli
- The Transfer Portal
I don't think it is any longer. Not any more than any HC job at any P5 program is, anyway.
DudeIllini
- Malibu
We’ve sunk too far for too long. The potential is there but that’s countered by unreasonable fan base expectations as of now.
Kansas or Arizona IF and only IF, anything further comes to light...it won't so outside of either Oregon/Wake Forest, wouldn't see any other program as of NOW, that he would jump into. Commentating, March Madness, then maybe he looks?
the national
- the Front Range
If he goes back to college, I would think he takes over at Minn after the season if lil’ Pitino is fried. He has a lot of connections to the twin cities. However, he doesn’t really like the college game and said as much while at Iowa State. He coached there to cut his chops and ISU knew it wasn’t going to be a long term position for him
Failure makes you humble. He is a coach, relatively young, and he has to find his niche and opportunities to rebuild his career. I doubt his path is through the pros right now, I remember all the talk about fit and NBA from Calipari at one point. I think Hoiberg finds himself in a similar predicament.
mhuml32
- Cincinnati, OH
I did not doubt that he may prefer the NBA. But as I said, he is a young coach and he has to pursue his niche and available opportunities. He will get high appealing college HC jobs, but not NBA offers right now. Kruger had made a statement that he did not enjoy recruiting when he left UI for the Hawks. But he returned to college when he failed. Calipari had made statements about preferring the NBA, he returned to college when he failed. Others, who probably liked college a lot more (Quin Snyder) failed at college coaching and found their niche in the NBA. It is a profession, life goes on, they have to pursue available opportunities.
The truth is that there are still only two job better than UI in basketball. IU and MSU (because of Izzo). The rest are not, but coaches and schools are in the process of making them better because of program advances, while we are stuck in irrelevancy and hope that we rebuild one day. And I say "hope" because outside unbiased observers do not see rebuilding taking place, advances on the court, or significant recruiting progress. Right now, they just see a bad program and an equally bad team.
I feel Illinois basketball is the student who says wants to do well at school, yet keeps on procrastinating and postponing doing actual work. But his parents (i.e., fans) still think he is a smart kid who will turn his academic career around.
I feel Illinois basketball is the student who says wants to do well at school, yet keeps on procrastinating and postponing doing actual work. But his parents (i.e., fans) still think he is a smart kid who will turn his academic career around.
Hoiberg was a front office guy before his coaching career started. I find it most likely that he'd return to a position like that as opposed to coaching college again.
mhuml32
- Cincinnati, OH
I'm not doubting that college is an option but it seems like a distant option for him. He's already accumulated significant wealth from a long career in the NBA, so he won't feel the money pull to go back to the NCAA as much as others have. Could be from passing time but I do not recall the same recruiting focused statement from Kruger (I checked out a couple articles from when he left Illinois and didn't see anything, but it's been a while) and Calipari's interest in the NBA always seemed more focused on keeping all avenues (and maximizing salary) open. I'd guess he's either join a coaching staff or take a similar route as Kerr and latch on to the management side.
ILL in IA
- Iowa City
Everyone knew the NBA would be an option for him if it worked out at ISU. But he didn't just go to cut his chops with the end goal to move on. Part of this was truly done to help resurrect the ISU program. They were circling the drain when he took that job over.
The truth is that there are still only two job better than UI in basketball. IU and MSU (because of Izzo). The rest are not, but coaches and schools are in the process of making them better because of program advances, while we are stuck in irrelevancy and hope that we rebuild one day. And I say "hope" because outside unbiased observers do not see rebuilding taking place, advances on the court, or significant recruiting progress. Right now, they just see a bad program and an equally bad team.
I feel Illinois basketball is the student who says wants to do well at school, yet keeps on procrastinating and postponing doing actual work. But his parents (i.e., fans) still think he is a smart kid who will turn his academic career around.
I so want to believe this. But the further we get away from the late 90’s - mid 2000’s, the harder it becomes to envision a return to prominence.
the national
- the Front Range
Sadly I was a student there when their program was circling the drain... he did come in to resurrect the program but no one thought he would be there long te. He was from Ames, an amazing hometown guy, and it was a win-win for both parties. I dont think he would have gone to any other college at that point in his career. Besides he had a great front office job as someone else mentioned, he didn’t have to take the job.
As a random factoid, my brother now lives in the home that Fred grew up in, in Ames. There are tick marks on a door jamb from the kids of how tall they were at certain ages.
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No confusion...Michigan and Ohio State are much better jobs and programs, historically proven.
Michigan Basketball - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan_Wolverines_men's_basketball
Ohio State Basketball - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_State_Buckeyes_men's_basketball
Illinois Basketball - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illinois_Fighting_Illini_men's_basketball
Michigan - Pro players - 73 to date
Ohio State - 55 to date
Illinois - 46 to date
Average Recruiting Class - Michigan and Ohio State easily win out almost annually and not just the last 10 years.
Both those universities JOBS are better than Illinois, unfortunately it is true...Illinois is below that but not really close to those top 4 at all.
Tier 1 Jobs - MSU, Michigan, Ohio State, Indiana
Tier 2 Jobs - Maryland, Illinois, Purdue, Wisconsin
Tier 3 Jobs - Iowa, NW, Minnesota
Tier 4 Jobs - Penn State, Nebraska, Rutgers
Based upon size of paycheck tOSU is the best job.
What is this based on?
I think in this system, Maryland and Illinois are clearly Tier 3 jobs. Certainly a step below Ohio State and Michigan. It hurts but it's true. And Wisconsin has had enough sustained success under Bennett/Ryan/Gard to be Tier 2.
Again, I think people confuse better program/team with better job. When you look at jobs, you have to consider potential, more than current state. Bill Self always talked about the Illinois job being a goldmine, a really unique and special place. He still does. I remember Self having a conversation with quite a few coaches (I was present) and he was explaining that Illinois is a goldmine of talent. Illinois steadily produces the 3rd largest number of basketball talent, after California and New York (which have much larger populations). Self was claiming that if you recruit very well in Illinois (and just get your fair share, you will not get everyone) you can have a winning program and everything you get on top of that from out-of-state is a bonus. He still talked about the attraction of the Illinois job, even when BU left his alma mater. He has always talked about Illinois being a "unique" job in a positive way.
You look at the golden eras of Illinois basketball (1980s and 1999-06) and UI is really one of the very few (if not the only one) Universities that had built a consistent winning program over such long periods of time with predominantly state talent. The vast majority of those players during the golden eras were from Illinois. How many programs can say that for such long periods of time?
Sure, location is not the advantage that it was in the 1980s, but it is still an advantage IF you have a VERY STRONG recruiter as a head coach. It is a pre-requisite for having success at Illinois. Without that, the full potential can't be achieved. Yeah, I have heard all the talk about outdeveloping, outsysteming, and outworking the other excellent coaches and programs in the B1G, but our history does not support that. Without being a very strong recruiter at UI, you are dead in the water. You may have the occasional good season as both Weber (e.g., 2008-09) and Groce had (2012-13) had, but you won't be able to consistently compete for B1G prominence.
Having a very strong recruiting coach is a necessary condition, with much larger impact than any facility we can upgrade or any system we can build.
IlliniForTheWin
- Georgia
This is a good post Obelix. Groce's first year was composed of Weber recruits dj richardson, b paul, leonard, etc though. Bottom line is that Illinois needs to get dirtier like the rest of the programs that take the talent from Illinois such as Kansas, Duke, Kentucky. Weber had Jerrance Howard and we know how we won when Self was here.
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