Jamall Walker hired as assistant at Grand Canyon

#37      
From the outside, this looks like it worked out well. Did a solid for Walker to give him plenty of time, and got a very good assistant that we probably wanted on our staff since well before the change. Is that the general perception?
 
#38      
I don’t see you’re point but I’m just saying every big recruit we were in on or got, Jamall had a hand in.

I think Antigua takes over that role moving forward and in the past year. He already has and will continue to land us some bigger fish. Walker I wish the best of luck to at GCU, however honestly I like our staff alot better now.
 
#39      
Josh Whitman deserves all the credit in the Walker/Gentry personnel move. He did a masterful job in a win/win for everybody. Walker will do well at GCU and Gentry has already proven his coaching worth. Kudos to Josh in spite of what some think on here.
 
#40      

Joel Goodson

respect my decision™
Josh Whitman deserves all the credit in the Walker/Gentry personnel move. He did a masterful job in a win/win for everybody. Walker will do well at GCU and Gentry has already proven his coaching worth. Kudos to Josh in spite of what some think on here.

This. Whitman made lemons into lemonade.
 
#42      

jmilt7

Waukegan
No ill will toward Walker, but man I don't like GCU.
Agree. Not sure why exactly. Just seems as if something shady is going on there. But just a feeling. As far as people saying this is a win win, the only problem I see with that is that Walker went from an assistant coach at a P5 school to an assistant coach at a podunk university (again, my feelings about GCU coming through). I thought he was supposed to be heading toward a head coach position. This seems like a step backward for him. No ill will toward Walker. Hope things work out and he does make head coach someday.
 
#44      
Agree. Not sure why exactly. Just seems as if something shady is going on there. But just a feeling. As far as people saying this is a win win, the only problem I see with that is that Walker went from an assistant coach at a P5 school to an assistant coach at a podunk university (again, my feelings about GCU coming through). I thought he was supposed to be heading toward a head coach position. This seems like a step backward for him. No ill will toward Walker. Hope things work out and he does make head coach someday.

GCU is an extremely controversial school. Jamal had no choice at Illinois, he was leaving at the end of the year anyway. He interviewed for and wanted the Western
Illinois job badly but that went to Rob Jeter. I would not count out Colangelo on anything. He will make the basketball program a much bigger thing.
 
#45      
Josh Whitman deserves all the credit in the Walker/Gentry personnel move. He did a masterful job in a win/win for everybody. Walker will do well at GCU and Gentry has already proven his coaching worth. Kudos to Josh in spite of what some think on here.
Major props to Josh. Our staff is second to none now. Best overall staff I can recall at Illinois in 50+ years, but admittedly I've only been dialed in for the last 15 or so on things like how good our staff is.
 
#47      
That 2001 staff of Self, Norm Roberts, Billy G and Wayne McClain was pretty good.

It'd be awfully hard to argue that this staff is better than the other staffs that won B1G championships in the early 00s. I mean, I know those teams were stacked with talent, but they were stacked because of the coaching staffs bringing them in.

This current staff could be "ranked" really high for us, but they have a lot to prove still, IMO.
 
#48      

sacraig

The desert
Agree. Not sure why exactly. Just seems as if something shady is going on there. But just a feeling. As far as people saying this is a win win, the only problem I see with that is that Walker went from an assistant coach at a P5 school to an assistant coach at a podunk university (again, my feelings about GCU coming through). I thought he was supposed to be heading toward a head coach position. This seems like a step backward for him. No ill will toward Walker. Hope things work out and he does make head coach someday.

Oh, I know exactly why. For me, it has everything to do with their heritage as a for-profit university. They advertise themselves as this benevolent private Christian university, but they are a for-profit enterprise operating for the benefit of their shareholders, not their students. They made a faux attempt to move to a non-profit status recently but are still wholly dependent on a for-profit parent company. It's all just really shady.

Arizona State refuses to play any sports against them because of this. I wish we'd do the same except it will never happen do to the Colangelo angle.
 
#49      
Oh, I know exactly why. For me, it has everything to do with their heritage as a for-profit university. They advertise themselves as this benevolent private Christian university, but they are a for-profit enterprise operating for the benefit of their shareholders, not their students. They made a faux attempt to move to a non-profit status recently but are still wholly dependent on a for-profit parent company. It's all just really shady.

Arizona State refuses to play any sports against them because of this. I wish we'd do the same except it will never happen do to the Colangelo angle.

Interesting. A non-profit which shares its revenues and expense with a for-profit.

"Grand Canyon Education will continue to operate as a service provider for the university, in particular overseeing operations around the college’s online offerings. Grand Canyon Education, which will remain publicly-traded and headquartered in Phoenix, will offer “technological, counseling, marketing, financial aid processing and other support services” to Grand Canyon University, a press announcement says. It will also split revenue with the university. "