Basketball Coaching Staff / Coaching Carousel Thread

[pvaughn8]

So help me out here. If we had played a typical Illinois non-con schedule and were 9-4 or 10-3 would this thread exist? Asking for a friend!

It would still exist, just might not be posted a early in the season

 

[whatahack]

This team just looks like it is not having any fun and regardless of the level or even the job, that is an important piece.

 

[Calvin]

So help me out here. If we had played a typical Illinois non-con schedule and were 9-4 or 10-3 would this thread exist? Asking for a friend!

I think we'd be ok, but you have every indication that we wouldn't get that record you propose. We just lost to a team in the 200+ category at home. Kenpom has us at 113, which would say we're consistently below NIT teams. You really think a $3 mil/yr coach with a guaranteed multi-year contract should be at that level? He's in the upper escholon of compensation, yet and has no hope of getting us to the tournament.

And what about the likelihood of the program rising because we've locked down promising recruits? You can hardly count how many misses we had, and we wound up with a single, late guy, who's a project big. Most bigs are projects, so it's not unexpected, but overall the consensus is recruiting is going poorly, and certainly not anything close to above average. Can it wind up being a great class? Sure. But it's not looking very good yet, and the options have dwindled markedly.

We've played some soft schedules, but if you're losing the 200+ games, you're not only losing the 1 or 2 tough games we have, but also the 3 or 4 games we have in the 50-100 range. Our 4 wins this year are (using Kenpom)

175 Evansville
352 MS Valley
150 UNLV
98 East TN State

Those are our 4 wins after completing the non-conf, and losing 2 conference games. Atrocious for a P5 team!

Then you look at the concern about turnover and it goes from ugly to 5 alarm fire. We're already looking at performance that's historically bad, going back many decades to find a comparison, with little hope of a turn-around, other than projecting results we have no reason to expect.

So your question isn't really valid in the sense that anyone is going to believe that the performance we're seeing, translates to 10 wins with a really friendly schedule. The teams that got Weber fired were much better than what we're currently seeing, and likewise for Groce, although in fairness to Groce, he was a helluva a lot cheaper (his extension after year 2 got him to $1.7 mil annually).

 

[LongLiveTheChief7]

Also, e-mails and rumors swirling at the UofI on this Monday that are calling for BU's termination now or immediately following after the season but are being pushed back by the Admin & AD Dept. stating that something like that is too preliminary.

But the bait that the donors are falling for again is apparently the plan is for Walker to be let go at the end of the year and they're going to bring some new Illino blood on the staff. And BU has no say in it and he's not too happy.

Told if he doesn't produce major progess here on out for the rest of season he won't get to have a say in who his next assistant will be, who will most likely to he chosen to be his replacement down the line potentially.

But like i said, just rumors and emails at this point.

 

[roger murdock]

Purely hypothetical (hopefully), but since M Smith transferred to another D1 school, and was immediately eligible, does it follow that Player A or B
could also transfer after this season, and expect to become immediately eligible?

 

[RichBradIllini]

Step 1- Bring in pitino. Keep Chin. Hire a combo from: roger powell, dee brown, kenny battle, sean harrington and groom them to take over when pitino retires. Instant indentity.
Step 2- make sure our new unifroms arent garbage. Clean old school like syracuse if possible. Wear orange 80% of the time to create identity
3-Put the band where the empty seats are at state farm. Get rid of the huge gap from court to tunnell that is filled with empty space and empty seats. Looks horrible, kills enviroment. Or change camera view. Need to focus on little things like this. Cant say it enough. Chief was our identity. Sucks he is gone so we need a face for coach, with good looking orange uniforms and a great game day experience (see indiana). Whitman is the right man. We just need more attention to details. We have the tradition. Rant over

So, to summarize your planned return to greatness:

1. Hire Patino (or Matta) as HC, but keep Chin and groom one of roger powell, dee brown, kenny battle, sean harrington as an assistant.
2. Get better uniforms.
3. Re-arrange the SFC seating chart.
4. Pull a mascot out of our yang.

 

[mattcoldagelli]

Step 1- Bring in pitino. Keep Chin. Hire a combo from: roger powell, dee brown, kenny battle, sean harrington and groom them to take over when pitino retires. Instant indentity.
Step 2- make sure our new unifroms arent garbage. Clean old school like syracuse if possible. Wear orange 80% of the time to create identity
3-Put the band where the empty seats are at state farm. Get rid of the huge gap from court to tunnell that is filled with empty space and empty seats. Looks horrible, kills enviroment. Or change camera view. Need to focus on little things like this. Cant say it enough. Chief was our identity. Sucks he is gone so we need a face for coach, with good looking orange uniforms and a great game day experience (see indiana). Whitman is the right man. We just need more attention to details. We have the tradition. Rant over

Trying to determine if this is parody.

 

[sacraig]

I've been an Illini fan since 2009 when I enrolled and we've gone through 7 coaches combined in football and men's basketball (Zook, Beckman, Cubit, Lovie; Weber, Groce, Underwood)...the total goes to 10 if you count women's basketball (Law, Bollant, Fahey). I can't remember a time when a coach wasn't on the hot seat, aside from the honeymoon period. I don't know if keeping Underwood is the right option, and I don't have a suggestion on what Whitman should do, but man I am so fatigued with coaching turnover.

Boy, you sure picked an inconvenient time to start following the Illini.

 

[SergioKittner]

Purely hypothetical (hopefully), but since M Smith transferred to another D1 school, and was immediately eligible, does it follow that Player A or B
could also transfer after this season, and expect to become immediately eligible?

How many kids look to leave may depend on what level of trust there is in the ability to get a waiver.

 

[ChiefGritty]

Trying to determine if this is parody.

That's generous of you.

 

[urbanite]

We're already looking at performance that's historically bad, going back many decades to find a comparison, with little hope of a turn-around, other than projecting results we have no reason to expect.

Going by KenPom numbers, 2015-2016 was worse. At this point three years ago, we were ranked 120th. We finished the season ranked 125th, with an adjusted efficiency margin of +3.91. We're currently ranked 113th with an EM of +5.55.

The B10 is much tougher this year than it was in 2015-2016, and there's a chance our efficiency will drop. But unless you're simply looking at wins and losses, you don't have to go back decades to find a worse performance.

 

[illini1123]

Relax. Coach K was 11-17 in year 3 at Duke. BU isn't going anywhere. He will get things rolling at Illinois...eventually. In Brad we trust!

 

[Cook]

Also, e-mails and rumors swirling at the UofI on this Monday that are calling for BU's termination now or immediately following after the season but are being pushed back by the Admin & AD Dept. stating that something like that is too preliminary. Good, this is right response for now.

But the bait that the donors are falling for again is apparently the plan is for Walker to be let go at the end of the year and they're going to bring some new Illino blood on the staff. And BU has no say in it and he's not too happy. If true, he shouldn't be. That would be a ridiculous stipulation/micro-management.

Told if he doesn't produce major progess here on out for the rest of season he won't get to have a say in who his next assistant will be, who will most likely to he chosen to be his replacement down the line potentially. Again, this would be an absurd path forward and virtually guaranteed for short and long term failure.

But like i said, just rumors and emails at this point.

 

[Obelix]

Also, e-mails and rumors swirling at the UofI on this Monday that are calling for BU's termination now or immediately following after the season but are being pushed back by the Admin & AD Dept. stating that something like that is too preliminary.

But the bait that the donors are falling for again is apparently the plan is for Walker to be let go at the end of the year and they're going to bring some new Illino blood on the staff. And BU has no say in it and he's not too happy.

Told if he doesn't produce major progess here on out for the rest of season he won't get to have a say in who his next assistant will be, who will most likely to he chosen to be his replacement down the line potentially.

But like i said, just rumors and emails at this point.

Yep, like when Jerry Wainwright was forced to replace assistants at DePaul with the AD's own choices, that worked great for them.

 

[kaptain80]

AMAZING OPPORTUNITY YOU GUYS

https://www.si.com/college-basketball/2018/12/31/ucla-fires-steve-alford

 

[bombayIllini]

Relax. Coach K was 11-17 in year 3 at Duke. BU isn't going anywhere. He will get things rolling at Illinois...eventually. In Brad we trust!

Josh was the point guy, with Kofi, during the game. Hardly looked as though Josh was fed up with BU.

 

[Jules]

Mr Jordan, does this board make you laugh......or make you sick?

 

[americanoutlaw11]

Relax. Coach K was 11-17 in year 3 at Duke. BU isn't going anywhere. He will get things rolling at Illinois...eventually. In Brad we trust!

I don't.

 

[Obelix]

Josh was the point guy, with Kofi, during the game. Hardly looked as though Josh was fed up with BU.

That's how the mafia works.

 

[americanoutlaw11]

That's how the mafia works.

Tilmon commit moment, right?

 

[Epsilon]

Also, e-mails and rumors swirling at the UofI on this Monday that are calling for BU's termination now or immediately following after the season but are being pushed back by the Admin & AD Dept. stating that something like that is too preliminary.

But the bait that the donors are falling for again is apparently the plan is for Walker to be let go at the end of the year and they're going to bring some new Illino blood on the staff. And BU has no say in it and he's not too happy.

Told if he doesn't produce major progess here on out for the rest of season he won't get to have a say in who his next assistant will be, who will most likely to he chosen to be his replacement down the line potentially.

But like i said, just rumors and emails at this point.

I call BS.

 

[Calvin]

Going by KenPom numbers, 2015-2016 was worse. At this point three years ago, we were ranked 120th. We finished the season ranked 125th, with an adjusted efficiency margin of +3.91. We're currently ranked 113th with an EM of +5.55.

The B10 is much tougher this year than it was in 2015-2016, and there's a chance our efficiency will drop. But unless you're simply looking at wins and losses, you don't have to go back decades to find a worse performance.

I was referring to the two-year period, as others have already commented on. Didn't check the claims myself.

We've had a few one year blips, for instance Kruger was a fantastic coach IMO, but had a terrible year record wise. If you want to debate that specific point, that's fine, but the larger point on performance holds. Our AD committed a huge amount for a top-tier coach, and we've only continued down from an already low point.

 

[mini30fan]

Also, e-mails and rumors swirling at the UofI on this Monday that are calling for BU's termination now or immediately following after the season but are being pushed back by the Admin & AD Dept. stating that something like that is too preliminary.

But the bait that the donors are falling for again is apparently the plan is for Walker to be let go at the end of the year and they're going to bring some new Illino blood on the staff. And BU has no say in it and he's not too happy.

Told if he doesn't produce major progess here on out for the rest of season he won't get to have a say in who his next assistant will be, who will most likely to he chosen to be his replacement down the line potentially. But like i said, just rumors and emails at this point.

​

 

[ChiefGritty]

I call BS.

Oh I absolutely buy some self-important donor sending an email like that. Won't mean anything though.

 

[RickBB]

That's how the mafia works.

This picture gives me solace that Whitman will do the right thing for the program no matter what his personal relationships are. By all accounts, Groce was a likable, good man who Whitman had a solid friendship with. I remember seeing pictures of Whitman as that season collapsed and thought "It's gonna be hard for him to fire his running buddy." But he did and obviously had to have been thinking of contingency plans before he actually had to execute it. I remember Groce seeming to be blindsided and Whitman handling that press conference as something he didn't like doing but needed to do. I believe he'll do similar here if he feels like he needs to.