Re: the Underwood hire...
Some seem to think that he’s not a fit for the program because he’s not a great recruiter, and that Cuonzo, while maybe not ideal, was a better fit for what the UofI job requires.
If I recall correctly, someone was kind enough to put together a chart that shows that we have pretty vastly under-performed relative to our recruiting the last 10 or so years. Pre Underwood, we were pretty consistently pulling in top 5 classes in the BIG, but our winning percentages never corresponded to our recruiting successes.
Take Beilin or Ryan as examples; both have of course landed their fair share of 4 and 5 star talent, but their bread and butter is their program/system. I for one was tired of getting Burked and Stauskased and LeVerted and Happed while we had the superior roster “on paper.”
Cuonzo Track record indicates it would have been more of the same. Do I think Smith Tilmon and Pickett stick around if we hire Cuonzo? Sure. Not sure he would have been enough to keep Liddell or Okoro from OSU or Oregon but definitely would have improved our chances. And we are probably a tournament team last year and this year which sounds great.
But Underwood seemed like a better hire at the time. More of a chance to build a lasting program and, hard to say this now, I actually believe a higher ceiling.
Unfortunately nothing has gone right. We’ve got an ace recruiting staff who have brought plenty of talented players to campus, but for whatever reason (could be Underwood, could be facilities, could be different with each player) we haven’t been able to land them. For whatever reason, players haven’t been able to execute his offensive system with any consistency and defensively, I think we’ve got a large enough sample size to show his philosophy doesn’t work at the HM level (started 0-6 at OSU before he adjusted). We’ve had second half leads in 7 of our 9 losses. I think the pressure just tires guys out and it’s about as simple as that.
There is still time to turn it around but we are very close to a vote of no confidence from the players. And playing your walk on son ahead of scholarship players is a horrible look when you’re 4-9. I don’t think it’s too early to start working back channels and if the right candidate presents himself, making a move. With basketball it seems like coaches turn things around quickly or they don’t. Unfortunately seems to be the latter in this case.