Brad Underwood Named Illini Basketball Coach

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#826      
A+
That is what I am talking about

Meh, grading at this point is sooo premature. I really like what I see coaching-wise, and I think there's enough talent here for an immediate turn-around....but whether he's a good coach at UofI, great coach, or HOF coach, is going to take a while to see.

Pass me some kool-aid, though.
 
#827      
I never had issues with Bill Self leaving for Kansas. Idk why some people couldn't get over it.

Same here. That was his "dream job". I also had no problem with Kruger going to the NBA. That's many coaches dream.

Obviously I would have preferred if they stayed, but I was cool with their reasoning for leaving.

It's much better to have coaches leave because they're successful than having to fire them because they suck (Webber, Groce, every football coach in the past 20 years).
 
#828      

mattcoldagelli

The Transfer Portal
Meh, grading at this point is sooo premature. I really like what I see coaching-wise, and I think there's enough talent here for an immediate turn-around....but whether he's a good coach at UofI, great coach, or HOF coach, is going to take a while to see.

Pass me some kool-aid, though.

It's not grading his tenure at Illinois. It's grading the hire.
 
#830      
Quote:
Originally Posted by IlliniGman
Been browsing on an OSU board and it is pretty funny watching the meltdown. Some hilarious and delusional comments over there. This one is one of my favorites:

"Underwood is going to be a flop there. He won't have the NBA talent he could get from a school likes of OSU. Evans saved his !!! many of times. I think he could of succeeded here but he chose to leave for a trap job. Illini fans talk crap about Stillwater LMFAO. Illinois is 3 hrs from a big city and is competing in a very competitive market where most athletes would rather go to a big time program like Duke or KU out of Chicago. They know they will be showcased for the NBA and are not 200 miles from a decent size city for fan support. Illinois was hard for Bruce Webber and bill self. Self was smart enough to leave before anything bad."


Bitter feelings from a spurned lover. But Illini fans know well what that feels like so that can be just left as it is. But what this does prove once again that since the Illini have been out of the limelight for so long, there are many thousands of fans who need to get educated or reeducated about what Illini tradition is all about. If things go as we hope, the nation is going to learn fast. And the folks in Stillwater will remain surrounded by all that fracking instead of combines gathering up all of nature's bounty being grown around Champaign.
 
#831      

ChiefIlliniwek

Omaha, Nebraska
3 hours from a big city? Maybe if you're taking the Amtrak!

Haha. I never took the Amtrak in my years in Champaign. Preaching to the choir here, but here's the thing:

Stillwater metro population is around 80K. They are an hour drive from Tulsa, whose metro population is around 981K. They are also an hour drive from OK City whose metro population is around 1.3 Million. For fairness sake, we will throw in Wichita, which is a 2 hour drive away. That metro population is around 644k.

Champaign metro popluation is around 230K. 2.5 hour drive from Chicago with 9.5 million in the metro. 2 hour drive from Indy with around 1.9 million in the metro. Also 2.5 hours from St. Louis with another 2.8 million in the metro.

Add all of this up and here is what you have: Within 3 hours of your campus in Stillwater you have close to 2.4 million people
Within 3 hours of your campus in Champaign-Urbana you have just over 14.5 million people.

Of course you can spin these numbers however you want to but the fact of the matter is that, to me, if you are trying to argue about whose campus is closer in location to large groups of people... the numbers really don't lie.

Again, preaching to the choir here, I just felt like looking up populations for comparison sake.

:chief:
 
#832      
I hope he can take us back to the days of when other teams feared playing at Assembly Hall. Didn't we have the longest home unbeaten streak at one point? I just remember visiting my gf(now wife) at the UofI and we'd go to the game, and when that "Champ is here" intro would start, I'd get goosebumps. I think BU can take us back to those days.
 
#833      
I hope he can take us back to the days of when other teams feared playing at Assembly Hall. Didn't we have the longest home unbeaten streak at one point? I just remember visiting my gf(now wife) at the UofI and we'd go to the game, and when that "Champ is here" intro would start, I'd get goosebumps. I think BU can take us back to those days.

I certainly hope that was auto-corrected :confused:
 
#834      
I hope he can take us back to the days of when other teams feared playing at Assembly Hall. Didn't we have the longest home unbeaten streak at one point? I just remember visiting my gf(now wife) at the UofI and we'd go to the game, and when that "Champ is here" intro would start, I'd get goosebumps. I think BU can take us back to those days.

[YOUTUBE]13j6cPAJ4i4[/YOUTUBE]
 
#835      

redwingillini11

North Aurora
I don't know if anyone heard, and I doubt anyone cares, but Christopher "Mad Dog" Russo from SiriusXM Mad Dog Sports Radio mentioned briefly yesterday that he thought that BU's exit from Oklahoma State was a joke and classless and terrible and yada yada.

"You don't leave a job one year after taking it....Oklahoma State rescued you out of Stephen F. Austin..." (It seemed like he didn't understand how underpaid BU was at OSU)

Even though I like Doggie, he seemed clueless when it came to this story. Glad that the majority of the media sees it right.
 
#836      
3 hours from a big city? Maybe if you're taking the Amtrak!

And it should be pointed out that the Champaign area HAS Amtrak service. Stillwater? There is no passenger train for miles. Have to go all the way to Oklahoma City and that train only goes to Ft. Worth. Maybe Stillwater has a really nice bus station?
 
#839      

Ransom Stoddard

Ordained Dudeist Priest
Bloomington, IL
Always nice to hear kind words from some sort of space alien who doesn't know how to tie a tie ;)

Props to the space alien for his prominent display of The Band's eponymous debut. He may not be a hoops guru, but he's got his Americana in the right spot.
 
#841      
As an OSU fan, I thought i'd pop in and see your thoughts on your new coach. It seems like people are pretty excited, although I find the disses at OSU and Stillwater odd and petty. Here is my opinion of the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The general consensus in Stillwater was that Underwood is a better public figure than coach, and a better coach than man. His greatest strength seems to be the off-the-court duties, specifically in the public relations domain. He tends to say the rights things and get people bought in, and that is very important for a head coach. At OSU, for example, we have two legendary coaches, Iba and Sutton, and he frequently made mentions to them that helped get the fans that had lost interest over the past decade reinvigorated and back in the stadium. He talked about the school history. He did a good job with social media. Years before he was hired he talked about his desire to coach OSU (and the Kansas schools), and upon being hired he called it his dream job. Sure, he had just lost a tournament game with SFA the day before, but as a fan base we were ecstatic to A) be out from Travis Ford and B) to have a coach with a high win percentage and high praise for the university. Overtime you hear some chirps about him behind closed doors, but the public persona is great and the results on the court are an improvement, so most of that never caught traction. In his introduction he already talked about his son's first jersey and all that mumbo-jumbo...so you're already witnessing his PR savvy.

On the court, he is stubborn and slow to adapt, as evidenced by starting conference play 0-6 before making a change. That being said, we did have one or two players make real strides this season, which can presumably be attributed to Underwood. All-in-all, the season was a success in my opinion, despite a first round loss in the tournament (that tends to happen when you find the hottest team in the country). Every player showed improvement and the unit as a whole was substantially better. Some fans were never happy about some players playing time...but that happens at every school in the country with every coach.

In terms of recruiting, how should we know? He brought Averette and his son with him (they may be Illinois bound now, which would be quite alright), and had a few recruits signed for this class, one being an ESPN100 player. Nothing too exciting though, and I didn't really anticipate him being lauded for excellent recruiting on an annual basis. Our main target was Trae Young, the third ranked PG in the country. He is an in-state kid and I know some of his family that are OSU alum and die-hard fans. Of course, we missed out on him. Similar to the dissatisfaction with the rotation, this is something that happens to all coaches in the country. Unfortunately, several reports came out that indicated the reason we missed out was Underwood botching the relationship with him and his parents. All of this to say; although Underwood is a smooth talker in public, we don't have any reason to believe the same can be said for when he's dealing with recruits and families.

Earlier I mentioned the occasional chirp about his true personality and it never really worrying anyone too much. Well, when he bolted and people on his staff were able to speak openly, and the fan base was finally all ears...it didn't paint a pretty picture. I'm sure some of this can be attributed to feeling betrayed (rightfully so), but again...these things were going on all along. Staffers saying he would disparage players about how they've never played an important game in their lives, this to a kid that was an MVP of the Texas State Tournament in HS, won several championships, and now owned several OSU records. He also had his son echoing the sentiment, which is just weird. He apparently used profanity toward children and then bragged about it, which is even weirder. The most telling thing to me...if you're really trying to see the caliber of man he is, is that he would get angry and storm out of meetings with the AD and staff, which is both childish and pathetic. When told that Travis Ford (an okay coach with an abomination of a contract) had a better first year and warranted a bigger contract extension after year one, he stormed off and became your coach, haha. Several other character issues have come out of the closet since his departure. Apparently he also wasn't fond of playing second (or third) fiddle to Gundy and football...but that's just how OSU is now, more of a football school. I can't say for certain if Illinois even has a football team, so that should suit him well. I jest, is Wes Lunt still a thing?

So, what can you guys know for sure about your new coach?

- Great PR guy.
- Great at rallying the fan base.
- Good coach on the court.
- Unproven recruiter at best, poor recruiter at worst.
- No sense of loyalty, despite preaching it.
- Kind of a jerk, definitely has an inflated sense of entitlement.

All that said, I hope the juice is worth the squeeze and he works out well for you guys. Will he finally display some loyalty? Hope for it, or don't. Either way, you'll probably get burned. I had some other targets in mind when he got hired a year ago, and hoping now that one of those can come to fruition (we're actually in a much better financial situation now than then). Our fanbase was shocked initially, but the excitement of a coaching search is always fun and makes you quickly forget about what could-have-been.

Lastly, I didn't know the Illini shared our "pistols firing" hand gesture, that's really neat! A bow and arrow seems more appropriate for you guys, but hey...the more you know!

Oh, and that Ollie's Bargain Outlet isn't even a picture from Stillwater. Far too classy.
 
#846      
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#847      
As an OSU fan, I thought i'd pop in and see your thoughts on your new coach. It seems like people are pretty excited, although I find the disses at OSU and Stillwater odd and petty. Here is my opinion of the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The general consensus in Stillwater was that Underwood is a better public figure than coach, and a better coach than man. His greatest strength seems to be the off-the-court duties, specifically in the public relations domain. He tends to say the rights things and get people bought in, and that is very important for a head coach. At OSU, for example, we have two legendary coaches, Iba and Sutton, and he frequently made mentions to them that helped get the fans that had lost interest over the past decade reinvigorated and back in the stadium. He talked about the school history. He did a good job with social media. Years before he was hired he talked about his desire to coach OSU (and the Kansas schools), and upon being hired he called it his dream job. Sure, he had just lost a tournament game with SFA the day before, but as a fan base we were ecstatic to A) be out from Travis Ford and B) to have a coach with a high win percentage and high praise for the university. Overtime you hear some chirps about him behind closed doors, but the public persona is great and the results on the court are an improvement, so most of that never caught traction. In his introduction he already talked about his son's first jersey and all that mumbo-jumbo...so you're already witnessing his PR savvy.

On the court, he is stubborn and slow to adapt, as evidenced by starting conference play 0-6 before making a change. That being said, we did have one or two players make real strides this season, which can presumably be attributed to Underwood. All-in-all, the season was a success in my opinion, despite a first round loss in the tournament (that tends to happen when you find the hottest team in the country). Every player showed improvement and the unit as a whole was substantially better. Some fans were never happy about some players playing time...but that happens at every school in the country with every coach.

In terms of recruiting, how should we know? He brought Averette and his son with him (they may be Illinois bound now, which would be quite alright), and had a few recruits signed for this class, one being an ESPN100 player. Nothing too exciting though, and I didn't really anticipate him being lauded for excellent recruiting on an annual basis. Our main target was Trae Young, the third ranked PG in the country. He is an in-state kid and I know some of his family that are OSU alum and die-hard fans. Of course, we missed out on him. Similar to the dissatisfaction with the rotation, this is something that happens to all coaches in the country. Unfortunately, several reports came out that indicated the reason we missed out was Underwood botching the relationship with him and his parents. All of this to say; although Underwood is a smooth talker in public, we don't have any reason to believe the same can be said for when he's dealing with recruits and families.

Earlier I mentioned the occasional chirp about his true personality and it never really worrying anyone too much. Well, when he bolted and people on his staff were able to speak openly, and the fan base was finally all ears...it didn't paint a pretty picture. I'm sure some of this can be attributed to feeling betrayed (rightfully so), but again...these things were going on all along. Staffers saying he would disparage players about how they've never played an important game in their lives, this to a kid that was an MVP of the Texas State Tournament in HS, won several championships, and now owned several OSU records. He also had his son echoing the sentiment, which is just weird. He apparently used profanity toward children and then bragged about it, which is even weirder. The most telling thing to me...if you're really trying to see the caliber of man he is, is that he would get angry and storm out of meetings with the AD and staff, which is both childish and pathetic. When told that Travis Ford (an okay coach with an abomination of a contract) had a better first year and warranted a bigger contract extension after year one, he stormed off and became your coach, haha. Several other character issues have come out of the closet since his departure. Apparently he also wasn't fond of playing second (or third) fiddle to Gundy and football...but that's just how OSU is now, more of a football school. I can't say for certain if Illinois even has a football team, so that should suit him well. I jest, is Wes Lunt still a thing?

So, what can you guys know for sure about your new coach?

- Great PR guy.
- Great at rallying the fan base.
- Good coach on the court.
- Unproven recruiter at best, poor recruiter at worst.
- No sense of loyalty, despite preaching it.
- Kind of a jerk, definitely has an inflated sense of entitlement.

All that said, I hope the juice is worth the squeeze and he works out well for you guys. Will he finally display some loyalty? Hope for it, or don't. Either way, you'll probably get burned. I had some other targets in mind when he got hired a year ago, and hoping now that one of those can come to fruition (we're actually in a much better financial situation now than then). Our fanbase was shocked initially, but the excitement of a coaching search is always fun and makes you quickly forget about what could-have-been.

Lastly, I didn't know the Illini shared our "pistols firing" hand gesture, that's really neat! A bow and arrow seems more appropriate for you guys, but hey...the more you know!

Oh, and that Ollie's Bargain Outlet isn't even a picture from Stillwater. Far too classy.
So he's an average coach, at best an average recruiter, a jerk, but he's great at PR? Sounds like Illinois overpaid and OSU lucked out. You should be very excited then.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk
 
#848      

sbillini

st petersburg, fl
As an OSU fan, I thought i'd pop in and see your thoughts on your new coach. It seems like people are pretty excited...

I started reading this with some optimism - an OSU fan posting, with some detail, his/her thoughts on BU, and hopefully glean some insights. Unfortunately, the underlying bitterness along the whole way, topping it off with a the knock on the football program really does kill any sort of credibility. There may actually be some points of value in there, but it doesn't matter any more.

The natural thought then is, you spent all that time writing this - you had to have known how it was going to be perceived, yet you still did it. What does that say?
 
#849      

haasi

New York
As an OSU fan, I thought i'd pop in and see your thoughts on your new coach. It seems like people are pretty excited, although I find the disses at OSU and Stillwater odd and petty. Here is my opinion of the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Well, after reading your post, I'm convinced that we did you a real favor taking him off your hands and paying you a nice sum that will help you reboot the program. You are welcome! Maybe we will have the same luck next year when he's improved our program and K State pays us $8 million to steal him.
 
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