Brad Underwood Named Illini Basketball Coach

[UofI08]

That's the difference between JW doing the hire on his own and MT engaging a search firm and leaks galore. MT had some fatal flaws in his style and approach to this process and we paid the price dearly .

I think MT's greatest flaw was putting unnecessary constraints on his own searches. Everyone knew that he only wanted coaches that were already head coaches, that had a few years under their belt at their current school, that were relatively young.... You can really box yourself into a corner if you don't hit with the obvious homeruns with those constraints.

I'm sure JW has his own set of criteria, but based on the 3 hires he's made, he doesn't mind thinking outside the box and considering all options as long as he finds the best coach available that will take the job. Even if Lovie or Underwood were open to Illinois under MT, I highly doubt he would even consider guys in their 50s, one out of college coaching for 20 years and 1 at another Power 5 program for only 1 year.

 

[ILL in IA]

I'd pay to sit down and have a couple of beers with Huggy, Martin, and Underwood. They remind me of 3 of a kind.

I'm willing to guess Huggy walks out and sticks you with the bill.

 

[Second and Chalmers]

You are the one who kept saying the $$$ didn't matter. Looks like it mattered a whole lot.

Well, I think it's more than the lack of money at OSU and the poor relationship with the AD that that salary signified was the thing.

We always look at those random moves like Bret Bielema to Arkansas and Buzz Williams to Virginia Tech and Gary Andersen to Oregon State and wonder A. why do those things happen? and B. why can't we be that team?

The answer to A. is that there are coaches whose situations are bad behind the scenes. This is my monthly reminder that Barry Alvarez is a bad AD.

And the answer to B. is that you can't assure that one of those cases will always be available, but you can make yourself an appealing target with a good administrative structure and a competitive amount of money. A happy, comfortable coach isn't going to care about that stuff as much. But an unhappy coach will come running.

It's just luck that Lovie happened to get stabbed in the back by Dirk Koetter and railroaded by the Bucs, and to be sitting on his couch bored to tears in mid-March. It's just luck that some dumb contract for Travis Ford a million years ago caused OSU to treat Underwood with trepidation and suspicion when it was clear what they had.

What is not luck is that Whitman created the kind of situation that unhappy coaches would be attracted to and was perceptive and nimble enough to identify those opportunities.

 

[OrangeSoda]

I am very surprised to see the lack of House of Cards (Frank Underwood) references.

I can see the similarities? Possibly distant cousins?

 

[illiniguy24]

I am very surprised to see the lack of House of Cards (Frank Underwood) references.



I can see the similarities? Possibly distant cousins?

If Brad Underwood is anything like Frank Underwood, he is going to light our campus on fire as he takes a job at Kansas State in a year. Let's hope looks are the only possible similarity


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[OrangeSoda]

If Brad Underwood is anything like Frank Underwood, he is going to light our campus on fire as he takes a job at Kansas State in a year. Let's hope looks are the only possible similarity


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OR he will ascend Illinois to a national championship victory next year while leaking information that cripples the blue blood programs and leaves U of I as the stand alone flagship basketball program for the NCAA

 

[mattcoldagelli]

It's just luck that Lovie happened to get stabbed in the back by Dirk Koetter and railroaded by the Bucs, and to be sitting on his couch bored to tears in mid-March. It's just luck that some dumb contract for Travis Ford a million years ago caused OSU to treat Underwood with trepidation and suspicion when it was clear what they had.

What is not luck is that Whitman created the kind of situation that unhappy coaches would be attracted to and was perceptive and nimble enough to identify those opportunities.

This is the thing. This is what should make everyone so relieved/happy/optimistic.

We used to be one of those athletic departments. Now we are one that takes advantage of those athletic departments.

 

[mhuml32]

Best part of the article:

....this type of action costs $3 million/year

 

[sacraig]

Now you know why I am going to Illinois buddy

I'm not your buddy, guy!

 

[IlliniBrave75]

Sorry if something has already been posted, but here is Brad Underwood mic'd up at OSU practice.


[YOUTUBE]Em-RIIZtgJc[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Illiini]

I think Underwood was getting subliminal signals that he should end up in Champaign while he was at Stephen F Austin:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ7V2r1vGZI

It's not uncommon for high schools to use college music--fight song, alma mater, etc.--or other music. My high school's alma mater was five choruses of America the Beautiful with dreadfully trite lyrics. My dauther's high school, here in PA, used On Wisconsin. (It made me cringe).

But one university copying--using--another university's music is beyond the pale.

 

[Second and Chalmers]

This is the thing. This is what should make everyone so relieved/happy/optimistic.

We used to be one of those athletic departments. Now we are one that takes advantage of those athletic departments.

We just suspended usual University hiring procedures to announce the hiring of a winning Power Five coach at a salary that exceeds all but two other Big Ten schools (one, technically, since Crean got fired) in a process that closed in under a week, required no search committee, faculty advisory committee, search firm, or anything of the kind, and took place, it appears, on private jets zipping around the country and at various locales on the dime of our high-dollar boosters. Not even a whiff of it leaked until hours beforehand. And the coach is not a minority.


How many circa-2009ish hobby horses of Illini fans are crushed in that one paragraph?

We're still a loser for the time being, only winning cures that. But we're no longer a joke.

 

[The Galloping Ghost]

We just suspended usual University hiring procedures to announce the hiring of a winning Power Five coach at a salary that exceeds all but two other Big Ten schools (one, technically, since Crean got fired) in a process that closed in under a week, required no search committee, faculty advisory committee, search firm, or anything of the kind, and took place, it appears, on private jets zipping around the country and at various locales on the dime of our high-dollar boosters. Not even a whiff of it leaked until hours beforehand. And the coach is not a minority.


How many circa-2009ish hobby horses of Illini fans are crushed in that one paragraph?

We're still a loser for the time being, only winning cures that. But we're no longer a joke.

All of this. The hiring process was extremely professional and precise. We finally acted like a major program and I couldn't be happier about it.

 

[JJB]

We just suspended usual University hiring procedures to announce the hiring of a winning Power Five coach at a salary that exceeds all but two other Big Ten schools (one, technically, since Crean got fired) in a process that closed in under a week, required no search committee, faculty advisory committee, search firm, or anything of the kind, and took place, it appears, on private jets zipping around the country and at various locales on the dime of our high-dollar boosters. Not even a whiff of it leaked until hours beforehand. And the coach is not a minority.


How many circa-2009ish hobby horses of Illini fans are crushed in that one paragraph?

We're still a loser for the time being, only winning cures that. But we're no longer a joke.

It makes me giddy to read the national press talking about the Illini athletic department this way.

Illinois gets savvy by poaching Brad Underwood from Oklahoma State

Illinois named Brad Underwood its new basketball coach on Saturday, and the stunning hire was in some ways less important than the dynamics that brought it about. The school identified a widely respected tactician who was underpaid and unhappy because of that. It acted decisively, requiring just one week to fill a crucial vacancy. And it was apparently a cutthroat and cunning process that surely began before Underwood’s season was over at Oklahoma State. This is how big-boy departments operate. Welcome, Illinois, to college athletics. We’ve been expecting you for quite some time. http://www.si.com/college-basketball/2017/03/18/illinois-fighting-illini-hires-brad-underwood

 

[ivwilsoniv]

Sorry if something has already been posted, but here is Brad Underwood mic'd up at OSU practice.


[YOUTUBE]Em-RIIZtgJc[/YOUTUBE]

"Being great is hard, man."
"You're grown men. Make a layup."

 

[ivwilsoniv]

Also, this image of Holder and Underwood is hilarious and sums up their relationship.

 

[PlayAZ]

It makes me giddy to read the national press talking about the Illini athletic department this way.

Big Ten is potentially going to be scary good for awhile coaching wise:

MSU Izzo
Wisky Gard
Indiana....Marshall/Miller?
Northwestern Collins
Ohio St Matta
Illinois Underwood
Maryland Turgeon
Michigan Beilein
Minny Pitino?


A few others may have turnover as well, so who knows how much stronger it gets...I would put this league against any as far as coaches for a lot of years to come....I think the higher profile athletes will become more frequent as well due to this.

 

[Dan]

https://twitter.com/JWernerScout/status/843868789066399747

 

[Ransom Stoddard]

https://twitter.com/JWernerScout/status/843868789066399747

Wow. The rider reducing the buyout if JW is no longer at UIUC is interesting as well.

 

[Second and Chalmers]

Well if he is destined for that K-State job, $8.5 million is a mighty nice start.

 

[EJ33]

Can your favorite Illini ever be an Athletic Director?

Gettin' closer to that every day.

 

[ivwilsoniv]

 

[Ransom Stoddard]

In stark contrast to this guy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YBW0b3311I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKhDZxHFWgc

I've always gotten a chuckle out of watching Okie State. Their arena is so "historic" that they have to announce that it's historic, all over the walls.

 

[ATL Chief]

Also, this image of Holder and Underwood is hilarious and sums up their relationship.

This is incredible.

 

[Calvin]

My favorite part of this article,

"Then Illinois came calling, and athletic director Josh Whitman sold Underwood on how much the Illini value basketball, saying Illinois wants to have the top program in the nation. “What I just heard from my boss,” Underwood told the source, “we want a program about equal to Iowa State, Texas Tech and Kansas State.”

That is what I want, Illinois to have the top program in the nation

Meh, we'll never know all the things that happened. It's natural to create a narrative that we made the right move, that the prior AD made mistakes, and we've got our guy. And I really hope that's true.

But let's not pretend this is a huge commitment, and at 6 years x $3 mil, something of a gamble. I think particularly on the recruiting front, there's as many questions as answers.

I like our odds on this one, but I recognize there's a lot to do.