Whether Coach goes somewhere else or stays in the Illinois Prairielands forever, any good administrator/CEO of an organization will always have a plan B... plan C... and plan D. So it should be with the Illini.
Illini fans know all too well never to get too complacent about anything. Fool me once... shame on you... fool me twice... you know the rest.
Follow your bliss. That’s the ticket. You only go ‘round once in life so you gotta grab all the gusto you can (old Schlitz beer commercial creed). For a young baller. For a coach. For anyone. Make your decision and live with the consequences. Take your shot if you choose to. Or, don't.
A top program has to be bigger than any one thing, including a coach. Otherwise, it’s just a cult of personality. Continue to build a solid infrastructure and coaching-style culture (and recruiting of a certain character of young men) that’s bigger than any one man and you’ve got something. Otherwise, it’s just a foundation of sand.
The Illini have taken some big body blows over the years as you guys all know. And it’s still here. And thriving. And it’s come back from the dead more than a time or two. As long as you’ve got the right guy at the top of the pyramid, everything else falls into place.
Words to live by? “Whose got next!?” Or, “Next man up!”