You might want to stick to cutting and pasting other peoples recruiting information.
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Ransom Stoddard
Ordained Dudeist Priest
- Bloomington, IL
illininutt
- Tinley Park
If Chester is a 7 what would Danny Manning (Maryland) be?
Just so I know exactly how delusional you are, how would you have rated OA, Chin and Gentry?
The good news is that every recruit and family qe have heard from seems to love them both. They have loyalty to the Illini and want to be here for the long haul.
I'd venture to guess you aren't privy to how much the players currently on roster feel the same way.
Therefore, I disagree not because I know about them in the future, but the present news almost says upgrade!
If and when we hire a 3rd AC, someone should post survey to grade the new staff.
I'm not sure how I feel so far, don't really know enough to have an informed opinion. Things seem generally positive on here. I do wonder how many would consider this staff change an upgrade if they were told a year ago "chin, OA, and gentry are going to be replaced with Chester, Geoff, and X".
illini80
- Forgottonia
Being informed is not a requirement. Having a strong opinion and being ready to argue about is.
illininutt
- Tinley Park
OA=9.5 (he brought in some incredible talent) Chin=8 (always need to get a guy who is "in good" with Chicago coaches...we have had a "Chicago Connection Coach" almost every year dating way back to Lou Henson's early days)
illininutt
- Tinley Park
The players/recruits say good things about the visit/coaches at every stop. Don't be taken in. They play us for a fool and hop each teams forum to see us go crazy about what they said.
illini80
- Forgottonia
Agree on OA. Chin seemed to be rising but I wouldn’t rate him higher than a 6 when he was hired. 7-8 as he was leaving. No idea how to rate Gentry. I think he helped a lot between the lines but apparently wasn’t a great fit with the rest of the staff. My opinion on Chester has gone up a lot hearing how many other coaches and players speak so highly of him.
Absurd
Chin was a 6
Curious as to why you feel Danny Manning is so great? Been around a long time, played in the league, was a great college player, but no current players would know him from playing in the league. I’m 40 and I barely do.
This post isn't covered under the first amendment.
Chin was certainly less than a 6 to anyone outside of MIF. He didn't do well beyond those circles and if his lying in the Miller situation was true he struggled with that one. He was right in the middle of the THT debacle. His coaching skills were suspect and certainly his evaluation skills were not strong. Chester is a a huge upgrade to Chin.
illininutt
- Tinley Park
If your wanted by Kentucky....you are better than good!
Go Nats 88 Illini
Fairfax, VA
But he is right, nonetheless.
One of KY's requirements is "to be a good bag man" and nobody can deny Chin's bag man abilities.
The Sprouting Divot
Invisible and Bulletproof
- Miracle Mile
I wasn't disappointed with the hire by any means, but my opinion of it has definitely been going up over time as well.
As absurd as it sounds (and perhaps it's not surprising, given the neuroticism of the Illini fanbase), I almost think that in some ways, the fact that Chester is an alumni may be working against him, as though he's just some nepotism-ish hire to satisfy the demands of the "hire an Illinois guy" crowd. Or that by hiring an "Illinois guy" we're somehow forced to admit/believe that the job is only appealing to candidates with a pre-existing relationship with the program.
At the same time, our collective perception of him is still based more on his playing career (which we are all very familiar with) than his coaching career (which we are presumably much less familiar with). I suspect that anyone who still isn't over the moon about his hiring probably wanted some shiny recruiting wizard poached from the type of program that we aspire to be, but those fans are almost certainly bound to be disappointed by any hire, given that the hierarchy of college basketball is pretty much a one-way street, and we're in a somewhat peculiar place as a program right now.
It's unfortunate that this pair of "familiarity breeds contempt/grass is always greener" cognitive biases may be working against him, not just because it's misguided, but also because in some ways, it's impossible to really evaluate the hire at this point, but that hasn't stopped anyone. And of course, the most unfortunate aspect is that he's someone who already and obviously bleeds orange and blue, and is objectively a very well-respected and well-liked coach.
But at the risk of stating the obvious, we're not a very objective group.
I'm stoked to have Chester on board, and I expect that anyone who isn't yet excited will probably change their tune sooner rather than later.
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So is that true about the assistants they just fired? If so, why did they get fired?
Same thoughts. And didn’t he stink as HC at Wake. And if I recall we’ve already beat him head to head in recruiting.
Indeed we did. A guy named Ayo. I think he was pretty good for us.
Who were the assistants at KY that were fired?
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