Tim Anderson joins Illinois coaching staff

#80      
I don’t understand this take. Does he not blow your mind because you just aren’t familiar with him? Because I think anyone in the know would say this is an excellent hire as a third assistant. He’s been lauded on this very board going back years by people who were connected to the AAU scene
BU said that some of the people calling him about the AC job "would blow your mind." At various times, there was speculation that the hire would be someone with NBA staff experience, an assistant from an elite college program, or someone who has been talked about as a "top recruiter." CY Young, Huss, Mennenga, Pastrana are a few of the rumored names I recall. While I think that Tim will be fine, and might be excellent over time, let's not pretend that a guy with four years at Depaul as his only major CBB experience has a comparable resume and track record to some of the other guys that were mentioned for this position. A position to which, if you recall two months ago, our AD was allegedly willing to commit a seven-figure salary.

I wish Tim well. I think he will be good; probably a better recruiter than Gentry. He doesn't blow my mind. I hope he proves me wrong. Kentucky went home with the prom queen. We didn't.
 
Last edited:
#81      
BU said that some of the people calling him about the AC job "would blow your mind." At various times, there was speculation that the hire would be someone with NBA staff experience, an assistant from an elite college program, or someone who has been talked about as a "top recruiter." CY Young, Huss, Mennenga, Pastrana are a few of the rumored names I recall. While I think that Tim will be fine, and might be excellent over time, let's not pretend that a guy with four years at Depaul as his only major CBB experience has a comparable resume and track record to some of the other guys that were mentioned for this position. A position to which, if you recall two months ago, our AD was allegedly willing to commit a seven-figure salary.

I wish Tim well. I think he will be good. He doesn't blow my mind. I hope he proves me wrong. Kentucky went home with the prom queen. We didn't.
Agreed...good points, I don't think he trumps Chin or Antiqua, but let's see what he can do.....nothing wrong with having a different take on things.
 
#82      

JFGsCoffeeMug

BU:1 Trash cans:0
Chicago
BU said that some of the people calling him about the AC job "would blow your mind." At various times, there was speculation that the hire would be someone with NBA staff experience, an assistant from an elite college program, or someone who has been talked about as a "top recruiter." CY Young, Huss, Mennenga, Pastrana are a few of the rumored names I recall. While I think that Tim will be fine, and might be excellent over time, let's not pretend that a guy with four years at Depaul as his only major CBB experience has a comparable resume and track record to some of the other guys that were mentioned for this spot.

I wish him well. I think he will be good. He doesn't blow my mind. I hope he proves me wrong.
I think this is fair. I also think it's possible we received interest from several "blow your mind" candidates but weren't able to lock any of them down for any number of reasons. Reasonable minds can differ on the strength of the Alexander hire, but I would agree that he probably wasn't one of the people BU was thinking about when he made that particular comment. I'm okay with that. I think Alexander is a great addition to this staff.
 
#87      
BU said that some of the people calling him about the AC job "would blow your mind." At various times, there was speculation that the hire would be someone with NBA staff experience, an assistant from an elite college program, or someone who has been talked about as a "top recruiter." CY Young, Huss, Mennenga, Pastrana are a few of the rumored names I recall. While I think that Tim will be fine, and might be excellent over time, let's not pretend that a guy with four years at Depaul as his only major CBB experience has a comparable resume and track record to some of the other guys that were mentioned for this position. A position to which, if you recall two months ago, our AD was allegedly willing to commit a seven-figure salary.

I wish Tim well. I think he will be good. He doesn't blow my mind. I hope he proves me wrong. Kentucky went home with the prom queen. We didn't.

Coach Underwood is prone to hyperbole. Huss was definitely interested and reportedly came close to accepting the position. The most mind blowing candidate who apparently showed real interest was the other Young, the one from UConn. In both of those cases, the job and pay were probably at least decent upgrades, but the timing to make a move was off. Heard we almost had another top guy, but there were contract issues.

Top level assistants seldom make lateral moves, unless it is to programs like UK, KU, etc. I went over all of UI's top recruiting assistants here, dating back to Howie Braun. Prior to Antigua, who was available for a reason, the most qualified coming in was probably an up and comer named Tony Yates. He had three years of experience as an assistant at Cincinnati and had helped Gale Catlett put together a strong recruiting class. Frazier and Anderson are highly qualified by our own historical standards. As is Alexander.
 
Last edited:
#90      
C'mon. Doubt we get Ayo without Chin. Antigua was one of the three best recruiters at Illinois over the past 40 years, after Self and Collins. In my opinion.
The last 40 years would still include the last couple years of the late Tony Yates's tenure here, who brought us Audie Matthews, the real Mark Smith, Eddie Johnson, Derek Harper, George Montgomery, Anthony Welch, Efrem Winters, Bruce Douglas, and Ken Norman among others. Antigua did a great job. Had he stayed a little he might have equaled what Yates accomplished.
 
Last edited:
#91      

DB11Headband

Chicago Burbs
C'mon. Doubt we get Ayo without Chin. Antigua was one of the three best recruiters at Illinois over the past 40 years, after Self and Collins. In my opinion.
Antigua will be missed, but half the reason the “Chin is a good recruiter” narrative is out there is because it is perpetuated by Chin himself. And Gentry couldn’t recruit in the slightest bit.

Chester and TA will be STUD recruiters. GA has some great ties on the AAU circuit as well. So, this staff is undoubtedly my pick as far as the better recruiting staff.
 
#93      

Ken

chitown
This is a good hire and his player development skills are top notch . He has run camps in Chicago for quite a while too so I can easily see him stepping into the home of a future Chicago area recruit and him knowing the parent and the kid from his youth camps that run ages 6-18 .

Link to his training website for a list of alumni

 
#94      
I like our new staff. But our prior staff recruited and developed some great players, and put together a 1-seed tournament team. The new staff may eclipse that, or may fall short of that. We don't know, so can we pump the brakes on always saying the one that got away wasn't that great in the first place? There was a lot of praise on here for all three ACs this past season, and now reading some of these posts you'd think they'd have been fired if they hadn't quit first. If Kofi leaves, I'm wondering how long before some of you say he was overrated, and that Payne is going to be better anyway.
 
#95      
Interesting that on 247 Bynum is only listed as a hard commit to DePaul. Any chance we are interested and try to poach? Would we have room?
 
#96      
Coach Underwood is prone to hyperbole. Huss was definitely interested and reportedly came close to accepting the position. The most mind blowing candidate who apparently showed real interest was the other Young, the one from UConn. In both of those cases, the job and pay were probably at least decent upgrades, but the timing to make a move was off. Heard we almost had another top guy, but there were contract issues.

Top level assistants seldom make lateral moves, unless it is to programs like UK, KU, etc. I went over all of UI's top recruiting assistants here, dating back to Howie Braun. Prior to Antigua, who was available for a reason, the most qualified coming in was probably an up and comer named Tony Yates. He had three years of experience as an assistant at Cincinnati and had helped Gale Catlett put together a strong recruiting class. Frazier and Anderson are highly qualified by our own historical standards. As is Alexander.
At the time I certainly questioned why Lou was hiring a probation officer from Chicago as an assistant. Collins turned out ok, though.
 
#97      
This is a good hire and his player development skills are top notch . He has run camps in Chicago for quite a while too so I can easily see him stepping into the home of a future Chicago area recruit and him knowing the parent and the kid from his youth camps that run ages 6-18 .

Link to his training website for a list of alumni

That's a great alumni list. Includes Nik Stauskas so I assume this means the Canadian pipeline is open again.
 
#99      
Lol. I think some of you when you think “blow your mind” hire, you’re thinking someone with an extensive resume of D1 success.

While Anderson doesn’t have that, he’s shown the ability to recruit well at DePaul and he has the amazing Chicago connections that many have asked for. This is a guy that has trained guys for the NBA - the thing these college athletes are all aiming for. Most quality D1 assistants aren’t guys who’ve been in D1 forever... otherwise they’d be head coaches

I can agree with you that a more proven D1 hire would’ve been nice, but for me, this guy is a blow your mind hire. Not to mention Brad was in communication with some “blow your mind names” So he wasn’t talking out of his !!!. No hyperbole
 
Last edited:
#100      

skyIdub

Winged Warrior
tenor.gif