College Hoops Coaching Carousel

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#76      
I never liked the Mike Thomas hire. He WAS an a$$. On his initial caravan trip to Rockford put on by our Illini Club, which introduced him, Beckman, and Bollant, and was supposed to introduce Groce (who no showed last minute because he just lost his top assistant coach a few hours before the event), Thomas was unfriendly, seemed arrogant and aloof, and talked on his cell most of the time. He shook hands with very few people, talked to no one, didn’t speak to the audience, and left after about an hour. I knew after that first hour that his tenure was going to be dismal. Groce having issues that quickly, and Beckman showing off to everyone his new shirt that his wife had his monogram stitched in orange on the cuffs also were portents of things to come…
Similar experience at local meet n greet.......he was good and finding the "power table", and making a fast exit if the common folk approached.
 
#77      
Noice! I dig that song.
For obvious reasons, I always felt like Lightning Hopkins should have given “Smokestack Lightining” a go. (Maybe he did at some point. But I never heard it.) It’s one of my favorite blues tracks…all but ruined by a boner 💊 pill commercial.
 
#78      

foby

Bonnaroo Land
Noice! I dig that song.
For obvious reasons, I always felt like Lightning Hopkins should have given “Smokestack Lightining” a go. (Maybe he did at some point. But I never heard it.) It’s one of my favorite blues tracks…all but ruined by a boner 💊 pill commercial.
Great song, and was used in one of the favorite movies for Loyalty gifs.

matthew mcconaughey cheers GIF by REBEKAH
 
#80      
I never liked the Mike Thomas hire. He WAS an a$$. On his initial caravan trip to Rockford put on by our Illini Club, which introduced him, Beckman, and Bollant, and was supposed to introduce Groce (who no showed last minute because he just lost his top assistant coach a few hours before the event), Thomas was unfriendly, seemed arrogant and aloof, and talked on his cell most of the time. He shook hands with very few people, talked to no one, didn’t speak to the audience, and left after about an hour. I knew after that first hour that his tenure was going to be dismal. Groce having issues that quickly, and Beckman showing off to everyone his new shirt that his wife had his monogram stitched in orange on the cuffs also were portents of things to come…
Same impression here! First Braggin Rights that Mike Thomas was AD, he and his family were checking in at the Ballpark Hilton ahead of me and I watched him make a scene and chew out the desk attendants because his adjoining suite would not be ready for another 30 minutes as his wife huffed and puffed behind him.
 
#81      
If you look at the Self/early Weber years, we won the conference 4 times and got 2nd twice in those 6 years.

That would be why Weber gets so much hate. Lon built us back up. Self took is to the top, Weber maintained it with Self's players, but he couldn't maintain the talent level to keep us at the top. Now no one will say we should win the conference every year, though we damn well should, but dropping to the middle of the pack was not welcomed on the heels of such success.

John Groce was not good, but Groce was not the problem. Mike Thomas was the problem. That was the hire that set us up for the fall we had in both Football and Basketball. He hired a defensive minded head coach who had terrible defenses. Thus it was a shock to no one that Matt Campbell, the OC, was actually responsible for Toledo's wins, proven by his success at Iowa State and Beckman's failure. Groce never finished better than 3rd in the MAC, but Thomas thought this was the right guy. Groce took the losses, but Thomas was to blame.
Anyone that thought Beckman was a good hire should have been fired
tim meadows mr duvall GIF
 
#82      
I never liked the Mike Thomas hire. He WAS an a$$. On his initial caravan trip to Rockford put on by our Illini Club, which introduced him, Beckman, and Bollant, and was supposed to introduce Groce (who no showed last minute because he just lost his top assistant coach a few hours before the event), Thomas was unfriendly, seemed arrogant and aloof, and talked on his cell most of the time. He shook hands with very few people, talked to no one, didn’t speak to the audience, and left after about an hour. I knew after that first hour that his tenure was going to be dismal. Groce having issues that quickly, and Beckman showing off to everyone his new shirt that his wife had his monogram stitched in orange on the cuffs also were portents of things to come…
One of the first thing Mike Thomas did as AD was issue a “public letter” to the Illinois fan base, talking about all the wonderful things he was going to do, blah, blah, blah. Shortly thereafter, it came out that he just cut-and-pasted most of it from a letter he had sent out to the Cinci fan base when he got that job. From that point on, I thought the guy was a fraud.
 
#84      

KrushCow31

Former Krush Cow
Chicago, IL
I met Beckman once. It was shortly after he got hired and I was at mass during the summer or something so not a lot of students. I turned around for the sign of peace and he was right behind me and we shook hands. It was such a new hire that I had to Google his name after church to confirm my suspicions that it was him. He always seemed nice, just over his head. At least till the allegations broke.
 
#85      

Big Jack

Decatur
I met Beckman once. It was shortly after he got hired and I was at mass during the summer or something so not a lot of students. I turned around for the sign of peace and he was right behind me and we shook hands. It was such a new hire that I had to Google his name after church to confirm my suspicions that it was him. He always seemed nice, just over his head. At least till the allegations broke.
Yea I got to meet him a few times while doing some work for the video guy for the football team. Seemed like a nice enough guy but just wasn't D1 P5 material. However if you ever saw the state of our training and meeting facilities for football at that time, its sad to say neither was the U of I.
 
#86      

illinihawk16

Chicago
I met Beckman once. It was shortly after he got hired and I was at mass during the summer or something so not a lot of students. I turned around for the sign of peace and he was right behind me and we shook hands. It was such a new hire that I had to Google his name after church to confirm my suspicions that it was him. He always seemed nice, just over his head. At least till the allegations broke.
Went on a date a year after he was fired and the girl was also a UofI alum. We started talking about the football team and I brought up that he wasn't a good coach and it was probably good he was fired. Beckman was her uncle. Whoops!
 
#90      

ChiefGritty

Chicago, IL
All of this talk makes me so thankful to have Josh Whitman running things. As long as he is here, I will sleep well at night.
There had to be a Thomas for there to be a Whitman.

The figure who led the De-Guentherization of Illinois Athletics was always going to be made Public Enemy #1 in certain quarters. Had he made better revenue sport hires he might very well still be here, but in a way it all kinda worked out perfectly because he was here just long enough to modernize and rationalize the department, and then sorta absorb the blame for all the fallout.

Whitman is the higher synthesis of Guentherite old boys chumminess and Thomas' dead-eyed business focus.
 
#92      
Went on a date a year after he was fired and the girl was also a UofI alum. We started talking about the football team and I brought up that he wasn't a good coach and it was probably good he was fired. Beckman was her uncle. Whoops!
I live in Toledo and in a meeting with our business attorney, he asked me what I thought about Beckman. It was right after the infamous "chew incident" and so I told him what a horrible mistake the Illini had made & that he was clearly in way over his head. My attorney informed me that he was best friends with him and negotiated his contract. Awkward.
 
#95      
Went on a date a year after he was fired and the girl was also a UofI alum. We started talking about the football team and I brought up that he wasn't a good coach and it was probably good he was fired. Beckman was her uncle. Whoops!
THE NIECE: Uncle Timmy, yeah he wasn’t much of coach. We all thought he stunk too. Everybody makes fun of him at the reunions….But he sure could chew the chaw like a champ. He taught me the finer points…Skoal is for wussies…and never take the old stuff out…just keep adding more…and more…so your cheeks puff out like a 🐿

(That’s not nice. I’m probably going to Hell. Probably a nice girl.)
 
#96      

Mr. Tibbs

southeast DuPage
looking back, it really is a mystery how TB could have ascended up the coaching ladder like he did, and MT could not have figured it out during the vetting and interviewing process that he was not the guy for us nor any P5 program, especially at that time.

MT failed miserably in the most important hire he ever had to make, and in all three hires at that time.

From Wiki: Twice during his career Thomas has won the Robert R. Neyland Outstanding Athletics Director Award, once in 2005 while at Akron, and again in April 2008 while at Cincinnati. Of course , when we hire him , he craps the bed
 
#97      
He seemed like a decent guy. I know there were player abuse allegations against him, but I'm pretty sure if you looked hard enough you'd find similar practices at all programs. He was clearly in over his head, but darn if he didn't get us to a bowl game and have a better record than did Lovie Smith
I met Beckman once. It was shortly after he got hired and I was at mass during the summer or something so not a lot of students. I turned around for the sign of peace and he was right behind me and we shook hands. It was such a new hire that I had to Google his name after church to confirm my suspicions that it was him. He always seemed nice, just over his head. At least till the allegations broke.
 
#98      

wettsten

Chicago
Seizes the positive momentum and good feelings while they're there, and it's easy and cheap to fire him in two years if things go awry. Good ADing.
any word on what his buyout is? i'm guessing pretty low
 
#99      
Chimera Whitman.
There had to be a Thomas for there to be a Whitman.

The figure who led the De-Guentherization of Illinois Athletics was always going to be made Public Enemy #1 in certain quarters. Had he made better revenue sport hires he might very well still be here, but in a way it all kinda worked out perfectly because he was here just long enough to modernize and rationalize the department, and then sorta absorb the blame for all the fallout.

Whitman is the higher synthesis of Guentherite old boys chumminess and Thomas' dead-eyed business focus.
 
#100      
looking back, it really is a mystery how TB could have ascended up the coaching ladder like he did, and MT could not have figured it out during the vetting and interviewing process that he was not the guy for us nor any P5 program, especially at that time.

MT failed miserably in the most important hire he ever had to make, and in all three hires at that time.

From Wiki: Twice during his career Thomas has won the Robert R. Neyland Outstanding Athletics Director Award, once in 2005 while at Akron, and again in April 2008 while at Cincinnati. Of course , when we hire him , he craps the bed
As Gritty said, he was not all bad ... an in fact, even though this will be controversial, it was arguably a GOOD thing if he was upsetting at least some of the "old guard" of the DIA. We simply had to change and grow and become a lot closer to Ohio State in mindset than Wake Forest. Illinois is not a small private school in a small corner of a small state; it needs to be BIG TIME, and to Thomas' credit, he at least moved us closer to that type of marketing strategy and basic perspective than RG seemed to have.

Unfortunately, he made three bad hires and one truly awful one in Beckman. He apparently possessed none of the people skills necessary to galvanize donor support and finance all of these big slogans ("Our State. Our Team." is NOT a bad idea ... it just seems lame now because it's associated with the Mike Thomas Era!) into reality. Whitman really is the best combination of both of them, and we are so lucky to have him.
 
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