OrangeBlue98
Iowa is not in a great spot right now (LvilleILL1)
- Des Moines, IA
I understand the concern and pessimism. But for me, the only coach that has moved so far that really would have excited me is McCollum. Richard Pitino and DeVries were in the "meh to reasonably excited" categories. Even for McCollum, I'm not sure how his style of play would translate for a roster geared more toward pace.It's one thing to be confident in JW, but another entirely to start a coaching search at this point in the cycle. Very likely a lot of the options JW had on his list have already signed elsewhere. Not to mention the impact on the roster for this upcoming season. Tomi and Boz follow BU to A&M, then what? So there goes your roster continuity, we'll be starting over again. No shot at big Z anymore. Dix and Sellers are probably out. What happens to Sarr? Not to mention that a new coach is always a question mark. Some moreso than others, but even hires that are considered home runs don't always work out. Especially when time is of the essence, as it would be with portal players making decisions. It's possible JW would be forced into making a quick decision, and may not be able to wait for his top candidates. Losing BU at this point would not be good, and nobody should be cheering for it (though a sizable portion of this board probably is).
Sure, you take a big swing at Nate Oats and see what happens. The chances of him coming are really, really small, but they are zero if you don't make a call. After that, for me it's pretty simple.
If you are comfortable with history and baggage, the next call is Chris Beard. (I believe you aren't, and I respect that stance.) If you either aren't comfortable with Beard or he says no, then I genuinely believe Mark Byington at Vanderbilt is the next call. I watched Vanderbilt enough this year to be sold on him. I think he would be fantastic at Illinois with the resources we have.
But I think when all is said and done, I think A&M is going to poach Chris Beard. I think Beard would relish the idea of sticking it to Texas, and A&M has the money and the "we don't really care that much about baggage" attitude to seriously go after Beard.
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