rmlsr
- El Paso,IL
Not happy about Hamer staying. Brad had chances to make defense better but stayed with him. If defense is poor it’s completely Brad responsibility.
Coaching Carousel (Basketball)
- Status
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
It has always been completely Brad's responsibility!
People act like Hamer is a Bill Belichick's girlfriend situation, it's insane
sacraig
- The desert
1. Agreed. The buck stops here.
2. It’s also true that it’s nothing like the Belichick girlfriend situation. She looks just fine in tights.
Kilgore Trout
- Driftless Region
Is Hamer still going to be defensive coordinator- or hopefully moved to a more appropriate position?
Yep. Absolutely everything about the Illini men's basketball team -- great, bad, indifferent -- is to Underwood's credit, or blame.
The whole program is Brad's responsibility. His program, his players, his coaches, his relationships with people surrounding the program, etc.
Noblesville Illini
- Nappanee, IN
For all that is Holy, please tell me the Tyler/Hamer experiment ends because the donors spoke. Please tell me the new AC is an Xs and Os guru!
DevILLDawg
- Meredosia, Illinois
Defense is a lot easier to coach than is offense, in my view. We will have some size, a modest level of athleticism, and some coachable players who can be, as a team, molded into a defensively capable (not great) team. Keyword: team, as in team defense. I strongly (as in 100%) doubt that we are going to have a highly-ranked defensive team next season. We will instead rely on being a better offensive team than are opponents. And -- this is the second point -- we will rely on defensively slowing down the other team, not shutting them down.
Not my personal preference as an approach. But it is a good one, and much more importantly, that is clearly the way this team (next year) will be able to be successful. Slow down the other team a bit, and overwhelm them with a balanced offensive attack.
I think this is going to be a pretty good team next year, using FigherOfTheNightman's schema from earlier today.
Not my personal preference as an approach. But it is a good one, and much more importantly, that is clearly the way this team (next year) will be able to be successful. Slow down the other team a bit, and overwhelm them with a balanced offensive attack.
I think this is going to be a pretty good team next year, using FigherOfTheNightman's schema from earlier today.
I wish the same. But: next year's team will be better, offensively, than this year's because (1) freshmen will not be the offensive leaders and (2) consistency will be much higher.
Mihailo Petrovic is a different cat than anybody we had this year. Kylan was much, much better on both ends of the floor by the end fo the season than; he will very likely be better yet next year, according to Mike LaTulip. Tomi sans mononucleosis and with another season of Fletchification is something to look forward to. We had no Zman this past year. I could go on about Stojakovic, Mirkovic and Rogers. But no need: this team will be much deeper, much more experienced, there will be a much greater returning-minutes factor, and though the level of NBA potential will be lower the NCAA success probability will be higher.
Still need talent, and that could lead to loss of some of the talent presently accrued. This is a rough business, no doubt.
rmlsr
- El Paso,IL
Yes bottom line it’s always Brad responsibility. My point was when things don’t work well during the season Brad has a chance during the offseason to make changes to correct the problem and he didn’t do that so that falls on him even more since he ignored the opportunity to try and correct the problem.
Noblesville Illini
- Nappanee, IN
Excellent point! And, if the same guy has been head coach as was before for several years AND it’s HIS philosophy on defense (which we used to be good at), introducing a new variable (Hamer, who is not qualified to coordinate a defense) also results in such a bad defense that people talk of its decline, then maybe BU is truly handing off more than some realize. And, so much so that more qualified ACs get mad and leave because of it. The trail of evidence is there!
RabidDawgClassic
- Los Angeles, CA
Well… there’s still more than six months left to the offseason, so it’s a bit premature to say Brad hasn’t addressed the problem.
Big Jack
- Decatur
Just stupid.. Brad better win with this team he has recruited. Because if he doesn't and the defense sucks again.. He won't be a top 20 team in NIL again during his time at Illinois. Best he add a defensive genius and move Hamer down the bench or money gonna be really tight in the future.
OrangeBlue98
Iowa is not in a great spot right now (LvilleILL1)
- Des Moines, IA
My thought as well. Given how ruthless Brad has been with player recruitment, his seemingly lax attitude toward the staff is perplexing. If anything, I would think he would be MORE ruthless with staff changes.
RabidDawgClassic
- Los Angeles, CA
I’m pretty sure it was something like:
Josh: How are things going with your staff, Brad.
Brad: Pretty good.
Josh: Great. Wanna golf this weekend?
Hamer is cheap, 0440 is cheap, and the budget for staff is finite. If Brad is planning on using that extra room in the budget from the cheap 4th and 5th seat coaches to make another high dollar OA type hire for the 2nd seat, I'm all for it.
sacraig
- The desert
As long as someone figures out how to coach defense (as opposed to spreadsheet strategizing), then fine.
He said 0440 is cheap
That bolded part is more inline with a 5th seat's purview than the on-court coaching.
Now that we have our roster pretty much set, it will be interesting to see what happens in May when that TA money comes off the books. Hoping for a developmental coach and a DC.
Hamer is making like 250k … Where I come from … That ain’t cheap …
I know high school coaches who can coach circles around him and do it for a heck of a lot less than that …
What is the deal with Hammer? There were games last year where Brad looked mad at Hammer specifically and the whole defense in general. He has to know Hammer is not cutting it.
- Status