Fascinating. Coleman is definitely twitchier, but that's a fairly significant shift for one player.Yes…. guys that play well fastWagler did great with keeping a snails pace. Coleman looks like he plays better up tempo …. the game was fast last night and the passing was quick with very little dribbling… interesting change! Fun stuff…. run run run
Illinois 120, Fairleigh Dickinson 45 Postgame
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He’s dinged up. It’s the first game of the season and we won by 75pts.
Last year in first game:
4pts, 9R, 2A, 2Blk in 18min
This year:
4pts, 5R, 1blk, 1stl in 10min.
In his second game of the season last year he has 16pts, 9rbs, and 7blks
He’ll be more than fine.
To put this further into perspective:
Illinois scored 1.591 points per possession.
FDU scored 0.597 points per possession.
That mathematically means that if the two teams played 100 possessions, Illinois would win by:
159.1 - 59.7 = 99.4 points (!)
.....
The actual game was 75 possessions and Illinois won by.... 75 points.
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There is a big difference between questioning and criticizing. I saw far more questioning in the forum than criticizing.
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
This is all from is from one recruiting thread in 2023. We made the E8 in large part due to Tyler’s evaluations and offensive design that very season:
The hire was heavily criticized here and elsewhere.
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I’d like to point out I don’t think I criticized the hire 
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
Of course not, no reason to be critical of yourselfI’d like to point out I don’t think I criticized the hire
Crossed wires? These posts seem to criticize Brad for the hire which is different than criticizing Tyler. My comment was about Tyler. There were more questions of Tyler's readiness than criticisms (this does not imply there were no criticisms). There were many criticisms of BU.
I'll freely admit that I'm one of the people who questioned the choice to hire Tyler and Zach. Tyler as an offensive coach has worked out great. Zach on defense was (IMO) a disaster. I give the blame for that to BU for sticking with Zach when it was clear he didn't have it. You can't blame the new hire for trying their best.
You were young. It was your first real job in the field. Given a bit of experience you'll learn.I’d like to point out I don’t think I criticized the hire
ChiefGritty
- Chicago, IL
Tyler's hire and push through the program was unequivocally nepotism, he was not qualified in an objective resume sense for the jobs he got, and everybody knows perfectly well there is absolutely zero chance whatsoever the same guy named Tyler Jones gets those jobs. There's no subtlety to any of that, it's not a close call, TU just got pushed directly toward full assistant coach status in the Big Ten the second his playing eligibility expired because his Dad wanted it that way.
But real life does not always operate on the principles of objective qualifications and just desserts. Brad believed in his son, and while fathers have been regularly wrong about that in every line of work throughout human history, Brad was very, very right.
Nepotism is, in the aggregate, a path to mediocrity and unfairness and failure. But there are exceptions to every rule.
Tyler is an extraordinary young basketball mind and we are very lucky to have him. Nobody needs to apologize to anybody for the wrong process having the right result.
But real life does not always operate on the principles of objective qualifications and just desserts. Brad believed in his son, and while fathers have been regularly wrong about that in every line of work throughout human history, Brad was very, very right.
Nepotism is, in the aggregate, a path to mediocrity and unfairness and failure. But there are exceptions to every rule.
Tyler is an extraordinary young basketball mind and we are very lucky to have him. Nobody needs to apologize to anybody for the wrong process having the right result.
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skyIdub
"I can't tell you. Secret."
Hey, I’ll eat my plate of crow. Happily.Tyler deserves a metric ton of credit for his effort and results.
Questioning or “criticizing” the hire at the time was perfectly reasonable in the realm of a fan message board.
I don’t think a single person on this board could have predicted this type of success.
Coaches kid is clearly a basketball sponge and analytic student that has earned his place.
skyIdub
"I can't tell you. Secret."
Not to mention the “fool us once” carry over from the Football Smiths.
Tyler was a grad assistant for like 2 years before he even had a real role on the staff. Then he had a hand in recruiting and scouting, but was NOT an official assistant until the 23-24 season. He had spent time at two lower levels prior to becoming an assistant coach.
Not the fast-track that everyone seems to be framing it as.
It also isn’t just his dad pushing him through these promotions. It has to go through the Athletic Director, it has to go through the Administration and hiring Committees, and as a third process has to be approved by the Board of Directors.
If we want to say all of those people were wrong in granting these promotions… well, okay.
Not the fast-track that everyone seems to be framing it as.
It also isn’t just his dad pushing him through these promotions. It has to go through the Athletic Director, it has to go through the Administration and hiring Committees, and as a third process has to be approved by the Board of Directors.
If we want to say all of those people were wrong in granting these promotions… well, okay.
Very cool, but I'd pump the brakes on getting too jazzed. FDU is KP 341. Gonna be curious to see how the the pace adjustments translate against Duke & UConn. Duke is deep, and UConn will dictate pace like they do against everyone.
Butler currently mauling FDU by 23 at the half.
blackdog
- Champaign
To Gritty's point if someone named Tyler Jones had played under BU for 4 years, been a grad assistant, video assistant, etc and showed the same ability/insight as TU its not unrealistic think he might have gotten the job too.
I think jumping from recruiting/scouting to offensive coordinator is a fast-track, at least at a program with top 10 aspirations. Perhaps it was obvious to everyone involved that he was an offensive genius, making it a justified fast-track, but it's still a fast-track. That he was family made it easy to wonder
I agree it was faster than most progressions.
He didn’t go straight from recruiting/scouting to offensive coordinator though. I believe he spent a year as an assistant before gaining OC title (could be wrong).
I had an engineer in my group who we took on straight out of college as an associate developer. He was so good after 6-8 months we dropped the associate part in his title. Then after two more years he was contributing across the whole stack and pushed for a senior title. I said if we didn’t give it to him he was going to walk. Management approved. Three more years and another promotion to staff level. He was 28. No nepotism there, his dad is an airline pilot lol.
I agree there’s nepotism there with Tyler. I just don’t think it’s as grossly egregious as it’s being framed though. Guy is a savant.
Sounds like we agree more than not.
As for the timing, I'm going off this from the Gazette:
"When the NCAA changed the rule to allow two more on-court assistants ahead of the 2023-24 season, Underwood moved up from his previous role as director of recruiting and scouting to offensive coordinator."
And similarly from Yahoo/Sporting News:
"He spent his first two seasons as the director of recruiting and scouting. Underwood was then promoted to an assistant coach while also serving as the team's offensive coordinator. "
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
Here's the way I look at it:
Today, Tyler is one of the brightest offensive minds in the country. He's crafted 4 offenses and all 4 will finish top 15 in efficiency with 3 of the 4 in the top 5. He innovated the way Illinois scouts and recruits talent and his evaluations have resulted in an E8 and F4.
Did he work his way up the ladder quickly? Yes.
More quickly than he deserved? Maybe to the outside world. But inside the program, I'm sure his value was obvious then just like it is to all of us now.
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