This happens to leaders across the spectrum of excellence. If he can be re-claimed, Illini Nation will be blessed.
Coaching Carousel (Basketball)
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mhuml32
Gesture of Northern Aggression
This is the fun question. A few thoughts:
(a) Bungling the Tim Anderson employment was bad and looking worse as we tread through the season. Seen lots of discussion on here about it and the reasoning but either things don't add up or it's looking like multiple parties badly played their hand. Folks leaked that it was going to be tough to juggle two high-paying assistants going forward but the current assistant staff is so underwhelming that the 2024 avoidance is a 2025 necessity.
(b) I understand the second-guessing about the choice, and I'm still said about Rodgers being benched/redshirted, but I commend Underwood for taking the risk represented in this season's roster choices. He doesn't just want to make the tournament. He wants to win a national title. He realized that he needed to change strategy to acquire more high-ceiling talent. He took a big swing this year when he had immense job security - he could have brought back Harris, Goode, Moretti, Hansberry, Dainja, DGL, waited out Hawkins, and then hunted out a couple fringe starting wings to mix with Morez, and hoped for a couple underclassmen (Hansberry, DGL) to make a big leap to make them conference contenders. Underwood probably viewed that roster as interesting but (correctly) as a team that could not win a national title (or B1G title). The problem is making this choice meant completely nuke-ing the roster and....
(c) ...the emerging golden rule for team success is roster retention. The 2024-25 over-performing teams are the ones that brought back to most players from the previous roster. Churning over such large portions of your roster creates a much, much higher risk (hellooooo Indiana, Miami, North Carolina) and it takes some fortuitous breaks that everything can mix together perfectly. It's interesting that Bielema and Underwood have both had incredible success at Illinois but they've diverged from each other this year on approaching the transfer portal. Underwood could say he looked at the pending 2024-25 roster and simply believed he had a better chance of success with a total overhaul with more talent but crushing the culture and that would have been fair, the question now is whether he continues taking these swings or tries going back to the '22-24 approach.
@Indy Illini Fan do you think SC would make a move on Lamont? I have been so shocked with how poorly he has performed this year after last year. Especially after the scare he gave us a few years ago. Really thought he was gonna get it rolling. New AD will want to bring his guy in , but thought he would get another year.
skyIdub
"I can't tell you. Secret."
I can spell out Tyler’s success last year in three letters.
TSJ.
Ive never coached a single game of organized basketball, I could have coached our offense last year.
This year? We needed a true basketball mind to meld a young Euro phenom G with a C and other pieces that offer multiple options requiring adjustments and navigating communication barriers.
I think Tyler is way over his head with this years assignment.
Last year was kids play with TSJ.
TSJ.
Ive never coached a single game of organized basketball, I could have coached our offense last year.
This year? We needed a true basketball mind to meld a young Euro phenom G with a C and other pieces that offer multiple options requiring adjustments and navigating communication barriers.
I think Tyler is way over his head with this years assignment.
Last year was kids play with TSJ.
Did he have Gentry there?
I’ll tell ya one thing. You can can’t say Brad hasn’t evolved. We know Brad generally prefers about a 7-8 man rotation; (like a lot of coaches do) Here he is at about the 7:40-7:45ish range extolling the virtues of a 9-10 man rotation…saying that’s what he has always done up to that point…
In another dustbin postgame video also from 2018…I believe…He’s getting peppered pretty good by the media about his decision to begin the game with……..a…………….wait for it…..,….wait for it……………..z…..o….n…e…D!
I must find it…I think it was actually against Penn State…but I could be wrong…
If someone finds it first… let me know….
In another dustbin postgame video also from 2018…I believe…He’s getting peppered pretty good by the media about his decision to begin the game with……..a…………….wait for it…..,….wait for it……………..z…..o….n…e…D!
I must find it…I think it was actually against Penn State…but I could be wrong…
If someone finds it first… let me know….
and many of us felt that that the year two of some people's dreams would never happen. I guess we'll see.
His so called high ceiling guys all were busts. Hum, Booth, White, Boswell. I just don't buy that these guys were really high ceiling. One of the mysteries for me is how so many people bought this notion.
After going bust in the April portal period, the course correction to grab the foreigners was spectacular.
But anyone with any sense did not think those four above were somehow the ticket to the FF.
We didn’t run any offense for TJ.
skyIdub
"I can't tell you. Secret."
Exactly
A) Still don’t understand how we are paying a guy a half a million to not coach. I’m sure he has a contract, but if he is unwilling to honor the terms, there has to be an out there. There has to be more to this story. Seems like Tim and Chester were forcing a mutiny and both got pushed out?
B) I don’t think Rodgers red shirting was all on him. He’s is being paid to play and if Brad wanted him bad enough he could have forced his hand. When you are handed a bag of NIL, I don’t think you determine whether you red shirt, it has to be mutual. I think Ty would have been a great glue guy if he was playing.
C) For a team coming off an elite 8, we failed to cash in with transfers. We pulled in Kylan, Tre, and Booth last April. Kylan was a solid get, Tre was a risk considering this was a second transfer in two years, and Booth profiles much better than he plays. From there we whiffed on all major transfers, why? Wouldn’t Danny Wolf, Chicago kid, look great on our team? Luckily O was connected to Tomi and we stumbled on KJ while chasing Demin. How close were we to having big problems?
Which is why the credit given Junior for last year's offensive success is a complete, ignorant joke. TSJ was a phenomenon the "offense" can claim no responsibility for.
23 pts per game with zero game planning. TSJ was to last years offense as MJ was to the Triangle offense.
Then there was The Athletic article that credits Jay Wright with Illinois adoption of Domask booty ball. The article is complementary of Tyler and Brad's abilities. Brad's change in recruiting focus to positional size. And Brad and Tyler moving away from an NBA type offense mid season and adaption of Jay's Villanova teams offensive concepts.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/53...underwood-duquesne?source=user-shared-article
Well, ironically, with this year’s performance we have a better chance of getting some players back that definitely wouldn’t have been back with more success.
What's more criminal is having $660,000 going to waste.
jmwillini
- Tolono, IL
Nepotism can be fine in a small/medium sized town privately owned hardware store/grocery store. Definitely a bad look for what is the athletic equivalent of a Fortune 500 company letting the son run the Mail Room for a year, then make him the VP of Operations.
After Lovie and his kid, surprised Josh is letting this happen. Two young men over their head and taking heat because of their dad hiring them.
After Lovie and his kid, surprised Josh is letting this happen. Two young men over their head and taking heat because of their dad hiring them.
lstewart53x3
- Scottsdale, Arizona
Didn’t our offense go up in KenPom during TJ’s absence?
Edit: Sorting T-Rank by date, when TJ got suspended our offense was ranked 33rd in the nation. By the time he returned a month later, our offense had moved up to #3 in the nation. So to answer my own question, yes, our offense improved quite a bit without TJ on the floor.
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I’ll tell ya one thing. You can can’t say Brad hasn’t evolved. We know Brad generally prefers about a 7-8 man rotation; (like a lot of coaches do) Here he is at about the 7:40-7:45ish range extolling the virtues of a 9-10 man rotation…saying that’s what he has always done up to that point…
In another dustbin postgame video also from 2018…I believe…He’s getting peppered pretty good by the media about his decision to begin the game with……..a…………….wait for it…..,….wait for it……………..z…..o….n…e…D!
I must find it…I think it was actually against Penn State…but I could be wrong…
If someone finds it first… let me know….
Having watched Xavier for years and being a fan of that program. Miller would be a good hire. Guy can coach and recruit
This is the part I don't get. I understand that Brad likely missed a lot of Tyler's childhood due to coaching and wants to spend some time with his kid and working with him for 5-10 years would set Tyler up to get a great asst coaching job at a pretty young age or even a low major head coaching role because of his last name.
If he had just stuck Tyler as the 5th assistant and built a legitimate staff this would be a non issue. Is it hubris? Overconfidence in his sons ability?
If he had just stuck Tyler as the 5th assistant and built a legitimate staff this would be a non issue. Is it hubris? Overconfidence in his sons ability?
Why are you worried about Indiana's money situation
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