I got a family member being recruited by Kstate and Illinois. Kstate does not have more NIL than Illinois in Football or Basketball. Kstate not even in the top half of The Big 12 in NIL . Source for Kstate has more NIL money than Illinois is trust me bro. KSTATE doesn’t even have more NIL money than Iowa State, Baylor, Houston, Arizona, Texas Tech, Kansas, BYU , West Virginia
Coaching Carousel (Basketball)
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Big Jack
- Decatur
I like you am not sure if he is worth that much money, but he is key to some really good recruits so if he a new coach wants the extra help with recruits so be it but we need to increase the price pool for the other assistants. Honestly, I would be fine with TA coming back. I just want coaches running the offense and defense that know what they are doing.
According to my sources Tim Anderson is Gone Gone and not coming back to Illinois no matter what.
Ayo's last year as the one seed felt a lot like 05. We had several things that rallied the team together, from Ayo's injury to Michigan getting gifted the B1G title, and winning the B1G Championship. It was all peaking at the right moment.
To then get meticulously torn apart like a cat playing with a mouse was just brutal to watch. We had no answer. I truly believe Brad just thought we'd out-athlete them or out-talent them, but then the game ended and we never adjust.
I wasn't that upset then, Loyola was good. They just outplayed us. But now we continue to see the lack of adjustments and I don't know if it will ever change.
To then get meticulously torn apart like a cat playing with a mouse was just brutal to watch. We had no answer. I truly believe Brad just thought we'd out-athlete them or out-talent them, but then the game ended and we never adjust.
I wasn't that upset then, Loyola was good. They just outplayed us. But now we continue to see the lack of adjustments and I don't know if it will ever change.
I wonder if this would be the wild card that could really swing things? As a non-insider, I wonder how much influence big donors/boosters have on this stuff these day.
It would seem that, hypothetically, if some of the bigger donors are just fed up with Brad, and if they were to throw their weight around with big-time NIL as leverage, Whitman might possibly be faced with a decision: Does he keep Brad but have less NIL to work with to get players, or you let Brad go to a new school (still seems incredibly unlikely that he's outright fired) and try to get a coach with at least similar abilities but now also have assurances of much more NIL to work with?
Yes sorry I wasn’t clear, glad we’re on the same page here.
I think tournament success is a fickle beast. And while I understand that is THE measuring stick for top tier CBB programs, I think two statements can be true: BU’s tenure here has elevated expectations, brought good players, and won conference championships. BU has significantly underperformed in the tournament.
At some point, the latter cannot continue to happen at the rate it has, ignoring any sort of specific excuses you can come up with.
That being said, I’m very weary of us being able to replace BU with a coach that could outperform what BU has done. Maybe it’s easier now given the groundwork BU has put in place, and like I said previously I have the utmost confidence in Whitman, but someone’s the devil you know is really the better option.
Give me another year of Brad before we start having any real conversations about his job here.
Big Jack
- Decatur
No one is letting him go.. he is the one looking for a new dance partner presumably. Which has happened each of the last few years excluding the E8 year. Josh will not beg Brad to stay or pay more that trick has been used one to many times.
I have said before I have no issue with Brad being head coach but the support staff needs an overhaul and I do not see him firing Tyler like he should.
OrangeBlue98
Iowa is not in a great spot right now (LvilleILL1)
- Des Moines, IA
If I'm betting, this is where I think Whitman is right now.
It would be incredibly ballsy - but not overly surprising - for Underwood to have pretty significant collapses two of the last three years, have very legitimate questions about whether he can achieve consistently without a top-notch dynamic duo (Ayo/Kofi, then TSJ/Domask) on his roster, and then meet with Whitman like everything would be totally simpatico and that Whitman should just blindly match any competing offer that may come across the table. Quite honestly, I don't think he doesn't have that type of capital to spend right now. I'd say Whitman would hold the leverage in this situaiton given the results of the last three seasons.
In other words, Whitman should be in the driver's seat for any discussions here. If we were looking at a three year stretch with two Elite 8s and had the team had a season like St. John's is currently having right now (they came to mind after watching their game on DVR against UConn yesterday), maybe Underwood has more leverage. But if I'm the AD, I'm not exactly sitting back letting Underwood dictate to me when looking at the context of the last three seasons.
Or demoting him for that matter…
sacraig
- The desert
We got a #1 seed... and lost in the second round to Loyola Chicago, which had a far lower talent level than we did.
And I don't buy the "Loyola was under seeded" nonsense. We were a 1 seed. In theory, that means the only under seeded team we shouldn't still beat more often than not is one that got like a 2 or 3 but deserved a 1.
We got beat handily by a team that was worse than us considerably on paper but out-schemed us.
I could see a key reason he may leave because he doesn't want to fire his kid! I wonder if Josh would tell him your son needs to go or be demoted. Hell, Brad could pay him.
sacraig
- The desert
I think that's my question here (and I don't know the right answer). Is paying OA worth that much if we can't also have some good Xs and Os coaches? High-end players without a good strategy is AAU ball.
JJE
- North Port, Florida
Ok, let’s take this one step further. If a bunch of these good jobs open up this round IU,UNC, Texas, MSU?, Tennessee?, etc. how does that affect JW’s urgency?
If Brad is back channeling a new job that puts JW in a rock and a hard place. You’re not going to fire Brad, but you can’t eliminate the possibility of him leaving, but you also can’t sit on your hands and see Beard, Wade, Miller, etc. slip through your hands while you wait.
I’m glad I don’t have to make those decisions. Keep Brad good, hire a new coach good, lose Brad and see these good coaches go elsewhere bad.
If Brad is back channeling a new job that puts JW in a rock and a hard place. You’re not going to fire Brad, but you can’t eliminate the possibility of him leaving, but you also can’t sit on your hands and see Beard, Wade, Miller, etc. slip through your hands while you wait.
I’m glad I don’t have to make those decisions. Keep Brad good, hire a new coach good, lose Brad and see these good coaches go elsewhere bad.
hamer is way more a problem than tyler.Or demoting him for that matter…
there's nothing anybody or any coach could've done with this offense. shooting the ball is literally out of the question for your ENTIRE TEAM. that's just a total evaluation problem in recruiting. you don't fix that in game - you fix that in the offseason.
the defense needs total retooling - the scheme, the coaching, everything. it's awful.
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I can't remember if he started or not, but didn't Tyler play some decent minutes at one time because, "he knew Brad's offense!?"
These are the resumes of the 2 assistant coaches from the website. Can you imagine if this was the caliber of coach Bret was bringing in for OC and DC and then the football team was underperforming? I'd wager that there are multiple high school coaches within 100 miles of Champaign with better resumes, coaching experience, and X's and O's knowledge. To not bring in Wayne McClain types to run these operations is awful imo.
is in his first season as assistant coach after being elevated to the role on July 1, 2023. It is his fifth year overall with the Illini program, after spending his first two seasons as video coordinator followed by two years as assistant to the head coach....arrived at Illinois in the summer of 2019....He was an advance scout in 2019 after debuting as a coaching associate in 2018....handled opponent scouting, with a focus on defensive game planning, and created video playbooks.
is in his first season as assistant coach after being elevated to the role on July 1, 2023. It his third overall on the Fighting Illini staff after spending his first two seasons as director of recruiting and scouting.
is in his first season as assistant coach after being elevated to the role on July 1, 2023. It is his fifth year overall with the Illini program, after spending his first two seasons as video coordinator followed by two years as assistant to the head coach....arrived at Illinois in the summer of 2019....He was an advance scout in 2019 after debuting as a coaching associate in 2018....handled opponent scouting, with a focus on defensive game planning, and created video playbooks.
is in his first season as assistant coach after being elevated to the role on July 1, 2023. It his third overall on the Fighting Illini staff after spending his first two seasons as director of recruiting and scouting.
sacraig
- The desert
At least some of those big jobs will make a stupid hire. No one bats 1.000. Hopefully IU is one of those. So there would still be good coaches around to nab.
Still, I don't think you can fire a coach like BU just because we think we would miss on other options. He's fresh off an Elite Eight and has really only had one bad season since the ship was righted (by him), and that season isn't even over yet. So I don't think he has earned getting canned and I think that may do more harm than good if other coaches view our expectations as unreasonable.
But like @Indy Illini Fan suggested, I don't think BU has done enough to command another raise or extension yet, so if he flirts with other programs and tries to get JW to pay up, I think it would be totally the right call for JW to play hard ball. BU has no leverage for more after a season like this and trying something like that would make him look bad, not JW/us.
sacraig
- The desert
That's probably at least slightly fair. And we actually shot reasonablt well well early in the season, including against good teams. The wheels just fell off around the new year. But that begs the question of why. Did they all just start slumping at the same time? Or did other teams catch onto our plan, learn how to defend it, and we didn't adjust?
JJE
- North Port, Florida
I agree. My only concern would be Brad leaving after some of these coaches get hired by other schools.
OrangeBlue98
Iowa is not in a great spot right now (LvilleILL1)
- Des Moines, IA
Oof - English can be hard sometimes!
What I should have written was, "I don't think he has that type of capital to spend right now."
Illini2010-11
- Sugar Grove
I think both can be true at the same time. Loyola could have easily been higher than an 8 seed, but it does not excuse the turd blossom game plan that Illinois came up with. That Illinois team was built to get to E8 at worst, so in theory, they would have had to go through Loyola at some point anyway. Maybe the team ran out of gas during that run, but any reasonable game plan should have easily gotten the Illini into the second weekend that year. The fact of the matter is that over the BU years, the Illini have been poorly coached in the NCAAT (last year included). Talent has generally won games more than coaching schemes in the BU era. That is a long term issue that I do not see getting corrected anytime soon, which really explains a lot about how the Illini teams have fizzled out in March more often than not.
sacraig
- The desert
To be clear, I buy that Loyola was criminally under-seeded. But unless you think they deserved a 1 or 2, then there is zero reason for us to lose that game other than a bad game plan.
get will wade... 25-5 before the violations which now is legal
I'm generally in the camp of BU has earned more time to right the ship. But the Loyola loss is squarely on him and will probably hang over his head forever unless he makes a Final Four. If I take my orange glasses off, what Moser did that game was one of the best coaching performances I've seen. That wasn't just a scrappy mid major who caught fire from three as often happens in tourney upsets. They knew exactly how they could hurt us. They inserted the knife and twisted it over and over and we looked more confused than anything.
Anyway, if we win that game, BU is pretty much on track. I've posted this before but every coach who has been here for 9+ years has made multiple S16's in their first 9 years. And this is how it breaks down by decade starting in the 80s:
80s: 4 S16
90s: 0 (sanctions)
00s: 4
10s: 0 (Inept leadership)
20s: 1
The way I see it, BU has one more year to get one more S16 and if he does that, then he gets four to make it to two. Longer leash than most here have for him but it just doesn't seem reasonable, IMO, to fire a guy for failing to do something that literally no one in our history has done - go to the 2nd weekend 5 times in a decade.
Anyway, if we win that game, BU is pretty much on track. I've posted this before but every coach who has been here for 9+ years has made multiple S16's in their first 9 years. And this is how it breaks down by decade starting in the 80s:
80s: 4 S16
90s: 0 (sanctions)
00s: 4
10s: 0 (Inept leadership)
20s: 1
The way I see it, BU has one more year to get one more S16 and if he does that, then he gets four to make it to two. Longer leash than most here have for him but it just doesn't seem reasonable, IMO, to fire a guy for failing to do something that literally no one in our history has done - go to the 2nd weekend 5 times in a decade.
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