Hamer wears leggings to practices?The players sure found it funny and it even got put in a group chat based off what I was told from parents/agents …
If the players don’t respect you …
Coaching Carousel (Basketball)
- Status
We not only got outcoached in that game, but players looked unprepared, lost and lacking confidence (which at the time I thought was acceptable given it seemed like an outlier, but now..........)
What's the vibe from the players? Are they still playing for anything or just trying to get through the rest of the season?The players sure found it funny and it even got put in a group chat based off what I was told from parents/agents …
If the players don’t respect you …
Curbelo Fanboy
BERTBALL IS LIFE
Does Alexander do much re: coaching either in game or between games aside from the recruiting side. His dad is an IHSA legend with 2nd most wins in boys history. You'd think some of those coaching chops would rub off. Realize it's a different game but surely he at least could pass along some good inbound plays since Underwood sucks so bad at that. Underwood's in game X & O shortcomings sort of remind me of Zook & the year we replaced the OC & DC both in the same offseason. And of course it didn't work. IMO, the head man has to have the best coaching chops on a staff for it to work long term. Of course even the great ones have assistants they rely on & help cover their shortcomings but the knowledge & gut instinct type of calls in game have to come from the top.
One I always remember is Rick Majerus when at Utah throwing a triangle & 2 at Arizona in a regional final to shut down Mike Bibby & Miles Simon. AZ crapped themselves, never adjusted & Utah walked to the final four. I have zero confidence that Brad could ever pull something remotely similar in a spot where he had the lesser talent in a big game.
One I always remember is Rick Majerus when at Utah throwing a triangle & 2 at Arizona in a regional final to shut down Mike Bibby & Miles Simon. AZ crapped themselves, never adjusted & Utah walked to the final four. I have zero confidence that Brad could ever pull something remotely similar in a spot where he had the lesser talent in a big game.
... And right next round lost to 13 seed Oregon State.
His lack of social skills don’t help either. Tough to get kids to buy in when you can’t connect with them.Zach Hamer - Assistant Coach/Director of Player Development - Men's Basketball Coaches - University of Illinois Athletics
Zach Hamer is in his third season as Illini assistant coach after being elevated to the role on July 1, 2023. He also serves as the director of player development. Thisfightingillini.com
That has to be one of the thinnest resumes to be an assistant coach at a power school (with hopes of winning a national title), especially if he has the power to run the defensive gameplan. Simply mind boggling.
I fear the "upward trajectory" has become more of a dumpster fire riding down the rapids...
AMEN!I know about 25 HS coaches who can coach circles around Tyler and Leggings boy who would do it for 100k a year …
I could give twohow much recruiting they do … I’d be fine with zero recruiting … I know they can freaking coach …
We pay Orlando $900k to get us freaking players … Let him and Geoff cook on that … Let these other guys coach …
Curbelo Fanboy
BERTBALL IS LIFE
That has to be in the top 2 or 3 weakest efforts ever put up by a 1 seed in a round of 32 game. We looked unprepared & disinterested outside a couple of players. By the 10 minute mark of the 2nd half I shut it off & was walking the dog cause the game was over. I've had zero faith in Brad's in game coaching since that day. The longer he goes the more he reminds me of Calipari & he isn't getting the same horde of 5 stars that Cal got to be able to win a title.
RabidDawgClassic
- Los Angeles, CA
Let’s do a little critical thinking here:
1. The NCAA expanded the assistant coaching numbers from three to five. That means every school can now have two more assistant coaches on staff.
2. Before the season, Tim Anderson demanded a pay raise to be compensated at Orlando Antigua levels. Josh Whitman, who handles the purse strings, not Brad, said no. Anderson took his ball (and apparently his entire salary, somehow) and went home.
3. It stands to reason that, if Josh wasn’t willing to up Anderson’s salary, then there wasn’t that much money in the budget to hire two Anderson-level assistants for the two new roles. Brad was told how much money there was and hired Tyler and Hamer - the level of coach he could reasonably get for that amount.
4. Now, whether Tyler and/or Hamer are qualified for such positions is a reasonable question to ask. Last year Illinois had the #1/#2 offense in the nation, going back and forth with UConn. Surely Tyler — nepotism aside — did something right with his offensive analysis. Admittedly, the last two years our defense has not been great, especially the interior. Perhaps Hamer and his system is flawed. Perhaps Brad is insistent on drop coverage and denying threes to the detriment of giving up easy twos. Likely, it’s a combination of both. Reviewing Tyler and Hamer’s job status at the end of the season are reasonable objectives.
5. This season, Illinois has prominently played three freshmen and one sophomore who is essentially a freshman. What is more likely… That one of the B1G’s top two winningest coaches the last five years has shunned reasonable coaching suggestions in a villainesque my-way-or-the-highway ego-driven crusade, or that freshmen are simply playing like freshmen. Occam’s Razor would suggest it’s the latter.
Battle89
- Cary-Grove, the better Trojan team
Thanks @Indy Illini Fan and @mattcoldagelli , soon as I posted that I noticed there were seven more pages of posts and realized this had probably been addressed (numerous times).
I in fact did work all morning, but the lunch break is for the Illini...
Battle89
- Cary-Grove, the better Trojan team
Have you seen the leggings in the picture provided? At least hike them up for Pete's sake.
Is Illinois or Indiana the better job at this point? How many jobs are better than Illinois in the Big Ten?
I agree that was an absolutely awful loss and should not have happened, but I also think you may be overstating the case a bit here. According to Kenpom we were #4 in the country, and Loyola was #10.
Another way to think of that season is we played a whopping 5 games against top 10 KenPom teams (including the eventual champions) and went 3-2 in those games. I don't think that's a bad record against the absolute best in the country, but I think an outsized amount of attention gets heaped on one out of five of those games (for understandable reasons). The fact that one of the two we lost was in the 2nd round of the tournament is pretty bad luck. The fact that we had to face a team so good in the 2nd round of the tournament is also bad luck, and some negligent seeding from the selection committee. Yes, the loss against Loyola is absolutely a point against BU's tenure, but I still think that season was largely a success, and I think it's a shame so many people's memory of a pretty special season gets boiled down to one game.
Illini2010-11
- Sugar Grove
Except Hamer was promoted in July 2023. Not necessarily buying that narrative. The idea that there was such limited resources that he had to hire his own son as an assistant is also crazy. Too hard for me to buy this argument that nepotism is fine, since the resources were too tight to get someone else.
@Indy Illini Fan I’m a bit confused—Kansas State seems to have more NIL money than us, and they can throw more at Underwood. So how do we have the resources to pay big-time assistant coaches and keep OA at almost a million? If K-State’s NIL is better than ours, how bad is ours really? It feels like sometimes our NIL is huge, and other times it’s not. Does anyone know where we actually rank within the Big Ten and nationally?
Have you seen the leggings in the picture provided? At least hike them up for Pete's sake.
Thank you. People need to believe in the simplistic narrative that if Brad was just smart like all of us fans and stopped his team from shooting 3’s, we would be national champions. Apparently Brad doesn’t see what we fans see.Wow, a bad couple games with sick freshman and we are wanting to blow up what took 5+ years to build. It reminds me of when the Cubs blew up their front office once they won (I'm a Cardinal fan). We need to relax, finish the season and learn. I want Brad to stay personally.
I guess it’s good that fans are so passionate. But I do wish they were not so reactionary.
Battle89
- Cary-Grove, the better Trojan team
1-3: sounds like we agree so far, I posted basically the same yesterday:
Now Indy has stated that we do and did have enough money to pay 5 fully qualified assistants, each of us can believe that or not based on our own personal level of admiration for Hamer's legwear and comments on same.
4: seems like a matter of opinion, but I give TSJ the majority of the credit for last year. I do agree that the great stretch we played while he was out weakens my argument, but there I feel was a classic example of 'us vs them' mentality working. Credit where credit's due to the staff and players during that time though.
5: I'm not painting a Snidely Whiplash mustache on Brad here. The freshman point is valid, at least for MJ and WR (I think less so for KJ and TI who played in Euro leagues). I'm saying he's probably guilty of having tunnel vision (tunnel hearing?) when Tyler speaks. And we know at least one other, much more qualified coach, left over scheming (as well as players being recruited over). Last point, if you don't think Brad has a massive ego, one big enough to affect his judgement, I don't know how to prove that further.
Considering he should have averaged 0.0 minutes, yes it is
I've been a BU skeptic for a long time. It's gotten me on more than a couple ignore lists I believe.
Partly this is just a reflex to living through BAM and JFG. I'm never going to accept that level of cult like following.
However, I've also been a skeptic about a change. Before this season the only coach for whom I'd have canned BU if I had,a guarantee was Oats. Every other coach in my mind was a risk. My list is a bit longer, but not much.
Our best long term path to success is to have the 60 year old BU make some changes, recruit well, and hope for a more than occasional glory year. He appears to bristle at opposition and runs off both coaches and players who don't think as he does. That needs to go.
Like Gritty, I'm chuckling at the pitchforks. In fairness, I'm not sure how many of the people pining for his exit were lighting candles in his honor acyear ago. But it sure seems as if sentiment has changed dramatically.
Partly this is just a reflex to living through BAM and JFG. I'm never going to accept that level of cult like following.
However, I've also been a skeptic about a change. Before this season the only coach for whom I'd have canned BU if I had,a guarantee was Oats. Every other coach in my mind was a risk. My list is a bit longer, but not much.
Our best long term path to success is to have the 60 year old BU make some changes, recruit well, and hope for a more than occasional glory year. He appears to bristle at opposition and runs off both coaches and players who don't think as he does. That needs to go.
Like Gritty, I'm chuckling at the pitchforks. In fairness, I'm not sure how many of the people pining for his exit were lighting candles in his honor acyear ago. But it sure seems as if sentiment has changed dramatically.
Tyler Underwood being on the team is how you spell nepotism.
The overall collapse was truly epic. It’s hard to look that bad in all phases of the game all in one night.
There was one Illini player on the floor who didn’t quit. If you watched the game you should know who that was. Even when the game was hopelessly out of reach he continued to play with heart.
If that had been the last game of the season... the fallout from that debacle would be earthshaking right now. But the fact that two tournaments still remain leaves room for some redemption.
It’s the ‘not caring’ that seems the most troubling. Except for that one Illini... no one seemed to care about the embarrassment taking place. Where was the fight in these guys? Where was the team Alpha (still missing) to kick some rears to get them to show some life? What was being said in the huddle – and NOT being said that should have?
The best of the Blue Bloods never look like the Illini did on that sad New York City night.
There’s no embarrassment to losing a game. But there’s plenty of that in the way the Illini looked from beginning to end. The Illini looked like a collection of individuals without collective purpose or direction -- all looking for the Exit sign.
And if it’s time for a change... let’s hope a Bulls-style Phil Jackson-program elevating-person is out there somewhere – even if it’s a surprise name that no one is thinking about right now.
- Status