I’m just so confused at what seems to be Brad’s blind spot when it comes to defensive scheme and coaching that is leading the charge. Does he truly think it is the best plan and just tells himself that it is time for positive regression for offenses to not feast against us? Senna like he is too smart of a coach to hold that belief after such a long track record of objectively poor defense in Champaign.The expectations are simple … Competing for Big Ten and National Championships … Year in and year out …
You’re also wrong about Brad not being a top 10 paid coach … He is … $4,800,000 plus the $335,000 in bonuses we paid out to him puts him right at $5,135,000 and right inside the top 10 … I believe Oats Elite 8 bonus might put him up $5,000 above Brad and Brad would be #11 … My point stands … There are not many guys getting paid more than Brad to get the job done …
There is no excuse for only making the second weekend 1 time in 9 years if they fail to make it next year … Especially with the amount of talent that’s come through the door and the resources at our staffs disposal …
Brad can double down on this
defensive scheme and Hamer if he wants to but he better be prepared for the consequences … We’ve seen for two years that it doesn’t work and players have to make suggestions of changes for something to even change …
If you go into this year and “run it back” with this staff … It better f’ing work …
Coaching Carousel (Basketball)
- Status
sacraig
- The desert
Battle89
- Cary-Grove, the better Trojan team
Should not be, at this level. We’re not selling lemonade on the street corner.Tyler and Hamer are tight(s).Hard to fire one of your son's best friends. Maybe they hire a new AC, and demote Hamer internally, but save face by keeping it quiet.
If I had one beef, this is it. The assistant coaching situation isn't optimal. There has to be changes there and if not and they do "run it back"......that's on the Head Coach. That's his staff. I'm on board with you there..The expectations are simple … Competing for Big Ten and National Championships … Year in and year out …
You’re also wrong about Brad not being a top 10 paid coach … He is … $4,800,000 plus the $335,000 in bonuses we paid out to him puts him right at $5,135,000 and right inside the top 10 … I believe Oats Elite 8 bonus might put him up $5,000 above Brad and Brad would be #11 … My point stands … There are not many guys getting paid more than Brad to get the job done …
There is no excuse for only making the second weekend 1 time in 9 years if they fail to make it next year … Especially with the amount of talent that’s come through the door and the resources at our staffs disposal …
Brad can double down on this
If you go into this year and “run it back” with this staff … It better f’ing work …
I am terrified we are going to watch a season full of Big Z getting lost in drop coverage. He definitely struggled defensively last year and I fear the Hamer Way™ is not going to do him any favors.
It's stubbornness. And to be fair, most coaches that make it to the D1 level have a decent amount of it.
That said, if you roll the dice and ride with Hamer, you're owning it if it fails again. So yeah, Brad is hitching his cart to the guy. Not very prudent IMO.
The thing I'm more disappointed about is why JW isn't intervening here and requiring a change.
Brad hitching his career to Hamer.....
Men's Basketball Head Coach Salaries - USA TODAY
Ever wondered who the highest paid coach in men's basketball is? Find out today with USA TODAY's complete salary data.
sportsdata.usatoday.com
If you are going to count Underwood's bonus, you have to count Matt Painter's, keeping him ahead of Brad. So Brad's 12 by this metric.
By 2024/2025 season base salary Brad is 14th
By 2024/2025 season base salary plus bonus for 23/24 season Brad is 12th
You are both basically right. Not top Ten, but not many paid more.
Last edited:
So what about NIL? Do we have the NIL to compete for championships year in year out?
Hopefully Hamer transitions this next season into an analytics-driven advisor. That might work out well. (Kindness)
These are Underwood's self-selected goals. I think he is right -- "If you don't want this, you don't want me as your ball coach." Well said, Coach U.
Now make it happen. It's year nine.
Now make it happen. It's year nine.
THIS. A large % of folks on here use the BU makes top 10 money and Illinois is top 10 NIL to back their case against BU yet both are NOT true. Illinois is probably close to 20 - 25 in NIL rankings
Because he does not run the bball program. He makes the decision on who to run it but doesn't not run it himself. Should Whitman in 2023 have started calling defensive plays for the football team when they were giving up 30 a game. Yet the same defensive coordinator coached 2024 with decent results
Simply not true but okay …
This is the sort of post that makes me wonder why folks go sooo hard at insiders.
They obviously deeply care like the rest of us nerds on this board. But I don't see Indy, Illini, DB, Lville, FI & sharp hesitate to criticize...and they provide their insight for free.
They obviously deeply care like the rest of us nerds on this board. But I don't see Indy, Illini, DB, Lville, FI & sharp hesitate to criticize...and they provide their insight for free.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
We get it, you don’t like when people suggest Ben didn’t play anywhere near well enough to warrant the PT he got … doesn’t mean they all hate him.
Can we know for sure? When NIL isn't well-reported how does anybody know beyond what a specific player is offered, which is really only known to those with transfer portal access?
Oh, I agree. But it does depend on who is squeezing the lemons.
The most obvious thing about the whole season is that whoever was in charge of the defense should be fired or at least demoted. When you keep defending the pick n roll one way and 90% of the other teams defend it differently, especially against us it should be obvious we are on the wrong side of that equation.
Totally agree. What I can’t understand…This isn’t Brad’s first rodeo so if something isn’t working, and it clearly wasn’t, why didn’t he say, screw this, we are doing something else?
I think Brad has a little bit of “if we keep doing what we do it WILL work”. He did that against Loyola. The whole game he did nothing, he knew we had better talent and just kept doing what we do thinking our superiority would prevail. All the while, we couldn’t stop Loyola from doing what they do. See how that worked out.
- Status