Yep the WHOLE staff not just one or two of the asst coaches.
Coaching Carousel
- Status
sacraig
- The desert
Both coaches are staying and TyTy reconsidered and went ahead and committed here despite his final list not including us and Kofi is returning and Liddell is transferring to us to play on the dream team?
JFGsCoffeeMug
BU:1 Trash cans:0
- Chicago
Someone can be an exceptional assistant coach and only a middling head coach, so I don't really care what happened in S. Florida. As far as why no one tried to grab OA before this year: (1) we certainly don't know if that's true; and (2) you have to consider context.
As for (1), it is entirely possible that other coaches have been sniffing around OA before this year, but he has told all of them he was happy at Illinois. Then, the situation appreciably changed when UK came calling. OA has history there and they are the premier college basketball program. Also, it sounds like they flashed some serious cash on top of all the rest they can offer.
As for (2), our team was deep in rebuilding mode in OA's first two years here. We were bad. No one was going to try to poach him then. OA was at a new school, with a new staff, and trying to install a new culture. Building takes time. And whether those efforts would eventually pay off was difficult to project early on. But now you have last year and this year to point to. Caribbean pipeline - built. Giorgi and Kofi exhibit development beyond our wildest dreams. OA brings in Curbelo who wins B1G 6th man of the year as a freshman. We go from near the bottom of the B1G three years ago to winning the most combined conference games over the past two seasons. We win the BTT this year. We earn a 1-seed for only the fourth time in school history. OA doesn't get sole credit for all of that, but if he can help facilitate that kind of a turnaround at Illinois, then he can be a significant value-add practically anywhere. And if UK wants him, then we should want to keep him. It could be as simple as that.
LOL I was thinking all of KY's recruits switching to us to replace all of our players that will be joining OA at KY. /s
Puff puff pass please
JW
- Vancouver
I'm not suggesting we shouldn't fight to keep OA and I really hope we do.
But I think there is a fallacy in some of the logic.
Why didn't that god-like status land a better job than South Florida?
As a god, shouldn't he have been more successful at South Florida?
If he is a god in Lexington, why has he been assistant coaching at Illinois?
If he is a god in Lexington, why isn't he being offered a higher profile head coaching position?
If being an assistant at Kentucky is a higher profile gig than head coach at South Florida - why did he take the job?
Again, I'm not suggesting OA hasn't been a really great fit at Illinois and done a really nice job of landing Kofi and Curbelo.
lol especially after all UI recruits were headed to UK
We convinced Calipari to come be an assistant coach at Illinois
The offer to OA alone shows how lucky we got with JW.
Looking back at our previous ADs, I'm sure they all would loved to have had access to these kind of resources to pay coaches at the top of the market, build cutting edge facilities, and ultimately bring Illinois back.
The difference between all of them and Josh, I would assume, has to be the RELATIONSHIPS he's built, both past and present. There's no way he just went to the University and said I need 4 million dollars for an assistant basketball coach and they handed it over.
Watching his press conferences dating all the way back to the day he was hired to how he greets every player with a huge high five or hug after a win just shows how incredibly fortunate we got!
Looking back at our previous ADs, I'm sure they all would loved to have had access to these kind of resources to pay coaches at the top of the market, build cutting edge facilities, and ultimately bring Illinois back.
The difference between all of them and Josh, I would assume, has to be the RELATIONSHIPS he's built, both past and present. There's no way he just went to the University and said I need 4 million dollars for an assistant basketball coach and they handed it over.
Watching his press conferences dating all the way back to the day he was hired to how he greets every player with a huge high five or hug after a win just shows how incredibly fortunate we got!
JJB
- Chicago, IL
Sidebar: The Dennis Hopper/Christopher Walken scene in "True Romance" is an all-time classic.
Now, back to the rollercoaster, Loyalty.
This thing probably needed to be wrapped up before recruiting @ AAU tournaments this weekend. If we're looking good at 6pm on Friday, I think that's a great sign. OA would have to know what polo to put on by now.
JFGsCoffeeMug
BU:1 Trash cans:0
- Chicago
There is a huge difference between running the show and playing a supporting role. You can be amazing at one of those things and still stink at the other, because the necessary skill sets can be significantly different.
I bet if OA wanted to be a lifetime assistant at UK, he could have done that. But he took a risk and bet on himself to make the jump to be a head coach. Didn't work out like he wanted, and we were the beneficiaries. Not going to look a gift horse in the mouth now. If OA is staying, we just kept a UK-level assistant on our staff. Everyone knows that now. We can sell that everywhere, and OA can tell recruits that no one is better at identifying and developing talent than him, and that they are one of the lucky players getting an offer to come to Illinois. That's clout.
Did it ever change?
Epsilon
M tipping over
- Pdx
Being a HC requires somewhat of a different skill set. He is an outstanding recruiter and position coach for bigs (“elite” level), but being a good head coach requires a bit more on the X’s and O’s side and an ability to think more holistically and strategically about all aspects of managing a program. Much of that is learned over time and some of that is instincts. Won’t pretend to know what his ceiling is - maybe this job and the success this staff has achieved by adapting so much of the program is what he needed to be at the next level. But one thing is clear. He is among the best of the best at this job.
JFGsCoffeeMug
BU:1 Trash cans:0
- Chicago
Yes, but I think it changed back sometime yesterday. So not a recent development as far as I'm aware.
tamillini
- Northern Virginia
He can literally say, "Look, I know it's UK is great program, but there are some great reasons to choose Illinois....I did."
JFGsCoffeeMug
BU:1 Trash cans:0
- Chicago
But probably won’t be able to say we’ll pay you more than UK will, like we apparently did him.
Wait, what about all the fans at KY who KNOW OA because he is "elite"? But KY didn't want him for SEVEN years? I don't get the logic here. He was really good at KY so everyone remembers him but they didn't actually want to try to get him back (unless they are real good at keeping it secret? and they just recently thought of offering OA boatloads of money? but only until Cal's back is literally against the wall with his own boosters?)
Cal is trying to make a big splash and maybe, just maybe JW will end up with a bigger splash.
But either way, people are talking about KY and Illinois in the same breath! that's pretty cool if you ask me.
My point is that OA is not quite as great at being an asst coach as some here (and Cal of course) are suggesting, that's all. He's very, very good at what he does. Sure, if KY wants him we want him, too. But I suspect that a lot of what is going on right now is Cal trying to pump OA up to help save his own skin.
And if other teams were trying to poach any of our coaches, it would have leaked, IMO. Heck someone would have posted it just to get laughs two years ago. It's nearly impossible to keep something like that secret, especially since everyone at KY "remembers" OA. Agents leak this stuff as a negotiating ploy.
I don't get why people, not singling you out, want to give OA credit for our turnaround and don't even mention BU? Isn't BU the guy who "facilitates" EVERYTHING? I give him MOST of the credit. Good recruits come here to play for the HC not one of his assts.
I hope both OA and Chin stay with us because what we have is working great, not necessarily because those two are irreplaceable. Even BU is replaceable, obviously, but losing him would hurt us far, far more than losing any of our other coaches, IMO.
Losing BU would be like losing Self was. Losing OA would be like Weber losing Jerrance Howard.
That's the "context" I see here. One sux much more than the other. Neither one was/will be the end of the world.
Yes, but to win it all we need Self and Howard together. That’s what keeping this staff gives us a real chance to do. Hence the praise.
Interesting. I actually run a department at Harvard Law and Prof Lazarus there is a CU native who used to be a sportswriter for the News-Gazette. Huge Illini fan.
And didn’t someone yesterday triangulate Antigua’s Twitter coordinates to show he was in Lexington ? Next level Loyalty stalking skills.
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The Galloping Ghost
- Washington, DC
You need a good head coach and a top recruiter.
He compared Underwood to Self and OA to Snacks. Hence keeping the two would be giving us a better chance to win it all.
- Status