Illini Coaching Staff

#1,426      

BuddyJ

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BuddyJ
HR217 said:
Just dont respond to S&C so he doesnt have to respond back and get banned. lol just looking out for you.
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Jamal made 188k last year, all reports said he was retained with no mention of a new deal, so that stays static. OA made 345k his last year at Kentucky (275k base, 70k in bonus's), so lets call 350k his base. Though the money doesn't matter much for him right now, since UCF pays him the difference between that and his old base salary (375k), and I doubt he got a raise right after getting fired.


That leaves 300k for Martin in order hit the 850k allotted for assistants, which would probably still be an overpay. However, I don't mind paying assistants more than market value if it means we get great guys.

If we hire Chin, there's no way we hit the 850k.


To put that in perspective, Purdue's 3 assistants make 160, 170, and 195, and Michigan's three coaches all make 205k. So while we are paying more than these programs, again, I'm willing to overpay a little for success. The University will make back their investment many times over if they start winning with these guys.
 
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#1,427      

foby

foby
Bonnaroo Land
foby
MadSeason said:
That was 3 years ago and Payne etal salary is largely based on the success of bringing in Boogie Cousins, John Wall, Anthony Davis etc. Calipari could then easily argue for the administration give him whatever money he needed for staff
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Sure. I was just giving the broader salary picture. I am pretty sure we are giving him at least $500k, and am very hopeful he is worth every cent. :thumb:
 
#1,434      

Burt Toast

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Burt Toast
I hate to come across as the president of the "Chin" Coleman fan club, but I honestly could not think of a better hire for our program at this time. Chucky Martin may be a quality hire but why do we need 2 east coast guys. Antigua is a national recruiter with strong east coast and Florida ties. What exactly would Martin bring to the table that Antigua doesn't already? How long would it take for him to develop a pipeline from the east coast to Champaign? It's not like he was having a lot of success bringing bluechips into Bloomington over the last 2 years!


Hiring a coach like Chin Coleman enhances a well rounded staff by:
A) adding a "Chicago guy" who knows the city,its coaches,and players
B) Building instant credibility with AAU and Chicago high school coaches - (he coached for the Irvin's as well as Morgan Park etc.)
C) Instantly developing and enhancing new and existing relationships with key blue chip players in Chicago.
D) Addresses the short term need to quickly plug into quality players without having to spend a lot of time attempting to build relationships.

Not to mention he actually has college coaching experience, is well-spoken, connected, and appears to relate well with young kids. There might be better overall choices but for now Chin fits our situation extremely well!!





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#1,435      

MadSeason

MadSeason
MadSeason
BWood Archibald said:
Ok. I think we would all agree on that. But that isn't the point. The AC pool is huge this time for U of I. Gigantic. Let's accept that and love that.
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I think S&C is saying that the money could have been spent more wisely. That could be a legitimate point, but to borrow his vernacular it assumes facts not in evidence.
 
#1,436      

jrichisamazing

J
jrichisamazing
Second and Chalmers said:
If Antigua were worth that, he'd be getting that.

Whatever Antigua is making is his market price. But for Walker we engaged in a bidding war against ourselves for a player that isn't coming and Coleman, woof. There are programs all over the country that would love the inside track on Mac Irvin Fire players and not one of them thought it worth the squeeze to pull Coleman out of mid-major obscurity these last several years.
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Or maybe schools did try to get Coleman but he didn't like the fit.

Also, I'm wondering....are you still mad at this hire if he was our backup plan? Evans got a big paycheck, maybe we just weren't able to entice Martin or the other higher profile guys. As a backup plan is Chin really such a bad hire? We have a St. Louis guy, a Chicago guy, and a nationally known guy. Seems pretty good to me.
 
#1,437      

Whitman2020

W
Whitman2020
I think this is being looked at the wrong way. BU hasn't coached a game. He hasn't even had a full staff to recruit with, and when he does it won't be a complete year yet.

I'm just loving that the University is behind Whitman and Whitman is behind hoops and willing to go to the bank if necessary.
 
#1,438      

HR217

H
HR217
MadSeason said:
I think S&C is saying that the money could have been spent more wisely. That could be a legitimate point, but to borrow his vernacular it assumes facts not in evidence.
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Right, and thats just a message board opinion. Who is anyone here to claim how that money would be "best" spent? If Underwood has determined how and who he wants to spend it on, thats what I roll with until proven otherwise.
 
#1,439      

MadSeason

MadSeason
MadSeason
HR217 said:
Right, and thats just a message board opinion. Who is anyone here to claim how that money would be "best" spent? If Underwood has determined how and who he wants to spend it on, thats what I roll with until proven otherwise.
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That has been my point throughout. We all pretty much agree Underwood was a good hire, so I am going to give him the benefit of the doubt in these matters. Particularly when one of them is to land one of the top recruiters in the nation.

Also Underwood is obviously a very strong personality, so it isn't like Whitman is pulling strings behind the scenes. This is the staff Underwood wants period.
 
#1,440      

Deleted member 10676

D
Guest
Deleted member 10676
jrichisamazing said:
Or maybe schools did try to get Coleman but he didn't like the fit.

Also, I'm wondering....are you still mad at this hire if he was our backup plan? Evans got a big paycheck, maybe we just weren't able to entice Martin or the other higher profile guys. As a backup plan is Chin really such a bad hire? We have a St. Louis guy, a Chicago guy, and a nationally known guy. Seems pretty good to me.
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And is Jamall just a St. Louis guy? Wasn't he the lead recruiter on Black and JCL? If so, we don't pick up top 50 ranked kids from Memphis and Indiana every day. Or decade for that matter.
 
#1,441      

BuddyJ

B
BuddyJ
Burt Toast said:
Hiring a coach like Chin Coleman enhances a well rounded staff by:
A) adding a "Chicago guy" who knows the city,its coaches,and players
B) Building instant credibility with AAU and Chicago high school coaches - (he coached for the Irvin's as well as Morgan Park etc.)
C) Instantly developing and enhancing new and existing relationships with key blue chip players in Chicago.
D) Addresses the short term need to quickly plug into quality players without having to spend a lot of time attempting to build relationships.

Not to mention he actually has college coaching experience, is well-spoken, connected, and appears to relate well with young kids. There might be better overall choices but for now Chin fits our situation extremely well!!
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I agree with you, and Chin would be a very interesting hire and I'd be excited to see what he can do. There is something to be said about hiring someone who has proven it at this level though.

Plus, as we found out recently, hiring an assistant doesn't guarantee any prospects. Ayo would be great, but its a tough sell. He's got a lot of bodies in front of him. While he's potentially better than them all, there isn't any clear path to playing time in his first two years.

Will hiring his coach help? Probably. Will it help with Chicago recruits in general? Probably. But it won't matter unless we win, and if we win, the Chicago recruits are going to start wanting to come here regardless of if we hire one of their guys. Winning is the key to all of it.
 
#1,442      

BuddyJ

B
BuddyJ
Second and Chalmers said:
But for Walker we engaged in a bidding war against ourselves
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Did we give Walker a significant raise or did we just retain him on his current contract? I haven't seen much that indicates we gave him a raise, much less a significant one.

So far the wording has been "Retained" or "reached a deal to remain", but I've seen nothing mentioning money or a raise.
 
#1,443      

davesworld

davesworld
Athens
davesworld
Burt Toast said:
I hate to come across as the president of the "Chin" Coleman fan club, but I honestly could not think of a better hire for our program at this time. Chucky Martin may be a quality hire but why do we need 2 east coast guys. Antigua is a national recruiter with strong east coast and Florida ties. What exactly would Martin bring to the table that Antigua doesn't already? How long would it take for him to develop a pipeline from the east coast to Champaign? It's not like he was having a lot of success bringing bluechips into Bloomington over the last 2 years!


Hiring a coach like Chin Coleman enhances a well rounded staff by:
A) adding a "Chicago guy" who knows the city,its coaches,and players
B) Building instant credibility with AAU and Chicago high school coaches - (he coached for the Irvin's as well as Morgan Park etc.)
C) Instantly developing and enhancing new and existing relationships with key blue chip players in Chicago.
D) Addresses the short term need to quickly plug into quality players without having to spend a lot of time attempting to build relationships.

Not to mention he actually has college coaching experience, is well-spoken, connected, and appears to relate well with young kids. There might be better overall choices but for now Chin fits our situation extremely well!!





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I like you're argument. U sold me there. Honestly, i welcome a better program altogether and both are a quality option and ultimately i think both will make the team better. But i like your train of thought

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#1,444      

BMo79

B
BMo79
The Chin doesn't really excite me if he is the one, but I wont lose any sleep over it either. I am just ready to get this staff locked in and let them get to work, so we can see where things go.
 
#1,445      

ritster

R
Wheaton, IL
ritster
Leonardite said:
What's the reason we haven't announced a 3rd assistant yet? I assume we already have one waiting in the wings - and it seems like its Coleman or Martin based off of this board. What's the hold up?
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The consensus on this board is that Illinois already has their man and they are making a ninja move being this is a dead period this week and a hired coach could not talk to recruits
 
#1,446      

Deleted member 8213

D
Guest
Deleted member 8213
ritster said:
The consensus on this board is that Illinois already has their man and they are making a ninja move being this is a dead period this week and a hired coach could not talk to recruits
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That might be a bit fantastical.
 
#1,448      

Smacko

S
Lexington, KY
Smacko
Part of the reason this has been slow is that Martin has a number of different opportunities, so he has not been in a hurry. He is the plan A guy with Chin being plan B. They aren't going to give up on Martin until they have to, and since Martin is weighing different offers, things have dragged on a bit.
 
#1,449      

Deleted member 186590

D
Guest
Deleted member 186590
Burt Toast said:
Hiring a coach like Chin Coleman enhances a well rounded staff by:
A) adding a "Chicago guy" who knows the city,its coaches,and players
B) Building instant credibility with AAU and Chicago high school coaches - (he coached for the Irvin's as well as Morgan Park etc.)
C) Instantly developing and enhancing new and existing relationships with key blue chip players in Chicago.
D) Addresses the short term need to quickly plug into quality players without having to spend a lot of time attempting to build relationships.

Not to mention he actually has college coaching experience, is well-spoken, connected, and appears to relate well with young kids. There might be better overall choices but for now Chin fits our situation extremely well!!
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I like your assessment there. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Chin would be the biggest Chicago "insider" Illinois has ever hired. I don't think we should take that point lightly, the Chicago coaches have been banging the table for a hire like this for decades and for whatever reason it hasn't come to fruition. I go back to the 80's and even Jimmy Collins wasn't a Chicago guy when he was hired. Jerrance played in Chicago, but it's a big difference when you've been a HS and AAU coach in the city vs. just a player. Parham had three seasons of coaching HS in chicago, but didn't grow up in Chicago.

It would be exciting to actually see if having a Chicago guy on staff would make a difference. If nothing else we've created aligned incentives with the chicago AAU and HS coaches - they will want to make Chin successful to make that path easier for other coaches wanting to move up to the college ranks.