Chicago guy also.
Illini Coaching Staff
Chicago guy also.
Oldtoysrock
- Sarasota, Florida
Victory Rock prep is about 5 minutes from my house so maybe I'll just pop over and chat with both of them. Wish it was that easy.
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Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk
Long time Julian coach, also founded and ran controversial Boys to Men HS.
TownieMatt
CU Expat
- Chicago
According to Chicago AAU coaches you are well qualified.
Isn't Victory Rock essentially just the Florida version of Boys to Men? From the looks of the website, it's basically a basketball team living in condos, playing in one gym and taking classes at a different school.
mattcoldagelli
- The Transfer Portal with Do Not Contact Tag
I will bet you my second-best beach house it will not be Snacks.
Correct, big difference is that Victory Prep has concentrated on foreign players, whereas BTM was local Chicago kids. BTM only last 2 years then the NCAA came snooping. I don't think IHSA recognized BTM.
I'm an Illinois fan. In the words of Greenspan, let me have my "irrational exuberance."
Who are realistic targets ... anyone from Frank Martin or Huggy Bear staffs?
Would love both. Coleman would effectively "kiss the ring" of Irvin family and help settle the "Chicago guy" sentiment.
mattcoldagelli
- The Transfer Portal with Do Not Contact Tag
Hot take: it's best for all parties involved that it will not be Snacks.
Second hot take: I'd be fine with us punting on a Chicago guy. Get guy(s) that will right this ship as soon as possible. Frankly, that may mean recruiting connections elsewhere, given that we're not going to get the highest impact guys coming out of Chicago, anyway. Get better. Alter the leverage equation. Then the next time we have an opening, consider someone a little more plugged into the city.
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I agree with you in principle. However, we have to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time, or result tripping on ourselves further with Chicago. This is the best time to appease Chicago given a new regime. I hope Underwood specifically slots a Chicago guy for his staff. If we have to take "system fits" rather than 5* players based on that relationship in the near term, I think it'd pay dividends in the long term.
I'm sure that the ideal scenario for Underwood is to hire two experienced, well known Assistant Coaches with AAU connections and bring on Gentry (and/or someone like Erik Pastrana) in a support capacity. The problem is those guys are established enough at this point that they could make the jump to full AC at a P5 or other high-level program potentially.
Gentry may stay on at OK State if they make him an AC offer. He also has connections to Mark Few and Turgeon. It's been rumored that he's following Underwood, but the fact that he hasn't been announced (a la Joey Biggs) leads me to believe that he's waiting on a few dominoes to fall. If Underwood fails to hire his top targets, maybe Gentry gets an AC offer; if we hire two Assistants and Gentry is offered Director of Player Development or whatever, he may decline depending on his other offers. Essentially, I think it may be Assistant Coach or no dice for Gentry.
I'm okay with Loren Jackson as well. I know hes a Chicago guy that's got some more national ties as well.
mattcoldagelli
- The Transfer Portal with Do Not Contact Tag
It's really not. And "appeasing" is a losing strategy.
I don't know what else has to happen for us to learn that, no matter who we put on staff, top prospects from the CPL and elsewhere are not going to come to C-U on a lark and because these kids have "IL" in their home address.
We need to be winning games, getting in the tournament, and getting players to the league, and this will take care of itself. Get the staff that will help us cross any one of those bridges as soon as possible.
Ransom Stoddard
Ordained Dudeist Priest
- Bloomington, IL
I'm in 100% agreement with this. The CPL "problem" can't be fixed overnight, but fixing our other "problems" eventually fixes CPL.
This is chicken and egg dilemma. The thing is, you still need players to win. Even mid-major Gonzaga produced its best results ever because they has 2 burger boys, 3 top 50 players, and 7 top 100 players.
We can't take the scraps of Chicago and even if we don't get all the 5 star guys, we've gotta land 1 or 2 here and there.
I agree completely with the bolded. The best way to attract a 5 star Chicago kid is to show him he'll get past the first weekend of the tournament. It's a lot more fun to win games.
As far as getting players to the league, that's a circular argument. Kentucky, Duke, Kansas, UNC "put" lots of player in the league because they recruit guys that are NBA-calibre. Those same kids could play a year at N. Dakota State and the NBA would still find them.
i.e Markelle Fultz, Dennis Smith Jr., Random European 18 yr old, etc.
Can't agree with you enough. No reason we have to kneel down to Chicago. Paris had incredible connections and was well liked in Chicago...they still came up with excuses to go elsewhere.
Put together the best staff you can. Win and Illinois will become the desirable destination for a lot of these kids.
Question about coaching duties/NCAA regs:
Can anyone employed by the university coach in practices? Like say you go with two recruiting-first guys for the 2 remaining assistant coaching positions since they're the only ones who can leave campus. Then use the rest of the support staff, DOBO, Player Development, etc. for guys who can help teach the system to the guys already on campus? Sorry if this is a stupid question but that seems like one way to maximize both areas.
I suppose one sticking point would be that if a guy could coach well enough to teach the system to the players he'd be good enough to get an asst position for more money/prestige and wouldn't take a support position here.
mattcoldagelli
- The Transfer Portal with Do Not Contact Tag
Exactly - I mean, Paris Parham is like the platonic ideal of "Chicago guy on staff" and it got us nowhere because our on-court product is bad. Which is understandable! It's not due to some House of Cards-style backroom machinations that kids are finding reasons not to go to Illinois. We are providing them with obvious, public, compelling reasons not to go to Illinois.