Chris Yates
Recruiting Correspondent
- Michigan
So Mike Thomas fired all three major-sport coaches to bring in his own guys. If the stories about Beckman and the women's hoops coaching staff are even partly true, Thomas has to go. :tsk:
"strikes again"? She reported the facts and allegations known to date. What would you like her to report?
Since the parent letter are dated about a month ago, I have to assume that the university did a pretty thorough investigation before announcing the departure of the assistant coach. I am guessing that the investigation found no truth to the specific allegations against Bollant. As an attorney, I have been trained not to jump to conclusions and to review things as a whole. Nevertheless, the head coach is still responsible for the overall atmosphere surrounding the team and for the actions of his assistant coaches towards team members. I simply can't see how the administration can continue with Bollant as head coach.
I have always been a staunch defender of our teams, our coaches and our school. But with all these recent allegations about our programs, not to mention the relatively poor products on the field, it is becoming harder and harder to defend. Wow, is this embarrassing.
It appears that Bollant's status is still under review. I'm guessing there are negotiations taking place behind the scenes to finalize his exit package. If there is enough truth in the accusations that have been raised, I can't imagine how Bollant survives.I'm still confused as to why the University is considering it mainly from the Title IX perspective, which most of the allegations are not. Bollant needs to be held responsible for Divibliss as well if he brought him in knowing that he had shown abusive behavior towards his athletes for almost 20 years if that is in fact the case as one of the letters states.
I agree that at a minimum Bollant must go and probably the entire staff should be dismissed. My question about MT is did he have exit interviews with the young women that were leaving the program and what did they tell him. I do think that MT needs to be put on a very short lease and watched closely.
Bollant needs to go. Even if the allegations are mostly untrue, the damage has been done. I have a daughter. If she were being recruited by Illinois basketball, I would not want her to go there and do everything I could to encourage her to go elsewhere. I don't think any parent would want their daughter to go somewhere where this sort of thing may happen.
So if the allegations are all untrue, and it turns out there was no wrongdoing, you wouldn't want your kid to play for the coach? No parent would want their kid to play for a coach who was wrongly accused???
These allegations made yesterday a tough day for me as an Illini sports fan. Athletes are students, and young adults. In much the same way as an Illinois engineering student is gifted in math and science, an Illinois basketball player is gifted in basketball, and that's a gift to be nurtured. More importantly, that's a person to be nurtured.
Sure, if you're a college head coach, winning is the goal. But some coaches clearly miss the mark on why that's so. Winning is the goal, but not because the coach needs job security. Winning is the goal, but not because the stadium looks better with a championship banner, or because it makes recruiting easier, or because it brings in more fans. None of those. A coach has a responsibility to help his players become their best selves--and then to become a little bit better than that.
Winning is the goal not because players can give their coach wins, but because a coach can shape his players into winners.
To me, that's winning the right way. That's putting our priorities in the right order. To segregate practices and preferentially treat players is to get things backwards, and it's saddening to see this happening to such an extent under the banner of "team culture", "system", "toughness", or anything else. We, the flagship institution of our state, when tasked with the care and nourishment of our brightest and most talented young people, have to do better.
I hope the men's basketball program wasn't somehow complicit in this.Taylor said, "Dad. They don't talk to me at all. They don't say hello. They don't even correct me at practice anymore. They don't even yell at me anymore, but they sure have me represent the school and have all the recruits stay with me on their official visits. I guess I am good for something. It is like I am invisible and not part of the team and I am doing really well at practice too." She was then placed on the men's practice squad and never had the chance to practice with her own teammates.
From one of the letters:
I hope the men's basketball program wasn't somehow complicit in this.