Illinois is a better job right now than Maryland.
Yes or no?
The two are very similar. I'd say Maryland just because it's in better shape, but if Maryland became available, it would probably mean it wasn't in so good of shape.
Illinois is a better job right now than Maryland.
Yes or no?
I mean, :noidea:
Most of the Illini athletes you love received impermissible help with their coursework. The show must go on. You do the best you can with kids who don't belong at this level of academia and who have an enormously physically and mentally draining full time job on top of everything.
Fudging the academic side a bit enriches these kids lives far more than just flunking them out of school would.
+1. We've been fortunate to have some academically gifted players over the years - Nick Smith, Jack Ingram, Dee, Calvin Brock, Tracy, JCL, and several more. I'm proud of how strong the basketball program has been on the academic side overall - tons of All-B10 academic selections, excellent grad rate. However, lots of players at UIUC and every other top university that offers athletic scholarships are out of their depth. They wouldn't get in to start with and if they somehow did they'd fail out in a year.
It's a conundrum, but I think the best approach is to give them lots of structure and guidance and hope they flourish to the best of their ability. If that involves easy classes, tutors heavily editing papers, and professors allowing more time for exams, I'm okay with it. I would hope for a good faith effort from all parties.
Helping students learn and helping students complete projects has long-term value. Doing it for them results in no benefit to them. I don't think it is that difficult to distinguish between the two.
As have I. Oh those zany Zook kids...
I've seen it with my own eyes.
But as a last point, the athletes I've had from non-revenue sports are the absolute best students. They capitalize on their scholarship, manage their time, and achieve at the highest level. I think that it's important to distinguish between them and the revenue athletes.
So would you be ok paying someone to get them to come here?
I would say certain things have long-term value on their face and others do not. For instance - I had to take a geology class that could not have been less meaningful to me at the time, and, shockingly, remains so. I completed it, and I suppose there's some blue-sky message in that about getting outside your comfort zone and seeing things through, but I also wasn't a D1 athlete. That's a silly pile-on to an already almost impossible schedule for these guys.
When you say "there are plenty of easy courses to take" to maintain eligibility, aren't you kind of acknowledging the ridiculousness of this?
And it's not all revenue athletes, I should note. I was friends with a girl who dated Ryan McDonald for awhile, and that guy was extremely bright and extremely driven academically, and lets be honest, the Irwin strumpets wouldn't have been able to do his engineering homework for him if they tried :thumb:
Damn good football player too. But you're not going to fill a roster with 85 guys like that. To have that much physical talent and that much intellectual talent is just an incredibly rare bird.
The "grey area" I was speaking of would only be on the front-end of the recruitment. So hypothetically, a player we will call Rerrick Dose's, brother and uncle say they will have him come here if we paid them all $90K, would you be ok doing that? I ask because those big recruitments we all get so frustrated with losing, need this to compete more often than not. So would you be ok paying someone to get them to come here?
The "grey area" I was speaking of would only be on the front-end of the recruitment. So hypothetically, a player we will call Rerrick Dose's, brother and uncle say they will have him come here if we paid them all $90K, would you be ok doing that? I ask because those big recruitments we all get so frustrated with losing, need this to compete more often than not. So would you be ok paying someone to get them to come here?
Capel mentioned is laughable
Capel is a BIG NO for me, Jankovich will not be a splash enough, Keatts could very well be the get em while they are hot....difference this time is that MANY are stating HE is P-5 guy in waiting...no one really stated that about our last 2 guys iirc.
My new updated picks...
Miller - After he loses to Marshall first round
Keatts - After 2nd round loss
Martin - Whenever.....
Whitman WILL announce next week, as he wants to capitalize on ILLINOIS being mentioned numerous times during tournament run....free PR and ALL recruits will be watching obviously...
Still going with Miller Time March 23rd 10:00 press conference?
Not disagreeing, but just wondering why you feel that way? Is it just that you think we can get better? Or you hear more about him? The fact that he got so many good recruits to go out there, makes you think he could do much better here with the talent pool being deeper.
One question I have for everyone on this board...
Would you want someone who operates heavily in the grey if it meant we got good recruits and won games...or does integrity really matter to you?
I think this is a generational thing honestly.
is Illinois a stop he truly covets
My biggest question regarding Cuonzo Martin is not as much his perceived (whether true or not) X&O's weakness or his ability to recruit Chicago...the bigger question for me is Illinois a stop he truly covets and does he plan to stick around for more than 3 years? I actually tend to believe he is a solid coach and above average recruiter but the sample size on him at each stop is so limited. We have seen him do pretty well in short stents but what is a 5-10-15 year Cuonzo program's real trajectory?
Thoughts? I ask because he is a candidate that provides me with some legitimate intrigue.
I worked for UI in an academic capacity and did work in collaboration with the AD in exactly this area. There are academic services provided to student-athletes. Having those services and tutors does not equate to receiving impermissible help. You will always have some overzealous tutors that often are enamored by their association with the student athletes, but part of the training/monitoring is exactly on avoiding that.
Saying that most of the athletes or players we loved had received impermissible benefits or help, is a gross generalization that is not based on reality.
You say that you've seen it with your own eyes. You have seen and monitored most of the student athletes (at least over a long period)?
My biggest question regarding Cuonzo Martin is not as much his perceived (whether true or not) X&O's weakness or his ability to recruit Chicago...the bigger question for me is Illinois a stop he truly covets and does he plan to stick around for more than 3 years? I actually tend to believe he is a solid coach and above average recruiter but the sample size on him at each stop is so limited. We have seen him do pretty well in short stents but what is a 5-10-15 year Cuonzo program's real trajectory?
Thoughts? I ask because he is a candidate that provides me with some legitimate intrigue.
Now, if I got wind that someone wanted to take him to a strip club on his campus visit...well, that's a different story.
And it's not all revenue athletes, I should note. I was friends with a girl who dated Ryan McDonald for awhile, and that guy was extremely bright and extremely driven academically, and lets be honest, the Irwin strumpets wouldn't have been able to do his engineering homework for him if they tried :thumb:
Damn good football player too. But you're not going to fill a roster with 85 guys like that. To have that much physical talent and that much intellectual talent is just an incredibly rare bird.
Illinois is a better job right now than Maryland.
Yes or no?