Guess the Illini won't be hiring Cuonzo Martin as coach. It's on ESPN.com that he's taken the job at Missouri.
Martin to Mizzou
- Thread starter pawildcat
- Start date
Cuonzo barely gave the Illini the time of day. Gee, who could have seen that coming?
Next hint: The Illini's going to need more than $4 million a year to drag Marshall out of Wichita.
If you're Illinois, you have to do better than the UNC-Wilmington coach.
Next hint: The Illini's going to need more than $4 million a year to drag Marshall out of Wichita.
If you're Illinois, you have to do better than the UNC-Wilmington coach.
I heavily doubt they can get a big-name coach unless they pony up a ridiculous amount of $$. I don't think most coaches see Illinois as attractive. A lesser known but very successful HC at a mid/low-major or a risky assistant (ala CCC) might be the best they can do!
I don't think they are going to pay Marshall that. They also risk Marshall renegotiating with the Koch brothers and staying Wichita yet again.
Vanderbilt went after Marshall hard last year and we were willing to pay big $$$. His kids were not wild about him leaving and were somewhat vocal on twitter about it. In the end he got a pay bump and didn't go anywhere. Makes me think that he won't leave unless they stop giving him raises or a blue blood comes calling.
I'm not even sure that Illinois is best job available right now. Cal, Washington, LSU, and NC State open also have coaching vacancies. Indiana job may become vacant as well.
So, Williams and Martin passed on the job. Is it starting to feel like 2012 for them again?
So, Williams and Martin passed on the job. Is it starting to feel like 2012 for them again?
Looks like Illinois is targeting Tony Bennett. He would be a game changer for them.
http://www.thechampaignroom.com/201...ng-illini-basketball-coach-search-news-rumors
http://www.thechampaignroom.com/201...ng-illini-basketball-coach-search-news-rumors
Honestly, I think Illinois is better than all of those jobs except Indiana and maybe Cal.
I don't get it. Illinois appears to be a very good job. Look what it did for Bill Self. If I am advising Archie Miller at Dayton, I tell him that it's a no brainer if he can get a 5 year 20 million dollar deal or better. And the Illini AD has said publicly they are willing to do better if necessary. So you go to Illinois at a time when Purdue, Wisconsin and Minny are the class of the League. Not exactly like NC State where you are likely to be swallowed by the triangle. You are at a basketball first school in the BIG that has won big. You walk in to a Top 5-10 freshman class. You are Top 5ish in the Country with your contract. You have 170 million in new facilities. You do things right which means you're back in the game in the St. Louis and Chicago recruiting markets. And you let your success do for you what it did for Bill Self. Lots of opportunities if he wins at Illinois. What am I missing?
GOUNUII
Illinois is at best a stepping stone to a better program. Good luck on the rent a coach approach.
We have lost two coaches to other programs in anyone's lifetime: Lon Kruger to the NBA, which takes coaches from EVERY college program and Bill Self to his dream job at a Blue Blood (again, EVERY non-Blue Blood could lose a coach to a Blue Blood). Stepping stone?? Illinois is not losing its coach to a non-Blue Blood program, end of story.
So you're saying if Martin got Whitman on the phone, Illinois would have never been offered or been interested?
What happened in everyone's lifetime isn't relevant for 2017 - Illinois basketball is a relic, Lou Henson is gone, 17 year olds don't even know who he is. Nothing differentiates the Illinois job from probably 50 other jobs including Dayton and Wichita state.
Yep, being in the Big Ten, in a much better recruiting footprint, having ridiculously better facilities, doubling your salary and having way more resources at your disposal, hardly any difference. GMAFB, you guys' bias against Illinois is almost unreal.
LOL, alright then I guess Kentucky is too because they lost a coach to the NBA.
Enjoy your moment in the sun, because if we're a stepping stone, you definitely are.
Nah -we're more like a doormat. But I am enjoying the sucking down in Rantoul
LOL, you are in a much better spot than us, I'll give you that! Never really got the Rantoul joke. We're the state school of, well, the whole state. Step north, south or west of Evanston, and there will be more Illini fans than NU fans.
That's fine. If you want to ignore reality, heavy weaknesses in your program and published reports from legitimate reporters - all in the name of spinning the program in the best light, be my guest. That's part of the ongoing cultural problem that everybody sees except a large contingent of Illini fans.
Martin was a good prospect - as good a candidate as is out there ... a St. Louis guy with strong B10 ties. Either he paid Illinois no mind or, in your theory, he wasn't on the radar and Illinois is dumb enough to ignore him. But there's no problem.
Enjoy your basketball reality.
^ LOL, calm down, kid. Cuonzo Martin had two 5-stars on his Cal team, and they sucked. He's been very, very average as a head coach. He pretty much accomplished what Groce did. Not wanting him is not delusional... Our AD came out and said that those rumors are not true and we had not offered the job to anyone yet. I'm sure you'd get more enjoyment out of a hearsay story that paints Illinois in a negative light, though, so we know which one you'll choose to believe.
I'm happy as could be Big Shooter thanks to what you enable.
Enjoy your reality. Let's see how long it takes before Illinois "loses interest" in Marshall and Keatts (to NC State.)
And your reality is playing in a hgigh school gym
Awwww snap, you really hgot us!
Our renovations will upgrade Welsh-Ryan to the community college level at the very least.
You're not recruiting kids. You're recruiting a head coach who will know of Illinois' past history in basketball, it's very good facilities and its location in a hotbed for basketball talent.
Whitman has shelled out $5M for Lovie, why wouldn't he dig deep in his pockets for a basketball coach at decidedly a basketball school?
Not sure if you've mentioned this elsewhere, but I'm curious as to who you view as your #1 target.
I definitely think Illinois is more than a stepping stone program, unlike some others on this board, though I do think this is a make-or-break hire. If you guys get the right guy, someone who will continue your solid recruiting and actually focus on running a solid system, I think you guys could be back to top 25 form within a season or two. You don't have that many barriers to overcome–you're in a talent-rich area, have decent history, good fan support, talent on the current roster, and can recruiting without worrying about academic restrictions (for the most part). That said, if you guys miss out and hire another Groce, I think you'll have a really hard time returning to your top form.
Aren't many high school gyms I know of that seat 7,000 people. Cameron Indoor ain't much, but Duke has a pretty fair basketball program. It's the performance of the players, not the size of the gym.
So your sales pitch to a coach is - our last two coaches got fired, the two before that left to go to Kansas and the NBA and before that was lifer Lou Henson. leave your job in Wichita or Dayton that is very secure to champaign-Urbana, if it doesn't work in 5 years we'll fire you, if it does you can go after your dream blue-blood or NBA job, or maybe this is your dream job.
Just think his kids might like Wichita better then Champaign-Urbana. Who would have thought so, although Mrs. Smith may think the same.
Lon Kruger was blackballed by the Chicago area coaches because he was hired over Lou Henson's assistant and lead recruiter Jimmy Collins. To pacify Collins, he was given the UIC head coach job and Bob Hallberg, the formerly excellent head coach at ISU was kicked to the curb.
It wasn't Lon Kruger's fault that he could get no recruits from the Chicago area. He didn't bitch about it, he just left.
I'd argue that Self was an aberration in the midst of a steady decline for illini hoops since Lou Henson. Weber might have been a positive if the school didn't have a trigger finger. Groce was worse than treading water.
The best asset Illinois has is that it is the state's flagship school in a basketball-rich state. The public league coaches still perceive Illinois as a worthy destination for top talent.
The biggest challenge is that the recruiting playing field has leveled nationally due media and technology. Chicago is recruiting territory for Kansas, Louisville, Duke and so on. There is no built in advantage for Illinois like there used to be. Could have been, had there been continuity of success. But it's been up and down.
For some coach who doesn't need to live in a big urban area, coaching in the Big Ten with access to Chicago talent isn't such a bad choice.
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