The Illinois AD is looking like a fool...

With this terrible basketball coach search.

Not to mention the football hire sure wasn't anything close to a slamdunk.

Those in glass houses. Rich Clod, Tommy Amaker, Ellerbe?

Yea, I'm not going to say anything....

Woah, never mention the name Brian Ellerbe again!!

Haha

Why ? Seems like if he like the OHIO U coach why search for ever, did you not like this choice or what. I don't know if he gotta a better guy than what was there but, he seemed to have lost the team Illini should have been much better than what they were with the talent they had.

My basketball knowledge isn't anywhere close to my football knowledge (obviously) but from a football standpoint, Illinois has a history of making the wrong coaching hires. In the 80's, they hired Mike White, a known cheater at Cal who eventually cheated at Illinois and put them on probation. Bo despised White too.

And why they hired Ron Zook still remains a mystery. He lasted 2 1/2 seasons at Florida, with some of the best athletes in the country and had back to back 8-5 seasons. Why Illinois thought he could succeed in Champaign is beyond me.

Don't get me wrong, lab, Groce could end up being a great hire, who knows?

But this search has been all-too-public, and it's blown up in their faces. Here in Chicago, it's the main topic on ESPN Radio and everything else (well, 2nd to Derrick Rose's groin injury). The public offers and public "no's" from Shaka Smart, Lorenzo Romar, Anthony Grant, Leonard Hamilton, Brad Stevens were awful PR.

They wanted Shaka first. He said no. So they turned their focus towards looking for an African-American head coach. Targeted Romar, Grant and Hamilton, in that order, and were shut down. Then went after Stevens, and he said no.

I'm pretty sure I'm missing 1 or 2 after Stevens, but I could be wrong.

Then, yesterday morning, the rumors were it would be Groce. Then there was announcement for a presser in the early afternoon. Shortly before it was supposed to happen, it was 'cancelled'. The Athletic Department said there never was a presser scheduled. But the truth is that one or two of the trustees were really, really, really pissed about how the process was went about, and they were literally not allowing the plane to leave Champaign.

Either way, even former UofI alumni have been on the radio calling this embarrassing, including Kendall Gill.

Much too public. Much too ugly.

And perhaps it wasn't all the AD's fault. I mean you've got an empty chair at President right now. Then throw in the fact you've got to recruit Chicago, which is notorious for being the worst place to recruit (basketball-wise) in the country. You don't have access to kids. They have layer after layer between coaches and HS players (not in a good way, like designed by the schools or anything). I won't get too into it, but it's all pretty sketchy here.

Anyway, it's just not pretty for the school.

But I don't mind one bit.

2ndComingOfBo wrote:

Those in glass houses. Rich Clod, Tommy Amaker, Ellerbe?

Yea, I'm not going to say anything....

Yeah, hiring coaches was not Bill Martin's forte. Although I think he did a pretty good job with Beilein.

jjabilene wrote:

2ndComingOfBo wrote:

Those in glass houses. Rich Clod, Tommy Amaker, Ellerbe?

Yea, I'm not going to say anything....

Yeah, hiring coaches was not Bill Martin's forte. Although I think he did a pretty good job with Beilein.

Even a blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then...

Don't get me wrong, Martin was brought in for one thing and one thing only. Improve the infrastructure of UM's athletic facilities. That was done, and it continues now after Billy-boy is gone. I'm sorry but I just can't get past the Rich Clod debacle. Martin is a businessman with no knowledge of sports, the Big House is utterly a phenomenal sight now but it did cost of three of the worse years of UM Football ever.