OT: Underwood to Illinois
- Thread starter IACentralHawk73
- Start date
must have been money. HES a BIG 12 guy - kansas native, player at KSU and long time assistant at KSU
Ice cold. Least tell the team or let the AD renegotiate. Must have really hated OSU or IllAnnoy must have offered crazy money.
Decent hire. Not exactly the blank check home run hire Illinois thought was coming
Really? From the sounds of it OSU didn't play much D all year. Up and down brand of ball.
Don't expect ILLANNOY to keep 2017 Commit Jeremiah Tilmon. He could ask for release from NLI. UNC is a heavy favorite or Mizzou's Cuonzo Martin and The Porter family (Dad, 2017 #1 recruit Michael and 2018 (could reclass to 2017) #38 Jontay) could sway Jeremiah to stay local and rebuild Mizzou. Martin may be a better than average recruiter but it not a great X and O coach.
In 5 or 6 years, will one or both of these programs be seeking new HCs?
In 5 or 6 years, will one or both of these programs be seeking new HCs?
Underwood runs a nice system. He was able to rally Okie State after an 0-6 Big 12 start. His team could have easily quit, but he was able to get them to buy in. He is the real deal and will have Illinois in the upper half of the B1G within a couple of seasons.
He was the "brains" behind KSU's resurgence under Martin. Delonte Hill recruited alot of the studs for KSU and Martin gave credit to Underwood for designing the offenses/defense that put the talent in positions to win. I have no idea if he will elevate the Illinois program, but he helped KSU and Oklahoma State improved under his leadership throughout this season.
Good thing he won't have to build the program at Illinois, then.
I'm SHOCKED you put a negative spin on an Illinois basketball story, LMFAO.
Underwood is reportedly keeping Walker on the staff, and he was the lead recruiter on Tilmon ... wouldn't be so sure Tilmon bolts.
It's a GREAT hire for Illinois. Undrerwood is an outstanding coach. Illinois fans (for the most part) are pumped) and see this as the start of returning Illinois basketball to the top 3rd of the league. Not trolling, just letting you know this is perceived in Illini land - a stutue to our AD probably comes next.
Hope (for their sake) he's not the equivalent of a Brock Osweiler. That would be great for the BIG, and us for sure if he was.
Yet, at this moment, accurate.
Not a single one of us anywhere truly know how it'll turn out, just like any coaching hire for any school.
The question is, how do you go 0-6 with Evans as your PG? I thought elite guards automatically won games?
Yet, at this moment I'm still trying to figure out what "never built a program" has to do with coaching at Illinois.
At some point he will have to recruit his own players. You did fire Weber for not having success after Self's players graduated.
As far as the hire this is solid. Not wow they got who?
"At some point...".
Doesn't the use of this phrase imply that he doesn't have to come in and build a program?
Still wondering..
As far as "nobody knows what will happen...". Sure. He could get hit by a bus tomorrow, etc. This applies to every coach at every program whether he was hired yesterday or 20 years ago.
Seems like a good fit to me. I like his space and pace O and physical D philosophy and think it will sell tickets. Whether he'll be able to recruit well enough to move things around at the top of the league remains to be seen. Unlike many Illini fans, I don't think it's a given. I do think the days of losing to Penn State and Rutgers are behind us though.
Illinois has had great success with okie/KSU connected coaches. We'll see if it continues. I think this was probably the best hire Whitman could have realistically made (no way Bennett or Marshall were coming to Illinois nor do I think they would have fit as well if they did), and he still left some money to establish/maintain a top shelf staff.
Solid pretty much nails it. I'm plenty optimistic.
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As I already posted. Now we'll have to deal with two years of Illini fans being certain they just found the answer to all their woes. And we have to wait until around year three to find out if they are right or not.
Underwood won it a weak league with SFA. He goes to Okie St and won with another staffs players. I love how people get all jizzed-up over a new girl in school. Long haul....stay at a Power 5 school for the long haul before we anoint them the genius that their fan base says they are.
Don't understand why it will take 3 years. There's a top 15 class coming in. We should know in the first year what we're going to get as far as coaching. If the high school kids like what they see, he'll be fine. If not, Whitman won't wait too long to take corrective action.
P.S. I haven't seen a single post that suggests "Illini fans are certain they just found the answer to all their woes." If you look at the reaction around the basketball world, you'll see people are pretty much unanimous in thinking this was a good hire for Illinois.
Time will tell but it will be less than 3 years.
