DePaul, Illinois Basketball vs Illinois Football

[TyC84]

Watching the NCAA Tournament a week after watching the U of I Football situation has me thinking.

Josh Whitman hired, first day on the job he gets rid of Bill Cubit. Cubit had been placed in a tough spot and handled it about as well as he could. Lost his job? Whitman brings in Lovie Smith and pays him 29 Million over 6 years and has another 4 million to pay what looks like great assistant coaches. Wisconsin loses a coach every other year because they won't pay assistants. Illinois seems to want to win and was very aggressive. DePaul is opening a new arena and had a chance to make a splash with an exciting new coach and went back and hired a guy who had burned them just a few years back. DePaul wins 9 games and takes a huge step back.
DePaul was blown off the court by Arkansas Little Rock earlier this season. Little Rock has a coach on year one of a new coach. He came in and cleared house. 10 new players and they went out and won 30 games (bad league) but look great right now after they stunned Purdue (I was not stunned). Meanwhile, Illinois has had 4 players arrested in the past 6 months and lost 19 games?

Now will Whitman change his stance and show Groce the way out like he did with Cubit? 4 out of 12 arrested in just 6 months? Long and very bad season? DePaul? 25 years of not caring and 10 straight bad seasons? Illinois young aggressive AD, DePaul old, stale, conservative AD?

I will sit back and see what happens, but clearly Football is important and basketball? Well....maybe not?

 

[LakeCtyNewt]

Just some numbers for thought. Their are 52 players from the state of Illinois playing in the NCAA tournament. Second most of any state.

For third straight year no team from Illinois is in the tournament.

 

[ignazio]

DePaul's going to have some competition from the Illini in Chicago when they open that arena.

 

[Wassup13_rivals219252]

Nobody who has talent in football and basketball stays in state to play in IL anymore. Why would they?

The state is broke, violence just keeps escalating, corruption is rampant and taxes keep going up. Nobody wants to be in IL anymore unless it's a great job or family holding you here.

Wassup

 

[TyC84]

That is so true, but I guess 29 million dollars makes the Illini Football job a good one?

 

[TyC84]

It always amazes me when I watch the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament and see all those Chicago/Illinois kids playing on the big stage. Did they all just want out of Illinois or did the Universities here just miss them? Seems both DePaul and Illinois go after some big fish and out-of state fish and then end up missing. Later we see kids they could have had playing while those schools are sitting at home?

 

[1111SouthFirst]

Watching the NCAA Tournament a week after watching the U of I Football situation has me thinking.

Josh Whitman hired, first day on the job he gets rid of Bill Cubit. Cubit had been placed in a tough spot and handled it about as well as he could. Lost his job? Whitman brings in Lovie Smith and pays him 29 Million over 6 years and has another 4 million to pay what looks like great assistant coaches. Wisconsin loses a coach every other year because they won't pay assistants. Illinois seems to want to win and was very aggressive. DePaul is opening a new arena and had a chance to make a splash with an exciting new coach and went back and hired a guy who had burned them just a few years back. DePaul wins 9 games and takes a huge step back.
DePaul was blown off the court by Arkansas Little Rock earlier this season. Little Rock has a coach on year one of a new coach. He came in and cleared house. 10 new players and they went out and won 30 games (bad league) but look great right now after they stunned Purdue (I was not stunned). Meanwhile, Illinois has had 4 players arrested in the past 6 months and lost 19 games?

Now will Whitman change his stance and show Groce the way out like he did with Cubit? 4 out of 12 arrested in just 6 months? Long and very bad season? DePaul? 25 years of not caring and 10 straight bad seasons? Illinois young aggressive AD, DePaul old, stale, conservative AD?

I will sit back and see what happens, but clearly Football is important and basketball? Well....maybe not?

Groce is toast as soon as Whitman IDs AND can hire who he wants to replace him. Will probably not be until after next season. Based on the Lovie hire, Whitman may not go the mid-major route.

 

[UlbKA91]

I think some parents, particularly of prospective recruits from the South/West side and struggling suburbs, want their sons as far as possible from the City. Unless it is a can't miss agglomeration of talent like the Flying Illini or the Peoria era.

 

[LHSTigers94]

I think the biggest problem is consistency. Each coach should have a particular style and it take time to recruit the style of player you like. I think Groce focused on in state recruiting and took whoever he could get. From the surface it look appealing taking a Simeon starter however if he don't fit the system you want to run you should move on. You also have to win and all kids want exposure to help with getting drafted.

 

[1111SouthFirst]

DePaul's going to have some competition from the Illini in Chicago when they open that arena.

LOL...is that an orange Illini prison suit?

 

[kingwilliam1855]

Yes, football is more important, why? $$$$. Football make schools in the big 5 more money than any of the other sports combined. $29m is a drop in the bucket for what they get in revenue sharing with all the TV $. Add that to the fact that if Lovie can get them to at least a bowl game with 6-7 wins, Whitman has done his job. And Cubit get $900k to sit on his *** and he had to know that this was probably coming. He signed prior to a new athletic director was announced. They are always going to want "their" guy, not a hold over

 

[DeanOfSelection]

Brunson from Stevenson out there helping Nova to the Final 4 on Saturday.