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Free Blazers for everyone!

So is this a case of Illinois having too-inflated an opinion of itself as a coaching job, or this just being a bad year to be trying to draw a marquee name?

I agree with whoever brought it up before - why not Chris Collins? Even with the history of Duke assistants flaming out, I can't believe he'd be worse than the Ohio coach would be.

 

I'm convinced Seth Davis would call just about any program top 10. His Twitter feed is a series of one contradictory statement after another.

 

From reading some of the stuff regarding the Illinois situation - it sounds like there is a lot of unrest in the upper ranks of the schools administration and the board of trustees. The school president was just forced out...I don't think the basketball program is really the top priority at this point.

 

Within the conference, Illinois is absolutely a Top 10 program.

And sometimes botched searches turn out OK. Ask Mark Gottfried or Gene Chizik.

 

Illinois, as a school, is a very good institution that is an institutional mess. Yes, the president was forced out, because the faculty really hated him, in measures far beyond how much any faculty hated their president. Also, Illinois has been the center of a statehouse storm over corruption in a legislative program that allows legislators to give scholarships to students of their choosing. And, of course, with the state's financial problems, Illinois' financial situation isn't tip-top, either.

And, hell, there are still angry alums not giving money because they got rid of Chief Illiniwek.

 

Seth Davis brings out a visceral reaction in me. Born on third base and thinks he hit a triple, coasted to where he is on family connections and his knowledge is of the mile-wide and inch-deep variety. He offers absolutely zero insight on anything at all. Love watching the studio guys mock him.

 

Crean got lucky with Wade, who wasn't considered a top recruit at the time. Wade had academic issues serious enough that most of the other interest was from the likes of Illinois State and DePaul.

 

I was going to say Henson recruited the hell of out Chicago. That '89 Final Four team was loaded with Chicago area talent. That's been quite some time ago.

 

We've yet to see how those hires turn out long term.

 

Chizik won a national title — that hire, regardless of anything else that happens while he is there, made it worth it.

 

Barry Hinson is supposedly the new man at Southern Illinois.