This is his 7th season at Illinois. How many more years do you think until he retires? Do you think he retires here or do you think it ends badly? How deep do you think he gets in the NCAA Tournament here?
My personal thought is that he has a while left to go. He took a long time to work his way up the coaching ladder and now that he's near the top I think he wants to win big and make his mark on college basketball. I could see him coaching another 10 years, although I know he has some knee/hip issues so that may impact him more as he ages.
I do think he'll retire at Illinois. The main blotch on his resume is the lack of NCAA Tournament success. That can change as soon as this season. Bigger picture he has made Illinois a consistent Tournament-caliber team for the last 5 seasons.
I'm not convinced that he'll be able to land championship-caliber talent even over the next 10 years (we're just not in that tier right now) but I do think that 10 more trips to the NCAA Tournament with mostly decent seeding will eventually result in a Final Four run. Not sure if it's really an answerable question or I'd be better at picking my brackets.
My personal thought is that he has a while left to go. He took a long time to work his way up the coaching ladder and now that he's near the top I think he wants to win big and make his mark on college basketball. I could see him coaching another 10 years, although I know he has some knee/hip issues so that may impact him more as he ages.
I do think he'll retire at Illinois. The main blotch on his resume is the lack of NCAA Tournament success. That can change as soon as this season. Bigger picture he has made Illinois a consistent Tournament-caliber team for the last 5 seasons.
I'm not convinced that he'll be able to land championship-caliber talent even over the next 10 years (we're just not in that tier right now) but I do think that 10 more trips to the NCAA Tournament with mostly decent seeding will eventually result in a Final Four run. Not sure if it's really an answerable question or I'd be better at picking my brackets.
