Wrote this just in honor of Rob Jordan, and the kind of guy he was, and the kind of Illini fan he was. So instrumental in Aaron’s recruitment, and most, besides probably Brad, even know to what extent. Sorry for misspellings and the length. Just needed to do this.
About Rob...
It all began in the Summer of 2012. Terry Mohammed, Aaron Jordan’s AAU coach, tragically died while coaching his team during an AAU event. His entire team of 15 year olds, including Aaron, saw their beloved coach collapse and die in front of them. The rest of that 15U season was a wash. Events were cancelled, and the families were obviously just not into it. Then-father Darrell Jackson had a plan, and reached out to me. He called it “the three headed monster”. I still have the email. His view was simple. Let’s get an AAU team together, only have one age group so that our entire focus was on 10 or 11 kids, and have three coaches that would focus on specific things to ensure we were getting 100% effort into each bucket. He wanted me to recruit Troy Johnson, who was a heralded ex-AAU coach that recently took time away to raise his daughter. He was good friends with Terry, so this meant something to him. I had a ton of experience with recruiting, both for teams, as well as helping college coaches, so my focus was putting a team together that complimented eachother, good kids, and all wanted to play at the next level. Then Darrell would be in charge of budgeting, fundraising, and administration. Lastly, we would tell families we were three coaches that were not getting paid for this, and three coaches that didn’t need money from other avenues, so had the best interest for the kids (which means something now due to recent discoveries). The first order of business Darrell gave me was to get to know the Jordan’s, as they were coming with, and he wanted me to make that connection with Aaron, and also Rob.
The first time I met Rob was in the winter of 2012, at a DePaul vs Fairfield game. I obviously hand strong connections at DePaul, so reached out to Oliver Purnell and told him about Aaron. I also reached out to Martin Bahar at Fairfield, who I was close friends with, and said he was a kid who was definitely able to play at their level at least. Martin wanted to meet them at the game, and ended up being Aaron’s first offer several months later. Rob was sitting a section over from me, but before the game came over and said (which was never quiet, but a huge booming voice) “Big Coach Mike”……I put out my hand, and he told me “Jordan’s don’t give handshakes, Jordan’s give hugs”. We just went back and forth, and I told him my ideas of what I wanted to do for the kids, how I planned getting as many coaches to our games and let the kids pick their programs, rather than programs pick the kids, and wanted to know what was important to Aaron separately, but as well as him separately. He loved it. I gave him my office number, work email, and my personal info again, so he had every and any way to get a hold of me. That very next day I get a call at my office. Rob. “Was thinking about what you were saying. You got a few. I’m driving and want to BS about basketball.” We talked for an hour, and from that conversation, he told me “I think Aaron can play anywhere, but I’m his pops. Whatever level he gets to play at, I want it to be a great school, and I would love to be able to go to as many games as I can. I don’t want to be yelling at the TV every game!” The plan was simple, we would start off with the mid-majors in Illinois – Northern, Southern, Illinois State, and Loyola. After that we would hit high majors in the state and close, with the ones being Northwestern, Illinois, DePaul, Notre Dame, Indiana, and Michigan.
My first trip with the Jordan’s was down to Illinois State. We did the whole meeting Muller and touring the school with Dana Ford hours before the game, did dinner, and went to the game against Northern Iowa (a loss). The Jordan’s fell in love with the school and the coaches. Rob kept telling me it only took 1.5 hours to drive down, and that was with “precious cargo in the car”, and if he didn’t have them, even quicker! Aaron loved the feel, and I really think loved the opportunity to play so close to home, so that Rob can see him each game. From then on, it was always “Illinois State” this, and “Illinois State” that. After that Aaron made 10+ visits to Illinois State. No joke! And it was all because of Rob, as he said: “I’m fine going as many times as Aaron wants, just to make sure where he wants to be. This is so much bigger than basketball. This is so much bigger than us”. This is so much bigger than us…...he must have told me that a thousand times.
Aaron killed it our first two tournaments. Starting our season, our top prospect was Joe Toye. After our first two tournaments, it was Aaron and KJ Santos….the two most people didn’t hear about. Pittsburgh was our second tournament, and I texted Dustin Ford. Went something like this: “I have a ton of kids that most didn’t hear about, but I know you’re watching Bragg before us. Stay and watch us. You’ll definitely like someone. Watch #1, #8, and #23. #23 was Aaron. Dustin stayed and watched. I know this board isn’t a fan of Dustin, but I think you’ll respect his eye after what I’m about to tell you. KJ went 7-8 from 3’s and had 36 points, while playing PG for us at 6’6”. Aaron had I think 17 points. Dustin said: “KJ is high major and talented. Love Aaron’s leadership and aggressiveness. Really like him. Told John about both.” Told Rob about this, and he was flipping a lid. “Illinois is a GREAT school. Top 50 school! Leaders are born there Mike! Bug the shit out of them Mike!” Still remember those words from Rob, as we sat in a food court waiting for our flight. “Bug the shit out of them”. So I did.
But there was competition with Aaron. They came from Creighton and Indiana. I knew Aaron wasn’t going to Creighton though…that’s a long ass way away for Rob to go. But they loved Greg, Darin, the fans, and obviously their game play was perfect for him. But again, that was much too far. But what wasn’t too far was Bloomington, and unlike John Groce, Tom Crean was recruiting him personally. The first time we talked, he said “Aaron is a kid that I could build a program around. He wouldn’t be our star, but he would play, he was do great, and he would make everyone better.” I’ll admit it on here….Crean recruited Aaron better than anyone. Constant, persistent, and from all areas. He told me “Thursdays at 7am will be Mike and Tom time, and for 30 minutes we are going to talk about Aaron.” He was even more persistent with his family. I was 100% convinced he was going to Indiana. Hell, I even bought an IU hat because I thought it was certain. I wore it once, and Rob smiled, and said: “It’s not over man….it’s not over!” I know why not….he wanted Illinois. The last visit I made with them was for the outdoor Midnight Madness, and that’s where Groce really turned it on with Aaron. They made him feel like a huge priority. The fans were great. Aaron told me that day “This is where I want to be. 100%”. But Rob told him, “you’re here. Take your time. They aren’t going anywhere. Let’s take our time with this. Compare it with someone else”. But just over 2 months later it was time, and the commitment was made! When Rob called me, he said “He’ll be getting a great degree Mike! This is huge!” It was always about the education. Rob always looked at it the way it should. Making sure Aaron was comfortable with a decision, and taking 30+ unofficial visits to various schools to just make sure….even though their hearts were always in Champaign.
I think the two years under Groce was hard for Rob. Seeing what Aaron was doing in practice, and not getting any time was eating away at him. I will admit, I was in belief that if there wasn’t a change, Aaron should look to leave. I actually thought that after the first year. Both times I called Rob first, told him what I thought, and he said: “It’s up to Aaron, because I want him to be happy. But at the end of the day, it’s a degree from Illinois. That will take him farther than basketball ever would. But it’s up to Aaron.” Obviously Aaron stayed, Aaron excelled, and Aaron is more Orange and Blue more than anyone I know. But so was his dad. Stuck by Illinois, loved Illinois as much as his son, even when he wasn’t getting time. That’s unheard of these days. It really is.
I have four children, two 4 year olds, one 2 year old, and one 2 month old. It’s tough. Sometimes I want that 1 or 2 hour break, watching TV by myself to just relax. This past weekend I really noticed something Rob did. When Rob wasn’t working, he was training with Aaron. When Rob wasn’t working, he was driving to see Aaron play. When Rob wasn’t working, he was watching basketball with Aaron. And when he had that time away, he was fishing with Aaron. I’m a very involved father, and starting this weekend I held my kids even tighter, and trying to emulate the same.
I wanted to write this for you guys, showing what a special person you guys had supporting your program. And I needed to write it for me. Spending two days a week in practices, 8 weekend a spring, almost a month total on the road in July, along with hours and hours of phone conovs with someone makes you become so close. This one was hard. Very hard.
Rest in peace Rob.
About Rob...
It all began in the Summer of 2012. Terry Mohammed, Aaron Jordan’s AAU coach, tragically died while coaching his team during an AAU event. His entire team of 15 year olds, including Aaron, saw their beloved coach collapse and die in front of them. The rest of that 15U season was a wash. Events were cancelled, and the families were obviously just not into it. Then-father Darrell Jackson had a plan, and reached out to me. He called it “the three headed monster”. I still have the email. His view was simple. Let’s get an AAU team together, only have one age group so that our entire focus was on 10 or 11 kids, and have three coaches that would focus on specific things to ensure we were getting 100% effort into each bucket. He wanted me to recruit Troy Johnson, who was a heralded ex-AAU coach that recently took time away to raise his daughter. He was good friends with Terry, so this meant something to him. I had a ton of experience with recruiting, both for teams, as well as helping college coaches, so my focus was putting a team together that complimented eachother, good kids, and all wanted to play at the next level. Then Darrell would be in charge of budgeting, fundraising, and administration. Lastly, we would tell families we were three coaches that were not getting paid for this, and three coaches that didn’t need money from other avenues, so had the best interest for the kids (which means something now due to recent discoveries). The first order of business Darrell gave me was to get to know the Jordan’s, as they were coming with, and he wanted me to make that connection with Aaron, and also Rob.
The first time I met Rob was in the winter of 2012, at a DePaul vs Fairfield game. I obviously hand strong connections at DePaul, so reached out to Oliver Purnell and told him about Aaron. I also reached out to Martin Bahar at Fairfield, who I was close friends with, and said he was a kid who was definitely able to play at their level at least. Martin wanted to meet them at the game, and ended up being Aaron’s first offer several months later. Rob was sitting a section over from me, but before the game came over and said (which was never quiet, but a huge booming voice) “Big Coach Mike”……I put out my hand, and he told me “Jordan’s don’t give handshakes, Jordan’s give hugs”. We just went back and forth, and I told him my ideas of what I wanted to do for the kids, how I planned getting as many coaches to our games and let the kids pick their programs, rather than programs pick the kids, and wanted to know what was important to Aaron separately, but as well as him separately. He loved it. I gave him my office number, work email, and my personal info again, so he had every and any way to get a hold of me. That very next day I get a call at my office. Rob. “Was thinking about what you were saying. You got a few. I’m driving and want to BS about basketball.” We talked for an hour, and from that conversation, he told me “I think Aaron can play anywhere, but I’m his pops. Whatever level he gets to play at, I want it to be a great school, and I would love to be able to go to as many games as I can. I don’t want to be yelling at the TV every game!” The plan was simple, we would start off with the mid-majors in Illinois – Northern, Southern, Illinois State, and Loyola. After that we would hit high majors in the state and close, with the ones being Northwestern, Illinois, DePaul, Notre Dame, Indiana, and Michigan.
My first trip with the Jordan’s was down to Illinois State. We did the whole meeting Muller and touring the school with Dana Ford hours before the game, did dinner, and went to the game against Northern Iowa (a loss). The Jordan’s fell in love with the school and the coaches. Rob kept telling me it only took 1.5 hours to drive down, and that was with “precious cargo in the car”, and if he didn’t have them, even quicker! Aaron loved the feel, and I really think loved the opportunity to play so close to home, so that Rob can see him each game. From then on, it was always “Illinois State” this, and “Illinois State” that. After that Aaron made 10+ visits to Illinois State. No joke! And it was all because of Rob, as he said: “I’m fine going as many times as Aaron wants, just to make sure where he wants to be. This is so much bigger than basketball. This is so much bigger than us”. This is so much bigger than us…...he must have told me that a thousand times.
Aaron killed it our first two tournaments. Starting our season, our top prospect was Joe Toye. After our first two tournaments, it was Aaron and KJ Santos….the two most people didn’t hear about. Pittsburgh was our second tournament, and I texted Dustin Ford. Went something like this: “I have a ton of kids that most didn’t hear about, but I know you’re watching Bragg before us. Stay and watch us. You’ll definitely like someone. Watch #1, #8, and #23. #23 was Aaron. Dustin stayed and watched. I know this board isn’t a fan of Dustin, but I think you’ll respect his eye after what I’m about to tell you. KJ went 7-8 from 3’s and had 36 points, while playing PG for us at 6’6”. Aaron had I think 17 points. Dustin said: “KJ is high major and talented. Love Aaron’s leadership and aggressiveness. Really like him. Told John about both.” Told Rob about this, and he was flipping a lid. “Illinois is a GREAT school. Top 50 school! Leaders are born there Mike! Bug the shit out of them Mike!” Still remember those words from Rob, as we sat in a food court waiting for our flight. “Bug the shit out of them”. So I did.
But there was competition with Aaron. They came from Creighton and Indiana. I knew Aaron wasn’t going to Creighton though…that’s a long ass way away for Rob to go. But they loved Greg, Darin, the fans, and obviously their game play was perfect for him. But again, that was much too far. But what wasn’t too far was Bloomington, and unlike John Groce, Tom Crean was recruiting him personally. The first time we talked, he said “Aaron is a kid that I could build a program around. He wouldn’t be our star, but he would play, he was do great, and he would make everyone better.” I’ll admit it on here….Crean recruited Aaron better than anyone. Constant, persistent, and from all areas. He told me “Thursdays at 7am will be Mike and Tom time, and for 30 minutes we are going to talk about Aaron.” He was even more persistent with his family. I was 100% convinced he was going to Indiana. Hell, I even bought an IU hat because I thought it was certain. I wore it once, and Rob smiled, and said: “It’s not over man….it’s not over!” I know why not….he wanted Illinois. The last visit I made with them was for the outdoor Midnight Madness, and that’s where Groce really turned it on with Aaron. They made him feel like a huge priority. The fans were great. Aaron told me that day “This is where I want to be. 100%”. But Rob told him, “you’re here. Take your time. They aren’t going anywhere. Let’s take our time with this. Compare it with someone else”. But just over 2 months later it was time, and the commitment was made! When Rob called me, he said “He’ll be getting a great degree Mike! This is huge!” It was always about the education. Rob always looked at it the way it should. Making sure Aaron was comfortable with a decision, and taking 30+ unofficial visits to various schools to just make sure….even though their hearts were always in Champaign.
I think the two years under Groce was hard for Rob. Seeing what Aaron was doing in practice, and not getting any time was eating away at him. I will admit, I was in belief that if there wasn’t a change, Aaron should look to leave. I actually thought that after the first year. Both times I called Rob first, told him what I thought, and he said: “It’s up to Aaron, because I want him to be happy. But at the end of the day, it’s a degree from Illinois. That will take him farther than basketball ever would. But it’s up to Aaron.” Obviously Aaron stayed, Aaron excelled, and Aaron is more Orange and Blue more than anyone I know. But so was his dad. Stuck by Illinois, loved Illinois as much as his son, even when he wasn’t getting time. That’s unheard of these days. It really is.
I have four children, two 4 year olds, one 2 year old, and one 2 month old. It’s tough. Sometimes I want that 1 or 2 hour break, watching TV by myself to just relax. This past weekend I really noticed something Rob did. When Rob wasn’t working, he was training with Aaron. When Rob wasn’t working, he was driving to see Aaron play. When Rob wasn’t working, he was watching basketball with Aaron. And when he had that time away, he was fishing with Aaron. I’m a very involved father, and starting this weekend I held my kids even tighter, and trying to emulate the same.
I wanted to write this for you guys, showing what a special person you guys had supporting your program. And I needed to write it for me. Spending two days a week in practices, 8 weekend a spring, almost a month total on the road in July, along with hours and hours of phone conovs with someone makes you become so close. This one was hard. Very hard.
Rest in peace Rob.
