Obviously this is not ideal and losing your top two recruiters at the same time is rough. As has already been mentioned several times, it might be the first of its kind where one school takes multiple coaches off an existing staff. That said, Antigua and Coleman are not going to Texas A&M or Oregon State. They are going to a blueblood and that is life in the fast lane. I don't think it's embarrassing or a death knell for the program. It stinks but you just have to move forward.
Look, Underwood was able to hire OA when the Illini program was in the gutter. Antigua-level recruiters don't grow on trees, but the program is night and day better today than it was when Underwood took over. Josh Whitman has shown he isn't afraid to pony up for coaches, and the Twitter reports of Illinois offering north of a $1 million per year to keep OA will not hurt its standing in the coaching community. Underwood has also known this was coming, or possibly coming, for weeks so he has had time to take stock of assistants he's interested in.
Personally, this seems like an ideal time to mend fences with Meanstreets and get a big foot in the door with that powerhouse AAU club. Tim Anderson, currently at DePaul and formerly a Meanstreets coach, seems to make a ton of sense. Will it get you AJ Casey? Probably not, but that program is loaded and has basically shut Illinois out for years. With the other opening, you'd like to see a coach that opens up a new recruiting territory, such as Oregon's Mike Mennenga with his connections in Canada. There are probably other names we've not heard of that would also fit, but Anderson and Mennenga are my favorites at this stage.
Look, Underwood was able to hire OA when the Illini program was in the gutter. Antigua-level recruiters don't grow on trees, but the program is night and day better today than it was when Underwood took over. Josh Whitman has shown he isn't afraid to pony up for coaches, and the Twitter reports of Illinois offering north of a $1 million per year to keep OA will not hurt its standing in the coaching community. Underwood has also known this was coming, or possibly coming, for weeks so he has had time to take stock of assistants he's interested in.
Personally, this seems like an ideal time to mend fences with Meanstreets and get a big foot in the door with that powerhouse AAU club. Tim Anderson, currently at DePaul and formerly a Meanstreets coach, seems to make a ton of sense. Will it get you AJ Casey? Probably not, but that program is loaded and has basically shut Illinois out for years. With the other opening, you'd like to see a coach that opens up a new recruiting territory, such as Oregon's Mike Mennenga with his connections in Canada. There are probably other names we've not heard of that would also fit, but Anderson and Mennenga are my favorites at this stage.
