Illinois Job Better Than Marquette?

[Avenue Commons]

Anyone want to still make that argument? Check out the picture of Assembly Hall at gametime.

https://twitter.com/illini_okrush/status/169956376309792768

[4everwarriors]

They playin' Mount St. Mary's or somethin'?

[Tugg Speedman]

They playin' Mount St. Mary's or somethin'?

Not quite ... they played Purdue tonight.  Purdue's RPI is 55 and Illinois' Assembly Hall is barely half full.

Meanwhile Cincy's RPI is 93 and we drew nearly 19,000 for them.

Oh wait, I forgot, our fans suck.

[Avenue Commons]

They playin' Mount St. Mary's or somethin'?

Nope, longtime Big 10 rival Purdue Boilermakers. At home, mid-semester. Pathetic.

[PuertoRicanNightmare]

I am a resident of Chicago and I have NEVER understood why anybody would want to coach at Illinois. Champaign is nothing but white trash...Tampa without the nice weather.

For all the talk about DePaul being a sleeping giant, I think Northwestern is the real hidden gem. Sure, they have crappy facilities, but make a run to the Sweet 16 there and they'll name the gym after you

[77ncaachamps]

Not quite ... they played Purdue tonight.  Purdue's RPI is 55 and Illinois' Assembly Hall is barely half full.

Meanwhile Cincy's RPI is 93 and we drew nearly 19,000 for them.

Oh wait, I forgot, our fans suck.

No, the Bucks do and MU is Milwaukee's winningest team.

[Tugg Speedman]

I think Northwestern is the real hidden gem. Sure, they have crappy facilities, but make a run to the Sweet 16 there and they'll name the gym after you

First NU has to make the NCAA Tourney, something they have never done in their history.

Maybe just getting a bid in Evanston will get a Gym named after you.

[forgetful]

Its hard to get fans to the game when they were all busy posing for that twitter background.

[MerrittsMustache]

Not quite ... they played Purdue tonight.  Purdue's RPI is 55 and Illinois' Assembly Hall is barely half full.

Meanwhile Cincy's RPI is 93 and we drew nearly 19,000 for them.

Oh wait, I forgot, our fans suck.

If MU had lost 6 of 7, was NIT bound for the second time in the 3 seasons and had a lame duck coach, I have a feeling that the BC wouldn't be packed for a Wednesday night game.

[🏀]

If MU had lost 6 of 7, was NIT bound for the second time in the 3 seasons and had a lame duck coach, I have a feeling that the BC wouldn't be packed for a Wednesday night game.

...but MU isn't the basketball blue-blood, top 15 all-time juggernaut that Illinois is.

[Avenue Commons]

If MU had lost 6 of 7, was NIT bound for the second time in the 3 seasons and had a lame duck coach, I have a feeling that the BC wouldn't be packed for a Wednesday night game.

We are none of those things. Youre making the very point that began this thread. We are a Top 20 program going to another consecutive NCAA appearance. MU regularly plays in front of 15,000+ crowds. Ergo, the two programs barely compare as we sit here today.

[Dawson Rental]

We are none of those things. Youre making the very point that began this thread. We are a Top 20 program going to another consecutive NCAA appearance. MU regularly plays in front of 15,000+ crowds. Ergo, the two programs barely compare as we sit here today.

Compare the rosters, and see the quality of recruits Illinois has been able to get.  Clone Buzz,  put him at both MU and Illinois and the Illini Buzz will outperform the MU Buzz.  Fortunately, Buzz ain't getting cloned and he ain't leaving MU for Illinois.  Weber is gone because he did so little with the talent he was able to get.  Get better results and Assembly Hall will rock, just as the arena will at any school where the basketball team regularly has great years.

In the last few years, I can't think of a single recruit that Illinois and MU wanted that didn't go to Illinois.  Steve Taylor wasn't offered by Illinois, they had one scholarship and they wanted a point guard. 

[NersEllenson]

We are none of those things. Youre making the very point that began this thread. We are a Top 20 program going to another consecutive NCAA appearance. MU regularly plays in front of 15,000+ crowds. Ergo, the two programs barely compare as we sit here today.

Agree with your sentiment here, yet for the most part, a "program" is more a function of the quality of the head coach (recruiting skillas well as coaching skills/motivating), versus the actual university.  MU has been fortunate that Crean did a great job reviving the program, and Buzz has taken the hand off and kept us strong.

Illinois is the flagship school in the state of Illinois, much the way Wisconsin is the flagship school in Wisconsin...on paper both of those schools/programs should have more recruiting cache/etc than would MU or DePaul...

[MerrittsMustache]

We are none of those things. Youre making the very point that began this thread. We are a Top 20 program going to another consecutive NCAA appearance. MU regularly plays in front of 15,000+ crowds. Ergo, the two programs barely compare as we sit here today.

Marquette being better than Illinois as we sit here today doesn't mean it's a better job. MU is better than UCLA right now too. If given the choice, which school do you think a top-tier coach would choose to go to? Memphis was better than Kentucky when Coach Cal jumped at the chance to go to UK. Butler has been to back-to-back title games. Does that mean Butler is one of the elite college coaching jobs in the country?

I'm not trying to knock Marquette but it's ignorant to say that Team X is better than Team Y right now, therefore Team X is the better job.

[Tugg Speedman]

What is the definition of a "better job?"  I would think it simple, the school pays well and gives the head coach the tools to succeed.

MU pays as well as anyone so this is not the issue.  So beyond pay, does Illinois offer more than MU to allow a head coach to succeed.   We can argue facilities and conferences until we are blue in the face.  At the end of the day, for a MU coach to leave to go to Illinois, he would have to think Illinois naturally attracts top recruits (like, say MSU).  Nothing in Illinois history suggest they have a pipeline of top recruits desperate to go there.   They have their moments, like many schools do.  But I cannot see Illinois ever being consider a top Big 10 school.  MSU, tOSU, IU, Wisc, Michigan are ahead of them.  Iowa and Purdue are their equal.  NU, Nebraska and Penn State are behind them.

This is why Self bolted when offered Kansas and Crean turned them down.  They are a middle of the pack Big 10 school.  If Illinois fans want to say MU is a middle of the pack Big East school, ok.  But that still not going to get a MU coach to bolt for Illinois (unless he wants to leave).  A MU coach would bolt for a better program, and that is not Illinois.

[Ellenson Guerrero]

Did they take down this photo? The link is broken and I can't find any updates from today on their page...

[Brewtown Andy]

Not quite ... they played Purdue tonight.  Purdue's RPI is 55 and Illinois' Assembly Hall is barely half full.

Meanwhile Cincy's RPI is 93 and we drew nearly 19,000 for them.

Oh wait, I forgot, our fans suck.

Except now we're comparing a Saturday afternoon in a city of 600K against a Wednesday night in a city of 81K.

[Skitch]

Except now we're comparing a Saturday afternoon in a city of 600K against a Wednesday night in a city of 81K.

But aren't we also comparing a school of about 10k students to a school of about 40k?

[🏀]

A blogger from Orange and Blue news was on 670 The Score with Mully and Hanely a little bit ago. He compared Illinois to Maryland in terms of attractiveness. Noted that schools will turn the job down, but a good hire is out there. Shaka Smart is on the short list.

[GGGG]

A blogger from Orange and Blue news was on 670 The Score with Mully and Hanely a little bit ago. He compared Illinois to Maryland in terms of attractiveness. Noted that schools will turn the job down, but a good hire is out there. Shaka Smart is on the short list.

I think Maryland is a fair analogy.  A higher level program in the conference, but not the highest, that has the tools to succeed but doesn't always utilize those tools.  I disagree with the above that Illinois is below Wisconsin and Michigan as a "program."  When they can hold on to their in-state recruits (like they did under Henson and Self) they have shown how far they can go.  But when they are getting poached by other schools, they don't really have much to fall back on.

And Self leaving is really not a great indicator of a quality of a program.  Kansas was his dream job.  If Roy Williams stayed there my guess is that Self is still at Illinois, unless he took the big $$ at the time to go to Oklahoma State.  (Which he turned down a couple years ago.)

That being said, Marquette's a better program than I think we give ourselves credit for.  Honestly the tone on this board is "We aren't a mid-major!!!" but then we bad mouth ourselves like we are one.  Look, Crean left for an opportunity that was golden in his eyes - iconic program in the Big Ten.  We pay well.  We support the team well.  We have very good facilities.  The fan support is tremendous given the type of school Marquette is.  We have our future tied with the BE basketball schools. 

Put it this way...if I were a coach and was offered both jobs, I would probably take Illinois.  However if I am a successful coach at Marquette, I don't leave it for Illinois.

[DoggyDaddy]

Please refer to the great thread about which four years were the best to be a student-fanatic at MU.
Aside from a few good teams and players, Illinois has no such legacy in hoops. Who is the coach again? Who was there before him?
And Cream City carries its own hometown flavor in pro sports, food, events--not to mention adult beverages. It is a much better media market too.
U of I is great school especially in science, technology and agriculture--better than UW in my view, yet Champaign-Urbana is about as bland, flat, treeless and isolated a place as well...West Lafayette.      

[🏀]

Please refer to the great thread about which four years were the best to be a student-fanatic at MU.
Aside from a few good teams and players, Illinois has no such legacy in hoops. Who is the coach again? Who was there before him?
And Cream City carries its own hometown flavor in pro sports, food, events--not to mention adult beverages. It is a much better media market too.
U of I is great school especially in science, technology and agriculture--better than UW in my view, yet Champaign-Urbana is about as bland, flat, treeless and isolated a place as well...West Lafayette.      

However, Illinois' media market is Chicago.

[T-Bone]

I am a resident of Chicago and I have NEVER understood why anybody would want to coach at Illinois. Champaign is nothing but white trash...Tampa without the nice weather.

For all the talk about DePaul being a sleeping giant, I think Northwestern is the real hidden gem. Sure, they have crappy facilities, but make a run to the Sweet 16 there and they'll name the gym after you

Agreed on all counts. 
DePaul, if they ever get an on campus venue, could get huge.  I'd buy season tickets just to see some of the BE teams come in to town. 
Northwestern is the only Big 10 team that I'll ever follow.  They are in a huge market, yet do little to pull in viewers or butts in the seats.  I would guess it is a result of the leadership at the top of the University, but I think they could make some huge strides - similar to the "resurrection" of the football program.  Wikipedia has a section on the 72-94 years called "1972-1994: Years of futility".  "Northwestern students rushed the field to 'celebrate,' and chanted 'we're the worst!'"  Going from that to being bowl eligible 7 of last 8 years is a pretty good turnaround.  I'd like to see that happen with the basketball team.

[Canned Goods n Ammo]

Put it this way...if I were a coach and was offered both jobs, I would probably take Illinois.  However if I am a successful coach at Marquette, I don't leave it for Illinois.

This is perfectly stated and exactly how I feel.

MU might not be a top destination job, but once a coach has success here, it's as good as any outside of the college hoops royalty (approx. 8-12 jobs).

MU has done a great job at retaining coaches with TC and Buzz. But, if one of the tip top programs comes calling, it's hard for coaches to resist. (I'm not saying a coach would automatically leave, but I'm sure he would listen).

Illinois is NOT a tip top program.

That's a very short phone call if they make it.

[mr.MUskie]

First NU has to make the NCAA Tourney, something they have never done in their history.

Maybe just getting a bid in Evanston will get a Gym named after you.

But then Ryan will just buy the naming rights for himself (see:  Dyke Stadium).