kburjr
Well-Known Member
Change of ADs, change of coaches and change of attitude. They don't care, they just want to add cash to the coffers and don't care about being competitive, other than lip service.
Illinois hired Josh Whitman as AD just over 2 years ago. Illinois athletics at the time were dealing with abuse allegations(disciplinary type) in 2 sports, women's basketball and football. Recruiting fell off the table the last 2-3 years before Whitman showed up. Illinois is at best an Iowa level school for football with a good team every 5-6 years historically. I look for them to return to that model fairly soon. Lovie isn't doing a bad job considering where they were.
Men's basketball is a different story. When Bill Self left back in the early 2000s, and Bruce Weber took over, Weber poisoned the in-state recruiting by alienating the high school and AAU coaches. A couple bad hires after that haven't helped much. Brad Underwood has had one season so far. Got nothing to say about him for a couple more years.
Yeah, I am a Wisconsin fan, but I live just outside Urbana, so all my local sports news is about Illinois.