Lets get this party started.

Who is your guy?

Chris Collins.

He'll bide his time until either Roy or K calls it a career.

Cuonzo Martin

I think this would be a pretty solid hire for them.

He seems to be in the mix for the Mizzou job as well.

I think this would be a pretty solid hire for them.

He seems to be in the mix for the Mizzou job as well.

Cuonzo Martin is not a good coach. His teams constantly underperform their talent level. His peak finish is simply making the NCAA tournament.

I suspect Whitman is going to select someone outside the regular Top 5 list of candidates.

He has money to spend and already tried to hire Monty Williams. The program just spent about $200 million renovating the stadium and they have a top 5 or 10 class coming in, probably their best class in over a decade.

I think it will be someone unexpected.

Hope they make a quick and popular hire...otherwise that top ranked class will be quickly picked over by the vultures.

Illinois needs someone who can grease the right palms in Chicago. Not sure who that is, but they've tried the successful mid-major guy the last two times and they failed because of recruiting. Bruce Weber hung around for several seasons because of the promise of Jereme Richmond, but he flamed out and the program has been a doormat ever since.

The problem is heavily recruiting Chicago has never worked well for them. It's not worth it unless the player has ties to the school.

They've basically lived off players from the rest of the state for the past several years. So I don't know what other path there is to relevance. Hope that the rest of their Peoria Manual class keeps having kids?

If Purdue gets bounced in the first round again and Swanigan leaves, will Painter be in trouble if he fails to make the NCAA tournament next season? Painter has been underwhelming other than than Robbie Hummel recruiting class. Still annoying that Scott Martin transferred from that team.

Go get players from the rest of the state and the St. Louis area and then attack the rest of the Midwest hard.

That is a lot of ifs but his job would be in trouble with that happening. I doubt either thing happens though. They should beat Vermont at least and compete well with Iowa State or Nevada and next year they'll still be a top 25 team to a borderline top 25 team. The year after that is a little more concerning.

Basically, Painter is going to keep his job as long as the team is ranked. He needs more NCAA tournament success to survive a down year or two though.

I don't think Purdue is going to be very good next year, and Painter doesn't have a great class lined up for next year. (Other than this generation's Matt ten Dam.)Purdue hoops seems cursed. Not sure how they have avoided a Final Four for the last 30 years with all of the great team's they have had. With Illinois and Indiana struggling now would be an great time for them to mine their recruiting grounds.

As for Illinois, they have been recruiting that way for years. The last time they were in the Final Four it was with a guard from Proviso East as their leading scorer.

They have one real nice recruit coming in next year and then a few projects.

They'll be good. Starting 3 or 4 seniors + Carsen Edwards and hopefully a nice contribution from Nojel Eastern. They'll actually have the guard dominant type team that is best suited for college basketball. Losing Swanigan obviously hurt but a lot of people thought that losing AJ Hammons would hurt and this team is better than that one.

That was one player though who far outperformed his expected college production though. It wasn't from chasing the same guys that Calipari and Self want.

There just isn't any reason to believe Illinois has any better chance of recruiting Chicago than any other school within a 300 mile radius or any of the national programs. It's also not really worth recruiting Chicago as it is way too much effort for very little payoff. The top programs in the country take the best players and then you are hoping to get the next tier of players with similar shenanigans required to even enter the conversation.