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Post by Raider Alumni on Jul 20, 2010 19:26:10 GMT -5
Jimmy Collins retires after 14 seasons at UICJuly 20, 2010 By Shannon Ryan After 14 seasons as the Illinois-Chicago head basketball coach, Jimmy Collins has decided to retire. Among his highlights include guiding UIC to its first three NCAA tournament berths in school history and becoming the all-time winningest coach in school history with 218 victories. "It is difficult to leave UIC and the great student-athletes who are returning," Collins said in a statement released on Tuesday night. "After much introspection, I feel it is my time to enjoy retirement and have more time with my family." He will conclude his duties on Aug. 31 and the school will launch a search for a replacement. Named head coach of the Flames on March 27, 1996 after spending the previous 13 seasons as an assistant to Lou Henson at Illinois. Collins went 218-208 in 14 seasons at UIC, winning 20 or more games in a season four times. Athletics director Jim Schmidt will conduct a national search for the next UIC head coach. "We anticipate great interest in our head men's basketball coaching position," said Schmidt. "The UIC men's basketball program will have the components for an excellent future." www.chicagobreakingsports.com/2010/07/uic-basketball-coach-jimmy-collins-to-step-down.html
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Post by Sixth Man on Jul 20, 2010 20:49:05 GMT -5
This is 4 months too late. It will be hard to find a good coach this late in the year.
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Post by Retired Coach on Jul 20, 2010 21:03:42 GMT -5
I wonder if they will loose any of their incoming recruits. Dildy was the head recruiter for all of them and he already took the head coaching job at Chicago State.
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Post by raiderland on Jul 20, 2010 22:04:32 GMT -5
Tracy Webster is still out there. He'd be a real nice hire for UIC.
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Post by Black PantherU on Jul 21, 2010 1:48:29 GMT -5
Tracy Webster is the name that keeps coming up in discussion at our site too.
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Post by Rush the Court on Jul 21, 2010 6:09:10 GMT -5
WEBSTER LET GO AT DEPAUL: DePaul coach Oliver Purnell has completed his coaching staff, bringing in three assistants who worked with him at Clemson and retaining three others from the previous staff. Interim coach Tracy Webster, a Thornton grad who took over after Jerry Wainwright was fired in midseason, was not retained. DePaul went 8-23 this season and 1-17 in Big East play after failing to win a regular-season conference game the previous year. Webster was 1-15 after replacing Wainwright. Webster was an assistant at Kentucky, Illinois, Purdue and Ball State before joining DePaul last April. www.nwitimes.com/sports/local/article_7720b72d-981d-55bb-826f-786f6f17d4d6.html
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Post by Fastbreak on Jul 21, 2010 6:15:26 GMT -5
Who could replace Collins at UIC?July, 21, 2010 By Scott Powers While UIC coach Jimmy Collins’ retirement announcement is only hours old, former UIC assistant coach Tracy Dildy said the school has been working on possible replacements for a while. Dildy named Illinois assistant coaches Jerrance Howard and Jay Price, Minnesota assistant coach Vince Taylor and Wisconsin assistant coach Howard Moore as the four coaches that UIC athletic director Jim Schmidt was targeting as Collins’ successor. “Those are the guys involved in the job and have been in conversations over the last 3-4 months,” said Dildy, who recently left Collins’ staff for Chicago State’s head coaching position. Illinois coach Bruce Weber learned of Collins' announcement late Tuesday night. He called Collins a good man and wished him the best. He hadn't, though, heard of Howard or Price being candidates for the UIC position. "I have not been contacted about either Jay or Jerrance," Weber said via text message. "Both are well deserving of such an opportunity and I would be excited to get either one involved in the job!" Former Oregon coach Ernie Kent could also be a candidate, according to a source. Collins said Tuesday he would like to help in that search and thought his current assistants, Bryant Lowe and Mark Miller, should also be considered. “I would love to have a say,” Collins said. “I think we got a really good recruiting class coming in. Those kids deserve to have somebody come in that gets to know them and their abilities. Whoever they do hire, I know Jim [Schmidt] will do a national search.” espn.go.com/blog/chicago/colleges/post/_/id/619/who-could-replace-collins-at-uic
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Post by Willie on Jul 21, 2010 6:24:14 GMT -5
Great news for UIC and good news for the HL in general. Now if we could just do something to either improve YSU or get them out of the HL we could become a top 10 conference.
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Post by keithfromxenia on Jul 21, 2010 10:36:42 GMT -5
so if consideration of jc's replacement has been going on for a while, what does it say that dildy left for a bottom feeder like chi state???
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Post by OG Raiderfan on Jul 21, 2010 19:22:32 GMT -5
Dildy says leaving UIC was right moveJuly, 21, 2010 By Scott Powers Tracy Dildy returned to Chicago and his alma mater of UIC in 2007 because he believed he would be the next Flames coach whenever Jimmy Collins decided to retire. Recently, Dildy began to hear otherwise. It’s why he accepted Chicago State’s heading coaching job last week even though he knew Collins may soon retire. On Tuesday, Collins announced his retirement, and Dildy was confident he had made the right decision to leave UIC. “The reason I was brought back to UIC was to be the next coach,” Dildy said. “That was guaranteed. That’s one of the reasons I gave up a great job at UAB. That was said to me by a couple people that I would be that guy. As it got closer to the possibility of coach leaving, that guarantee kind of changed. I couldn’t take that chance when I had another school that wanted me. “I’m very excited about coaching Chicago State. That’s always been my dream to be a head coach. I have my dream come true.” Collins said he had told Dildy he was considering retirement, but he did not have further discussions with Dildy about it. “I don’t know what Tracy was thinking,” Collins said. “I can’t speak on it. If he thought he wasn’t going to get a shot, that didn’t come from me. I know Tracy at some point decided to take a chance and maybe he heard something I didn’t hear.” espn.go.com/blog/chicago/colleges/post/_/id/616/dildy-says-leaving-uic-was-right-move
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Post by Admin on Jul 22, 2010 1:28:53 GMT -5
blogs.dailyherald.com/node/4421If you care about UIC basketball Posted by Lindsey on Wed, 07/21/2010 - 21:45 A reader wondered about Jimmy Collins' health in a comment on Tuesday's blog. I initially planned a response on the same blog, but it ballooned into something bigger that deserves its own post. Here goes: Health is not a direct issue with Collins leaving at this time. I think there has been a sense of dissatisfaction all around. Jimmy takes losing hard and doesn't enjoy it when some players don't seem to care as much as he does. It's also not as much fun as you get older, you keep flying east for family funerals and your own health history hasn't been perfect. Athletic directors, meanwhile, see other Horizon League schools moving up in the world and want to be a part of that train. Butler is a household name. Wright State's excellence just allow its coach to advance to Clemson. Cleveland State, with former Rutgers coach Gary Waters at the controls, won a game in the 2009 NCAA tournament. UIC hasn't been to the Tournament since 2004 and seems at least a few years away from contending again. As for Tracy Dildy, he thought he would get to be Jimmy's successor but plans changed. Tracy brought in several recruits during his time at his alma mater, but some of the better ones (including Jelani Poston) didn't pan out. It's always risky when your No. 1 recruiting ground is the CPL. With other Horizon schools doing well with veteran coaches (see Waters above), I'm guessing AD Jim Schmidt will interview some fellas similar to him. At the same time, there are several assistants at nearby high-major schools with extensive Chicago ties who could build something more stable. Frankly, I think Tracy Webster would be perfect for this job. I saw former Oregon coach Ernie Kent's name bandied about somewhere on the internet, but I wonder if that would be a fit. NIU thought ex-Colorado coach Ricardo Patton was the right answer, but that hasn't worked out at all. Then again, Kent has Chicago connections and Patton did not when he signed on with the Huskies. Finally, consider this as well when trying to figure out why Coach Collins leaves now: In the last four classes, UIC has signed 21 scholarship athletes. TEN were junior-college players. Another was Minnesota transfer Paul Carter, a special case who's immediately eligible for his senior year. One of the jucos never appeared in a Flames uniform. Another lasted one year. Two freshmen teamed up to play one semester before leaving the program. One incoming freshman apparently won't qualify. Tori Boyd, a highly touted flyer who came in the Class of 2007 with Robo Kreps, played a lot for two years and suddenly quit prior to last season. Long story short, that's not the way to build continuity in a program. This makes an AD dissatisfied. Then, too, it was hard for Jimmy to recruit freshmen because they sensed he wouldn't be around for their entire careers. This dissatisfies everyone. It's a vicious circle. LW
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Post by Sixth Man on Jul 23, 2010 20:14:04 GMT -5
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Post by Sixth Man on Jul 23, 2010 20:15:20 GMT -5
so if consideration of jc's replacement has been going on for a while, what does it say that dildy left for a bottom feeder like chi state??? Dildy knew he had no chance at the job after the way UIC has played the last few years. He got out while the getting was good.
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Post by Doliboabros on Jul 26, 2010 8:10:41 GMT -5
I don't have much faith in UIC's AD to make a good hire.
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Post by Fastbreak on Jul 27, 2010 8:54:16 GMT -5
Potential Coaches from UIC board: *Ernie Kent - Former Oregon coach would bring a high profile and national recruiting reach *Jerrance Howard or Jay Price - Illinois assistants already know the local recruiting waters. *Vince Taylor - Minnesota assistant was widely mentioned for other job openings this spring. *Howard Moore - Wisconsin assistant could thrive in the Horizon League. *Tracy Webster - Local HS coaches wanted interim Webster at DePaul. Perhaps they'll get him at UIC instead. *Tavaras Hardy - Northwestern asst. is a Chicago guy through-and-through. *Matthew Graves - Butler assistant could spread the mojo to Horizon rival . uicflames.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=2433&page=3
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