"Say Hello to the new Illini AD." "Hello, Mike Thomas!"

Best wishes, Mike Thomas!

Welcome aboard, Mike Thomas!  The former Cincinnati Athletic Director has been named to succeed Ron Guenther as University of Illinois Athletic Director, and I especially liked this quote from his introductory press conference:

"Intercollegiate athletics are a critical element of the campus community, and I understand the importance of student-athletes excelling in both the playing arena and the classroom," Thomas said. "The U of I has the essential pieces--facilities, staff, athletes, alumni and fans--for continued excellence and success, and I'm deeply honored and excited to be able to lead the Fighting Illini."

Since football and basketball are my focus here, I'll note that when Thomas started as Cincinnati AD in 2005, the Bearcats football team was in the middle of a run of mediocrity:  4-7 in 2003, 7-5 in 2004, 5-7 in 2005.  To fix that, he hired Brian Kelly to run the football team, and Kelly quickly brought the Bearcats to national prominence, going 34-6 over the next four seasons, including two BCS bowl game appearances.  Unfortunately, after Kelly left for Notre Dame, Thomas didn't do as well picking a successor (Butch Jones, who led the Bearcats to a 4-8 record last year).  Interestingly, both Kelly and Jones were coaching at Central Michigan when Thomas hired them, so I guess that means we can anticipate Dan Enos being our next head coach whenever Thomas tires of Ron Zook.  Hey, at least Enos was a Big Ten guy.

As for basketball, Thomas had to deal with the aftermath of Bob [t]Huggins's resignation, and his first (and only) hire was Mick Cronin.  The Bearcats were a mess during Cronin's first two years (11-19 and 13-19) due in part to having to completely rebuild the program, and moving from Conference USA to the loaded Big East didn't help those win-loss records.  But by his fifth year (last season), Cronin had the Bearcats back in the NCAA tournament (26-9, 11-7) for the first time since the end of the [t]Huggins regime, where they beat Missouri before losing to eventual champion UConn.  Not a bad clean-up job.

So, to recap:  that's one home-run hire (Kelly), one double off the base of the wall (Cronin), and one foul ball off the end of the bat (Jones).  All in all, not a bad record, especially if Thomas can find another Brian Kelly type to run one (or both) of our major sports programs.  If nothing else, Illini fans finally have some certainty, and we can start hoping for some accountability from the new AD as well.