Two Down - Jim Hendry Fired as Cubs GM

Wow, what a great year this is turning out to be!  First, Ron Guenther retired.  Now comes the news that the Cubs have fired GM Jim Hendry.  Since I wasn't expecting this to happen until after the season ended (if ever), it will take a little time for me to put together a longer retrospective on Hendry's tenure as GM.  But for now, it's good to know that three of my four favorite teams are giving me hope for something different (accountability and sustained success) going forward.  And since these things usually happen in threes, if I were Jerry Angelo (and if Angelo were aware of my blog), I'd be getting really nervous.

"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.

Happy Birthday to Me!

One year ago today, I came up with a bold, innovative idea that promised to revolutionize the way we viewed Internet sports coverage.  But instead of pursuing that idea, I started this blog. When I first put fingers to keyboard, I had no idea my favorite teams would provide so much material.  So on the occasion of the first birthday of "The Frustrated Fan", let's take a look at some of the highlights from my first year of blogging:

• The Cubs made a nearly seamless transition from a hopeless, crappy 2010 season to a hopeless, crappy 2011 season.
• The Bears surprisingly won the NFC Central and hosted the NFC Championship Game (that's good)...which they lost to the Packers, who went on to win the Super Bowl (that's bad).
• With an exciting freshman QB at the helm, the Illini football team overcame the frequently idiotic coaching of Ron Zook and won their first bowl game of the new millennium.
• Bruce Weber finally won an NCAA tournament game at Illinois without players recruited by Bill Self, then lost in the next round of the tournament to a team full of players recruited by Bill Self.
• And (perhaps) best of all, Ron Guenther's reign as Illinois Athletic Director came to a peaceful end.

So many memories - and so many questions still to be answered in the upcoming year:

• Which veterans will the Cubs dump at the trade deadline?  With over $40 million in payroll coming off the books in 2012, whom will the Cubs bring in to upgrade next year's roster?  And will Jim Hendry be the GM doing that off-season upgrading?
• Will the NFL lockout end in time for the season to begin as scheduled?  And wouldn't a cancelled NFL season actually be better than the alternative - a season in which the Packers stand a good chance to repeat as Super Bowl champions?
• Can Zook build on last season's success after losing his best offensive player and two best defensive players to the NFL draft?  If not, how much longer will the new AD (whoever (s)he is) keep him around?
• Shouldn't a basketball team which possesses three consecutive highly-ranked recruiting classes and plays a relatively soft non-conference schedule and in a weak Big Ten be able to comfortably make the NCAA tournament?  And if Weber's Illini spend another Selection Sunday on the bubble (or worse), how much longer will the new AD (whoever (s)he is) keep him around?

Stick around to get the answers to these (and many more) questions.  It's sure to be a better "Year Two" than the Ricketts family is having!

It's not a Dream, Illini Fans - Ron Guenther Retires!

Great days in Illini sports history:

October 29, 1983 - Illinois beats Michigan to all but lock up a trip to the Rose Bowl.

March 26, 2005 - Illinois overcomes 15-point deficit to Arizona to advance to the Final Four

May 16, 2011 - Ron Guenther announces he is retiring from his post as Athletic Director after 19 years on the job.

After making brief comments, Bruce Weber and Ron Zook were last seen purchasing large quantities of Pepto Bismol at the thought of actually being held responsible for on-field/on-court results. As for Illini fans, who suffered through Guenther's seemingly endless tolerance for mediocrity, the response was nearly universal:

A Football-Free Weekend

No Illini game Saturday? No Bears game Sunday? There go all of my excuses to not mow the lawn. In any case, the red hot Illini (for whom two straight wins equals "red hot") have a bye week, which offers a great opportunity to assess the team's prospects for the rest of the season and for a bowl bid. Yes, I said a bowl bid. The Illini have two wins already, and looking at the schedule, I see three very winnable home games against Indiana, Purdue, and Minnesota (disclaimer - I understand that "winnable" doesn't equal "the Illini will win", as Zook-era teams have proven over and over).

But for argument's sake, let's give the Illini these three wins, which would make five and leave them needing one more win to become bowl-eligible. And yes, I've heard about the proposal to allow 5-win teams into bowl games this year, but I wouldn't count on that, and I don't like it anyway. Call me a traditionalist, but a team with more losses than wins shouldn't be in a bowl game. A team with an equal number of wins and losses - now that's a different story.

So with that backdrop, let's take a look at the remaining games on the schedule and see which (if any) would be a potential source of a sixth Illini win:

• Oct. 2 vs. Ohio State. Ummm...uhhh....Next!
• Oct. 9 at Penn State. Looking for trends with the Nittany Lions, I see that they've won every time they've hosted a non-Big Ten team from Ohio, but lost every time they've played on the road against teams ranked #1 in the country. Unfortunately, the Illini are probably closer in quality to the former group than the latter group, and this one's in Happy Valley.
• Oct. 16 at Michigan State. Sparty has looked good so far this year, what with their chicanery and all. But look at their Big 10 schedule: games against Wisconsin and at Michigan and games at Northwestern and against Iowa sandwiched around their home game against the Illini. Could this be a classic trap game for Sparty? A Zook-era team has gone to East Lansing with a freshman QB and left with a win before.
• Nov. 6 at Michigan. On the plus side, the Illini have beaten the maize-and-blue two straight times, and UMass did hang 37 points on the Wolverines in Ann Arbor. On the minus side, Michigan has a Heisman Trophy-caliber QB, and I think the universe would implode if Michigan lost three in a row to the Illini.
• Nov. 20 vs. Northwestern @ Wrigley Field. The Illini have lost 6 of their last 7 against the 'Cats, who are sort of the anti-Illini. Northwestern is well-coached and disciplined, with players who fit their system, which has continuity because they aren't constantly shuffling coordinators in and out every year. Northwestern is the designated home team for this one, so our best hope might be that Wrigley Field's other home team's bad luck rubs off on them.
• Dec. 3 at Fresno St. Wow - a game in California in December? We are going to a bowl game! Oh, wait, this is a road game on the regular season schedule - part of our Athletic Director's insane plan to ridiculously over-schedule a rebuilding program. Anyway, except for the ending, last year's game was a great one that could have gone either way. Maybe if the Illini have something to play for this year (a bowl bid), the rematch will go our way.

Well, there you have it. I don't see any obvious wins here, although some seem more winnable than others. If I had to rank them from best chance for a win to worst chance, I'd say Fresno St., Northwestern, Michigan St. Michigan, Penn St. and Ohio St. So while a sixth win is possible, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for it, especially because I don't think I can hold my breath until December. For now, I'll just enjoy knowing that after this Saturday, the Illini will have gone three straight weeks without a loss.

I'll Take Potpourri for $200, Alex

Here it comes - the corned beef hash of blog posts.

You know that Ron Guenther has to be behind this proposal.

I'm excited about the upcoming Illini basketball season, but I'm worried that we probably have the only coach in the country who uses the word "mollycoddling".

I see that the Arizona Diamondbacks have hired Kevin Towers as their new GM. This is a good move for them - during his 15-year tenure as the GM of the Padres, he showed that he was not afraid of sabermetric analysis, and despite middle-of-the-road payrolls his team won four division titles and appeared in the 1998 World Series. However, the Padres lost a one-game playoff after being one strike away from another postseason appearance in 2007. Two sub-par seasons later, he was out of a job. The point? If Kevin Towers got fired for having that resume, how does Jim Hendry still have his job?

At Least They Beat the Spread

Not much needs to be said about the specifics of Saturday's 23-13 Illini loss. In summary - Illinois executes well in the first half, Missouri adjusts in the second half, forcing the freshman QB to make big plays to win, which he was unable to do. However, the game was competitive throughout, which is more than I (and the oddsmakers) expected. It's difficult for me to find fault with the players or coaches for their effort. Against a team like Youngstown State (Penn State's opener), Eastern Illinois (Iowa's opener), Middle Tennessee St. (Minnesota's opener), or Towson (Indiana's opener), it would have been enough for a victory. But instead, Ron Guenther's insistence that his rebuilding team needed to open against the superior Tigers on a "neutral" field, year after year, has left the team 0-1 for the fourth straight year.

The best thing about Saturday's game is that it means this series has come to an end. Good news is on the horizon for the Illini's next head coach, however - after 18 years Guenther has finally figured out the knack of scheduling. Check out the 2011 schedule, which features eight home games, including five straight to start the year, with the first two against Arkansas St. and South Dakota St. That schedule will certainly help the new regime get off to a quick start next year and maybe even (gasp) make it to a bowl game, which is (almost) enough to make you feel sorry for Ron Zook, who's probably wondering why he never got to have such an advantageous schedule.