Tate: Jerrance Howard a hot commodity
CHAMPAIGN – When you're hot, you're hot.
That's Jerrance Howard, whose hand-slapping nature gives "popularity" a different meaning. All the way back to Peoria High, he was junior class president and the Homecoming King as a senior.
More recently, he was deemed so valuable as an Illini basketball recruiter that his salary has been jumped twice in these dire economic times. While others in the department were accepting reductions, Howard's salary climbed from $120,000 to $180,000 as Kentucky made overtures, and early this month he received a $50,000 signing bonus and a $100,000 completion bonus if he stays through 2014, by which time his base would reach $210,000.
That's how important it is for the Illini to keep the high school talent coming.
But no enticements can turn the head of an assistant coach if he has a chance to become a head coach.
Howard is preparing for an interview at UIC, where Jimmy Collins recently stepped down. Since the UIC athletic director, Jim Schmidt, hadn't contacted the UI's Ron Guenther as of Tuesday afternoon, it can't be deemed as official (they would certainly discuss it). But Howard is loading up with assurances from prospective assistant coaches and athletes willing to join him. Schmidt is several weeks away from finalizing this process (school starts Aug. 23) but, with recruiting the lifeblood of any program, he has to take Howard seriously.
Howard has always viewed UIC as ideal for his background, placing him in the epicenter of prospects he has been following. This and the Bradley job were deemed to be his logical preferences, and there are two problems with Bradley: (1) Jim Les is still in place and (2) even though Howard is popular, he will always be viewed there as another Peoria star who turned his back on his home school for the University of Illinois.
Age a factor?
Some will say that Howard, who turned 30 in May, is too young to be a head coach. He's always been the players' buddy. He's never been the boss. True, but if he was 40, would it be any different? Wisconsin's Howard Moore, a strong candidate who prepped at Chicago Taft, will soon turn 38. Moore previously served at Bradley, Ball State and Loyola before spending the last five under Bo Ryan. Moore is one of numerous assistants seeking the job. Howard has less experience but has served under Bill Self, Billy Gillispie and Bruce Weber. He can either handle the top job or he can't, and we won't know until he tries.
Whoever takes the UIC job, it'll be hard to judge his coaching ability in 2010-11. Collins left an empty cupboard. Of the top five scorers, only six-footers Robo Kreps and Zavion Neely return from a team that finished 8-22 overall and 3-15 in the Butler-dominated Horizon League. Recruiting dropped off sharply for Collins since 2004, when a 24-7 team lost to Kansas in the NCAA tournament. The Flames are 87-99 overall in the last six seasons, with no conference audit over .500 in that span.
The program has been at a virtual standstill since Collins was replaced by assistant Mark Coomes for 19 games in 2006 for a combination of reasons that included personal illness. Coomes also replaced Collins for two games in 2009.
Collins' overall income was considerably more than his base salary of approximately $300,000. Collins originally arrived at UIC in 1996-97 after 13 years under Lou Henson at Illinois, giving him 27 years in the university retirement system, not counting his probation officer years (which are reciprocal with the UI).
Moving forward
If Howard leaves, how will Illini recruiting be impacted?
There would be an inevitable overreaction, some saying it would be a negative thunderbolt just as the AAU summer season comes to a close. It could hurt UI chances for key seniors like Chasson Randle of Rock Island and Mike Shaw of Chicago De La Salle. Randle recently reduced his options to Illinois, Purdue and Stanford. Shaw is considering Illinois and Michigan State, among others. And Weber has only verbal commitments from seniors Nnanna Egwu, Tracy Abrams and Mycheal Henry, Chicago products with whom Howard has a strong attachment.
As a basic policy, Weber always helps assistants take the next step. He would not change in this case, even if it hurts.
As was borne out in the Collins years at UIC, the Flames and Illini seldom recruit the same players. So this probably wouldn't evolve into a case of Weber and Howard going directly against each other.
But they could meet on the court this season. The UI's annual game in the United Center finds the Flames as the opponent. It is not an attractive match. The Flames are unusually weak in the front line at a time when the Illini have more than ample size with seniors Mike Tisdale and Mike Davis returning, and with highly-touted Jereme Richmond certain to contribute.
Whatever happens with Howard, the Illini appear headed into a productive stretch of years. And whoever lands at UIC faces a huge rebuilding job.
Loren Tate writes for The News-Gazette. He can be reached at ltate<@>news-gazette.com.
JH should stay home. The UI and athletic dept. have shown loyalty to him and have rewarded him for his efforts. He should mature a few more years before taking on a monstrous responsibility like HC for a DI school. I do remember that Tony Yates went to Cincinnati and did not live up to expectations that came from his recruiting prowess. So it is not necessarily a lock that he will be over the top as a head coach at this point in his career.
JH deserves to take what he can get. I just don't think this is a smart move for him. He would be in his recruiting backyard, but if he's really a good recruiter (which I think he is), he'd be successful in other cities, too, given time to lay the groundwork. Staying at Illinois for a couple years would allow him to bask in the glory of his (hopefully) great recruits and team success. Three or four great years of recruiting, combined with being a part of a (hopefully) very successful big time program would do wonders. Then he'd more likely be up for serious D1 jobs, for programs where another coach moved up, not out. If you wait you could get left out, but in this case I would bet waiting a couple more years, learning more about being a head coach, and then moving to a solid mid-major whose coach moved up to a big program would serve Jerrance better.
Virtually nobody could expect a winning record in the next three seasons at UIC. It would only make you look inexperienced and unprepared, whether or not those descriptions are really accurate.
First of all, UIC is a coaching graveyard. All those Public League coaches promised to send players to Jimmy Collins - and it never happened.
Howard would be much better off waiting for a "real" opportunity to succeed.
Secondly, the Yates rumors came out of Knight's office at IU when we landed Derek Harper out of Florida.. The only "scam" at Cincy was that something like 4 out of 5 of Tony's recruits (one year) had to go Prop 48. (so much for Chicago Public League!!).
z is out of his class when he brings up history.
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