We often fear what we don’t know, as knowledge is the opposite of fear.
Quite often attack mode is the primary instinct we take in response to what we do not know and hence don’t understand. The backlash against the hiring of new Illini basketball assistant Orlando Antigua fits this motif as those bashing him, don’t even know him.
Now Antigua is well known among college basketball literati, but for those who don’t cover the sport with regularity, he’s still obscure. Jonathan Hock is a man who knows Orlando Antigua extremely well as he’s the director of the John Calipari ESPN 30 for 30 “One and Not Done.”
https://soundcloud.com/p-m-banks/jonathan-hock-one-and-not-done-director-exclusive
The documentary premieres Thursday night at 9 EST on ESPN, and it includes Orlando Antigua in the end credits acknowledgements. You can also see him in the opening sequence, set at the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Hock was gracious enough to give us a very substantial amount of his time, and the audio of our exclusive phone interview is posted above. I informed Hock of the backlash against Orlando Antigua by some Illini basketball fans, bloggers and members of the Chicago media.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVrvqyep5Mg
“There’s been a negative reaction to Orlando’s hiring?,” he responded with surprise.
“Not sure, I’ll have to read more about it, but that’s a great guy right there.”
“He’s a really hard working guy, and they’ll start doing well, and people will get to know him and there’s not going to be a problem, but that’s not my area of expertise.”
It’s worth noting that
1.) Hock has worked with Orlando for several years, collaborating with him on previous projects and
2.) a member of his production crew goes way back with Antigua to childhood. Hock may being modest about how well he truly knows Antigua.
Go here for more detailed information on and a preview trailer of “One and Not Done“. Go here for our in-depth review of the Coach Cal 30 for 30.
Antigua comes to Illinois having been dismissed as USF head coach, a school currently being investigated for academic fraud. The investigation into supposed infractions occurred under Antigua’s watch and it resulted in his brother, a USF assistant, resigning immediately upon news of the investigation breaking.
If malfeasance did occur, it would seem that the culprit, if there even is one, would logically be Antigua’s brother and not Antigua himself.
It’s reminiscent of John Calipari’s vacated Final Four at UMass, because those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.
Marcus Camby took impermissible benefits at UMass, but Calipari was never even investigated, let alone sanctioned for what happened in western Massachusetts. Antigua has never ever been sanctioned by the NCAA.
The backlash against his addition to Illini basketball coach Brad Underwood’s staff is largely based on ignorance and sanctimonious bloviating by hot taking talking heads. Because Antigua was the right hand man to Coach Cal at both Memphis and Kentucky, some fans rely on their misperceptions of Calipari and therefore hold misguided beliefs about Orlando Antigua.
Of course, “caution and investigation are a necessary armor against error and imposition,” as Alexander Hamilton once famously said.
Being well aware of the commitment Athletic Director Josh Whitman has to integrity and sportsmanship, you know the University of Illinois A.D. took tremendous caution and conducted his own thorough character investigation before signing off on Underwood’s hiring of Antigua.
Whitman was valedictorian of his high school class in West Lafayette, so if there is one thing that he does, it’s his homework.
As George Washington told Hamilton in the blockbuster musical, “I’m going to need a right hand man,” and that’s exactly what Antigua was to Coach Cal at Memphis and UK.
Named the top assistant coach in the country under 40 by ESPN.com in 2012, Antigua helped assemble five straight No. 1-ranked recruiting classes during his time at UK.
The Wildcats compiled a 152-37 record during his tenure, highlighted by three Final Four appearances and culminating in the 2012 NCAA Championship.
Antigua has a stellar reputation has an ace recruiter, and he helped land the bluest of blue chips to Lexington- names like Anthony Davis, John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins and Karl-Anthony Towns. He’s a huge get for the Illini, and his addition will be a huge boon to recruiting.
Some of those holding an unfavorable opinion of the Antigua hire are prime examples of another discussion topic I had with Hock. In conversing about the love/hate/ambivalence for Calipari, and how the acolytes/detractors/conflicted will respond to his doc, Hock offered this:
“I think there’s a lot of trading in untruth in journalism about college sports. I think there’s a lot of factionalizing of the media.”
“You’re either in the Calipari camp or the Pitino camp. Harbaugh camp or anti-Harbaugh camp. Or Urban Meyer or Nick Saban, you name it- there are those who are on that side, and those who aren’t.”
“Really you have to take everything with a grain of salt as to who’s side who’s on when you’re reading things.”
Can’t think of a better way to describe the “Purple Mafia” subset of the Chicago sports media.
The Northwestern bias within the local media is very real and they don’t stop at just being shills for the Wildcats. March emboldened the NU alums media elites and their self-important self-indulgence reached new depths during the NCAA Tournament.
This spring has seen a couple Illini basketball hit pieces executed by some of the more self-righteous and extremely condescending members of the Purple Mafia.
The NU grads waving the proverbial pom pons might genuinely believe their own moral high ground claiming, Illini basketball bashing prose. Or they could just be engaging in some simple click-baiting. Either way, Orlando Antigua has become one of their whipping boys, and that’s a gross injustice, because it’s entirely undeserved.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times and NBC Chicago.com, contributes to Chicago Tribune.com, Bold, WGN CLTV and KOZN.
Follow him on Twitter, Instagram, Sound Cloud, LinkedIn and YouTube