"One of the things that's made me very optimistic is the way we played Monday night with the Hawaii trip looming," Groce said. "Those guys weren't thinking about Hawaii."

Groce, who's making his first trip to Hawaii, inherited this schedule from Weber, including the Warrior game, which gives the Illini a chance to adjust to island time, which is four hours earlier than their Champaign clocks, before their late Maui tipoffs.

"We're just playing the cards we're dealt," Groce said. "The schedule was already done before I took the job. But I'm hoping it helps us heading into next week's tournament that we've been out here for a few days."

Herb Gould