If wishes were fishes.
John Groce at Illinois
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89illinigrad
- Chicago
I tend to agree. Groce has had some terrible luck this year, but this may be the straw that breaks the camels back.
Well we've got a Basically Final Four caliber roster with him, DJax, and Sherron Collins.
Cliff too...he Basically Committed to Groce the morning he committed to Kansas.
URH Snyder 490
Orange Crush '89
- Northern Illinois
Laphonso Ellis was the first nut punch for me
Never heard that story before. Go on.
IVe never known combes to just spout info like that for no reason. Hopefully all three of them commit.
He has a reason - that's what the staff thinks. Loren Tate has said the same thing on the radio - the staff thinks they'd get Tilmon and Williams if they had to commit today.
Whether you choose to believe anything the staff says about recruits is up to you.
IlliniOX08
- Bucktown, Chicago
This one goes way back to the days of when Brumby still ran things on the scout board. I think that was Illiniboard 2.0. Anyways, the story goes that Rush didn't sign with any program out of high school and I believe it was b/c no one was sure if his grades were in order. So this whole ordeal played out throughout the summer. UI was a late comer in the recruitment in the spring but was a long rumored favorite by the fall when classes were starting.
Rumors were flying about how Brandon Rush had enrolled at UI and was moved in to the 6-Pack. People were checking the student database for Brandon Rush (kind of like the flightaware for recruits back then). Then some crazy poster came on the board and claimed to be Brandon Rush's girlfriend or cousin or something and said they he had enrolled and moved in.
Then a day later he was enrolled at KU. This one is one of my favorites b/c there's almost no validity to any of the rumors but it was my first major Illinois recruiting let down after joining the message boards. Little did I know what would follow..
EDIT: Here is the visit schedule from Rivals.. https://n.rivals.com/content/prospects/maple/15641
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The old IlliniBoard was so great. What was the restaurant Kelvin Sampson and Eric Gordon met at that they had staked out?
That's the one. My, the irony!
IlliniOX08
- Bucktown, Chicago
I think it was Yogie's?
sdfidaho
- Boise, Idaho
All is fine....Good Night
I've been a Groce supporter/defender, but at this point, in my opinion, he needs at least one different assistant coach if Groce wants to keep his job. The injuries are well documented and understood, but between Cosby/Rice, Darius x2, and now Black, leadership and evaluation of the character of players seems pretty dismal. Groce is a good man who has been dealt some tough cards, but there is a business aspect to this as well. As some others have said, we can't have a poor team on the floor and off of it.
URH Snyder 490
Orange Crush '89
- Northern Illinois
Ha! This is straight out of the salty grapes playbook. What happened to that guy? Banned, presumably?
Shaun Livingston?
This ^^^^ There seem to be a fair number of people here that seem to think we could fire Groce, hire a great new coach, and not skip a beat. It just doesn't work that way. If anything, the experience with Groce has shown that it takes time to build a team with a new coach. That doesn't even take in to consideration the fact that it is extremely hard to sell this program to a good coach and top recruits. What coach would want to take over a program that fires it's coach after a season of injuries and given only 4 years to rebuild.
If you think this program is a dumpster fire now, wait to see what it looks like in another couple years after the top players graduate, a player or two has left, and recruiting failures under a new coach have piled up further. The unknown could be a lot worse than what we have now. At this point, some consistency and patience is called for. Another year should give a much clearer picture of what this coach can achieve. No one is happy right now but starting over at the end of this season is not the answer. There is no magic bullet.
I keep thinking I am done with this thread until the end of the season but keep getting pulled back in. I don't understand the lack of patience from this fan base given the injury situation. I don't see how anyone can realistically evaluate this program this year to the point that they can say that they have seen enough.
The unknown could always be worse. That's the risk you take. By this logic, no coach anywhere would ever be fired, because the next guy could be worse.
When you look at the recent track record of the university, it would be unwise to conduct a coaching search until we get on a little better footing. We struck out on 1st and 2nd choices for our last football hire, our last basketball hire, and even our new A.D..
Whitman needs time to unveil his vision for the sports programs at U of I so that potential coaching candidates will know what kind of boss they would be working for. As it stands now, the Illini basketball job does not appear to be the top tier job that it once was perceived as. The image needs to be polished before it is put on the open market. Whitman also should be given time to objectively look at our basketball program and decide what kind of coach he needs to go after. If Groce is let go, I think the last thing we would want would be a hire in haste.
Whitman needs time to unveil his vision for the sports programs at U of I so that potential coaching candidates will know what kind of boss they would be working for. As it stands now, the Illini basketball job does not appear to be the top tier job that it once was perceived as. The image needs to be polished before it is put on the open market. Whitman also should be given time to objectively look at our basketball program and decide what kind of coach he needs to go after. If Groce is let go, I think the last thing we would want would be a hire in haste.
You can start by letting it be known that our coach will be compensated and expected to perform in the top echelon of B10 coaches.
+1
Coaching searches are crapshoots, yes, but crapshoots bearing a good deal of relation to the strength of a program. We have every reason to believe we will be on much, much firmer footing 13 months from now. To say nothing of the potential for substantial improvement under Groce.
SAC, I'm confused about this comment about much firmer footing in 13 months. Donkey mentioned to avoid hiring in Haste and for Whitman to workout vision , etc. Well I guess if we are on much "firmer footing" and it matches Whitman's vision (in 13 months), we'll continue to ride JG, right?
I meant firmer footing to do a coaching search.
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