Cincinnati won in 1961 and 1962.
Purdue, Texas, Oklahoma, us, Memphis, there are several schools with an argument.
2017 Coaching Carousel
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Cincinnati won in 1961 and 1962.
Purdue, Texas, Oklahoma, us, Memphis, there are several schools with an argument.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Who cares? Winning percentage is a lot more important, and using that metric, we are the 13th winningest program of all-time and first in the Big Ten (though admittedly barely behind St. John's, who lacks our accomplishments in other categories):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_teams_with_the_highest_winning_percentage_in_NCAA_Division_I_men's_college_basketball
When you look at all the stats, we are CLEARLY the best program to never win it all, and if we won the NCAA Tournament next year somehow (putting us at 1NC, 6 Final Fours, 10 Elite Eights, 14 Sweet Sixteens, 31 NCAA Tournaments, 46 NCAA Tournament wins, 27 AP Top 25 finishes, likely 18 Big Ten titles and possibly a 3rd BTT title), we would immediately be talked about in the same light as Arizona or Syracuse. I think most prospective coaches know that about where UI stands in the college basketball hierarchy, and I think they also know just how much this fan base would ADORE someone who got us there.
Washington. Arguably LSU.
Texas has got to be on that list too I'd think.
Texas has been better than us, but with a lot more talent.
But in any event, this is the bottom of the barrel for coaches.
Schools that get lots of Top 100 recruits make the tournament regularly. If they don't, the place to point the finger is crystal clear.
Illiniwek06
- N of I-80
They may have underachieved relative to talent, but they've missed the tourney 3 times since 1989. Illinois has missed the tourney the last 3 years.
Looking at rosters is subjective. Be careful not to be to biased. I love my StL Cardinals but if the Cubs offered to trade me their infield for ours, I'd do it in a minute. That doesn't mean I won't be rooting for the Cards this year.
We started the year with Tate and Abrams as starters. IMO that was weak. Morgan is a big you hope holds serve each night. Leron and JCL still have their best days coming. That leaves Hill. Not sure how to look at his play. Lots of foul problems and bench time. Maybe he has a better senior year if guard play was better.
Barnes last two years were tough, and SS hasn't turned things around with his players yet. I think if we're going off of the last 5 years, they need to be included on the most underachieving teams relative to talent.
Just for the record I did not say that nor do I think that. My main point is that's it's pretty easy to recruit to Illinois. Even if you fail hard here at recruiting you're going to wind up with your fair share of 4 stars. I certainly don't think Groce has proven himself to be an elite recruiter or even a good one in his time here.
I think you're conflating lack of development by those players, versus the talent people thought they had coming into the program.
I dunno about "fail hard", but I would agree that a coach who doesn't profile as the coolest cat on the planet would still have access to Top 100 players at Illinois.
We have a fear here that basically anyone who isn't Flashy McCool is going to turn us into Lickliter's Iowa. That's misplaced.
I don't know what talent people thought we had coming in. I know we thought the misses were huge. I believe we thought Tate was a token outreach. I'm pretty sure people were less than enthused on MM. Maverick's game has improved lately or there is less resistance in the paint this year.
But I'll go back to the misses were huge. I'm not defending JG. If talent was lesser and he didn't coach them up, it's still on him.
I do think his classes are improving. Probably to little to late.
If Groce's results are likely to improve, Groce should be retained as the head coach. Firing is NOT a punishment for past failures.
If he is fired it is because THIS team is as good as what we've seen from him on the recruiting trail up to and including the present day indicates that we're ever likely to see. Probably at about the 90th percentile on that scale. If the 90th percentile is out of the tournament, there is absolutely no reason to go any further.
For the Chris Mack fans, Mike Rutherford (who writes for Louisville and SB Nation CBB) is doing an AMA and said should Pitino retire, he expects Mack would be UL's first call.
And to think it was between Kyle Davis and Tate.
Been thinking about my favorite Illini teams.
Mark Smith and Eddie Johnson had Derek Harper.
Efrem Winters and Doug Altenberger had Bruce Douglas.
Sergio and Griffin had Frank Williams.
Battle, Gill, Anderson, Hamilton had Bardo
Then the team with Deron and Dee.
Hill has Tate/Abrams to start year
No to Skiles. Hated by his Magic players, he tapped out.
No to Frank also for his interpersonnel skills and lack of recruiting.
Monty Williams is very intriguing. High character guy as I recall with midwest ties, players like him. Lovie-esque I would say. That is a route I would look at very closely.
Thanks for helping me make my point. Those teams had talented point guards and those point guards had other studs.
I wonder if he would want a college job. There are some tragic circumstances there with his wife passing away, I'm sure he's thinking about what's best for his kids.
College is probably more hours of work, but it's also fewer days on the road.
But yeah, Monty would have the same appeal as Lovie, and as Cuonzo, a really outstanding African-American role model for our athletes to look up to.
If there is any way to do it, I suspect the first call would be checking in on Billy Donovan. Depending on how he's doing at the time, maybe Pitino Jr.
Holy schnikeys. If Monty were interested, he would be great. I just thought he was dedicated to the NBA.
Yeah not sure. That's definitely the kind of NBA coach you'd think could be a college coach, but he has no college experience. But he's very well liked and well respected in the coaching community, you'd figure he could attract a good staff.
He's currently in a front office job with the Spurs, kinda figuring out his next move it would seem.
I'm not enamored with the NBA route, nor do I think it would be accurate to typecast Whitman as someone who is looking for a pro coach. But if that's the direction we're looking, seems like that's a name worthy of keeping in mind, along with Hoiberg of course.
schnaurt
- Phoenix, AZ
It is funny how 4 years can change the tone. If I remember correctly, during the last coaching search many on this board thought that Mike Brey was an awful coach.
You're half right. If Groce finds a way to make the tournament, he probably does keep his job. The second part of your post is the issue. The implication you're making is that we are the better team more often than not in the last 10 games. The issue is that even those games that we penciled in as wins prior to the season, are going to be hard to come by. Penn State is similar to us in that they play much better at home as they have wins over the Spartans and Minnesota. Additionally, they lost to Indiana by 3. We have yet to be ready for a road game.
Groce has not beaten Wisconsin one time in his almost 5 years here so I doubt that trend ends.
Minnesota is in a current losing skid, but if you look at their games, they are in all of them. I haven't seen any closing ability with our team in close games.
NW is 17-4 and in all likelihood, will make their first tournament appearance this year. It's possible that we should split with them.
Nebraska on the road doesn't sound like a win nor does Michigan State at home.
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