1. Year 5, hasn't been to the tournament in 4 years
2. Experienced team
3. Probably the most talented team we've had in a while, so the NIT is an absurd underachievement.
4. The B1G is not good this year.
I worry about the recruiting class coming in, but frankly, if he couldn't even MAKE the tournament with these players, what makes you think he'd ever go further after losing one of the better players to ever play at Illinois?
1. I agree that it's year 5 and our expectations for where the program should be are high. It has been debated many times the factors that made this a long climb back up.
2. Outside of Hill, which of our experienced players were you counting on being above league average this year? Mav was serviceable at the end of last year, and didn't really step up until the second half of this year. Thorne couldn't even occupy minutes without killing the team. Abrams was coming off of a two year lay-off and was a no-show for most of B1G. Tate is a non-factor at this level. Simply put, our experience was overrated.
3. Don't disagree, but recent years have been down due to bad transfers and/or injuries. This year's "more talented" bunch was still predicted to finish in the bottom 3rd by everyone that closely follows this conference.
4. It's the fourth best conference, ahead of the SEC and Pac12. That means the top of the conference is down, but we are still deep in quality teams.
I DO NOT disagree that Groce should be likely begone, however I do feel he has had a REALLY bad shake on many things out of his control while he's worked to rebuild this program. The timing and severity of Tracy's injuries really crippled the way Groce recruited the PG position, which is the position that has totally held back any success. Heck, even the injury TJL suffered leading into this year set the team back in the 1st half of this season.
So while excuses are weak, there are certainly plenty of them available.