The strength coach is needed in my opinion to increase their ability to come up with loose balls and play hard defense for 40 minutes. If you look at the size of our players i don't see a lot of progression in strength. Yeah Malcolm looks stronger this year and Morgan developed some decent strength. I don't want body builders. I want strong and tough kids who can dig out the loose ball or grab the rebound. As for the assistant coach, that would be Whitman telling him that is essential and non-negotiable.
As for Groce's ability to develop players, i see the younger guys being the best players we have on the floor-besides Malcolm and they clearly have more talent and more athletic ability than of the other seniors and have greater upside and I have seen improvement in their games this year-at least those who are seeing playing time lately. that being said, there is no one on this team who can create his own shot with any consistency. That is on the coach for recruiting, but he hasn't caught many breaks along the way either. ( losing Snider on recruiting day is the most glaring) I don't want to come out and criticize any of the kids by name as I truly believe they all are trying and if they aren't they deserve to be on the bench, but college sports is hard and being a 3/4/5 star in high school doesn't guarantee you anything when they get to college. Those that shoot the eyes out in high school may find that the defender's ability to close on that same outside shot they nailed in high school is a lot tougher to get off inn college. And many kids don't pan out in college-not just at Illinois.
i think many on this board were highly critical of the coach after "swinging for the fences" and coming up second a lot. There are a lot of talented kids we have lost out on that haven't prospered even under the tutelage of Bill Self, for example. Again, no names, but i think you know who i am referring to. Finally, the argument that we are not going to be better because we didn't out-recruit someone for the player does not make a lot of sense unless you are going to rely solely upon the ranking system.
I am not giving Groce a pass on his tenure. That being said, there have been many on this board who love coaches one minute (BAM, JFG, Zooker who can sell sand in a desert) who turn and want something better only to realize that what comes along is no better and potentially worse. The old adage, be careful what you ask for may apply. If they make a change I will support Illinois because they are my school, but there is no guarantee that Monty Williams or anyone else will be the next John Wooden, Coach K or even Sean Miller.
