Time for a Change
I haven't posted here in years, although I check the board almost every day. My love for Illinois basketball goes back to the days of Downey, Redmon, Small, Burwell, Colangelo and Brody. I was on campus for six years, went through the slush fund nightmare and the first couple of "semi-successful" years of Harv Schmidt before his program imploded in 1974.
I admired and appreciated the slow but steady progress with Hensen and Yates, as we started to attract the best talent in Illinois, culminating in the run to the Final Four in 1989. Then the treachery of Bruce Pearl set us back again. After Lou, (yes, it was time), Kruger got us back on the road to success and Self took us to the brink of a championship run. Hated like hell to lose him to Kansas, but it looked like we might have the last laugh after all when Weber took Self's players to the championship game in 2005.
During all those years, I tried to make it back to Champaign a couple of times every year, and when I couldn't be there in person, Illini games were "appointment TV," and my wife knew never to commit to something else when our games were on. After reaching but not quite conquering the summit in 2005, I suffered through the agonizing steady decline, when Weber just could not get the premier Illinois talent to Champaign, but my love and support for the team never wavered. When the decision to dump Weber was finally made, I kept an open mind on John Groce, and like many of us, after his first year and almost making it to the Sweet 16, I thought that Mike Thomas had batted .500 on his initial hiring decisions. I still never missed a game, and I followed the team as enthusiastically as ever.
But every year since year 1 of the Groce era, through the frustration of continually finishing second in the recruiting of the top blue chippers, and with the occasional and inexplicable home court losses to mid-majors and the maddening playing to the level of Penn State, Nebraska, Minnesota and Iowa, I felt my passion for Illini basketball diminishing with every setback. Over the period of the last two to three years, I pretty much stopped watching the games on "live" TV. Sure, I would tape them, and if we won, then I would watch, but if they lost, why sit through the frustration of bad offensive and defensive execution, bizarre time-out strategy, and simply the team not being ready to play.
So here we are, bounced once again from the Big Ten Tournament after one game, with NO chance of getting an NCAA bid, trying to decide whether we should accept an NIT bid. I hope and pray that Josh Whitman understands the depth of the disappointment, frustration and anger that I feel today. To this point, I believe that Whitman is the best thing that has happened to Illinois athletics since Bill Self came to town. I desperately want to be able to look forward once again to watching Illinois basketball.
The fact that Whitman has refused all requests for interviews, plus the fact that so far, no "leaks" seem to be emanating from the athletic department, I feel that Whitman understands the situation and is working diligently to find and sign the best possible coach to lead us out of the darkness. I pray he is successful.
