John Groce Named Illinois Head Basketball Coach

On Thursday, the University of Illinois announced former Ohio University coach John Groce as their new men’s basketball coach.

Groce seems to win wherever he goes; he led his 13 seeded Ohio Bobcats to this year’s Sweet 16 and nearly advanced to the Elite eight, but lost to one seeded UNC in overtime. Groce was 85-56 as a head coach at Ohio from 2009-2012 and in his 19 years of coaching experience (being an assistant coach and head coach) he has only been a part of one losing season which was in 2008-2009 when his Ohio Bobcats went 15-17 in his first year as head coach. His cumulative coaching record over that 19 year span is 434-212.

Mar 29, 2012; Champaign, IL, USA; Illinois Fighting Illini new head coach John Groce at a press conference announcing his hire at Assembly Hall. Mandatory Credit: Bradley Leeb-US PRESSWIRE

In his many years of experience, he has coached at well-respected basketball programs, such as Taylor, North Carolina State, Butler, Xavier, Ohio State(including a National Championship appearance), and of course, Ohio University.

Not only does Groce have an impressive resume as a coach, he was named Rivals.com 2006 “recruiter of the year” while he was an assistant coach at Ohio State University.

Groce has an established winning tradition and is “Excited to be a part of this once in a lifetime opportunity.”