Illinois Basketball: Five Illini Head Coach Options for 2017

The Illinois basketball team has struggled over the last five seasons.

Illinois has only made the NCAA Tournament one season out of the five that John Groce has coached, and that year they barely made it in.

With the declining record and the constant fan disapproval, I think it is time for a change at the top for the Illinois basketball program.

Listen, do I think Groce is a good guy?  Sure, but if you are hired into any profession and all you bring to the table is being a good guy then you aren’t likely to keep your job very long.

The course of Groce’s tenure with the Illini has been rough.  There hasn’t been much success and the only glimpse of it happened so long ago people are starting to forget.

But, thankfully, Illinois is still a good program.  They have a newly renovated arena and they are in a location that is near a hotbed of talented recruits.

Illinois also has a nice stable of players already with the program and committed for 2017.  That is a huge bonus for whoever comes in.

I have no doubts that this program will rise again.  There is way too much upside for the Illini to be at rock bottom for too long.

Here is a list of the top five candidates I am looking at right now, in no particular order.