Illinois Basketball: Five Head Coach Candidates to Replace John Groce

After a disappointing effort at home against Penn State, it appears that the season is over for Illinois basketball.

It is only mid-February, but it is safe to say that, barring a miracle – and this doesn’t look like a miracle type of team – the Illini have squandered an opportunity to start on the road back to relevance.

This year Illinois was blessed with 100-percent health, a great mix of seniors and experienced underclassmen, one of the best players in the Big Ten in Malcolm Hill, and size and strength to boot.  But a current Big Ten record of 4-9 (14-12 overall) puts the Illini No. 13 in the conference.  That makes them the old lunch meat sandwiched between the stale plain white bread that is Nebraska and Rutgers.

By all rights, at this time of the year – and especially this year – Illinois should be a lock for the tournament or at the very least, on the right side of the bubble.

So with all of the things the Illini seem to have going for them, it begs the ultimate question: What is it that the Illini lack?

To be completely fair, a number of outlets like Lindy’s and Athlon did not have the Illini dancing in their preseason predictions.  But for a huge number of Illini fans who paid close attention to the seasoned talent this team had coming into the year, we figured Illinois had what it took to get there.  Yes, maybe they’d squeak in, but they would be in.

To add insult to injury, not only are the Illini not likely to go to the tourney, but they are failing at that goal in a weakened conference.  As I write, only three Big Ten teams are in the top 25.  And of those, only Wisconsin is in the top 10 (at least in one poll, even after Sunday’s loss to Northwestern).

The majority of teams are in the mushy middle where soft spots are legion and ripe to be exploited by an experienced senior-laden team.  This could have been Illinois’ year.

Alas, the Illini could not capitalize on the weakness (or “parity” as the more generous might put it). So again, I am left asking: What is it the Illini don’t have?

Coach John Groce has said that this is the deepest team he has ever coached.  Based on the results to date, that means that he has either had some really bad teams or the team he has isn’t playing anywhere near its potential.  I think it’s the later.

If Groce cannot get a team with the depth and experience of Illinois to play better than what we have seen so far, it’s time for him to move on.  I don’t enjoy writing those words.  I had no problem giving Coach Groce a pass last year with the injuries and other issues that befell his team.  But that was only with the understanding that this year – assuming good health – would be very different.

But it isn’t different.  In fact, it feels worse.  I am a glass-half-full kind of guy, like Groce.  But my Illini tumbler is a glass half full of stale, cheap beer at this point.

It is time to dump it out.

It was with mounting apprehension last month that I started to look at some coaches in earnest to determine who I thought would be a good fit for the Illini if/when Groce was released.  To be very clear, I have no special insight on whether he will be released at the end of the year, but I am assuming it.  Others, like Loren Tate writing for The News-Gazette, have much deeper knowledge on this topic as displayed in an excellent article last Sunday.

I have boiled my list down to five coaches that I really like.  I have no idea if they would be willing to come to Champaign, though rumors abound that one of them at least is interested and outside of one other possibly, I didn’t find anything that would indicate that they couldn’t be persuaded.

While I would love to have any one of these guys coaching the orange and blue, this list is also designed to reflect the realistic caliber of coach that AD Josh Whitman should be able to attract.

I had three simple criteria.  First, I want a current head coach.  To me, the quality of the coaching is more important than the recruiting. I wanted to look at what the coach had done with the teams he built.  And regardless of how high of a recruiting class he had each year, he needed to be able to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

But, my second criteria is that he needs to be a good recruiter too.  There is no doubt that the simple recipe for success in basketball is good coaching combined with good recruiting.

And that leads logically to my final criterion.  I want someone with a culture of winning.  That is a very simple thing to measure in my book.  To create a winning culture you have to get to the NCAA Tournament regularly.

One thing I did not do is delve into the status of each of these coaches’ contracts.  Suffice to say that each coach’s schools are quite happy with them and it will cost Illinois big money to lure any one of them away.  But I operate on the assumption that Illinois has the money available through various revenue streams to provide any high caliber new coach with a favorable contract.

I also assume that any of these coaches – or coaches of an equal quality – would very likely be able to convince the new recruits to stay at Illinois next year.

Again, any of these coaches would be GREAT in my opinion.  I present them here in reverse order mostly for the fun of it.