Illinois Basketball: Final top 5 coaches to replace John Groce

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Jan 23, 2016; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Illinois Fighting Illini head coach John Groce in the second half against the Minnesota Gophers at Williams Arena. The Illinois Fighting Illini beat the Minnesota Gophers 76-71. Mandatory Credit: Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports /

The Illinois basketball team just finished up their season with a 20-point loss to the Michigan Wolverines in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament.

This was a game that Illinois needed to win to have a hope of making the NCAA tournament. Not only did the Illini lose but they got blown out in ugly fashion.

Losing like this is unacceptable. John Groce now has four double-digit losses in the nine Big Ten Tournament games he has coached since becoming the leader at Illinois. That is unacceptable for this great program.

I want this program to win and with Groce at the helm that will not happen. He has had five seasons to make things right and this team continues to miss the mark and now Illinois has four straight missed NCAA tournaments.

So with speculation of a coaching change looming before this blowout, let the flood gates open up because this was a horrible loss in arguably the biggest game of Groce’s career.

I have posted top five lists about who I think some options are for the future Illini head coaches in the past. These lists included the mid-major options and some options that would be interesting. But throughout the season my list has changed and now I finally have a solid list.

Here are my final top five head coach candidates to replace John Groce.

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