The last decade or so has been rough for the Illinois basketball fan base.
Most Illinois fans remember the glory days of Lou Henson and what the program meant at the time. But, I wasn’t born then and couldn’t experience the run to the Final Four by the Flyin’ Illini. Those were special times for this legendary program.
My first coaching experience was with Lon Kruger. He inherited an Illinois team left by Henson that was still solid but wasn’t competing for a title. Success came quickly for Kruger making back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances in his first two years at the helm. And then one of the more memorable seasons happened in program history.
Illinois managed only 11 wins in the 1998-1999 season. This was a young ball club led by freshman Cory Bradford. That team was competitive, though, despite their less than stellar record. They entered the Big Ten Tournament as the lowest ranked team in the conference and managed to stun the world with a run to the title game against Mateen Cleaves and the Michigan State Spartans. The game wasn’t close but that run started something special for this program.
Kruger spent one more year in Champaign before taking the Atlanta Hawks job in the NBA. In steps Tulsa head coach Bill Self. Self was an extremely impressive head coach, taking Tulsa to the Elite Eight the year before bolting for Illinois. He came in at the right time as well.
Illinois continued to win under Self. On top of the winning came the ability to recruit even better players than the team already had. The class of 2001 and 2002 set up the Illini for future success. Self brought in these classes and in the meantime, he had three straight seasons with at least 25 wins. A shift in the coaching world would send Self to Kansas after only three seasons, though.
Bruce Weber was the next man up. He was a talented coach from Southern Illinois who went to back-to-back NCAA tournaments with the Salukis. On the court, Weber capitalized off the great recruiting by Self. In his second season, he helped lead Illinois to the national title game against North Carolina. While the Illini didn’t win the game, things seemed to be trending up for the program.
The problem with Weber is that the recruiting pond started to dry up and he couldn’t get players to come to Illinois. He didn’t use the team’s success to continue bringing in the top talent from around the country. Toward the end of Weber’s tenure with the program, he started to make the postseason every other year. The final season was a disaster under him, and he was let go by new athletic director, Mike Thomas.
Thomas hired John Groce to fill in for Weber. Groce was a good mid-major head coach with Ohio. His final season with the Bobcats was special as he won 29 games and made the Sweet 16. This got him hired to coach the Orange and Blue. The first season under Groce seemed solid. Illinois made the postseason and was close to advancing to the Sweet 16. But, that was the only time Illini fans would go dancing in the five seasons under Groce.
Groce was fired after year five and now Illinois fans have a reclamation project led by Brad Underwood. I trust what Underwood is doing, and I think he is going to make this program special again. But, the past four coaches since Henson was on the bench have been a roller coaster of emotions. It seems that fans agree who is the best out of the bunch, though.
Which post-Henson coach did you like the best? #Illini
— Writing Illini (@WritingIlliniFS) March 26, 2018
In a Twitter poll, 62-percent of fans thought Self was the best coach post-Henson. This was the obvious answer, I feel. But, what surprises me is Weber came in second. He drew 18-percent of the vote. Kruger was in third with 17-percent. Groce was in the back of the pack with 3-percent.
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I think Self was easily the best coach and recruiter for the Illini post-Henson. He was one coach I wish we didn’t let get away. You can’t travel back in time, though. I think Underwood is going to be just as good as Self. He has a blank slate. He can make this team whatever he wants. Just wait Illini fans, something special is about to happen.