Friday, January 9, 2015

Strugglin' Illini Looking For Good News

Thursday afternoon, another big time prospect targeted by Illinois coach John Groce snubbed the program for yet another powerhouse program. So where does this leave Illinois basketball and the program’s leader?

Before I go much farther, I want to be clear, I’m not calling for Groce to lose his job, nor am I saying he is not the right man to lead the program. If you follow me on social media, you might think I am anti-Groce.
Completely not the perception I want to convey, but I think the picture the media, the fans and the coach are all creating is becoming bigger than what the reality is of the program, thta Illinois is not Kansas. Illinois is not Kentucky.Illinois is not Ohio State. Illinois is not Villanova. Illinois is not Arizona. The list goes on and on.

Five-star big man Carlton Bragg Thursday picked Kansas over Illinois (though his announcement didn’t come without a little drama either), the second time in consecutive years Bill Self has landed a big time big man over Illinois.


While fans may be getting discouraged, and for good reason, I think Groce is not doing himself any favors in his first two and a half years at the helm of the program.


You look at the guys he’s targeted that got fans excited the past few years including Cliff Alexander (2014), Quentin Snyder (2014), Charles Matthews (2015), Carlton Bragg (2015), Jalen Brunson (2015), Juwan Evans (2015), and Elijah Thomas (2015). The Illini have lost out on these guys, and others, after promising recruiting efforts by Groce and company.

Now I am well aware you can’t win all the recruiting battles, unless of course you’re Arizona, Kentucky or Duke, but the fact John Groce has lost all of these is rather discouraging given his calling card was the great recruiter he is.

I know many coaches of these players compliment the work done by him and his staff, but all that is meaningless unless he can actually get these guys to wear the orange and blue.
On top of that, from the day Groce was hired, 2015 has been the class where he would put Illinois on the map with his recruiting, but his best player coming in is Jalen Coleman-Lands (#28 in 247Sports.com ranking, 34 according to ESPN.com). The expectation was Groce would be getting five-star guys, and would win the Chicago area. So far, Groce has been average at best recruiting Chicago. Losing Alexander, Matthews and Brunson were huge hits to the fanbase, not necessarily though, to the program.
What is more discouraging to me though, is the way Groce is recruiting. And what I mean by that, is who he is losing these battles to.

He’s now lost recruiting battles to Kansas (twice), Kentucky and Villanova. Those are elite college basketball programs with guys leading their programs that are at the top of the sport.


Guys like Juwan Evans and Elijah Thomas, who committed to Oklahoma State and Texas A&M respectively, are disappointing when you would think Illinois would be ahead of them in “prestige” of programs, but those are two Texas recruits who obviously wanted to stay close to home. I can’t kill blame them for the decisions they made, and I don’t get upset over Groce not being able to get those guys.

But Illinois basketball, in my opinion, is in a really tough place right now.

They are struggling to win games. The extreme pendulum swing that is Illini fans seems to be back in favor of the program after a Wednesday upset win over Maryland, but keep in mind, the Illini go on the road for two games without their leading scorer.


Adding insult to injury is the fact Illinois has lost three terrible games this year (Oregon, at Michigan, at Ohio State) that I cannot help but put somewhat, if not completely, on John Groce.
On the court, it has been a rough go for John Groce aside from year one, but not only that, the recruiting trail has been more disappointing than I think the Illini fan expected.

After losing out on so many big prospects at the last minute, John Groce is clearly out kicking his coverage in who’s he targeting, and until he starts winning games, not just games against average mid-majors, but consistently against top 25 teams, Illinois fans cannot expect John Groce to be landing the likes of Carlton Bragg, Cliff Alexander or Jalen Brunson, especially when he’s losing out to teams that are perennially playing into the second and third weekends of the NCAA tournament.

It is ironic because a little over a year ago, Groce declared the Illinois basketball program in “a great place”.



“Not a good place, a great place”, he proclaimed, responding to a Chicago-Sun Times article that blasted the Illinois basketball program and the fanbase, just days after Chicago prospect Cliff Alexander juked Illinois fans into thinking he had picked them, but had actually picked Kansas.

In my opinion, Illinois basketball isn’t in a great place, it might be headed to a good place, but Groce has a lot to prove between now and this time next year.
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