[ChicagoCaseyParticipant]

 This might be the end of the John Gross era @ Illinois and it should be. He’s been a big disappointment when it comes to recruiting and winning at Illinois. He made it to the NCAA Tournament only one time, his first year as coach. Illinois have a new AD and it can be canned from the job for likely missing the tournament again.

He failed in the state of Illinois in the recruiting front. He can’t get top players and let all the top dogs just get every single top player from the state. At least at Washington Lorenzo Romar can keep the players from the state in state. Illinois is a top 5 state in terms of basketball talent and by just keeping the top players in state would make Illinois competitive.

2 candidates that Illinois should look at as replacements:

• Jerrance Howard – Been a great recruiter in the midwest for Kansas, more specifically Chicago.
• Fred Hoiberg – Could be outsed after this miserable season by the Chicago Bulls. Pretty good XO’s coach.

Who you guys believe could be the next head coach at Illinois and who are the other coaches that should be on the hot seat?

 

 

 

[Robb_CParticipant]

 Illinois will continue to struggle to recruit Top CPS recuits regardless of who the coach is.. Typically Illinois gets the scrap recruits as a desperate attempt to rebuild the relationship recent example Kendrick Nunn, Jaylon Smith etc etc..

All that being said, Illinois has to try a find a coach who can recruit outside of the CPS area and also be able to develop and actually coach guys.. Groce is a terrific recruiter responsible for OSU landing Oden,Conley and Cook. Groce has landed solid talent, he just cant seem to put it together. 

Jerrance Howard- Great Recruiter but has some red tape I dont think hes a fit.

Hoiberg- Would be an interesting hire.

I think Illinois should just hand a blank paycheck to Gregg Marshsll, Hes an absolute perfect fit for Illinois.. 

[Robb_CParticipant]

Correction: Jaylon Smith played football for Notre Dame, I meant Jaylon Tate

[usfballerParticipant]

Scott Skiles- felt he was perfect for the Indiana job before they hired Crean. Skiles’ biggest downfall as an NBA coach was that his guys tune him out after 3-4 years. College would eliminate that problem all together as no one would be there for more than 4 years anyway. Not sure how well he’d handle recruiting (he never pulled punches with NBA stars, can’t imagine it’d be easy for him to kiss the ass of teenage kids and their parents), but hiring a Jerrance Howard or Dennis Gates type of recruiter would make his life much easier. 

 

Lon Krueger- Longshot to get him to leave Oklahoma, but I’d still make him say no before I moved on. One of only 3 coaches to have sustained success at U of I in the last 50 years. Clearly one of the best coaches in the country since he returned from the NBA. Worth a shot is all I’m saying. 

 

Archie Miller- Coach’s kid who played high major ball, has an insanely successful older brother and hasn’t exactly sucked himself at Dayton. Clearly a coach on the rise who would immediately improve the on court performance. 

 

[ChewyParticipant]

 his name is John Groce, not John Gross. If you don’t know his name at 5 years maybe that is just futher proof he needs to go lol

[ChicagoCaseyParticipant]

 Not an Illinois fan. Didn’t know how to spell his last name. Lol

[BiggysmallsParticipant]

 Most fans probably think that spelling of his name sums up the product on the floor.

I don’t care one way or another because I’m a Gophers fan so it’s not like I’m wishing Illinois the best here but I don’t understand why it happens every single year. A college coach at mid major level makes a nice run in the NCAA tournament, upsets a few teams and all of a sudden lands a high major job that he wouldn’t have gotten had things gone to chalk. 

Think that happened with Groce a little bit. His Ohio team got to the Sweet 16 and almost upset Carolina if I remember right. Before that, unless I’m misrembering really bad here, he wasn’t really on the map as a potential up and coming name to watch. 

Now I get that sometimes colleges just have to take a shot on a guy and hope it pans out to a degree. Gophers did that a bit with Pitino given he had one year of head coaching experience at FAU but just like there are probably people that aren’t sure if he’s a long term answer, I don’t know if Groce was ever going to be a long term answer at Illinois. 

 

 

 

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