Is Illinois coach search really a ‘national embarrassment?' UPDATED Groce hired

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I don't remember Bill Self "turning down" Minnesota when we hired Monson, but it's possible it happened. I remember the Gophers doing a bunch of interviews off campus of the hot mid major coaches at the time (and Virginia A.D. Terry Holland was somehow in the mix too) and ending up settling on Monson who (at the time) looked liked the best of the bunch.

The Illinois coaching search seems to have been screwed up by a lot of people who shouldn't have influence in the hiring process trying to exert influence and also the uncertain future of the President of that university (sound familiar to anyone?). I thought Illinois had to go lower than I expected they would have to go to get a football coach and now they same thing is happening with basketball. One of the major issues I see is it becoming public that Smart and Stevens turned them down...Why even go after Stevens when it's public knowledge that you offered the job to 3,4 maybe 5 coaches before going after him? I am really surprised that Lorenzo Romar turned down the Illinois job. It has been rumored in the past that he was ready to leave Washington and I can't imagine him getting a shot at a better job than Illinois.

Maybe John Groce (if he's the guy) will work out, just like it's possible that Jerry Kill works out for Gopher football, but the process certainly doesn't inspire confidence in the current leaders of the University of Illinois.
 

I heard Mike McCollow, FSN guy, on the radio a few years ago. He is a good friend of Bill Self ... he was in Self's wedding, he said. I remember him saying that Self was interested in the Minnesota job. It was reported that Self withdrew, but McCollow said it was Minnesota who was interested in going a different direction.

For whatever that's worth.
 




@GoodmanCBS: John Groce to Illinois is a done deal, source told CBSSports. News Conference likely tomorrow.

Go Gophers!!
 

Interesting. Groce is a decent coach who made a nice NCAA run this year, but is he really ready for the big ten? He has close to a .500 conference record in the mid-American conference. It will be interesting to see how he does with illinois. Wish him well against everyone but Minnesota.....and extra well against Bucky
 



Bruce Weber's record at Illinois

2003-04 26-7 13-3 NCAA Sweet 16

2004-05 37-2 15-1 NCAA runner-up

2005-06 26-7 11-5 NCAA second round

2006-07 23-12 9-7 NCAA first round

2007-08 16-19 5-13

2008-09 24-10 11-7 NCAA first round

2009-10 21-15 10-8 NIT quarterfinal

2010-11 20-14 9-9 NCAA third round

2011-12 17-15 6-12

Totals 210-101 89-65

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/coll...605-5b02-ad1f-8f5d8b107ee0.html#ixzz1qTp6VEjJ

After seeing this out come are the fire Tubby right now, don't even let him pack, people still as ready to run Smith out of town? I've meet Bruce twice and both times he was very nice, once he even gave to his offices number, and the number to some other area schools because I told him I wanted to get out and work some camps that summer. Very smart coach who is great a developing him players. Before anyone tries to contradict that point Nike asks him to talking about this often at clinics and the stands are always full of coaches...

We had a D2 school work out in our gym the day they lost in the Big10 tourny, and I was giving updates too the head coach as we walked to the gym. When I told the coach Illinois lost, right away he said that they had the worst luck he's ever seen, and that the AD made the job impossible to do with his mid season comments. He said that plus a rebounding Iowa, Indiana, and a much better Notre Dame was going to make it very hard to get an up and coming coach to sign on. The state is talent rich, but it's picked over by so many different schools and that if you think that politics in the state are dirty you've never tried to recruit in that state.

I wish John Groce luck unless he's playing the Gophers, but I can't see how this could be taken as a step up. But like I've said for a while now, coaches are not going to be lining up to have their heads cut anymore. The best part about this is if they fire Groce then what? They are stuck with him for at least four years, he's not a good fit to bad.
 

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