Will John Groce get fired this season ?

It's been an ongoing conversation for the last two months. I say no, but it depends on what happens with their timing hiring a new AD. He absolutely deserves another year so his entire group can prove what they can do when half the roster isn't facing missed games due to injuries.

Brutal headline and caption:

http://www.blackheartgoldpants.com/2016/2/7/10931584/iowa...

My guess is they get an Illinois guy in there like Kendall Gill. Groce will be a HC again someday.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Caq1-XMXIAAob7q.jpg:large

There's the front sports page from the Champaign paper.

Too bad for JG. You can't blame a guy for grabbing the brass ring but you have to hope that they are really ready when they do.

I think about Saul telling everyone who would listen that Ohio is his dream job and he isn't going anywhere. While I hope for his sake that isn't true, I do think that one should stay where they are comfortable as long as they are learning and growing. My guess is that that takes more than a handful of years per stop.

Groce's choice has worked out for us, IMHO, but not so much for him.

I just wish he'd waited for a job with more realistic expectations. He went into a situation where they expected Deron Williams/Dee Brown results from a program that is more of a program that is probably, what, the seventh or eighth-best program in the conference historically?

Indiana, Purdue, Michigan State,Maryland, Ohio State, Wisconsin...maybe then Illinois? Maybe Michigan?

You're right. I shouldn't have said he should've waited. That goes against what I posted at the time. I defended his decision on here pretty vehemently. You're right. You take the money. The coaching pay disparity creates a game theory that nearly demands you take the big job, more for your assistants than anything else. The mid-major jobs are always going to be there for him if Illinois doesn't pan out. Or he'll get a primo assistant's job instantly on Matta's bench if he wants to go that route.

I guess what I should've said is:

There are other jobs right at Illinois' level that don't come with that fanbase, that don't come with the headaches of dealing with Chicago's recruiting three-ring circus and don't put you in the siuation of trying to build while going up against a conference that has risen to a really high level over the past decade. Even Iowa is a predator now. Indiana, Purdue and Michigan have rediscovered their mojo. They've added a resurgent Maryland to the mix. The Illinois athletic department has seemed dysfuncational for a long time.

Illinois was just a pit of quicksand for him from the beginning. That's not re-thinking his decision. It's just that he was never going to be able to build something lasting there. All jobs comes with hurdles. After all, there's a reason the position was open whenever you get a job after someone is fired. But that's an especially dysfunctional place. They've seemed like the Cleveland Browns of athletic departments the six or seven years.

As for the what-if Akron thing: I don't like to play that game. What if Akron did win that game? What if Akron played Michigan and lost by 37 points? What if Akron went to the Sweet 16 and Dambrot left Akron and the Zips are now on a downward spiral in his absence? All possible. Just too expansive for even my jumble-jack mind.

The only thing I saw with my eyes is John Groce got to that stage and when he was there showed he, more than any coach in the MAC in recent history, could coach a team at that level, could inspire a team to play completely fearlessly against bigger, more talented teams in four different NCAA tournament games in two separate seasons.

Groce passes my eye test (Sorry, Elton, I'm commandeering that for my own nefarious purposes) as a coach. I think he'll still end up being a big-time coach at a big-time program. His route will be a little less direct and more meandering than I once thought.

Maybe we can go to Illinois and help John pack up his house ? Plus Dustin will be unemployed like his brother.

Already been addressed on the Illini board early and often



Originally Posted by mrmill View Post
Um ok housed today. We suck. We've sucked forever. John Groce should pay 10% of his salary to DJ Cooper.

Brian's post is spot on......Illinois fans are unrealistic and see themselves as a fanbase as much more relevant than they ever have been. The attractive things such as proximity to family and roots in the midwest as well as the recruiting base are outweighed by the negatives that come with Illinois as a job. Self and Krueger used their time there and moved on while Henson suffered through his first decade and built the chicago/peoria connections to assemble some good runs. A lot of my Chicago area friends are Illini so I hear the casual fans view point as well as those who are hoops fanatics. The landscape from when I lived there has changed....Depaul,Loyola, Illinois and even Notre Dame (for those catlics who feel disenfranchised when we remind them the golden dome is not part of the Chicago Diocese) have changed greatly in stature since the 70's and 80's when I was in Chicago.

Groce is a good recruiter and a good coach. He is going to get caught up in the avalanch e of unreal expectaions and the what have you done lately crowd.

AD choice getting clearer from the Interim Prexie. http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2016-02-09/no-word...

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/college/ct-illinois-...

While I agree with some of this I have to add that if Saul has John Groce's record at Illinois after four seasons we aren't going to be happy either. I hope he gets another year but I'd bet he doesn't. Maybe their expectations are unrealistic but you would expect in year four that the team would start to improve. They haven't for various reasons that may or may not have to do with Groce. But at the end of the day they could possibly end the year with the fewest wins they've had in more than 40 years. I don't think it's unrealistic expectations that are doing John in. It's the on-the-court results. And you can't condemn a fanbase as a what-have-you-done-lately crowd when John's triumphs were at another school. I have no doubt that if he's fired John will land on his feet and succeed at his next stop but I have a hard time blasting the fans for not being happy with what they have seen so far. He hasn't reached even realistic expectations.

Saul better win a MACC before Year 12 or there will be you-know-what to pay!! Wink wink