His firing should scare John Groce. At Ohio, making the NCAA tourney was more or less enough. At Illinois, he had better produce in the conference and advance deep into the tourney or it will be his head on the block in 4-5 years. Competing against Indiana, Ohio State, Michigan, and Michigan State, it will be far easier said than done.
I'm not so sure about that. In his first year, he took a team and exceeded expectations. Almost knocked off the ACC champion and made the Sweet Sixteen again, which is no small feat. He's earned a lot of trust this year and just wait until he can get his guys in there.
Uh huh. Illinois and Minnesota both: started hot and faded after the weak schedule went bye-bye, finished 8-10 in Big Ten play, both had 13 overall losses, both were highly ranked and then faded, and both finished a win away from the Sweet 16. Groce has a Sweet 16 in his history as a coach...all Tubby Smith has is a national title.
Finish 5th-6th in the conference consistently, play a non conference schedule of mostly nobodies, and not do much in March for a few years and we will see some serious heat on the coach's seat at Illinois.