CGMAN618

I can almost guarantee you if groce doesn't make the NCAAT this year, he will be gone regardless of how good a recruiting class he is bringing in. No recruiting class should ever be able to hold any program hostage over a coach. He just hasn't produced the results. Whitman knows this, and he very well may have fired him last year if he hadn't been too consumed with straightening out the football department. The only recruit I would be worrying about losing would be Tilmon, and he would most likely be KU bound. Any decent coach would be able to come in and have these guys playing at a much higher level and that's all it will take

Illinois will most likely be offering Smith tomorrow I think. Supposedly there is a visit scheduled, probably before or after the game. As far as the talk about Smith and Mizzery, I believe he was verbally committed to them on a baseball scholarship but had a shoulder or arm problem that is going to prevent him from playing baseball. That's why all of a sudden he is a new "name" on the market. He has blown up this year and could challenge Goodwin & Tilmon for Mr. Basketball

I don't think there is any chance he ever comes back to college either. I could see Billy Donovan coming back to coach college before Stevens does

I just looked and 247 & ESPN has it at 11, Rivals @ 9, Scout @ 14

I agree. I was less than thrilled with the Groce hire at the time but in his first season, he took a team that completely folded on Weber and lost an NBA lottery pick in Leonard, and had them one bad call away from a sweet 16. I got behind him after that. He started getting better recruits but injuries and off court issues the next few years really put a damper on things. Now he finally has a little momentum on the recruiting trail but it's put up or shut up time. I would honestly like to see them pursue Archie Miller if they let Groce go this year. I think he has a solid resume

Honestly, the sane , level headed Illini fans (myself included) don't think he is a cheater. Unfortunately, due to the large fan base we have, there are a lot of idiot, crazy, unrealistic fans that make the rest of us look bad and a large number of trolls that appear on message boards. I think Travis Ford would have been a great hire 5 years ago instead of Groce, but after watching his teams at OK St, I would not be as thrilled now. Not saying he is a bad coach, just hasn't done as well as I would have expected given the recruits he was able to get. I might be wrong, but I thought I read somewhere that Groce has as many NCAA tourney wins as Ford does. But I think he will do well with you guys and he is a hell of a recruiter. As for Anderson from Mizzou.....thanks, but no thanks lol. The last I seen, yes, we have a top 10 class coming in. Now, once the spring signing period ends and the class is wrapped up I'm sure it will fall to around 15, depending on what happens with our remaining scholarships, maybe even 20 but still great considering the past few years

First off , I never stated that we would get a high major coach with multiple ncaa wins. I simply said a good coach with a proven record. Nobody in Illini nation thinks we are pulling Izzo, or coach k away from their schools. But there are a lot of good coaches out there, even at mid majors that have been successful that we could go after. You cite our last 3 coaches came from mid majors, but we pulled Kruger away from Florida before we had Self, so anything is possible. The fact that the college basketball landscape has changed since then has absolutely no bearing on who we could get to come coach here. I would even argue our program was in worse shape then than it is now. We were coming off probation from the Deon Thomas ordeal then. And any potential coach we may hire will not be taking on a rebuild. We already have good players in place to go along with a top rated incoming class. This job is a much easier sell now than it was 5 years ago. Yes, we thought we had a chance with Smart and Stevens then, but the fact that our former AD Mike Thomas was a complete a-hole played a huge role in that too, not just the program perception. Coaches leave programs all the time for various reasons and any coach could objectively look at our roster and incoming class (Top 10 overall and #1 in the big ten) and see that they could win right away. This is not a rebuild. Look, I'm one of the more level headed Illini fans you will ever meet . All I am saying is if Whitman doesn't feel like he can get a better coach than groce, he is not gonna fire him just to take a chance on someone else with no better of a track record. He will just stay the course. And despite Groces flaws, the fact that he has landed a top 10 class given the last few years results speaks volumes IMO. That is why Whitman will only fire him if he knows he has a homerun hire waiting in the bag. I mean, there isn't an illini fan out there that ever dreamed we would have landed Lovie Smith to take over the football program (which was in far worse shape than basketball), but he did it. That's why I said that I have confidence in him to make the right hire if he does indeed fire Groce. He is a man with a vision, and will not settle for a second rate coach. I'm sure you guys never thought you would get a Travis Ford to come and coach, but you did. Anything is possible these days and in the end. ..... $$$$ always talks

Not saying he would. Just saying if retaining Walker as an assistant would help to keep Tilmon committed, then I'm sure he will do what he can to make that happen. Of course, all that depends on whether the new coach is ok with it as well. If a new coach doesn't want Walker, and doesn't care if losing Walker means losing Tilmon as well, then it won't matter. Whitman will not force a coach to keep an assistant just for a recruit, no matter how many stars are next to his name. One advantage he has is that Tilmon and the rest of the class are signed already. So even if he does fire Groce, he has the opportunity to hire a new coach and give him the chance to convince recruits to stay before he releases them from their LOI. Malcolm Hill had verbally committed to Bruce Weber, but Groce was able to convince him to stay with Illinois

Hard to say for sure what would happen if Groce were fired. I'm sure the AD is well aware of the role that Walker played in this recruitment and will do whatever is necessary to retain him if it means keeping Tilmon. I'm also confident if Groce is fired , he will not be replaced by another unproven mid major coach. He will get a good coach with a proven record that will be able to keep the 2017 class intact. But, as Brianstl stated, if Tilmon wants out of his LOI , he will be released. It would be a PR nightmare and hurt future recruiting if he doesn't

No, I highly doubt the AD let's his thoughts known to anybody. Neither do the big time donors. But there are a number of donors and other people that are connected to the program that do. I'm just saying what some of the trusted posters that I know have said. You can take it how you want. But Whitman has backed groce continually and there is no way Groce would have landed a top 15 class without assurances that he would be there to coach them. Like I said before, it could happen in the wake of a horrible season, not saying it won't but it's highly unlikely at this point

We had Kris Wilkes who choose UCLA over us and Indiana but he was a 3 . Then Mayan Kiir chose VCU, he was being recruited to back up or play along side Tilmon but he most likely wouldn't have challenged Tilmon for any PT and I doubt Tilmon was scared off by him

I will. Honestly the whole hot seat thing is more a media deal than anything, and rival coaches are saying it as well. Groce seat may be warm but it is not hot at the moment. The incoming class has pretty much assured Groce job another couple years. It has been pretty well accepted on loyalty board. Now, barring a meltdown of epic proportions this season, he is safe for the time being. I do believe though, that if there is a complete failure this season, Groce could get canned but with the new AD we have I have full confidence he will make a homerun hire. Someone good enough to convince the incoming commits to stay. Look what he did with the football hire

I'm not 100% sure about that but I thought it had to be signed and turned in. Now, turned in could mean just to the NCAA and not the school so I guess the school might not know

No, it had been scheduled for a while. it was a press conference to announce the 2017 class of commits. He has held one every year the day after the end of the fall signing period. That's one reason that makes me think he did sign with us. Can't imagine Groce would move it back till after Tilmon announces if he knows Tilmon is going elsewhere. Can you imagine the amount of questions he would have to field as to why he lost him? I wouldn't want to deal with that. lol

I agree. I can say that the whole inferiority complex with a lot of fans runs much deeper than just the Alexander hat trick (which was the ultimate d**k move, considering 1 hour before he told Groce he was coming to Ill) It really started back with Eric Gordon and his signing day flip. The night before his father was on Illinois boards posting that he was coming there. That's why there was so much hatred toward his family when they played in Champaign the following year, someone got kicked out for throwing something at his father. Also, I think it was the day before Cliff Alexander, we had Quentin Snyder who had committed to us then pulled a signing day flip and faxed his letter to Louisville, so that's why alot of fans are that way

Hello slu fans, Illini fan here and I promise I come in peace. Been checking these boards occasionally for the past few months and thought I would weigh in/share info. First off , congrats on landing Goodwin and Gordon. It seems Ford is on the right track to turn your program around . As for this Tilmon recruitment, what a wild one. Hard to say for sure what we are gonna find out tomorrow. I have been hearing mixed messages. Now, I'm not a true insider but from being on the Illinois Loyalty boards for several years now, I do know which posters have legit info (which is only about 3-4), and which ones are trolls . I can say that the one poster who has been 100% accurate in the recruitment of the ESL players said that tomorrow will be a good day. He has never led us wrong and even warned us 2 weeks before any news broke that things had changed with Goodwin. I'm thinking the whole Corey Evans/Jerry Meyer twitter thing may just be to get page clicks, but who knows. One thing I have learned over the years following recruiting is you never know what's gonna happen