GROCE SHOULD BE ‘RIGHT FIT’
This is not going to be music to the ears of the BoomShaka-laka crowd, who feverishly wanted Illinois athletic director Mike Thomas to take the basketball program higher with a more glamorous hire.
But I’ve thought John Groce was a smart choice since his name first surfaced during an angst-ridden coaching search.
And after spending some time with Groce on Monday, I’m even more encouraged with Thomas’ selection of Groce, a former Ohio State assistant who spent his last four years as Ohio U. coach.
Until they start playing games and signing recruits, new coaches tend to be a crapshoot. But Groce is saying the right things about “the right fit” being his top priority when assembling his staff and when on the recruiting trail. He’ll have a better chance of success if he sticks to his “right fit” principles, a concept that bedeviled his predecessor, Bruce
Weber.
When I asked Groce about Jerrance Howard, the Weber assistant who’s in limbo at this point, Groce brought up his philosophy.
“A staff is like a team,’’ said Groce, mentioning roles such as recruiting, player development and scouting opponents. “You don’t put together a team with 13 point guards. People sometimes forget that. Fit becomes a part of the deal, too.’’
Saying, “I’d be foolish not to consider him,’’ Groce said that he and Howard have talked. Groce, who formally announced Monday that two of his Ohio assistants, Dustin Ford and Jamall Walker, will be joining him in Champaign, said he hopes to name his third assistant by the end of the week.
If Groce is undecided about Howard, it appears that Howard, who will have attractive opportunities elsewhere, also is undecided. Howard seems likely to take his Chicago recruiting reputation to a high-profile Midwestern school. That shapes up as Howard’s best choice to reach his goal of becoming a head coach.
If Weber was loyal to a fault when it came to his staff, another reason things didn’t work out for him in Champaign is that he got caught in the middle when it came to recruiting. Unable to resist taking the more talented recruit, he often ended up with a roster that didn’t necessarily suit his Gene-keady-like ways or his motion-offense needs.
“You can fall into a trap if you say, ‘I’m taking this guy because he’s rated this,’ ’’ said Groce, speaking in general terms unrelated to Weber. “Where’s he at in competitiveness, in love of the game, in playing the position relative to what we need? We get names [from recruiting rankings]. Now we have to do our due diligence to see if he’s an Illinois guy.’’
At this point, ‘an Illinois guy’ basically means ‘a Groce guy.’ But the two will become interchangeable if Groce has the success Thomas envisions.
Like Groce, Thomas was beaming proudly as they and new women’s basketball coach Matt Bollant made the media rounds of St. Louis and Chicago in one whirlwind day.
Thomas is exploring the possibility of playing a nonconference football game in Chicago, most likely at Soldier Field, in years when Illinois and Northwestern play in Champaign, so the Illini will have a game here each year.
Thomas is even more bullish on Groce after receiving the congratulations of many basketball coaches and officials at the Final Four in New Orleans.
“If there’s 10 better Xs-and-os coaches and 10 better recruiters in the country, I don’t know who they are,’’ Five-star basketball camp founder Howard Garfinkel told Thomas.
“It doesn’t necessarily win games for you,’’ Thomas said, “but it tells you a lot of people have great respect for [Groce] as a coach.’’
After saying, “I don’t get into all that stuff,’’ when asked about his critics, Groce recalled his first message to the Illini players: “I know you’ve been through a lot. I feel your pain. All I ask is that you be open-minded. If you’re open minded, we’ll be in great shape.’’
When you think about it, that’s a pretty good message for all of Illini Nation.