The current state of Illini basketball is worthy of an ESPN Films 30 for 30:
“What if I told you, this program was two Deron Williams three-point field goals from winning a national title?”
Hard to believe that was just ten years ago. Now they’re drawing 5,000 people and struggling to finish off teams with RPIs in the 340s. As I wrote a few days before Saturday’s embarrassment at the United Center, Illini basketball was a struggling program in danger of losing Chicago.
I had no idea the situation had already become this dire.
I expected 8-9,000 fans to show up at the United Center, not 5,000. I felt they would not be good enough to blow out the joke of a program that is UIC, but I never thought they would actually be down 5 to the lowly Flames late in the second half.
I’m sure that I’m not alone among website owners in thinking the following- if you’re covering a sporting event, and the attendance that day is 1/4 your page views number on that same day, why should you really be there?
Yes, it’s comparing apples to oranges, but the numbers don’t lie when they tell you “maybe you should be doing something else that day.”
It’s time to take stock of just how atrocious the state of Illini basketball is, and what they can do to fix it. Hopefully, they can recapture the attention of Chicago again too. Consider this the sequel to last week’s piece.
Really How Bad Are They?
There are two teams that immediately come to mind when analogizing the current team.
The first natural comparison is the ’98-’99 squad which went 14-18, 3-13 in league play. Just like today’s side, they had awful point guard play, often resorting to walk-on Nate Mast at the point. I think the current Illini could be as bad as they were, but actually probably worse. That team beat three nationally ranked foes, including an eventual Final Four qualifier in Ohio State, on consecutive nights in the Big Ten Tournament.
Had they beat another Final Four team, Michigan State, in the Big Ten Title game, they would have reached the NCAA Tournament. They almost beat the Spartans during the regular season; losing 51-49 on a Cory Bradford buzzer beater.
The ’07-’08 Illini basketball team was really bad too, as they finished 16-19, 5-13 in conference. Like the ’99ers, they went all way to the Big Ten Title game, but lost. I’d say this bunch is worse than both the 99ers and the ought-eights.
In 1974-75, Gene Barrow’s Illinois team went 8-18, 4-14 in the Big Ten. This was the last Illini basketball team before the Lou Henson era began. The ’15-’16 squad seem about on par with them.
They are probably not as bad though as Harv Schmidt’s ’73-’74 unit; which posted a 5-18, 2-12 Big Ten team record.
Future of Illini basketball in Chicago TBD
The Sports Information Department said that Illinois has plans to keep playing at the UC, but they do not have any future dates or opponents set.
“The contact finished up,” said Groce.
‘We’d like to continue. Against Auburn and Georgia we had good crowds, (we’ll need that) for us to continue to come up here. That’s the direction I’d like to go.”
Crowds and opponents as bad as today will not help the Illini basketball cause in this regard. People vote with their feet/pocketbook, and they have issued a mandate- get better on the court, and get a better opponent on the court with you. That pathetic attendance figure will not help the case for booking more games at the UC or recruiting brand name opponents.
1. Get serious about getting an ACTUAL Athletic Director
Unless this point is resolved, the following five are completely moot. Nothing about the search thus far inspires confidence. They waited several weeks after Mike Thomas’ firing before they even STARTED! There’s actually a STUDENT on the search committee. When Bill Cubit had his interim tag removed as football coach, the interim A.D. himself made a soundbite that conveyed how much the university seems committed to the path of least resistance when it comes to having legitimate big-time revenue producing sports.
Get your marketing slogan(s) ready now:
“2016 Illini Football: It’s not ideal!”
“2016 Illini Football: It won’t Put a Dagger in the Heart of the Program”
From what we’ve seen and heard, the University just does not seem to “get it.” Or there’s just so much instability and chaos within the University leadership that they don’t have the ability to “get it.”
2. Get serious about getting a bonafide Head Coach
The fans know that John Groce is in way over his head. Many of them knew it when last season ended. The problems actually started in March, well before the injury bug bit.
A small elite group of Illini basketball fans (I am not one, I did not see this shipwreck coming) knew Groce would totally whiff when this de facto “6th or 7th” choice hire was made. Groce was a very poor man’s Shaka Smart or Archie Miller- a March madness flavor of the month who got the gig because he led Ohio to a couple upsets on the NCAA tournament’s first weekend and then took a North Carolina team missing its best player to overtime.
Groce isn’t the disaster hire that Tim Beckman was, because there have been no allegations of abuse nor horrible public speaking gaffes that made the program into a national punchline.
However, Groce has declined the product on the field/court as much as Beckman.
3. Don’t just land CPL kids, land the 5-star CPL kids
The most shopworn cliche in Chicago college basketball media coverage is “all this talent here, how come none of it stays home.” It’s such a beaten dead horse. Any time you read, see, hear a journalist do that story, they have instantly identified themselves as a lazy, apathetic hack.
Still no one is closing the deal, and until Illini basketball, or any of the local teams, get it done, we’ll keep hearing it.
The Simeon-Illini basketball “pipeline” story is another tired predictable narrative. Yes, Simeon has produced a lot of great players for Illinois. Kendrick Nunn is one, D.J. Williams might be another someday, but as long as your Jabari Parkers and Derrick Roses keep getting away, then you’re just on a treadmill going nowhere.
4. Market/recruit Chicago, but operate in a vacuum from the horrendous local teams
DePaul is invisible and atrocious.
Loyola is even worse and more irrelevant.
UIC is further down the pecking order than both programs.
Chicago State is below all three.
That’s great for Illini basketball in that they have zero legitimate competition here. Yes, Chicago has pretty much lost interest in Illini basketball, but here’s the good news.
Illinois is still Chicago’s favorite college hoops team. If any of the four programs listed above showed a pulse, then it might help Illinois in terms of fostering rivalries and staging games (even tournaments perhaps) that someone would actually care about, but as of now, I can’t envision that happening.
5. Get Dee Brown out there! As much as possible!
Brown has that new gig in the Athletic Department, and he needs to take that to an Ambassadorial role. He’s from the Chicago area, is the program’s most recent McDonald’s All-American that isn’t a disgrace to the program (and humanity in general) and he’s as photogenic and personable as possible.
He’s the perfect spokesperson; because he lives and breathes Illini basketball. He is to the ILL what Denis Savard is to the Blackhawks.
6. Try to market based off connections to the Bulls, Michael Jordan
Jordan is still as big a name as he’s ever been. His kid played at Illinois. The Illini have played and won some big games at the House that Michael Built. Get creative, place yourself outside the box. Northwestern attaches themselves to the Blackhawks and Cubs in order to promote themselves.
Take a page out of Dr. James J. Phillips’ playbook.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and sometimes writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. The website is also featured on News Now.
Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye. He also appears regularly on numerous television and radio talk shows all across the country. Catch him Tuesdays on KOZN 1620 The Zone.
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