It’s a poorly kept secret that Valparaiso Vanderbilt Coach Bryce Drew would have taken the Illini basketball Head Coaching job, without hesitation, if offered. While Drew may or may not have been the program’s ultimate savior, he would certainly have been an upgrade over the status quo.
(Update: Bryce Drew hired by Vanderbilt)
Given the current dismal state of the Illinois program, it’s difficult to imagine too many potential new coaching candidates who would not be a step up from John Groce. The 2015-16 team just set the school record for single season losses, and the Illinois basketball program has now missed the NCAA Tournament three straight years; that hasn’t happened in Champaign since 1978-1980.
(Related: Illini Basketball 2016-17 Very Early Season Preview)
They’re also losing hearts and minds off-the-court with a roster featuring a handful of kids with severe character issues. Four Illini basketball players have been arrested and then temporarily kicked off the team in the past seven months. Three of those players were arrested for very serious violent crimes. On top of losing games, hearts and minds, Illinois basketball has become further irrelevant, both locally and nationally, every year that Groce has been in charge.
As interest in the program continues to fade, it becomes all the more obvious that Illini basketball desperately needs a new direction.
It will have to be someone other than Bryce Drew.
ESPN Analyst Jay Williams gave a very strong take on the state of Illini basketball during an exclusive conversation with The Sports Bank this past week. We caught up with him at the United Center, just after Williams was named to a Consultant position with the McDonald’s All-American game.
Williams gave his take on what Illinois must do in order to try and keep the top talent in the state. You’ve heard the age old quandary: Chicago is such a fertile recruiting ground, yet none of the top tier talent stays home, and what can be done to solve that?
Picking up where we left off on Thursday, Williams offered these insights when I asked him what Bryce Drew would bring to the table:
“You have to know how to play the game. I’m not going to sugarcoat you things, right. There’s a reason John Calipari is very successful.”
“World Wide Wes is a very dear friend of his. World Wide Wes knows everybody in the game. Coach K. has a pitch, USA Basketball. You look at Harry Giles, Jayson Tatum, they play USA basketball for him. So what’s your pitch? You need to have an in. Bryce Drew has an aura about him, he has a name.”
“You need a name these days. People get so worried about ‘oh, what’s your Xs and Os? That stuff matters to a certain degree, but that’s why you have a staff. You need to have a name where you can walk into a room and somebody says ‘that’s Bryce Drew,’ or ‘that’s blah blah blah.’ .
“You need to have that in order to recruit these days because you’re not just recruiting kids, you’re recruiting the kids’ family members, you’re recruiting AAU coaches, who work for agents because they’re getting money from agents to run their programs.
“You’re recruiting shoe companies. There’s a lot of politics involved with coaching. It’s not just ‘hey this kid’s a good kid who believes in me, the choice is done.’ There’s a lot of stuff happening in the periphery that makes it extremely challenging. You have to know how to play that game; and excel at it!”
Regardless of your opinion on Calipari, you must give him credit for his masterful marketing. He’s transformed “one and done” into “succeed and proceed.” Reshaping Kentucky into the first and foremost NBA Developmental Program has made Coach Cal a social trail blazer in this regard. He’s helping to advance athletes’ individual rights, but that’s another story which we covered in full at this link.
Krzyzewski is emulating Calipari’s “succeed and proceed” model, and he’s done it by leveraging his status as USA Basketball Head Coach. Many find that practice unfair, but somebody gets to coach the national team, and whoever holds that position will no doubt exploit it as his competitive advantage. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. It’s simply American capitalism.
College basketball is an extremely stratified oligarchy, and the blue blood plutocrats residing at the top will play any angle they can in order to remain there.
If we were in their position, we’d probably do the exact same.
As Williams pointed out, Bryce Drew is a name, and you must have a brand name in order to succeed in the recruiting world. Illini Athletic Director Josh Whitman obviously knows this, it’s why he hired Lovie Smith to lead the football program.
Since Bryce Drew took the Vandy job, they’ll need to find another brand name guy for Illini hoops.
(Jay Williams Exclusive Part 1 Bulls)
(Jay Williams Exclusive Part 2 Illini Present)
(Jay Williams Exclusive Part 3 Illini Future)
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication and Bold Global.
He also consistently appears on numerous talk shows all across the country. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram