University of Illinois Athletic Director Mike Thomas a one-year contract extension and $200,000 raise for Fighting Illini Coach John Groce.
Pending board approval, it will keep Groce on the Illini sidelines through 2017-18 season. His new salary is $1.6 million. John Groce directed the Illini to a 23-win season that culminated in an NCAA Tournament berth and subsequent victory to advance to the Round of 32.
For Fighting Illini basketball it was a bitter, unjustified end to a season that far out-kicked it’s coverage. Yes, I’m using a college football metaphor to describe a college basketball season which very pleasantly exceeded expectations. And yes, I’m still bitter about the blown call that even Miami players admitted was a total job.
John Groce won his first 12 games in 2012-13, equaling the sixth-best start in school history and matching the best start ever for a first-year Illini coach. The Illini won the Maui Invitational and recorded arguably the most impressive road win of the college basketball pre-conference season by winning at No. 10 Gonzaga by double figures.
John Groce, the Ohio Bobcats head coach at the time, had recruited Seton Hall transfer Aaron Cosby when he was at Northfield Mount Hermon (Mass.) in 2011. Two years later, John Groce finally landed the Louisville, Ky. product, it was announced yesterday. John Groce has made a pretty big splash with recruiting in his first season. Landing Drake transfer Rayvonte Rice was key. And he hauled in Simeon Wolverines star Kendrick Nunn.
Cosby joins a 2013 recruiting class that is ranked by No. 18 by ESPN. The class also includes five high school seniors — Nunn, small forward Malcolm Hill, power forward Austin Colbert, “THIS is the Colbert Report!!!” center Maverick Morgan and point guard Jaylon Tate.
Go here for our WAY TOO EARLY Illini 2013-14 season preview
Paul M. Banks is the owner of The Sports Bank.net. He’s also an author who also contributes regularly to MSN, Fox Sports , Chicago Now, Walter Football.com and Yardbarker
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