It’s January 26th, and our Illini basketball feature story this week is on the head coaching search. Sounds a bit ridiculous, right? Well, would you rather read a game preview/recap right now?
Didn’t think so.
Of course not.
As we pointed out last week, we know what John Groce and this season is all about already. The jury has finished deliberating, and every minute the current Illini basketball coach remains on the job once Illinois has been eliminated from the Big Ten Tournament is a minute wasted.
Thus we begin with four “high risk/high reward” candidates.
Steve Lavin, FOX broadcaster, former St. John’s Coach
I have yet to find an Illini basketball fan who supports this idea. Looking at what a tire fire St. John’s is this year, I totally understand that. #ItsNotIdeal (where we have we heard that before?), but Coach Lavin would still be an upgrade over Groce.
Lav went 81-53 at St. John’s, for the games that he was actually there. Lavin missed quite a few games due to his personal battle against cancer, and the passing of his father. In cumulative, his official SJU record was 92-72, 46-44.
He guided the Red Storm to two NCAA Tournament berths in five years and won the 2011 USBWA Coach of the Year Award for District 2. (He wasn’t eligible for District 9 Coach of the year as he’s not an extra-terrestrial) He didn’t exactly set the world on fire in Queens, but look at how all his predecessors, after Lou Carnesecca, have fared.
St. John’s isn’t what it was in the ’70s or ’80s, so I’m not quite sure what the Johnnies expected Lavin to actually accomplish, working with what he was given.
Steve Lavin brings something to the table that no other available coaching candidate could- name brand recognition. Out of anybody who might be available this March, he’s the closest thing to a rock star coach by leaps and bounds. He can instantly recruit big names to Champaign-Urbana based off his name recognition alone.
And right now, irrelevancy is just as big a problem for Illini basketball as wins and losses. We’ve chronicled how currently irrelevant Illinois hoops is in Chicago.
We’ve also made our best guesses as to how to fix that. The United Center game against joke of a program UIC got about 3-4,000 butts in seats.
Even Comedian Carrot Top or ’90s 1-hit wonder Right Said Fred could get draw more than 5,000 to the United Center.
It’s bad enough already that the UC hosts the McDonald’s All-American game every year, the Champions Classic every other year and all the while the state’s flagship program is a galaxy far far way (metaphorically) from Chicago when it temporarily becomes the center of the college basketball universe.
Lavin is a huge fan of the city of Chicago. He would be here as much as possible, and that would aid recruiting tremendously. Lavin’s only two previous head coaching jobs, UCLA and St. John’s, were in the #1 and #2 market. He could put Illini basketball back on the map in the #3 market where they belong.
Becoming relevant in Chicago again should be a priority for the program. If you don’t understand that, then you can just stop reading here, because you won’t be able to comprehend anything else that follows either.
Jerrance Howard, Kansas Assistant, Roger Powell, Valparaiso Assitant, and Dee Brown, Illinois Athletic Department professional
These were the three candidates listed in Writing Illini’s coaching candidates article published on the Fan Sided network. It’s linked here below. Credit Fan Sided/Writing Illini for doing the piece as I think they might have been the first to take a serious look at Groce replacement candidates.
Here’s the link below:
https://writingillini.com/2016/01/20/illinois-basketball-3-coaching-candidates-to-turn-the-illini-around/
The only three of those candidates I would seriously consider is Jerrance Howard. If you’re thinking the next hire should be a current assistant at a better program, then go Howard. Like with Lavin, you’re getting more of a recruiter than a coach. Howard is high risk/high reward. He hasn’t proven himself yet, but could end up being a steal of a hire.
It seems that Kansas is the program that consistently beats the Illini on blue chip recruiting, and imagine the total meltdown on Illini basketball Twitter if/when Frank Williams’ kid picks KU over his father’s alma mater.
Hiring Howard would likely prevent that. Given the complete dumpster fire that is University leadership right now (not just the Athletic Department leadership, but also those who oversee the A.D.), Howard might actually be the best case scenario.
Regarding the two members of the ’05 national runner-up team mentioned by Fan Sided, Powell could be the next guy after the next guy. Depending on how his career trajectory continues, he might make a perfect fit one day. As of now though, he’s nowhere near experienced enough. He would be great as an assistant on….more on that later.
As for Brown, he’s not a coach. It would be great if he remained a member of the Illini basketball program and took on a much bigger role, but head coach is not that role right now. There’s nothing wrong with appealing to the base by marketing off the ’05 Final Four team, but that shouldn’t be given too much of a priority though either.
This year’s freshmen class was only 7 years old during that magical season, so how much of an impact can that team’s legacy really have in a practical sense?
Ohio State Defensive Coordinator Luke Fickell had a great soundbite on this topic ahead of the Fiesta Bowl:
“They (current class of recruits) don’t know the history of Ohio State football unless we tell them. The reality is they know the last 12, 15 years. They know what that means to everybody.”
Three “too good to be true” candidates:
Chris Mack, Xavier Coach
Not happening; end of story. Good luck getting him away from his alma mater, and better jobs will be open for him if he actually wants them.
Archie Miller, Dayton Coach
He’s the new Shaka Smart now that Shaka finally took a power 5 job. He’s the most sought after March Madness flavor of the month hire as programs vastly overrate NCAA Tournament performances when making hiring decisions. That’s understandable though because college basketball is a very goofy and unusual game in this regard. The postseason is so much more disproportionately popular than in other sports, and hence postseason success means so much more when it comes to generating publicity and revenue.
Groce himself was a very poor man’s flavor of the month hire. All he ever accomplished at Ohio was a couple tourney upsets and then taking a North Carolina team sans their best player to overtime. Because of his postseason record, Miller likely won’t be available for Illinois. And Illini basketball should be wary when it comes to stressing March success above all in the next hire.
Bryce Drew, Valparaiso Coach
Overall, this is probably the dream hire, and the best Illini basketball could realistically do. Plus you would get Powell as an assistant on his staff, and that’s an added bonus.
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 talk shows all across the country. Catch him Tuesdays on KOZN 1620 The Zone.
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