My long-winded thoughts regarding John Groce if he is our coach:
There were two "high profile" names brought up on this thread in the early hours of our coaching search. Tom Crean and John Groce. The fact that we are coming away with one of them, to me, is a home run! We could have hired Anthony Stewart, Jamion Christian, or even the McDevitt guy Mes has been gushing over, but all of those guys have never been a head coach in the MAC and cannot be looked at as anything else other than high risk and high reward candidates. There is no guarantee they would have had any success here and they do not have names to generate buzz for instate players.
I do not know all of the intricacies as to why Groce was fired at Illiniois. I did look at his record and he had one losing season, one season with 19 wins, and then had 20 or more wins in the other 3 seasons, including this season. I know how much this board likes our 20+ win season streak! The only difference is that Groce was doing this against the 1st or second best conference in the country in any given year. Now it isn't great, it just apparently wasn't up to a program like Illinois' standards, which is fine. It is certainly not bad I would argue his results were average to slightly above average for a P5 coach. What I do know is that there is quite a bit more politicking at large programs than there are at mid-majors. Some coaches can handle the change, others can't. Exhibit A - Charlie Strong. Charlie Strong was a failure at Texas even though he was a great coach at Louisville and put them on the map. Most probably thought it was a no-brainer that he would succeed at Texas, but the outside influences were apparently a change he had trouble managing. Does that make him a trash coach? Hell no. I would take him in a heartbeat over Bowden and most probably agree considering he was hired immediately at South Florida and I bet he does great things there.
Speaking of Texas, our beloved Shaka Smart is down there for basketball and isn't doing too hot. As a matter of fact, he is coming off of a worse season than Groce ever had at Illinois. Now I will call bullshit to any of you and nothing you can say will make me think otherwise if Texas fired Shaka and you said you didn't want him here because he failed at Texas.
I've seen Indiana fans want him on their staff. I've seen OU fans pissed about us probably getting him. They now think we will dominate the MAC for another decade. Do the fans on here who are unhappy think we know better than everyone else? Well you probably are smarter than the hillbillies down in Athens, but you all are going against the grain so much that it just looks questionable. I think the irrational dislike, whether some want to admit it or not, is because of the success he had at OU. Point out his regular season all you want. He still had a winning record (6-4) against the regular season king in Dambrot in his 4 years.
Groce has great connections all throughout Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Groce is a low risk and high reward hire. We know what he did at Ohio. Its hard for me to hold anything against whatever happens next season as the cupboard was already pretty bare and KD poaching players and other player leaving only makes it worse, but besides from that, AT WORST, I cannot see how we are just a step lower than KD's consistent regular season success. Meaning most seasons you get your 20+ wins, maybe a 19er here or there, but the upside is so much more. He has a history of NCAA tourney success while coaching in our conference and is the only coach to achieve that success in the past 15 years! Better yet, he has done it multiple times! The powerhouse he was on the verge of creating down in Athens before he bolted has been well noted on here. That can be us!
What I additionally like is that he has already jumped to the big school and failed. 1) There is plenty for him to learn from that and make himself a better coach and person. 2) Him failing there will make him less likely to jump up again at first chance if given the opportunity. I'm sure he will want to make a calculated move up, if any, to best ensure success. 3) Him failing there will make bigger schools LESS likely to target him if he has similar success here as he had at OU. They have a sample size and it may make them hesitant to pull the trigger on him. All of this means more Groce for a longer period of time, which is a good thing if its all going good. A young up and comer like the names mentioned above could be here for only even a year or two and then gone and then we are back at this point. Now that wouldn't be a bad thing, but if I had to choose I would take the continuity over risking a new hire every few years.
While I like the hire, I don't root for coaches, I don't root for players. I root for the name on the front of the jersey no matter who is playing or coaching. I hope you all do the same. Put your personal vendetta that exists because he owned our best coach in history aside. We were all concerned about being able to at minimum maintain the status quo and that is very reasonable with him, and his known upside is obviously a huge plus.
Go Zips!!
(hopefully this negotiations don't fall apart and I typed and thought of all of this for nothing).
