(St. Louis, MO) – Illinois basketball coach John Groce has a great chance of running a successful Illini hoop program. If you look at his first year in Champaign (23-13), his four seasons at Ohio (85-56) and the people he has worked with, you have to expect good things.
In his 20 seasons of coaching he has never experienced a losing record and has worked with some of the great names in college basketball. Groce’s personal winning percentage as a head man is .610 and his overall percentage adding in the records where he was an assistant is .670.
Those records include nine trips to the NCAA tournament and another eight visits to other post season tournaments.
His experience as both an assistant and associate head coach under Big Ten rival Thad Matta and working at North Carolina State with Herb Sendek have prepared Groce for big things.
At the recent Big Ten media day Groce told us he’s hoping for big things for the Illini this season and that his previous experiences were like getting a master’s degree in basketball, but that he has to be ‘his own man.’
The Illini begin a five game season opening home stand Friday night (November 8th). Visiting the State Farm Center will be Alabama State, Jacksonville State, Valparaiso, Bradley and Chicago State.
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