Illini Need to Fight Urge to Focus on Windy City and Lean on Small Towns

Departing John Groce inherited a gross situation five years ago after two fellow mid-major coaches rejected overtures from Illinois. If not, he probably wouldn't have watched both Kansas and Villanova feature a regular-rotation player from Illinois in the 2016 South Regional final. The Illini are one of the 10 schools with the most Top 20 appearances but are closing in on duplicating the disarray of the 1970s when they failed to finish in the Top 20 of a final wire-service poll or appear in the NCAA playoffs the entire decade.

There is no question Gross' program struggled after almost half of its roster was apprehended the previous campaign. Illini Nation couldn't be all it could while fending off Duke (lost Jabari Parker and Jahlil Okafor to Chicago native Mike Krzyzewski) and Kansas (Cliff "Hat Trick" Alexander) for elite in-state recruits. Illini fans are disheartened because close only counts in hand grenades and bombs, horseshoes plus drive-in movies; not recruiting. Former Illini coach Bill Self previously lured Chicago-area All-Americans Sherron Collins and Julian Wright to KU. Additional Windy City regal recruits shunning the Illini since they reached the NCAA title game in 2005 include Jalen Brunson (Villanova), Quinn Cook (Duke), Anthony Davis (Kentucky), Eric Gordon (Indiana), Derrick Rose (Memphis) and Tyler Ulis (Kentucky).

After compiling a losing Big Ten Conference record over the last 10 years, it boils down to in-state recruiting for Groce's successor (Brad Underwood). Among the Illinois natives who earned All-American status during the '70s with other universities were DePaul's Mark Aguirre (from Chicago), Minnesota's Jim Brewer (Maywood), Indiana's Quinn Buckner (Dolton), Penn's Corky Calhoun (Waukegan), Illinois State's Doug Collins (Benton), DePaul's Dave Corzine (Arlington Heights), Marquette's Bo Ellis (Chicago), Michigan's Rickey Green (Chicago), Kentucky's Dan Issel (Batavia), Iowa's Ronnie Lester (Chicago), Colorado's Cliff Meely (Chicago), Bradley's Roger Phegley (East Peoria), Kansas' Dave Robisch (Springfield), Marquette's Lloyd Walton (Chicago) and Jerome Whitehead (Waukegan) plus Georgia Tech's Rich Yunkus (Benton). Four of these standouts were All-Americans in the same season - Buckner, Ellis, Green and Walton in 1975-76.

New York is only state boasting more products than Illinois to become All-Americans outside their state borders. Kansas, earning #1 seeds in NCAA tourney the past two seasons, has been a thorn in the Illini's side for an extended period. Alexander, Collins, Wright, Robisch and current frontcourter Jamari Traylor were preceded at KU by the following '70s recruits from Illinois:

• Roger Brown (Chicago) - Leading rebounder for KU's 1971 Final Four squad.
• Seven of top eight scorers for Jayhawks' 1974 Final Four team - Norm Cook (Lincoln/All-Big Eight Conference first-team selection), Dale Greenlee (Rockford), Tom Kivisto (Aurora/all-league first-team selection), Roger Morningstar (Dundee/two-time all-league second-team selection), Tommie Smith (Kewanee), Rick Suttle (East St. Louis/three-time all-league selection) and Dave Taynor (Bethalto).
• Donnie Von Moore (Chicago) - End-of-the-bench forward for 1974 Final Four squad averaged 8.2 ppg, 5.8 rpg and 1.6 bpg the next three seasons.
• Herb Nobles (East St. Louis) - Leading rebounder and second-leading scorer in 1976-77.

Comparable to several decades ago, focusing its recruiting efforts on Chicago won't be a panacea for the Illini. If freedom of speech means anything to PC police, too many players UI summoned from there to Champaign seem as if they'd be more comfortable disrupting a Donald Trump rally or helping the municipality's Godfather enforce sanctuary considerations for illegal aliens. The "audacity-of-hype" truth is that the Windy City might be delusional and won't always supply a Messiah providing the "hope and change" you're seeking. Thus, the Underwood coaching staff needs to take every back road in the state to generate roster value preventing Wisconsin's Ethan Happ (Milan; population: 5,110) and Valparaiso's Alec Peters (Washington; population: 15,815) from becoming All-Americans for other Midwest universities. After all, Issel and Yunkus were among 22 different major-college A-As in less than 30 years coming from Illinois high schools in towns with populations smaller than 20,000. Bigger isn't always better or worth your time and energy. In other words, the leader-depleted Illini can't permit quality playmakers such as Wichita State's Fred VanVleet (Rockford) and West Virginia's Jevon Carter (Maywood) to abandon the state and become standouts for Top 20 teams hundreds of miles away from their Land of Lincoln hometowns. How good would Illinois have been the past several seasons if Carter, Happ, Peters and VanVleet had been in its regular rotation coupled with Wisconsin's 2014-15 unanimous national POY Frank Kaminsky (Lisle; population: 21,180).