Whitman is consistently (and at this point, it seems purposefully) saying all the things he needs to be saying as Athletic Director in order to sign "the hypothetical 2017 class."
In his BTN interview a bit ago he again specifically mentioned the amount of scholarships opening up in 2017 and not wanting recruits to wonder who their coach will be.
I think it's quite obvious that after talking with Groce and evaluating the situation, he sees the basketball program as something that could realistically fix itself, and he is purposefully doing everything in his power to help make that happen.
At the same time, he also said in the same BTN interview that Illinois is not going to accept mediocrity in athletics anymore.
I'm not happy about Groce staying as coach, as I believe we could easily bring in a much better coach after this season given the landscape (or lack thereof) of potential job openings this year. Keeping him around feels like accepting mediocrity. However, given the football moves I think it's safe to say that Whitman fully supporting Groce's plan of signing a great 2017 class and seeing what happens next year is better than what the football situation would have been with Cubit continuing on a two-year contract.
Given that logic and the moves he made on the football side, I'm glad he decided to tackle the football situation first and I definitely have faith that he will do the same thing for basketball if that time comes.
In his BTN interview a bit ago he again specifically mentioned the amount of scholarships opening up in 2017 and not wanting recruits to wonder who their coach will be.
I think it's quite obvious that after talking with Groce and evaluating the situation, he sees the basketball program as something that could realistically fix itself, and he is purposefully doing everything in his power to help make that happen.
At the same time, he also said in the same BTN interview that Illinois is not going to accept mediocrity in athletics anymore.
I'm not happy about Groce staying as coach, as I believe we could easily bring in a much better coach after this season given the landscape (or lack thereof) of potential job openings this year. Keeping him around feels like accepting mediocrity. However, given the football moves I think it's safe to say that Whitman fully supporting Groce's plan of signing a great 2017 class and seeing what happens next year is better than what the football situation would have been with Cubit continuing on a two-year contract.
Given that logic and the moves he made on the football side, I'm glad he decided to tackle the football situation first and I definitely have faith that he will do the same thing for basketball if that time comes.
