Groce Has Illinois Recruiting Heading in the Right Direction

Quentin Snider

Football season is in full swing but the excitement of college basketball recruiting has many looking forward to the winter. With the recruiting talk comes the discussion and anticipation of seeing where the top two recruits decide to commit. Jahlil Okafor of Whitney Young High School and Cliff Alexander of Curie High School are the hype for the 2014 class and rightfully so.

Both big men possess a feather-soft touch around the rim and a dominance in the paint that darn near nobody possesses at the high school level. Combine the inside dominance with the quick feet and fundamental post game and these two young men are showing flashes of NBA talent. Both have cut their lists of schools down yet neither has declared a timetable for their final decision.

Perhaps the biggest shock throughout the recruiting process for the top two recruits is the fact that University of Illinois head coach John Groce seems to have a legitimate shot at landing the two big men. It seems too good to be true: Illinois being able to recruit the Chicago area? The inability to do just this is part of the reason Bruce Weber was shown the door at the end of the 2011-2012 season. Yet here is John Groce, in the same battle as coaching greats such as Mike Krzyzewski and Tom Izzo for five-star recruits.

Illinos fans have many reasons to be excited about where the basketball program is headed. Since Groce's arrival in Champaign he has managed to reel in two Chicago kids both of whom are from Simeon Career Academy, the best basketball school in the state of Illinois. Point guard Jaylon Tate and shooting guard Kendrick Nunn are sure to be the beginning of a great process at Illinois.

Yet Chicago is not what is going to make or break Illinois' program. Is it a big part of the recruiting process? Yes, by all means. After all Chicago has provided the best talent in the land the past few years with recruits such as Derrick Rose, Anthony Davis, and Jabari Parker coming out of the Windy City.

However, John Groce has already snagged two top 50 recruits for the 2014 class with the commitments of Quentin Snider and Leron Black. With the help of these two future Illini, John Groce's 2014 recruiting class is currently fifth in the nation. A top five recruiting class with the top to recruits still considering the University of Illinois proves John Groce is doing big things. Should things continue to move in the right direction, Illinois will be doing big things too.