Illinois Director of Athletics Mike Thomas announced Saturday that head basketball coach John Groce and the University agreed to a contract extension that will keep the energetic Groce in Champaign until 2018.
The agreement extends Groce’s current contract one year beyond the length of the original deal, and provides a raise of $200,000 more per year. The salary bump evens him with head football coach Tim Beckman as the University’s highest-paid employee. The extension is pending Board of Trustees approval.
Illinois went 23-13 under Groce’s leadership, including a victory over Colorado in the second round of the NCAA tournament. The Illini missed the postseason entirely the previous year in what was Bruce Weber’s final season.
“We are pleased to extend John Groce’s contract by a year and reward him for an outstanding job in his first season at Illinois,” Thomas said in a press release. “The arrow is definitely pointing up for Fighting Illini basketball, and this helps solidify the commitment by both the University and John to continue moving the program to a championship level.”
Groce’s tenure with Illinois began promisingly, as his team won its first 12 games, including a Maui Invitational championship and victory over eventual-No. 1 seed Gonzaga. The Illini rose to as high as No. 10 in the rankings before a slump knocked them out of the top 25 for good.
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Illinois lost six of seven games in conference play before a victory over then-No. 1 Indiana spurred a stretch in which the Illini won six of seven games to all but secure an NCAA tournament berth.
A Brandon Paul buzzer-beater carried Illinois over Minnesota and into the second round of the Big Ten Tournament, where it lost to Indiana. After beating Colorado in the first weekend of March Madness, a hard-fought 63-59 loss to Miami ended Groce’s first season at the helm for Illinois.
“This was one of the most gratifying seasons of my career because of how much I enjoyed coaching this group of players,” Groce said in a press release. “They bought in from Day One, had great attitudes, and gave tremendous effort, which allowed us to have success.
“We are very excited about the direction Illinois basketball is moving.”
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