Illini basketball fans can distinguish John Groce from Bruce Weber. They know there’s a difference. They prefer John Groce.
For most purposes, I agree. Recruiting is better. The style of play is more entertaining. The arrow is pointing up, for the first time in ages.
But Bruce Weber was better in one category that may be important only to me.
Under Groce, the team is far less accessible to the media. When the Fresh Men arrived on campus in 2011, we got to meet them within two weeks.
Until Weber’s downslide went from disappointing to critical, there was an open practice per week. Beat reporters watched. We came to know the players, and their tendencies. We even knew, and knew about, the guys rotting at the end of the bench on game days.
This year, there was no preseason media op. So on Wednesday, when Groce challenged the media to research a team with as many new players as Illinois; the attendees were likely thinking as I did: Other teams? We still need to learn about your team.
So who are all these new people? What are they like in person? What about on the basketball court?
Finally, I got a chance to ask the group that knows them best: themselves. Wednesday afternoon at the Corzine Gym, we played Word Association.
I gave each player, in turn, a list with eight names. The three veterans and the three transfers were not on the list. We know about the former already, and we can’t utilize the latter this season (unfortunately).
In my hand, I held a list of eight words and phrases. I asked each of the 14 Illini to contemplate the concepts, and pick from their list the name which best exemplified that characteristic or quality.
Remarkably, every single Illini picked the same guy for one of those categories. Fourteen for fourteen. And yes, he voted for himself.
Nearly everybody agreed on one individual for three other categories. In other words, four distinct people dominated four discrete categories.
The way they answered tells us something. Or rather, it tells us some things. I’m not sure what all it tells us, not yet. There’s psychology involved.
You’ll notice that some of the concepts are not quite identical, but similar. Some words might seem insulting, especially outside of a basketball context. Some invite mockery, and others reverence.
Here they are, in their own words. Or at least, their own word association.