The idea that John Groce must start landing the top ranked players in the state of Illinois in order to turn the Illinois basketball program around needs to end.

Jalen Brunson, the consensus No. 1 high school basketball player in the state of Illinois, made the correct decision when he committed to Villanova over Illinois on Wednesday.  Cliff Alexander, last year’s consensus No. 1 player in the state of Illinois, also made the correct decision when he chose Kansas over Illinois last winter.

The reality is that the best high school basketball players in the country are going to choose the school that puts them in the best position to play in the NBA. As heartbreaking as these decisions may be to Illini fans, they have to understand that Illinois basketball coach John Groce has done nothing to show top recruits that he can develop them into NBA players. In fact, Groce has not been the head coach of a single player that is currently on an NBA roster. 

The solution to this problem for Coach Groce is obvious. Groce needs to send players to the NBA in order to attract more NBA-caliber talent like Brunson and Alexander. Once there is NBA-caliber talent on board, returning to the national power that the Illini used to be should take care of itself. 

How to reach this solution, though, is where there is a massive disconnect between what the fans think the coaches need to do, and what the coaches actually need to do. 

In order for Illinois to have success in the Big Ten Conference, they need to start developing talent, not recruiting it. 

For starters, take a look at the last time the Illini landed the top recruit in the state of Illinois and see how great of an impact that had on the program. 

While Groce was not the head coach at the time, in the 2010 recruiting class, the Illini landed the two best players in the state of Illinois. Both Meyers Leonard, Rivals.com’s No. 31 player in the 2010 class, and Jereme Richmond, Rivals.com’s No. 35 player, had the size and athleticism to be considered NBA-caliber talent. In fact, both players left school early to declare for the NBA draft, which proves their NBA potential.

Richmond went undrafted after one year in college. Leonard did become a lottery pick after two years in Champaign, but was drafted high due to his potential, not his college performance and is dangerously close to being labeled a bust after playing in just 40 games for the Portland Trailblazers last season.

Despite their immense talent coming out of high school, neither player developed into a quality NBA player during college. Bruce Weber, the Illini’s head coach at the time, was fired following Leonard’s last season in Champaign.

In order to return to being an elite basketball program in the Big Ten Conference, Groce needs to develop his players at an elite level before he can recruit at an elite level. 

Illini fans need to look around the Big Ten to see that it is possible to play with the best, without recruiting the best. 

Start by looking at Nebraska’s Tim Miles. Miles took over a Nebraska Cornhuskers program in 2012 that had not been to the NCAA tournament since 1998, and was simply an afterthought at a school that is traditionally a football powerhouse. There was not a single player on his roster that was rated better than a 3-star recruit by Rivals.com last season. Despite this, Miles led the Cornhuskers to a 4th place finish in the Big Ten regular season standings and its first ever win in the NCAA Tournament. 

Miles developed former 3-star recruit Terran Petteway into the Big Ten’s leading scorer last season and ESPN Insider Chad Ford’s No. 43 best prospect for the 2015 NBA draft. In August, Miles secured the verbal commitment of class of 2015 point guard Glynn Watson from St. Joseph’s High School in Illinois, the program’s first 4-star recruit in the 12-year history of Rivals.com. 

Miles proved that he can develop players, and was able to recruit higher-level players as a result. The facts speak for themselves. 

The comparison between Nebraska and Illinois isn’t perfect. The expectations for the Illinois basketball program are clearly much higher than at Nebraska. And with the Illini’s history of success on the basketball court, they should be. But what Miles did at Nebraska can be done in the Big Ten to a more prestigious program, and it has - at the University of Michigan. 

The basketball program at the University of Michigan has a much better history of success than Nebraska’s basketball program. Like Illinois, the Wolverines have appeared in multiple Final Fours - although its 1992 and 1993 appearances were vacated - and have been no stranger to the NCAA Tournament. 

When Michigan head coach John Beilein took over the Michigan basketball program in 2007, it was in much worse shape than Illinois’ program was when Coach Groce took over in 2012. Michigan had not been to the NCAA tournament since 1998 and was still haunted by the very public Ed Martin booster scandal that forced them to vacate multiple seasons. 

Michigan’s previous head coach, Tommy Amaker, had recruited well at Michigan, but had never landed a recruit rated 5-stars by Rivals.com. Beilein’s first three recruiting classes included 9 players, but just two that were rated 4-stars by Rivals.com. John Beilein turned those 9 players into 2 NBA draft picks, Darius Morris and Tim Hardaway, Jr., and three players who were captains and four-year starters in Zack Novak, Stu Douglass and Jordan Morgan. 

After a disappointing first season at Michigan, Beilein led Michigan to the second round of the NCAA tournament in his second season. By his fifth season in 2011, Beilein captured a share of the Big Ten regular-season championship. Michigan received commitments from a Rivals.com 5-star caliber player in each of its next two recruiting classes, which helped them to a 2nd place finish in the 2013 NCAA Tournament and the 2014 outright Big Ten regular-season championship. 

In his first three recruiting classes so far, John Groce has landed eight players with four years of eligibility, including four of 4-star caliber, according to Rivals.com. It is still too early to tell if any of them will develop into NBA-caliber players, although sophomore shooting guard Kendrick Nunn showed promise when his minutes increased at the end of last season.  

Beyond Nunn, there are certainly players on the Illini roster with great potential and room for improvement. Senior wing Rayvonte Rice is built like a linebacker and has a nose for the basket, which means he’s likely to get a chance in the NBA if Groce can help him significantly improve on last year’s 29.5 percent 3-pt shooting. 

Senior center Nnanna Egwu has played a lot of basketball in his first three years at Illinois and hasn’t showed much NBA potential, but if Coach Groce can help him improve for his final year, his height and shot-blocking ability - he blocked 2.1 shots per game last season - will at least get him some NBA looks. 

While Rice, Egwu and, to a lesser extent, Nunn are more proven players. Freshman power forward Leron Black provides Groce with his best chance at molding a star. Black may not have played a college game yet and may be a bit undersized for the NBA, but he was a Rivals.com top 40 player coming out of high school with great athleticism and four years to improve under Coach Groce. Based off of his pedigree, Black has the best chance of any player on the Illini roster to turn into the savior that fans were making Jalen Brunson out to be.

There is no way of knowing if Brunson really was that savior, or if he ever even liked the idea of being that savior. What Brunson definitely liked the idea of, as he alluded to in his press conference after he announced his decision, is being next in a long line of great point guards to play at Villanova under Coach Jay Wright. 

If Groce wants to ensure that he is able to land players of Brunson’s caliber in the future, he needs to produce an NBA player from the players on his current roster. Whether it is Nunn, Rice, Egwu, Black or another one of the players Groce felt was talented enough to recruit, Groce must prove he is talented enough to develop NBA players if he ever wants to win a Big Ten championship. 

Players won’t dream about being the first great Illini player, but they will dream about being the next great Illini player. Great players want to play for great programs. Great programs are defined by the talent of its coach. If Illini fans truly believe in Coach Groce, then the rest will take care of itself.