In Chicago we always take pride in all of the Basketball talent we have. For whatever reasons it seems the basketball talent does not stay in Chicago or the State of Illinois to play college basketball. For years we always had teams from the city or the State playing in the tournament. It’s been years since a team has even made it in the tournament from the state of Illinois. One of the smallest states in America, Rhode Island, has two teams this year. It took Northwestern their first appearance in the tournament in the school’s history to break the drought of teams from Illinois not making it to the tournament.

Some people will say  how can that be?  All the years the school has been around and 2017 they finally make it to the tournament. Northwestern is a school that has higher standards and will not just take anybody. It was never a basketball school. They had some things going well before they hired Doug Collins, former Bulls coach’s, son Chris. Chris took over the program and has turned things around very quickly. Chis Collins, who sat on the Duke bench for years just soaking in all the knowledge from the best basketball coach in the college game, Mike Krzyzewski. Plus all the knowledge from his dad as a NBA coach. Northwestern had some talent there already and then they bring in a smart guy to turn their program around. Actually put their program on the map. That sounds easy. Why can’t all the other schools in the state do the same thing?

DePaul had a run in the early 80’s. They need to build their own arena somewhere downtown to get out of playing at the All State arena which is their biggest problem, not getting the higher talent.They would attract people being in the city and playing downtown. What happen at UIC?  Jimmy Collins had that program on fire but then they flamed out. UIC is a very nice campus. They are still not getting the talent they need to get back on the map. Just trying to find the right man to give the dedication Jimmy Collins did.  Then you had Southern Illinois in the early 200o’s with Bruce Weber, who had that school doing very well in the tournament. Then he moved on to Illinois, the Fighting Illini. Southern Illinois being known as a party school, you think they would get some Chicago talent. Hanging out at the delta house. Chasing women and playing basketball. Keep your grades up and that’s making some great memories happen. Illinois State I think should of made the tournament this year.They got a raw deal. But they had a good run in the late 90’s. My Brother-in-law went there and had a great time there. Western Illinois, it’s been a long time for them. That was a school I went to visit with friends for the weekend. The town was called Macomb. Their Police department was made up of Andy Griffith and Barney Fife. They  kicked us off of campus and out of town in the wee hours of the morning.  I can see why they don’t get basketball talent knocking at their door.

That leaves us with Illinois, the Fighting Illini. They had two final four appearances in my lifetime. The flying Illini in 89 and the great team they had in 2005. I thought they should of won the whole thing both times.They produced NBA players like Deron Williams, James Augustine Dee Brown, and Luther Head. Before that Kenny Battle, Kendall Gill, Macus Liberty. In between the final four appearances, they made it to the tournament multiple times. I thought the John Groce hire was a good one five years ago. He lead a small school, Ohio, to the tournament. He made it to the tournament his first year then nothing ever since. Illinois plans to go out and make a big splash and open their check book to a coach.It could be a big name like the AD did when he hired Lovie Smith as the football coach. The person they hire will need to know how to get the Chicago basketball players to sign on the dotted line and get them to their school. If you can get someone hungry like Chris Collins who is well seasoned and a great recruiter, that is how you get the program on the map again.

I do hope Northwestern does well in the tournament.I hope they will appear every year. I’d like them to go all the way. However if they can get one win or even two that would be huge for their program. I would love to see all the other schools in the state as well get their programs going well again. Automatically people want the big name. I think these schools need to do their homework and find the assistant on the bench of someone’s staff that is hungry and can do the job as the face of your program. I think these schools need to sign more guys from their backyard rather than letting these stars walk out of Chicago to big schools like Duke and Kentucky. I would find the guy that has roots in Chicago. If not I  would have the new coach snag one of these coaches from one of the high schools to be an assistant on the staff to help recruit the Chicago guy. March Madness is awesome watching. The Northwestern story going on this year with the history being there the first time is must see TV. Hopefully this will get the schools in the state and in the city to fix their problems with their programs so we can see like three to four schools every year making it to the tournament. Then hopefully one of them will win the big dance.