Klee: Jalen James, Illini part ways
CHAMPAIGN — Throughout the first two months of his tenure as the Illinois coach, John Groce has talked about “the right fit.”
He said the Illinois job was the right fit for him. It’s how he pieced together his staff and how he described his approach to finding players.
If nothing else, he is sticking to his word. The new Illinois staff decided Class of 2013 point guard Jalen James wasn’t the right fit for the Illini.
James, who committed to Bruce Weber’s staff, is no longer committed to Illinois after the Illini elected to part ways on Wednesday.
“There are no bad feelings at all. If you’ve got questions, it’s better to address them now rather than later,” said Illinois Wolves director Mike Mullins, who coaches James on the club circuit. “Coach Groce and Jamall (Walker) handled the situation forthrightly. Just like he’s picking his own staff, he reserves the right to pick the best players that fit what he wants to do.”
James is a rising senior at La Lumiere School in LaPorte, Ind. He previously attended Chicago Hope and committed to Weber’s staff in June 2011. It was a quick decision that came while James was driving away from campus after receiving a scholarship offer from Weber.
Now, instead of signing a letter of intent with a program that was lukewarm on the commitment, James figures to have options on where he will attend college. SMU, Marquette and Colorado are three schools that inquired about James’ availability.
Illinois Wolves is the state’s most successful club program and has three alums on the Illini’s projected 2012-13 roster. Mullins reiterated the decision won’t affect his program’s longstanding relationship with Illinois.
“Jalen has work to do. He’s improved. But he still has work to do to get to where he needs to be — on the court and in the classroom,” said Mullins. “He knows that. This decision isn’t something that surprised him.”
And Illinois is on the market for a 2013 point guard — one that is deemed to be a better fit for Groce’s style of play.
“I truthfully believe this is a win-win for Jalen and for Illinois,” Mullins said. “It’s neither a negative for coach Groce or for Jalen. We support them and what they’re doing and we’re looking forward to a long relationship with Illinois, just like we’ve always had. We appreciate his honesty and so does the James family.”
Ask beat writer Paul Klee about it here as he'll be chatting Thursday.
Best wishes to Jalen. He sounds like a great kid.
I completely respect Coach Groce's philosophy on fit and recruiting players to play the style that he wants to coach. Teams win games. It's not just about throwing a bunch of talented players out onto the court. There has to be team chemistry.
Personally, I'm looking forward to watching an Illini team that exhibits some "T-n-T" and has a solid team identity, even if it possibly means taking a bit longer to get the program where we'd like it to be. I think that Illini fans will strongly back a team that has the kind of fortitude to fight back from being 15 down to a team like UNC and take them into overtime. It's time to put some fight back into the Illini and it sounds like Coach Groce is just the man to do it.
Go Illini!
Illinois Wolves director Mike Mullins put it best when he told me last night: "I truthfully believe this is a win-win for Jalen and for Illinois." I agree 100 percent, wholeheartedly, with all that. We'll know in a few years if this was the right decision. I expect it will be. -- Klee
No. Don't just take him.
I supported Coach Weber, but quite frankly got tired of seeing a collection of talented individuals that started the season in the rankings only to never live up to expectations. We had a first round draft pick (possibly the highest ever drafted Illini in the NBA) and couldn't even make the NIT?!
No thanks. I'm quite happy to let Coach Groce choose the types of players that he wants to have on the team.
First of all, Mike Mullens isn't going to say anything bad about his players or a program publicly, so I take most of these statements with a grain of salt. And I would agree with you on this matter, except for the fact that this is a PG. And we need PG's like a fat kid needs cake. Jalen James may not be eltite level talent(do you honestly think we can replace him with elite level talent?), but I think he can develop into a consistently good college player. He always trys to stay motivated, he has a good work ethic, and he's unselfish and all about team first. Sound's like a good personality to me. I think you should always have PG depth in your roster, because it's getting harder and harder to find that guy these days.
Like I previously said, it sounds like Jalen is a great kid and I really do wish him well.
Just as Mike Thomas has let his head coaches choose their staff, I believe that we also need to let the coaches choose the players that they want to play on their teams. Jalen is obviously talented. He's rated as a 4-star recruit, but why bring someone into a system who doesn't match the style of play?
> And we need PG's like a fat kid needs cake.
Ah, the fat kid may *want* the cake, but probably doesn't *need* it. ;-)
There are a number of attributes, such as ball-handling, shooting, passing, defense, rebounding, perseverance, leadership, speed/quickness, potential, coachability, game IQ, attitude, personality and performance under pressure, just to name a few, that coaches are going to look at to try to evaluate a potential recruit. Depending on the coach's desired style of play, different coaches will weigh these attributes differently. In this case, I'll take Mike Mullins at his word that this is probably best for all involved.
Teams need to be more than a collection of talented players. Did the team with the most talented players win the NBA championship last year? (Will they this year?) I truly believe that the 2011-2012 Illini team had a level of player talent high enough to get them into the NCAA tournament.
The Illini need point guards, but the point guard is often the closest thing to a coach on the floor and out of all of the positions, I can understand why Coach Groce would want to make sure that he has a player with the right "fit" instead of perhaps the most stars. We'll just have to wait and see how it all turns out.
Like the Rolling Stones said,
You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes
You just might find
You get what you need
More Like This
- Klee: Point guard critical in Groce's system
- Klee: 'Welcome to the NBA' coming soon for Leonard
- Klee: Illini's Henry suffers ankle sprain
- XRM and the 'D-Will Effect'
- For Demetrius Jackson, it's... Thursday
- Klee's Corner: Of Buckeyes, recruits and Dee
- Klee's Corner: On Malcolm Hill, Maverick Morgan and recruiting changes
Most Commented
-
Wed, 8:58 am
-
Thu, 12:42 pm
-
Tue, 12:02 am
-
Fri, 10:41 am
-
Tue, 9:16 am
Most Viewed
-
Sat, 6:03 pm
-
Thu, 6:07 pm
-
Fri, 2:42 pm
-
Thu, 12:42 pm
-
Fri, 2:40 pm
Social Media
Comments
News-Gazette.com embraces discussion of both community and world issues. We welcome you to contribute your ideas, opinions and comments, but we ask that you avoid personal attacks, vulgarity and hate speech. We reserve the right to remove any comment at our discretion, and we will block repeat offenders' accounts. To post comments, you must first be a registered user, and your username will appear with any comment you post. Happy posting.