Good time for a little wishful Illini thinking

The definition of futility might be wishing for something you can’t have.

So I won’t wish that the timing were right for Illinois to hire Shaka Smart as its basketball head coach.

Nobody in power down in Champaign seems inclined to want to replace Bruce Weber.

It would be cool, though, wouldn’t it be?

Not even staunch Weber supporters could watch Virginia Commonwealth beat Kansas on Sunday and not wonder what the Illini would be like with Smart as coach.

Remember, that’s the same Kansas team that knocked Illinois out of the NCAA Tournament a week earlier.

My goodness, what an impressive performance by VCU, which has gone from a team many believed didn’t belong in the tournament to one in the national semifinals.

The Rams did everything against Kansas that Illinois didn’t, especially play with purpose that evolved from confidence that evolved from preparation that evolved from coaching.

VCU played what Smart calls “havoc” defense, energetic and aggressive and defiant in a manner rarely seen from Illinois.

“Nobody believed we could win, but these guys thought we could win,” Smart said of his players. “They put all doubters aside and went out and did their jobs.”

Now, as compelling as how VCU will do in the Final Four next weekend is where Smart will be coaching next year.

The youngest coach in the tournament at 33, Smart might be only the flavor of the day or a coach for the ages.

Perhaps Smart will resist temptation and remain at Virginia Commonwealth.

Brad Stevens stayed at Butler after getting the Bulldogs into last year’s championship game and has them back in the Final Four this year.

(Just for the record, of course Stevens would be another great hire to take Weber’s job if it were available.)

Anyway, Smart more likely will move up from the midmajor Colonial Athletic Association to a high-major conference. He was linked to Tennessee before the Vols hired a coach Sunday, Missouri needs a coach, and other jobs surely will open.

Excuse me for thinking, “Oh, why oh why not Illinois?”

OK, I’m stopping myself right there. The Illini don’t need a coach, or to put it more accurately need a coach but don’t have a vacancy.

It’s just that this Shaka Smart guy is so intriguing. Come on, his name is Shaka Smart! Just think how much fun it would be to have new life with an emerging coach named Shaka freaking Smart!

But there appears to be more to Smart than that, as DePaul coach Oliver Purnell, one of Smart’s longtime mentors, expressed to the Daily Herald’s Lindsey Willhite in Sunday’s editions.

If that isn’t enough for you, then find the recent Washington Post article on Smart.

It turns out there’s a Chicago connection: As a youngster, Smart spent some time here during summers with his maternal grandfather.

It was a short trip from Oregon, Wis., outside of Madison, where Smart grew up as a black kid in a predominantly white environment.

The Post portrayed Smart as a young man who stood up for what was right. Like when a Jordanian student was bullied, he was the classmate who phoned her and talked her into returning to school.

You couldn’t make up this coach if he weren’t real, couldn’t describe him this way if this weren’t the way he is.

Far be it from me to wish against hope that Shaka Smart would become Illinois’ basketball coach.

But it sure would be cool.

mimrem@dailyherald.com