Imrem: Illini should be lamenting the two who got away

At least former Illinois coaches Lon Kruger and Bill Self might inspire a tiny bit of local interest in the men's NCAA Tournament.

Otherwise, short of gambling, finding a team to care about is difficult.

Is Duke huggable yet? Does any player at North Carolina write his own term papers yet? Has Jim Boeheim been suspended again yet?

A regional will be staged in the United Center this weekend: Raise your hand if Virginia, Iowa State, Gonzaga and Syracuse arouse you.

Didn't think so.

Maybe you heard, over and over, that for the third straight season not a single team from our state made it into the field.

It's almost as if what ails Bruce Rauner, Mike Madigan and other political leaders has spread to the state's basketball community.

Without a stake in the tourney, all that's left is to root against someone, and a couple of coaches are teed up for University of Illinois fans.

Yes, after all these years, if they're smart, they still should lament the Illini's loss of Kruger and Self.

If one of those guys were coaching Illinois, fans wouldn't have to look at Indiana and Wisconsin and wonder, "If them, why not us?"

Answer the question with a question: "Wouldn't the Illini beat those rivals if Kruger or Self stayed in Champaign?"

They likely would.

As is, Kruger is at Oklahoma and Self is at Kansas and both are in the Sweet Sixteen.

They could meet in the Final Four, and one could go on to win the national title.

During seven seasons through 2003, Kruger and Self took Illinois to six NCAA Tournaments.

Compare that to the Illini going only twice in the past seven seasons and none in the past three under John Groce.

(Judging by Kruger and Self, Groce will move from Illinois to Trump University and make the Sweet Sixteen with the Flaming Donalds.)

Logic insists that Kruger and Self can't be blamed for bolting Champaign, the former taking big money in the NBA and the latter taking an elite college job at Kansas.

But logic need not apply in athletics of allegedly higher learning. Emotion trumps - oops - everything fans learned in school.

Justifiably or otherwise, it's only normal for Illinois supporters to still hold a grudge 13 years later.

So, again, what if the Atlanta Hawks never came after Kruger and what if one of Self's dream jobs hadn't become available?

The guess here is that Illinois would be regular NCAA Tournament participants with Kruger or perennial title contenders with Self.

Kruger was reluctant to camp out in the inner city to pursue Chicago's best high school prospects, but he sure could coach whatever players he had.

Self was the total package: Good recruiter, decent game coach and charismatic, which would have made Illinois one of the Kansases of the Big Ten.

A bonus would be that Illinois wouldn't have had to endure Bruce Weber, who took Self's recruits to second place in the nation before presiding over the collapse of the program.

Would Kruger or Self have landed top in-state prospects that got away such as Anthony Davis, Jabari Parker, Jahlil Okafor and Jalen Brunson?

Kruger, possibly, but possibly not. Self, probably, and when he landed one the others might have followed.

That's speculation, of course. Reality is that Kruger and Self are in the Sweet Sixteen and Illinois still is trying to recover from their departures.

At least Illini fans have a couple of coaches to root against in the tournament, whether it makes sense or not.

mimrem@dailyherald.com