It’s about time Illinois gets this right
Of course Illinois should hire a black men’s basketball head coach.
It’s time.
It’s overtime.
Just do it.
Like many others, my first choice for about a year has been Virginia Commonwealth coach Shaka Smart.
That doesn’t mean he’s the only choice. If athletic director Mike Thomas wants to shoot for the stars, he should inquire about the availability of Washington’s Lorenzo Romar.
From what I’m told, the answer would be that Romar isn’t on the market. An NBA team checked last year and learned that he’s entrenched at Washington.
But what the heck, it’s worth a phone call just to make sure.
Romar … Smart … countless other qualified black coaches … Thomas should hire one of them.
The Illini AD doesn’t have to, obviously, because nobody down there ever has hired a black men’s basketball or football head coach.
If somebody would have, this issue wouldn’t have to be raised and this conversation wouldn’t have to take place.
Alabama of all schools, in the Deep South, has a black head coach in men’s basketball. Anthony Grant also happens to be on speculative lists as a candidate to replace the dismissed Bruce Weber in Champaign.
Alabama, yes?
Illinois, no?
Huh?
Illinois, Purdue and member-come-lately Nebraska are the only Big Ten schools never to have hired a black football or men’s basketball head coach.
As an Illinois alumnus, what Purdue and Nebraska do doesn’t matter to me. But what Illinois does does.
In a state as racially diverse as this one is, with a state university as diverse as Illinois is, it’s hard to fathom why the school never has had a black head coach in the two major revenue sports.
The head coaches in football and men’s basketball are the most visible people at a Big Ten university. Is somebody down there afraid of the face of Illinois being black?
Most players on the basketball team are black. Most players on the football team are black. Yet no black has ever been the head coach of one of those sports at Illinois.
It would be easy to scream racism here, but it wouldn’t be fair.
Previous athletic director Ron Guenther hired three coaches apiece in football and men’s basketball during his 19 years and all were white. I have known Guenther for nearly a half-century and he doesn’t have a racist bone in his body.
Another easy characterization would be that a black head coach just wouldn’t fit into the culture of central Illinois.
That also is unfair. I choose to believe that people down there embrace equal opportunity as much as any people anywhere embrace it.
All that said, Illinois has a problem of perception.
If most Big Ten schools have hired at least one black head coach in the most prominent sports, then it’s fair to wonder why Illinois hasn’t.
Are school’s administrators simply racially insensitive? Don’t think so. Is it the fan base? Don’t think so. So what is it? Don’t know.
Maybe it is just circumstance and coincidence. Maybe the right man for any particular vacancy at any particular time, well, maybe that man never was black.
Whatever the reason, the fact remains that Illinois hasn’t had a black football or men’s basketball head coach.
Mike Thomas had an opportunity to change that last fall but hired a white football coach instead. He has another opportunity to end the discussion by hiring a black replacement for Bruce Weber.
Thomas has said it isn’t a priority, but it should be.
Just do it.
mimrem@dailyherald.com