Are you referring to Illinois Basketball?
Apparently! PAMan thinks you can just drop any ol' average coach in here and he'll take us from a mediocre non-tournament program to an every year tournament team that wins 70% of their conference games, because We Are Illinois.
If you had to guess, how many three year periods in the last 100 years would you suspect Illinois has won 70% of its conference games?
Doug Mills did it for one three year stretch in the early 1940's. Harry Combes did it for one three year stretch in his 20 seasons here in the late 40's. Lou Henson did it for one three year stretch in his 21 seasons here. Self did it in his three years. Weber won 80% his first three years. And Underwood's last three. That's the whole list. Five other times in 100 years.
Some of our fans - you at the top of the list - think of Illinois like a Kentucky that just never broke out. But we've never been Kentucky - we've never even really been close. The best stretch of Illinois basketball in my life was 96-2005 when we made one E8 and one F4 in a decade. I bet the best stretch you remember is in the 1980's when we made, you guessed it, one S16, one E8, and one F4 in a decade. Like, you're in your mid-40's I think, and we've made two Final Fours probably since your parents were born (or close, it was before my parents were born at least).
Five other times in 100 years we've won this much in our league over three years. If any average coach could do that consistently, all our coaches must have been true disasters.
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