From Fightingillini.com:
Director of Athletics Ron Guenther announced today that Theresa Grentz has resigned as women's basketball coach to pursue other career opportunities.
I would speculate this was probably a mutual decision. T hasn't been as successful as she or Ron probably would have liked. Whether we can find a better coach is an open issue, but I know talk radio has had callers grumbling about her for a couple years now.
I have always like her "no non-sense" attitude, and respected her for not discussing player issues publicly. If only she could have landed Candice Parker :-)
Bummer, I liked Theresa Grentz. Her team wasn't quite NCAA Championship material, but she did have the best record in the history of Illini women's basketball coaches. And she did seem competent and no-nonsense. It sounded like Allison Curtin wasn't especially easy to deal with, and I respected Grentz for not airing that laundry publicly. It also impressed me that she didn't dump players when they weren't as good as she expected. I follow other sports and some coaches will put weaker players on medical retirements and pull scholarships to free up slots. Grentz didn't seem to operate that way.
What great news. She has been a mean spirited coach, very poorly handling players. Remember her hosting a drunken party for the players in Florida, then when an over-21 player gets caught just outside the fence at Kams during greek reunion, with a plastic cup of beer, Grentz wouldn't let her take the Europe trip the player had been promised, a promise used in recruiting? Word got around pretty fast that you couldn't trust Grentz to keep her word. I mean really folks, it was a cup of beer, she was over 21, and it was just a ticket for having a beer on city property (10 feet outside the fence, just standing there).
Good riddance to a coach that can't recruit, can't coach players on fundamentals, and is a lousy courtside coach. She may have been a decent coach many years ago at Rutgers, but she been horrible here.
Weber is expected to fall off some, after all, Deron and Dee and Luther come along, together, very rarely, and they were Self's recruits. He'll improve.
Zook had a big yoke around his neck with Turner's leftovers, and things look very good for the future.
Grentz has been not-even-mediocre for a long time. Good to see her go.
"Not-even-mediocre" is an overstatement. The team was 19-12 this year and returns five starters next year. Personally, I liked her. I know her no-nonsense approach didn't fly with some players (Alison Curtin comes to mind), but she's had a very successful career and did a lot for our community as well. I wish her well.
In the wake of the horrible tragedy in Blacksburg, comes some truly good news in the collegiate world. The departure of Mrs. Grentz is not only welcome, but in fact , a move that should have been made long ago. With all due respect to wayward and anonymous #2, Mrs. Grentz was terrible at her job. I recall working at Time Out (where the Hooters is now) back in '98 when the team was on fire. The Theresa Grentz Show was broadcast from that location and was so popular that people would startt showing up at 1-2pm for a 6pm telecast. I Believe it was at the end of that season (in which the team had a very respectable showing in the NCAA tournament) that the inner termoil began and the subsequent "jumping ship" started with the top recruits. The normal cycle in collegiate sports is that a good year leads to better recruiting and subsequently improved success for the program. Mrs. Grentz took her success and proceeded to drag the program into virtual obscurity on the Big Ten, let alone, the national map. For her efforts, she has been rewarded with sveral pay increases and contract extensions. If only I could do my job so poorly and be compensated so handsomely.
Godspeed Theresa Grentz (perhaps Kathie Lee Gifford needs a shift manager for one of her sweat shops)!
^^^^^
What the bartender said....
I mean really folks, it was a cup of beer, she was over 21, and it was just a ticket for having a beer on city property (10 feet outside the fence, just standing there).
As I said in the post, I am unaware of T's side of this story, because she never told it. She took, and is still taking, heat for this, but I respect her for that.
Good riddance to our Hall of Fame Coach!! Overpaid, insisted on having the girls play at an empty Assembly Hall instead of a Huff Gym that when the team was good would be rocking, plus how many players transferred/quit/got run off under her watch? Her arrogance caught up to her the past several years. Zero NCAA wins since 2000. 1 NCAA berth in the past 7 years. Look at how many other Big 10 teams are getting Illinois high school talent while she couldn't.
Now if we can only get Ron Guenther to leave......
As I said in the post, I am unaware of T's side of this story, because she never told it. She took, and is still taking, heat for this, but I respect her for that.
I knew one of the boosters from work, and heard that there was a bit more to the story - the player involved was very talented, but not especially good for team morale. In fact, the woman said that the reason Anne O'Neill had left was because of that player, not the coach. So I'm not sure whether Grentz did wrong in that situation.