Bobcat Nation barely had time to process its Sweet 16 loss before John Groce, the architect behind the season’s record-setting Ohio team, was connected to the vacant Illinois coaching job.
The next week involved a flurry of speculation that included tracking flights across the country, the re-emergence of the now-notorious “exclusive” hashtag (on an exclusive, nonetheless) and, ultimately, watching Groce stand on a podium in Champaign, Ill., wearing an ill-fitting baseball hat.
As our staff takes its first breath after what has been a whirlwind week, it’s important to take a step-by-step look at our coverage and the journalistic lessons learned — through both our successes and our slip-ups.
The process started over the weekend when national reports began linking Groce with the Fighting Illini, a job that had reportedly been turned down by at least two other prominent mid-major coaches. Our reporters and editors, some of whom were still en route from covering the season-ending loss in St. Louis, attentively followed the coverage via social media.
By Monday, regional media outlets near Chicago had picked up the story. That evening, Post reporters and editors made their first calls to national media sources, as well as to university officials in both Athens and Champaign. At that point, two well-placed sources told us that Groce was packing his bags.
Our story in Tuesday’s paper contained no speculation and instead cited a Chicago Sun-Times report naming Groce as a candidate for the Illinois job. Our story, “John Groce reportedly a top candidate for Illinois coaching job,” said that neither university would confirm whether Groce was leaving or if he’d been offered the job.
Tuesday was the day things got just a little bit weird.
By midday, another national media source had confirmed that Groce was on his way to Illinois. Coverage in The Post, on our site and via our social media channels, however, did not report Groce’s departure as fact because, frankly, we weren’t comfortable reporting it without university verification.
Editor-in-Chief Wesley Lowery relayed that our sources were telling Groce’s move to Illinois was a “done deal” in a tweet sent from his personal account.
Seconds later he sent another tweet acknowledging that information remained unconfirmed. At that time, we chose not to report our sourced information from official Post accounts.
Amid rumors that Groce was flying from Southeast Ohio to central Illinois, we joined forces with the Daily Illini, Illinois’ campus paper. Reporters there believed that Illinois Athletic Director Mike Thomas would soon be on a plane to Athens. They had a team at the airstrip Thomas was allegedly leaving from and agreed to share information and images with us.
In return, we sent a team to OU’s Gordon K. Bush Airport to confirm whether Groce got on a plane. However, that flight never left Champaign.
Other rumors surfaced on Tuesday that the Illinois Board of Trustees was holding up Groce’s hiring, possibly to pressure Thomas into bringing in a minority candidate. Rather than reporting the speculation, we reached out to representatives of both Illinois and its trustees who insisted, on the record, that trustees were not impeding the process.
We slipped up in the afternoon when Reggie Keely sent tweets seemingly indicating that he was leaving Athens. Amid the chaos of a day full of breaking coverage, we too hastily hit “retweet” from our Sports staff twitter account — spreading the clearly joking declaration from the Ohio forward. To be fair, we also broadcast his immediate follow-up tweet, which clarified that he wasn’t going anywhere.
Still, if there was a moment in which we acted too hastily throughout our coverage, this was it.
Our story in Wednesday’s paper, “Groce, Illinois keep Ohio fans in holding pattern,” reflected Tuesday’s uncertain nature. It included the only interview we’ve seen with former Bobcat forward TyQuane Goard, who left the program under uncertain circumstances.
On Wednesday, a wire story from the Associated Press reported, citing athletics officials, that OU was looking for additional money in order to keep Groce. Ohio Athletics insisted this report came from off-the-record statements.
We confirmed that OU was indeed fundraising by calling President Roderick McDavis’ office, at which point we learned that McDavis himself was calling donors and alumni.
The day remained quiet until about 10:15 p.m., when the Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Tribune reported that Groce had been offered $1.2 million per year and that only minor negotiation hitches were holding up a deal.
Our story Thursday included that information, citing the Chicago papers.
We had a reporter in McDavis’ office at 9 a.m. that morning, discussing the fundraising efforts and the at-that-point likely search for a new head coach. By 10 a.m., we had confirmation from both universities that Groce was off to Champaign.
After confirming Groce’s departure, we posted a story about Bobcat legend Gary Trent’s interest in joining a staff led by Jeff Boals — a potential candidate for the Ohio job and former teammate of Trent.
Throughout the day, we remained in constant contact with the president’s office and with Ohio Athletics, inquiring about the impending coaching search.
Those daylong efforts are reflected in today’s paper. One of our stories recaps Groce’s departure. The other focuses on current players’ reactions and is a good indicator of what our coverage will consist of moving forward.
This story is no longer about Groce. Instead, it is about the process involved with determining his successor. Once named, that person will be a major component in keeping this Bobcat team — both veterans and recruits — in Athens.
The other element we’ll focus on is the money donated by alumni to keep Groce. How much did they give and what happens to that cash now? Can it be used to court other coaching candidates?
Thus far, nearly everyone in our newsroom — from copy editors to at least five sports writers to our executive editors — has pitched in.
That team effort will not change, as it has led to a deliberate, thorough process that has allowed us to provide what we proudly consider the broadest coverage by any Athens media outlet of Groce’s departure.
Adam Wagner is a senior studying journalism and the managing editor of The Post. Didn’t like the way we handled #GroceWatch? Email Adam at aw333507@ohiou.edu.
