What if John Groce had signed Jalen Brunson?

John Groce’s tenure was unfortunately marked by his failure to land a high-profile point guard who could effectively run his offense. I still wince when I hear the names of his former recruiting targets mentioned along with their accolades and the schools that landed them: Demetrius Jackson, Jawun Evans, Quentin Snider, and others.

But what if Groce had gotten his lucky break? What if one of the best point guard recruiting targets to ever consider Illinois had in fact decided to come to Champaign? Class of 2015 point guard recruit Jalen Brunson — who announced Wednesday he will be entering the 2018 NBA Draft — could have breathed life into John Groce’s floundering program and launched the…