Illinois fires women’s coach after 5 seasons

Law came to Illinois after 12 seasons as an assistant under Vivian Stringer at Rutgers.

After playing at Iowa, Law also played several seasons as one of the few women to ever suit up for the Harlem Globetrotters.

At Illinois she replaced Theresa Grentz , a member of the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame who coached the Illini to prominence before struggling in her final few seasons.

Thomas fired Zook in November after the Illini football team lost six straight games, a move that cost Illinois a $2.6 million buyout. Zook’s replacement, Tim Beckman, was named less than two weeks later.

Speculation has picked up in recent weeks Weber could be fired at the end of this season after his team has fallen almost entirely out of NCAA tournament contention. Buying out Weber’s contract would cost another $3.9 million.

Thomas has declined to talk about Weber’s situation.

The athletic director said when he took the job at Illinois he didn’t have any improve-or-else mandates in mind for any of the coaches he would oversee. But few coaches, he said, keep their jobs long term.

“You have a Bobby Bowden for life, you have a Jim Boeheim for life, you have a Pat Summit for life,” Thomas said. “You can kind of count those situations on one hand for sports.”

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