New Illinois Fighting Illini coach John Groce continues to surround himself with people he's comfortable with. On Thursday, Groce announced the hiring of Mark Morris as director of basketball operations. Morris was most recently a graduate assistant under Groce for the Ohio Bobcats. His duties at Ohio included managing team travel, bugeting expenses, fundraising, and video exchange.

Here's what Groce said about the hire:

"Mark was an important part of our staff at Ohio and I’m pleased to have him continue with us here at the University of Illinois," Groce said in a news release Thursday. "He has a tremendous work ethic and will do an excellent job handling the many administrative duties involved in running our program."

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