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John Groce, Josh Whitman to hold joint press conference on Thursday afternoon

You can stream the press conference live at 3:00pm CT.

By Jim Vainisi

On Thursday morning, Illinois announced that athletics director Josh Whitman and basketball coach John Groce will be holding a joint press conference at 3:00pm CT. The university hasn't yet specified an exact reason for this announcement.

What will they talk about? Your guess is as good as mine, but you shouldn't be expecting any major news to come out of this. This media session will likely be a spoken version of UCLA coach Steve Alford's recent letter to fans; Alford, who's in some pretty hot water after a horribly disappointing season, penned the letter while announcing his intent to give back a contract extension.

Back to Illinois -- it's probably safe to say that Groce and Whitman will address the basketball program's future in light of the recent string of player arrests. In just the last two weeks, separate incidents have resulted in both Jaylon Tate (link) and Kendrick Nunn (link) being charged with domestic battery.

Groce and Whitman released the following joint statement after the second of the two arrests:

"Kendrick Nunn has been suspended indefinitely from all team-related activities pending legal proceedings and an investigation into allegations of domestic battery. Once again, we encourage everyone to allow the legal process to work before passing judgment. We are striving for a championship culture across our entire athletics program. Obviously, yesterday's event is the latest in a series of conduct issues involving our men's basketball team. We are working diligently to ensure that our men's basketball team is representative of the high ideals that we uphold in Illinois Athletics."

You can click here to stream the press conference live once it starts later this afternoon. We'll have more on the story after Groce and Whitman give their statements.