Bruce Weber and the Inevitable
by babaoreally on Feb 19, 2012 5:13 PM CST
in Illinois
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PrintAfter Brandon Paul scored 43 points on January 10 to beat Ohio State, Illinois was sitting at 4-1 in the conference. A lot of people thought that they would probably lose a few games and finish in the top half of the conference. Not too many people expected them to compete for the conference title, but it was a possibility. I can say for a fact that absolutely no one was predicting that Illinois would win only one of their next nine games (and that win was against a great Michigan State squad).
Illini Head Coach Bruce Weber was not widely beloved before the season started, and now it seems like a certainty that his days are numbered. After the Purdue loss, Weber spoke frankly about his players and what he thinks his mistakes have been the past few seasons. There has been a lot already written about this (check here and here to get up to speed), so I'm not going to rehash it here.
It was interesting to see how the players would respond to Weber's comments. Last night, facing a must-win game, Illinois lost to eleventh-place Nebraska by 23 points. It is now basically a foregone conclusion that Weber will be fired at the end of the season, unless something crazy happens.
So let's ask the question: what would it take for Bruce Weber to be back at Illinois next season?
The only answer I can come up with is a Big Ten Tournament Championship followed by a run to the Final Four. That would buy Weber at least another year. Anything less wouldn't be enough for a fanbase that was already on the fence about Weber before the season.
What are the odds of such a thing happening? Very slim, but crazy things have happened in the tournaments the past couple of years. UCONN went on a run last year that ended in a Big East Tournament and National Championship.
I'm not sure why I spent a whole paragraph discussing UCONN's run last year, because Illinois isn't capable of that this season (obviously). UCONN had Kemba Walker, who was an All-American who took over games in crunch time. UI has Brandon Paul, who's near-perfect performance against Ohio State looks like an aberration. During the conference season, UCONN lost nine games, but their worst stretch was losing four out of five. They never had anywhere near the swoon that Illinois is experiencing.
The following is obvious and sad to me as somewhat of a Bruce Weber fan: barring a miracle Illinois will not make the tournament and Bruce Weber will not be their coach next season.
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I hate to say it, but
After watching some of their game yesterday, it seems apparent to me, a complete outsider who has never had anything to do with University of Illinois or it’s athetic programs, that Weber has lost his team. They played poorly, uninspired, and got run off the floor by the worst team in the conference.
Credit has to go to UNL & their dedicated fanbase, for making the game such a tough experience for the Illini, but there is no reason for them to lose by 23 to the Cornhuskers. Combine this effort with Weber’s postgame comments the other night, and it’s clear he has to go. I hate to have to bring this up, bc it’s such a dark time in MSU football lore, but it reminds me of after the MSU vs. U-M football game in ‘03 when, after MSU got embarrased by the Wolverines, then-head coach Bobby Williams was asked if he had lost control of his team, and he replied, "I don’t know."
Our AD fired him the very next business day, with three games left to play!
You at least have to give him the rest of the season
When you have guys as talented as Meyers Leonard and Brandon Paul, you just never know what can happen. However, Illinois is without a real talented point guard and besides Leonard, the frontcourt is really shallow. Weber caught a really bad break when Jereme Richmond decided to go pro for no reason.
Maybe it was a mistake to expect big things from this Illini team to begin with.
Aaron
BT Powerhouse contributor
Let's go Mets, Giants, Knicks, Rangers, PSU
I really do feel bad for him
He’s had some success, he recruits well and I sincerely believe he loves his job. Unfortunately, the team is just not responding to him.
Schadenfreude ist die schoenste Freude
Nothing lasts forever
I’m not a big “Fire the coach!” guy, but this collapse is pretty terrible. It’s hard to feel too sorry for a guy that makes that makes that kind of money. I’m sure he’ll land on his feet somewhere (hopefully not broadcasting; his raspy voice is unpleasant to say the least).
Manager at BT Powerhouse a Big Ten basketball blog
@babaoreally
Couple of thoughts about this
Weber is a great person and a good coach. He’s not a bad coach, specifically he’s not this bad of a coach. There’s some disconnect between coaching staff and players and now there are even suggestions that there’s a rather large disconnect amongst coaches. One example that I’ve heard (nothing official, word of mouth kind of thing) is that a player went up and asked three coaches the same question and got three different answers.
Weber will land on his feet. I feel bad about it though because he’s the first coach since Henson that has truly wanted to be at Illinois.
They have two liter bottles now? To think I spent all that time demanding a liter!
One crazy thing is,
Illinois is 2-8 in their last ten – with those two wins being over MSU & OSU. How does that happen?!?!
