Enough of the Bruce Weber Experience
Written by gologan, Monday February 14 2011
I was not enamored with the hiring of Bruce Weber as Head Basketball Coach at the University of Illinois. The school has been showing a lot of patience with the coaches of two their most visible athletic programs, football and basketball with the Illini winning their first bowl game under Ron Zook in 2011 after nearly six years at the school .
Bruce Weber replaced the great Bill Self when he took off for Kansas in 2003. Weber guided a team lead by NBA star Derron Williams to the NCAA Championship game which ended in a loss to North Carolina in 2006. Expectations were high the following year and soon after the Illini looked like the listless and lackluster teams he coached at Southern Illinois University.
It is the usual story of a coach winning with the previous coach's players. Weber did well in his first couple of years with Self's players. With a team of all Weber recruits the Illini have been able to sneak into the tournament except for the 2007/2008 and the 2009/2010 seasons. In 2007/2008 they did not make the tournament finishing with a losing record. The previous year there was an incident where two of his players were involved in a drunk driving accident where the driver of the car Jamar Smith left the scene and drove home. He left his injured teammate in the car where witnesses called the police.
In the 2009/2010 season they did make a post season tournament losing to eventual Champion Dayton in the N.I.T. It looks like that will be the fate of the Illini again this year although some big victories over Michigan State, Maryland, North Carolina and Wisconsin might help get them in. Some losses that might keep them out of the NCAA tournament field include losing to woeful University of Illinois-Chicago and rival Northwestern who has never made the tournament in its entire history. I say enough with the Bruce Weber experience.
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