Too bad about that loss, eh?
I thought Illinois played to the maximum of its potential. More precisely, I thought Illinois played to the maximum of Bruce Weber’s potential. As with the game at Penn State, the offense clicked. Guys ran their routes. Meyers directed from the middle. The Illini shot 25% from three, and they lost. Quod erat demonstrandum.
Sunday’s performance hit the The Weber Mean. It was the last six years of Weberball, in a nutshell. Wisconsin is now a better basketball program than Illinois, so Sunday’s score also fit nicely within statistically predictable models.
So why’s everyone so angry?
Bruce Weber’s tenure at Illinois is now undeniably an issue. His seat is warm, even from the disinterested perspective of academic administration. If you care about basketball, his seat is hot.
It’s not hard to envision a four game losing streak in the works. Illinois might lose seven of eight games during this stretch. I doubt they’ll lose all of them, because Weber’s teams typically produce an unexpected win every few games, on a hot-shooting night.
But Northwestern in Champaign (2/5) is no longer the guaranteed win it was for decades. And do we chalk up an automatic win against Nebraska (2/18) in Lincoln? Not after the Cornhuskers nearly beat us here. Not after they dispatched Indiana.
All this brings Weber’s hot seat to the melting point. A coach on the hot seat is always a factor in recruiting wars. Or so goes the common wisdom.
There were lots of recruits at the Assembly Hall Sunday. Michael Orris and Malcolm Hill already committed. They sat with Cahokia’s Darius Austin, whose recruitment is wide open. Nearby, Glenbrook North’s 6’8″ junior Andrew McAulliffe pooh-poohed the idea that he’s a serious recruiting target for the Illini, but acknowledged that high-majors are in wait-and-see mode, monitoring his development. Evansville Bosse’s JaQuan Lyle, Pekin’s Nate Taphorn and Chatham-Glenwood’s Peyton Allen sat at the other end of the bleachers, not far from Peoria’s AJ Riley.
In the middle sat Mike Tisdale, who has never publicly uttered a disparaging word about Bruce Weber, despite playing the role of whipping boy for about the same three year duration that Weber asked him to play outside of his skill set.
Mike’s sunny outlook on life is intact. He was likewise optimistic about his future in pro-ball..
Here’s a minute of Mike, mashed-up with JaQuan & Bosee teammate Bo Burkhart, and Andrew McAuliffe.
In his postgame comments, Bruce Weber waited a full 57 seconds before blaming Meyers Leonard for the loss. Weber held off his harshest Meyers criticism for nearly three minutes.
This is all par for the course. We expect Bruce Weber to tell us, through nondescript generalizations, that his players aren’t getting the job done. If there were more explicit, descriptive analyses of the shortcomings; it wouldn’t be Bruce Weber.
On the other hand, Weber stepped way outside the Bruce Weber Box on Sunday afternoon. This anomaly occurred from 6:32-6:43 of this video, where he seemed to acknowledge the approaching abyss. Unlike the annual late summer froth about going deep in the rotation, running and gunning, Weber went nuclear option, mid-B1G. He openly contemplated scuttling the season.
Referring to the untapped talent on his bench, and the veterans they’d ostensibly displace: “If we can’t make progress here, those guys have to get minutes.”
It lacks the punch of go ahead, make my day but the implicit message is, if I haven’t completely lost my mind sacrifice this season to develop guys for next year.
I don’t think we can read complacency into that statement. I don’t think Weber believes he can lose and stay. Is he sacrificing himself for the betterment of the young guys?
I honestly don’t know.
Weber pretends to the media that he doesn’t read the media. But there’s no way he can feel his job is safe, given Tim Beckman’s presence on the sidelines.
Is Illini Nation safe? Sure it is. Or at least it’s in no more danger than it has been for most of the 21st Century.
The Weber Problem, whether it’s solved near term or not, is chronic.
To prospects, their parents and handlers, the only thing that’s changed about Illini recruiting in the last five years was the 0-for-NBA Class of 2011. That blow has been absorbed. We may never know how much it hurt us. On the bright side, it’s only upward from here.
RECRUITING IS “FIXED?”
Illinois is not currently in competition for top-notch recruits. If Weber is fired, recruiting dynamics will change. If Weber pulls a 2004-style rabbit out of his ass and leads Illinois to an unexpected B1G title, recruiting may change.
We’re in a holding pattern right now. Recruits feel about Illinois as Andrew McAuliffe suspects Illinois feels about him. It’s wait and see. Right now, recruits see Crandall Head leaving the program. They see Myke and Mike on the bench. They see Jereme Richmond in the news.
But that’s just Chicago. None of Sunday’s visitors came from Chicago. For now, Illinois seems to be concentrating on prospects from other regions.
Case in point: The pipeline to Huntington Prep is still open. Abe Djimde’s American surrogate mom Alicia Anderson, who also hosts Illini target Xavier Rathan-Mayes, returned on Sunday with her flock of daughters and itty bitty granddaughter Malaina. She brought Ibby fortification — a crock of curried egusi stew with chicken — and consequently expected him to continue eating Badgers for breakfast.
The Huntington Pipeline is one of Jay Price’s extra-Illinoisan affairs. Price’s recruiting activities are not limited to out-of-state prospects, but his efforts have a distinct south-of I-70 feel. Does that mean the door to Chicago is now closed again? I don’t know that either.
But it’s not like reading tea leaves. The inferences and extrapolations don’t require so many logical leaps. To put it simply: Jabari Parker spent the afternoon somewhere else.
