This team is damn near cursed. I hope these guys will be alright...

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=2763895

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You know me like that.

Good thing - they look like they will be fine.

Reminds of Chris Street back about 15 years ago when he left the team dinner and pulled out on the road - lost control? plow did? and a snow plow ran him down and he died in the accident.

Jamar smith officially got charged with DUI this incident, McBride's DUI, possibly missing the tourney, not getting gordon or scheyer I'm hoping the Illini are looking for a new coach.

Interestingly, Jamar Smith was also driving "his" Lexus at the time of the accident. Where does an average kid from Peoria come up with the money to pop for a Lexus?

I thought all the Bruce Weber apologists said he runs a squeaky clean program and that's why his recruiting blows. Looks like that's a myth, too....

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The only defense for Smith was the Lexus was a 1996, not anything brand new.

the only problem id have with that is jamar wasnt exactly a prize prospect. save the lexus for someone who actually deserves it, and maybe i wont have to see all of chicago's best high school players playing elsewhere

Whoops! You're right, Vince. For some reason I thought I read it was a 2006 Lexus. Now I guess I'm going to have to write the Illini basketball team and apologize! A 1996 Lexus sure doesn't seem suspicious like a 2006 model would.

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http://www.edmunds.com/used/1996/lexus/es300/2875/options.html

Even you TM could buy one!



God, I am defending an Illini player! I must be exhausted.

Expect to hear from Bruce Weber's attorneys.

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Good people drink good beer - Hunter S. Thompson

<º)))><

Waiting for the time when I can finally say
That this has all been wonderful, but now I'm on my way

That's still a little rich for my blood. I'm going to stick with my 1982 Honda moped. Sometimes I also like to borrow my grandmother's 1980 Chevy Chevette.

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I know it's the latest vogue to bash Bruce Weber and I think his decision to let Jamar Smith sit on the bench at Wed. game was a bad one, but from a coaching standpoint, the guy is a real good coach.

Do I think he could have recruited better coming off the natl. championship? Yes, probably. But he did have a commitment from the best player in the country until the guy backed out of it and I would not wished to be judged based on the whims of 17 year-olds. I am interested to see what he can do with guys he picks in his system.

But, for this team to be 21-9 and currently in 3rd place in the Big Ten with the injuries and distractions that have been involved is pretty amazing. They have almost no offensive options, but play stifling defense. From an on-the-court perspective, what he has done has been phenomenal. But, that will be overlooked with all the off-court problems.

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You know me like that.

Unlike the pompous dough boys of the Score, I don't necessarily hold Weber responsible for the off-court actions of 19 year old kids. Speaking only on court now, I'm not particularly impressed. The record may be ok overall, but there are a lot of cupcake Ws in there. And the Big Ten has a handful of very, very bad teams this year. The Illini also got a gift in the schedule in that they had only one (home) game vs. Wisconsin and one (home) vs. Ohio State. More to the point, they are 2-8 against teams ranked in the top 50 in the RPI (Indiana and MSU at home their only Ws). They have zero wins on the road vs. teams with winning records. That's not a particularly impressive resume to me.

You're right, Doc they have few offensive options. Whose fault is that? Perhaps it's the coach's fault because he appears incapable of recruiting great offensive players? Third in the conference may not be mediocre generally, but it is this year. And though they might be third, I do not believe they are better than IU or MSU right now. We will see just how meaningful that third place finish in the horribly weak Big Ten will prove to be in the conf. tourney and when most of the B-10 teams are bounced the first w/e of the NCAA tourney.

At the beginning of the season I felt their best offensive threats were Randle, McBride, and Smith. Both were injured early in the season and I don't think Randle has come back to full strength at all, certainly not on the offensive end.

So, yes, you could say he is partly to blame for not recruiting more offensive threats. But, the top 3 have all missed some time, some significant, and I've never been real impressed with McBride at any point in his career anyway.

I do think he recruits more for the defensive end which is his strength and I give him credit for getting this team in its current position with all the players that have been lost.

They played an easier schedule early in the season, knowing they had a young team and could have won a couple of those games, but they didn't. But they've won 6 of their last 7. I don't think, as currently constructed, they are better than MSU or Indy and, yet, there they are.

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You know me like that.

I agree, though I also think the team has benefited from a weak schedule. It will be interesting to see what they do in the NCAA tournament. I assume they will get in, though I think their RPI is only in the 50s.

One of the defenses of Weber's poor recruiting is that he hasn't missed so much as he's just "getting his kind of players". This simply isn't true. He couldn't hold the Gordon commitment, lost to Memphis on Rose, lost to Kansas on Collins, Wright and Rush, lost to Duke on Scheyer, etc. Weber wants the top players, but just can't land them. He seems to do well with 2nd- and 3rd-tier players, though, and will probably be able to keep Illinois in the top half of the conference for the next few years. There won't be any more conference championships or Final Four appearances, though. Wisconsin, Ohio St., Purdue, and Michigan St. should all be stronger over the next few years...

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You may not, but Weber's bosses in the university administration do not like this kind of thing. Some of them take the university's traditional mission of developing meaningfully engaged, responsible adults seriously and do not appreciate his apparent abrogation of his responsibilities en loco parentis.

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I agree he has tried to get top-notch guys that he has missed on. But, the guys he has gotten are still the "type" of guys he would want I presume. If not, then I guess he is the worst recruiter of all time.

Top-notch guys are great, I would never pass on one. But you still need a core of guys that have talent and are able to work in your system. I'm willing to see if he can get those guys.

I don't think this year's team is very good. This is a transition year with lost time to Randle, Smith, McBride, Frazier, Carter, Semrau, and Carlwell at different points of the year. I think they could have won a couple games earlier this year if they were healthier and/or a little more experienced.

But, right now, with the talent they have and distractions they have, they are having a nice run. They could have folded up shop 2 or 3 weeks ago and be 18-12 or worse right now.

I don't expect any run in the NCAAs. But, I think a team that plays D they way they do can be troublesome and might sneak up on someone.

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You know me like that.

Based on the body of work, Illinois is at best an 8 seed and is bounced before the end of the first weekend. Will they get better in the next few years? They should. Will they ever return to greatness? Not with Bruce Weber recruiting.

I don't think his recruiting classes have been as strong as you would hope. I'm not sure about this year's since Semrau has not played and Carlwell has been limited and probably should have redshirted anyway.

But, even with the loss of Gordon, next year's class is probably his best to date. He has 2 top 100 guards coming in. The guy who replaced Gordon out of CA is a pretty good player. Overall 3 of the 4 are top 15 at their position.

Not to mention the 4 year old kid on the north shore, I mean 14 or 15, whatever he is. He's ripping up some terrible competition.

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Next year's class is not very good. McCamey is the best recruit. He's anywhere between 50 and 75 on most rankings. The kid from California is ranked between 70 and 90. Bill Cole, from Peoria, is usually listed around 90, and Tisdale from downstate doesn't crack the top 150. This isn't a top-25 class.

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I find it interesting that Jerry Wainwright can pluck two top 30 recruits for DePaul and Weber can't get one.

...And he beat Weber for both of those guys, btw.

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I didn't say it was a top 25 class. I said it was his best recruiting class. I think the guards are solid and the big men seem to be the type of players that can run the offense effectively.

I don't know. They may all suck, but it seems that he is getting a higher caliber of player than he has in the past 2 years or so. It's better than Wisconsin's class and I don't hear a lot of griping from them. If one kid keeps his commitment, he's got the best class in the conference or damn close.

Again, off-court issues aside for now, I think the guy is a good coach and will get the most out of his guys. It seems those "guys" are getting better so maybe his recruiting is taking a turn for the better. I'm willing to see what he can do over the long-term.

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I don't think they were after Koshwal. At least not in any serious way that I can remember or read about. They were after Tucker though.

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You know me like that.

They got shut out of the Koshwal recruiting early. But they did want him. I guess it's not fair to say that Wainwright beat Weber on that one since the Illini dropped him from their list after he showed no interest. The Tucker signing was a bad loss for Weber.

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Well, if Koshwal didn't want to go Illinois and Illinois wanted him - then Wainwright beat out Weber.

You can't have it both ways.

Wainwright had a great recruiting year, no question about it.

One other thing too, going back to the rankings, I believe McCamey and Cole are similarly rated to Deron Williams and James Augustine for what it's worth.

I'm not saying they will be that good. But, if Weber consistently gets top 50-100 guys, he could build a solid program. Throw in the occassional top 20 guy and you have break-out years.

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You know me like that.

DePaul wanted McCamey and Cole too. Everybody wants everybody at some point, those kind of arguments can go round and round.

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That's not true. Purdue, Indiana, Michigan St., and Ohio State all have top 10 classes for 2007 (Rivals). With Gordon, Illinois would've been third in the Big 10 behind Purdue and Michigan St. Keep in mind also that Ohio St. has followed up its top class in 2006 with the #9 class for 2007. If you look at recruiting from 2005-2007, Illinois is getting blown out of the water. The Big 10 will soon be getting tougher, not easier, and Weber's team seems ill-prepared for the more athletic competition that will soon be taking the court against them.

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The bottom line is that it has taken Wainright two years to substantially surpass Weber in recruiting. And Wainwright is a good coach, too. So are the guys at Ohio St., Purdue, and Michigan St. Unless Weber is just the best coach ever, the Illini have problems coming.

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Well, I would consider 3rd close, if not damn close.

Look, Illinois recruiting has been bad. I think it is getting a little better. Is it good enough? Probably not at the moment.

But, these rankings are often misleading at best and downright wrong at worst. Dee Brown was rated well above Deron Williams and Williams was the better player. Still, he needs to do better and early indications for next year and the year after are that they are.

All I'm saying is I am interested to see who he is bringing in and what he can do with them. OSU is getting ridiculous classes and will have far better talent than ILL in the years to come based on that.

To bring this back to my original point, I think his current team is a much less talented team than OSU, WIS, IU, MSU and probably Purdue at minimum right now and he currently has that squad sitting in 3rd place. So I give him Mike North-style kudos.

But I guess it seems I better enjoy it since they won't be sniffing the upper division until Weber is gone.

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You know me like that.