Pretty brutal. Had to have it, so its good they won. But they were bad. Luckily, MSU was worse (somehow).

Yeah, they've lost a couple they should have won and they won this one they probably should have lost. I think that's probably how it's going to go throughout the conference schedule.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

That game set civilization back 1200 years.

_________________
You know me like that.

Tebow too?

_________________
2018
#ExtendLafleur
10 More Wins

Tebow is happy because he's perfectly suited for the 800s AD NFL game.

_________________
You know me like that.

_________________
2018
#ExtendLafleur
10 More Wins

Brandon Paul said the ball was "too bouncy" - which is weird because Dakich said the same thing.

At least it wasn't a woman's ball this time.

_________________
You know me like that.

How the hell can that happen on your home court, you get to pick the ball? I keep trying to like him, and my kid talks about him all the time, damn is he inconsistent. The missed free throws down the stretch tonight, can't happen.

_________________
2018
#ExtendLafleur
10 More Wins

Can we get a consensus on which was worse: this MSU affair or the Penn St one from a years back that was like 39-36?

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Back off, Warchild. Seriously.

Clearly the Penn State one -- the Illini lost that debacle AND PSU was not even close to ranked. At least MSU was #9 and they won.

This was played like a high school game and a bad one at that. It is a nice additional signature win
against the #10 team in the nation but they sure got lucky to catch them on the right night, otherwise
they should have lost by 20. They really need to work on their jump shooting if they are going to make
the tournament. I am starting to truly believe if they don't make the dance that Weber is gone after some
disappointing losses the past month. Beating OSU and MSU is great but you can't lay down for Minny and
Penn St. Bernsy brought up a good point yesterday about Weber not putting any of his own recruits into
the NBA. I thought about this last night and tried to come up with a good coach to bring in. The guy that
came to mind for me was Kevin Stallings from Vanderbilt. He was the coach when I went to Illinois State
and I would think Illinois would be a step up from Vandy basketball wise. He probably has a pretty sweet
deal there but figured he would be a good fit.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

I would like to see Lon Kruger back in the Orange and Blue if they choose to get rid of Weber. Just make sure he contract says he can't leave.

NW has maybe six players. Illinois counters with.... six players. Un-fucking-believable. Illinois should've ran them off the floor.

Schedule not looking promising in the weeks ahead. 4 out of the next 5 on the road.

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Back off, Warchild. Seriously.

This team is poorly coached. Whatever happens to Weber at this point is on him.

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You know me like that.

Yeah. That was horrible. There's always something wrong with the Illini. They never all seem to click in the same game. Guys like Bertrand and Paul can look like they're all Big 10 in one game and then seem like they're not even on the floor in the next. And why isn't Leonard scoring 40 going up against tiny NU? I know that there have been many rule changes since Dave Corzine played, but he was a dominating big man. He got his twenty and ten every night. I have no doubt that Meyers Leonard is better than Corzine, so why can't he make the same kind of impact?

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Because Weber's offense is not designed to incorporate an excellent post player.

Leonard could have scored on every possession but there would be 2-3 consecutive trips where he didn't even get in the post. They've got the guy out setting screens for guards to shoot 3s when they should just clear out a side and let the guy work in the post. Weber has been so used to compensating for a lack of interior scoring that his guards just pass the ball around and if they happen to spot Leonard on a back door cut or a pick and roll, all the better. It's horrible.

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You know me like that.

That, and not one player on the team can pass the ball into the post without it being stolen. When NW was playing a 1-3-1 zone they had that 5'8" PG matched up in the back against Leonard. It should have been an alley-oop dunk every time down the floor.

If Illinois loses today at Michigan, be 3 straight losses and 6 out of their last 7.

Not looking good for Weber.

Going to have to go 4-2 in the next 6 to even get to 9-9 in the conference. That would also get them 20 wins. Purdue, Iowa, and Michigan at home. Nebraska, Wisconsin and Ohio St on the road.

_________________
Back off, Warchild. Seriously.

This is starting to feel like the football season.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

That's exactly what I said when trying to describe it to a non college basketball fan. You start off the season hopeful, by the midpoint you think you can even win the conference, and then everything falls to hell. I would keep Weber only if it means that Leonard stays. If he'll stay anyway, or leave anyway, then maybe you consider a change in coaching. He can come back to SIU where we miss him dearly.

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"All crowds boycotting football games shouldn't care who sings or takes a knee because they aren't watching." - Nas

My problem with getting rid of Weber is I don't think you can really get anyone better. I think he runs a relatively clean program and he's a decent guy. If you replace him, which I really have no problem with at this point, you can probably only do two things. Get a sharp young recruiter who will be there a couple years while he uses the job as a stepping stone on his way to a marquee program or a guy just like Weber but who probably isn't as good a guy.

Also, I almost think the opposite about Leonard. One of the problems seems to be that Weber doesn't know how to properly deploy the highly powerful weapon he has in Leonard. I'm guessing a Weber coached team might actually be more successful going up and down the court with a guy like Egwu playing most of the minutes.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Hopefully the new coach won't be treated as badly as Weber was. They really did themselves no service by bashing the guy all the time for not being Bill Self, and then only winning with Self's players. Weber has not performed that well recently but how can you expect to run a program with a fan base that is always ready to pounce? Tom Crean won like 6 Big Ten games in 3 years and the fans stayed behind him but Weber goes to a Final Four and he barely gets any credit because he "went with Self's players". That's a problem.

I don't think the Illini fans ever embraced Weber and they were always comparing him to the girl that got away. The next coach better be a big hire or he'll already be starting under bad circumstances. I can already hear the "Weber took us to the Final Four!".

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

I think Illinois is a great program to coach at and isn't really a stepping stone locale. I would only consider UCLA, UCONN, Kansas, Kentucky, Duke, and North Carolina to be a markedly better place to coach than Illinois. Or the NBA (see Kruger, Lon).

Illinois should be able to entice a very good coach, especially with the talent on the roster. The question is can that new coach keep the program clean. Another thing to watch for during this process: The Board of Trustees has basically made it clear that the next basketball coach should be a minority hire. This narrows down the talent pool because there are not many impact minority coaches out there. Right now, the only name that comes to mind is Shaka Smart.

It's a job that has been used as a stepping stone before though. A lot of people thought Weber was going to use it as a stepping stone to Purdue. And I'd say you missed at least a few premier programs on your list, Indiana being the most glaring omission. Also, there are other schools that I wouldn't necessarily say are better basketball programs historically than Illinois, but they play in basketball-centered conferences as opposed to the Big Ten. For example, some guys might consider Virginia or Clemson better than the Illinois job. (I do find it a bit funny that the Big Ten is regarded as a "football conference" when they've really had much more overall success on the hardwood.)

If you're going to hire a black coach, I'd have to think Tommy Amaker would be at the top of the list.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Self went to Kansas, Kruger went to the NBA. The only reason people though Weber would leave is because he spent 25 years as an Assistant at Purdue. No one considers Clemson or Virginia a better coaching job than Illinois. Illinois is a basketball school that will pay a lot of money for a coach. Plus, it has a built in talent pool in Chicago.

I wouldn't mind kicking the tires on Amaker, but he did suck up the joint at Michigan.

I completely disagree with that. The only Big Ten school that can be called a "basketball school" is Indiana. I just don't think coaches see the Illinois job to be as great as you think it is.

_________________
Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Driving home this morning at 5am when Mully and Hanley went on and I have to say they were
actually making me crack up with their Bruce Weber thoughts. I agree he likely needs to go now
but they were actually breaking the Hanley scale of humorous.... good stuff. Weber sounded
absolutely pathetic in that presser after the game.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami

Illinois certainly isn't a football school.