Bruce Weber can’t recruit.

Julian Wright, Sherron Collins, Brandon Rush, Jon Scheyer, Eric Gordon, Derrick Rose. All these guys had interest in Illinois, some more than others. I understand you can’t win ‘em all, but you have to wonder why we couldn’t pull at least one of these guys in, I mean we were coming off a 39-2 season and a national championship game, shouldn’t that sell itself? Next year two roster spots will be filled by mid-major transfers: Champaign’s own Trent Meacham and Steve Holdren. Not to take anything away from either of them, but is that a sign of good recruiting?

Bruce Weber can’t coach.

This is hard to evaluate, but I will say this.

I do not concede that Weber is as good of a coach as others make him out to be. He is not a particularly strong in-game coach—that is, Xs and Os. However, he does a great job at getting the most out of his players. The 2004-05 campaign is a perfect example. If he has the talent, he runs a great team—almost unbeatable. If he doesn’t, like this year, his team struggles through ugly games. That team will win its share, but it won’t be the class of the league. That being said, I am confident that if Weber were in charge of Kansas last year, the Jayhawks would have won the national championship.

When it comes to coaching on the whole, I’m not ready to crown him. This year the team struggled with fundamentals of the game. Two things in particular were agonizing to watch: inbounds plays and clock management. All season our best inbound play was Rich McBride throwing the ball to a safety-valve man at mid-court. Never did a pass in from the baseline put us in position for a quick basket. In the end I think McBride set a school record for the number of times he had to call a time out before the 5-second call. Also, with the clock winding down—shot clock or game clock—we just didn’t know what to do with the ball. Certainly, we didn’t have a go-to guy or a healthy/available three-point specialist, but we should have a better plan than Chester Frazier running around the arc desperately looking for someone while the other four guys just stand around. This is very hard to watch and enjoy.

Bruce Weber will leave if another offer comes.

I don’t know where Weber would go. You either leave a job for a better job (Billy Gillispie) or for one closer to home (Bob Huggins), you almost never leave your position for a less prestigious one (Tubby Smith). At his point, I assume, no better school is really keeping their eye on Weber. His roots are in Purdue, but they shouldn’t be looking for a coach. While I don’t imagine Weber’s relationship with Ron Guenther is exactly amiable right now, I don’t think the Illinois job is so much pressure that he would take a lesser job just to get out.

Athletic Director Ron Guenther will re-evaluate Bruce Weber’s job status after the 2007-08 season.

We almost went to the NIT and lost a game we should have won in the NCAAs. No real help is coming next year. Guenther would be a fool not to.

Bruce Weber will lead this team to a Big Ten Title next year.

No. Ohio State wins it again. Followed by Michigan State, Wisconsin and Indiana.

Bruce Weber will lead this team to the Final Four within the next five years.

Illinois will never return to the Final Four with Bruce Weber as head coach.

Bruce Weber is the right guy for the Illini.

If we go to the NIT next year without promising talent coming in the following year, I don’t see how Guenther can keep him.

Several weeks removed from the Illinois men’s basketball team’s first-round exit in the NCAA tourney, I’ve had some time to re-evaluate the future of the program. My initial reaction was to blame Bruce Weber; I questioned his coaching ability and recruiting skills. I called him a mid-major coach, at best. But after I’ve had a chance to cool off, I realize it was out of line to go after such an easy scapegoat when, in truth, Weber was one of few very special people who could have kept that team together after all it went through. It was cliche and trite and too easy to go after Weber immediately after the loss like everyone did.

Maybe more than any other sport at any level, the role of the coach on a college basketball team is absolutely vital to the success of the team. While I am not claiming you can throw any John Doe in a dugout or on a sideline, the direction a college basketball program heads in will live and die by the ability of its coach to recruit, teach, brainstorm Xs and Os and guide their small squad of less than 20 student-athletes.

So if the head basketball coach of a college team is so important, what is the outlook for the Illini? Let’s play some Fact or Fiction and see where Bruce stands.
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