Oden shoots over Al Harford in the NCAA Championship game. (AP Photo)

It has been reported that Greg Oden has confirmed he will declare himself eligible for the 2007 NBA Draft.

Oden, along with teammates Mike Conley Jr. and Daequan Cook, will leave THE Ohio State to pursue a career in the pros.

The official announcement will come Friday. Oden will sign with an agent while Conley Jr. will be represented by his father, Mike Conley Sr., and can pull out of the draft if he does not think he will be a lottery pick only because it is his father representing him. Ironically, Conley Sr. is likely to represent Oden as well. Cook will not sign with an agent for now, but instead will test the waters and see where he will fall.

Oden has only played for Ohio State for one year, but in a less-than-full season, he met and exceeded every expectation and helped lead the Buckeyes to a runner-up finish in the NCAA Tournament.

Conley Jr. is the best point guard to come out this year, and the lack of talent at his position might have pushed him to take the plunge and go pro.

Cook, a 6-foot-5 shooting guard, averaged just under 10 points a game.

All three were freshmen.

Thad Matta has to wonder where his team will be next year. Did he sell his soul for a championship and missed his chance? Or will the program rebound with the recruits coming in next year?

After 12 seasons with the Illini, Theresa Grentz resigns as head coach.

The Illinois women’s basketball team hasn’t been competitive in years, and despite every effort from Grentz, has not attracted, in my opinion, enough attention to warrant their stay at the Assembly Hall.

In the past seven seasons the Illinois women’s team has been to the NCAA tournament only once–in 2003, with a 1st round exit. It’s hard not to suggest that her Hall of Fame induction gave her more time than she deserved. This is something Ron Guenther should have done years ago.

Someone should ask Bruce Weber if he’s interested in the position.

Yay, my turn.

If memory serves, Rich McBride, Jamar Smith, Brian Randle, Chester Frazier, Brian Carlwell, and possibly others, all missed games due to injury or other dubious behavior. How does a coach succeed like that? I don’t want to sound like Dusty Baker, but these aren’t just Weber’s “horses,” this is four-fifths of the Illini’s best starting lineup.

Despite the injuries and felonies, Bruce Weber mustered a 21-10 overall record with a 9-7 Big Ten record. That’s a lot to be proud of.

On the other hand, the recruiting mishaps make Weber a less desirable coach. Let’s get right into it:

Bruce Weber can’t coach

Definitely false. We’ve seen that Bruce Weber can coach. I think Roy Williams is the only guy with the inability to coach to reach the NCAA finals. Weber was one incredibly lucky shot away from a perfect season up to the finals. His teams are getting progressively worse now, not because he can’t coach, but because he can’t recruit. But, again, to do what he did this year, with THAT team, is impressive.

Bruce Weber will leave if another offer comes

I have a hard time seeing any other offers coming, but should one come along, I do think Weber would take it. He’ll move on where talent already exists, a la Roger Clemens. Sure, I respect him for turning mediocre teams into good teams, but wouldn’t he (and shouldn’t he) go somewhere and turn a good team into a great one? I think so.

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

I guess. The Illini are going to get worse again, probably A LOT worse. That sort of downward trend is the type of thing “ownership” likes to get rid of, regardless of whose fault it is.

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

Well that’s just silly.

Bruce Weber will lead this team to a Final Four in the next five years

I thought the questions were going to get harder.

Bruce Weber is the right guy for the Illini

My heart is saying YES, YES; my mind is saying no, no.

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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A week ago radio personality Don Imus called the Rutgers women’s basketball team “nappy-headed hos.” Not unexpectedly, tensions have come to a head and people are calling to take Imus off the air, among them Al Sharpton and former head of the NAACP and a director of CBS Corp. Bruce Gordon. The Associated Press reports Gordon believes there should be a “‘zero tolerance policy’ on racism.”

What Imus said was, as others have already made clear, both racist and sexist. It was stupid and hurtful, and he shouldn’t have said it. Still, should he be removed from radio entirely?

Without getting into a debate of first amendment rhetoric, I’m not convinced that’s the best course of action. I don’t disagree with a certain amount of discipline, but is firing him really just?

It looks like former Illinois assistant Billy Gillispie will take over the Kentucky program after first Billy Donovan and then Texas’ Rick Barnes passed on the deal. I, like most, was impressed with Gillispie’s job at Texas A&M, taking them to the Sweet 16 three years after being hired.

With Tim Jankovich taking the Illinois State job earlier this year, every former Bill Self assistant coach at Illinois but Wayne McClain has moved on to a head coaching position (Norm Roberts took over St. John’s in 2004).

What does this mean? The Bill Self/Eddie Sutton coaching tree is spreading. Two of their members have landed what are historically two of the top five college basketball programs in the country: Kansas and Kentucky.

What does this mean to us? Illinois was a stepping stone. Already one of our program’s assistant coaches has reached a point where he would not even consider an offer from our school. Instead we plugged ourselves into the Gene Keady coaching tree, which has given birth to living legends like Steve Lavin, Kevin Stallings, and, um … Chris Lowery.

When was the last time a NCAA tournament just made sense? Well, this year it does. Good teams advance, great teams advance further.

A Final Four of UCLA, Florida, Ohio State and Georgetown: two No. 1s and two No. 2s. The two finalists from last years tournament, who among them lost only one key contributor, one team with unrivaled freshman talent and one with a pedigree of college basketball greatness. It just makes sense.

Naturally, the better team won each of the semifinal games, setting up one the most intriguing championship matchups in recent memory. Here’s why:

Florida played UCLA in the NCAA final last year.

And beat them. Bad.

They played nearly the same UCLA team again this year in the semis and manhandled them. The Gators’ starting five, it has been well documented, are some of the best kids you’ll ever meet, evidence by the fact that they all decided to come back to Gainesville and give this whole winning back-to-back titles thing the ol’ college try. With the exception of Jordan Farmar, the Bruins pretty much did the same thing. However losing Farmar allowed Darren Collison to step up. And this kid is one of the two best point guards in the tournament, the other being Mike Conley Jr. Basically both teams are a year older in the rematch. No contest. Florida shifts into another gear in the second half and puts the game out of reach.

Florida’s win over UCLA last year of course means they will be going into Monday’s game with plans to repeat. The last repeat title winner was Duke in 1991 and 1992, those teams of course featuring the Bobby Hurley, Grant Hill, Christian Laettner 1-2-3 punch. No returning five starters have ever won a second championship, not even under Wooden. History in the making. I think CBS is the real winner here.

Florida played Ohio State in the football national championship.

And beat them. Bad.

But remember, Ohio State was the overwhelming favorite. Critics were arguing Florida should not even be in the game. Herein lies the best argument supporting an Ohio State victory. Yes, Florida is the better team and yes, this year’s tournament trend would suggest that they should win, but there may be a greater trend in the sports world at work. Consider this line of reasoning. In the Fiesta Bowl Ted Ginn Jr. runs back the opening kickoff for a touchdown. Ballgame. Ohio State is thinking it, Florida is thinking it. And its not like Ginn puts on a show, juking Gators left and right. The Ohio State University’s impending domination is illustrated in the effectiveness of its wedge. Four or five Buckeyes link arms and just pummel the Gators on special teams, clearing a lane for Ginn to waltz through. Despite looking beaten on the first play, Florida comes back and pounds Ohio State.

A month later I’m watching the Super Bowl and getting the same feeling. Devin Hester takes Vinatieri’s kickoff to the house. Bears 7, Colts 0. Its looking good. Its feeling good. Then I remember, “I hope this doesn’t turn out like the college national championship game.” It does. The Colts dismantle the Bears.

Now I’m not saying the Buckeyes have a shot because their the underdog, in my analogy the Colts were not the underdog. It’s because Florida will strike first, that’s why Ohio State has a chance. It’s the way of the sports world right now. You’ve heard about weathering the storm. Like my colleague Steve said in the Illinois-Penn State Big Ten Tournament matchup, the opening run in basketball is the worst run in sports.

Florida is the better team and it will look like it early on, but then Ohio State’s freshman will get comfortable and Ron Lewis and Ivan Harris will realize they’re playing their last basketball game with Ohio State.

Florida played Ohio State in basketball earlier this year.

And beat them. Bad.

Final score: 86-60

Greg Oden was playing with a splint on his right wrist, but Florida’s Al Horford came back that game after nursing an ankle injury. Florida dominated, again putting away their opponent in the second half. Still, its hard to beat a good team twice in the same year.

The sensible pick is Florida. They have the athletes, the shooters, the size and the experience.

And the moral of this tournament’s story seems to be that the better team wins. Still, I chose Ohio State over Florida in my bracket. I’m sticking with them. I have a lot invested personally and financially.

A few thoughts:

Sure Greg Oden is good, but just think if he could stay on the court. He had 13 points and nine rebounds in 20 minutes of play. Arithmetically speaking, that’s a 20 and 14 night if stays in for a respectable portion of the game.

By the way, fellow freshman Mike Conley Jr. lasted for 39 minutes. Can you imagine Calvin Brock playing 39 minutes against Louisville in the 2005 Final Four? Can you imagine 5 minutes? He would have been eaten alive.

How lame were the refs in the Ohio State game? A second-foul nickel-dimer sends Oden to the bench in the first five minutes of play, which snowballs into a game-within-a-game in which the officials try to tack on additional, equalizing fouls to big men Oden and Roy Hibbert. The biggest draw in this game was the hope to see a couple of nimble giants battle it out in the post. The refs effectively turned a potentially great game into just a good game.

If Oden would have finished on his dunk attempt over Jeff Green, it would have easily been the greatest moment in NCAA tournament history, maybe even college basketball. You can have your Christian Laettner buzzer-beater or Bryce Drew’s shot to put Valparaiso in the Sweet 16, I have never seen a 7-footer posterize another guy, one handed, jumping from midway to the free-throw line. It was almost amazing.

Was there ever a solid post player on a great team as outmatched as Lorenzo Mata in the Florida-UCLA game? Especially in the second half. My friends and I tried to focus our attention on Mata after halftime, I mean the guy looks as crazy and out of place as Joakim Noah, just in a different way. It seemed like every time down the court he was on the wrong side of a Florida big man’s put-back dunk. This happened at least three or four Florida possessions in a row.

Even though I’ve seen prototypes on the Internet, I have not seen Florida wear the new uniforms Nike issued them this tournament. These of course are the tight tops and big shorts, similar to Ohio State’s, but much uglier, with some kind of gator skin print. I did however, see the jersey on Al Horford’s dad, who was wearing it in the stands…without an undershirt.

If your Florida, find a way to work Tim Tebow into the championship game…it worked last time.

1. Fives always beat twelves?
2. You win as many games as the number of Krugers on your team.
3. Good free throw shooting is a dying resource.
4. Kevin Durant can’t beat a whole team by himself.
5. USC is not just a football school.
6. Memphis wasn’t that overrated. 
7. Cinderella must be home by midnight (or at least by the end of the Sweet 16).
8. Patrick Ewing Sr. has an awful sense of fashion.
9. Those OSU jerseys are still really ugly.
10. Bruce Pearl looks better painted orange than coaching it.
11. Good looking tennis player + Gorgeous former Miss Sweden = One ugly athletic basketball player (but we learned that last year, didn’t we?).
12. Dick Vitale is still annoying.
13. Duke can lose in March.
14. The Big Ten is pathetic … but still manages a team in the Final Four
15. Vanderbilt has athletic programs.
16. CBS does a great job of covering the tournament.
17. Illinois can’t score.
18. Your bracket will get busted.
19. Southern Illinois is for real … someday
20. North Carolina, UCLA, Kansas–great programs always find ways to go deep.
21. Ohio State is really, really lucky.
22. CBS instudio analyst Seth Davis always has that creepy smile.
23. UCLA cheerleaders/dance squad have THE BEST uniforms EVER.
24. Texas A&M - Acie Law IV = Texas A&M CC
25. This is the best time of the year … and we still got two rounds to go.

With oft-ridiculed Tubby Smith headed to Minnesota, the Golden Gophers pick up a great coach. Maybe he can finish what Clem Haskins started.

With Kelvin Sampson and now Smith, the face of Big Ten coaching has changed dramatically.