I have supported Bruce Weber for the most part throughout the last few years when his teams have time and time again underachieved. Weber took over one of the most talented teams when Bill Self, and brought the Fighting Illini to the 2005 National Title Game. Bruce went 37-2 that season, tied for the most wins of any team in NCAA history. He won the Big Ten Title his first two years and went 28-4 in conference play. (Remember, this is with Bill Self's recruits including Deron, Luther, Dee, James, and Roger.)
Starting with the 2005-2006 season, Bruce has gone 60-56 in conference and has not won a share of the Big Ten Title in any season. He has two second place finishes (2006-2009) but has not advanced past the second round of the NCAA tournament since making the national title game. Illinois has missed the tournament completely 2 of the last 4 years, and are heading that direction this year.
Speaking of this year, the team has vastly underperformed. They won the first 10 games of the season, including wins over Maryland and Gonzaga. After losing to UNLV and Mizzou, they started the conference 4-1, including a win over then #5 OSU. Since then, Weber's team has lost 7 of 8, with the only win being an ugly victory of Michigan State.
Illinois has been in pretty much ever game. The reason why I think Bruce should be fired due to lack of execution, last of respect from his players, and the inability to develop young players.
Exhibit A was again Purdue last week. Meyers Leonard, thought to be drafted as high as #5 in next year's draft, had 2 points and attempted four shots in the first half. He was guarded by Robbie Hummel, who listed at 6'8" is a good five inches shorter than Leonard. When you have a big guy as good as Leonard, he should be touching the ball, EVERY POSSESSION. Sure, Leonard has poor body language, but I'd be pissed off too if my coaches weren't drawing up plays to get me the ball and my teammates were giving it to me.
I put most of the blame on Bruce for not making Leonard the center point of the game plan. Illinois may not get another player liked Leonard for another 30 years. The real mistake was not playing Leonard last year instead of string bean Mike Tisdale, but that's a whole nother story.
Secondly, the players don't respect Bruce. During the same Purdue game, Bruce drew up a play that would have gotten D.J. Richardson an open three at the end of the game. Instead, Brandon Paul in bounded the ball, got it back, and took a double-clutched, off-balanced, leaner of the three pointer that was lucky to draw a piece of the backboard. Leonard frequently pouts on the court. Do you know why he keeps doing that? Because Bruce won't do a damn thing about. He lets his best players get away with crap like that because he's too worried about winning every game instead of sending a message. He's coaching scared and because of that he's already lost this team.
Lastly, Bruce and his staff are horrible at developing players. McCamey, Davis and Tisdale took the league by storm during their sophomore year when the team went 24-10. Instead of continuing to develop those players, the trio took massive step backs during the next two seasons and one NCAA tournament appearance.
It took three years to get anything out of Brandon Paul, but he is still a turnover machine. D.J. Richardson is as streaky a shooter as there is (5 made 3's vs Michigan, 1 in his next two games) Leonard sat on the bench his entire freshman year, only playing double-digit minutes three times in Big Ten Play.
The last point is that Bruce's players get complacent with previous victories. Defeat #5 Ohio State? Lose the next three games. Beat #10 Michigan State? lose the next four games. He doesn't keep his teams motivated and that is a huge thing with 20-year old kids.
Based on all of this, Bruce will be fired during the off-season. A .500 record in Big 10 play doesn't cut it for a program that should CONSISTENTLY be top 15 in the country. The only legitimate state school with Chicago less than three hours should be getting the best ballers in the country every year. You want to see a sad list of players who have left Chicago for other programs? It's sick:
Shannon Brown
Shaun Livingston
Julian Wright
Bobby Frasor
Sherron Collins
Jon Scheyer
Derrick Rose
Eric Gordon (that's a whole nother issue too)
Anthony Davis
Wayne Blackshear
Ryan Boatright
Now, Jabari Parker plays his high school ball at Simeon in Chicago. He's the #2 prospect for the 2013 class. Illinois is in his top 5. There's NO REASON why these top recruits should be leaving the state. Bruce's staff should be bringing in these kids. Until they do that, or the next coach does, Illinois won't be anything more than a bubble team.
I love Illinois. The 04-05 season was one of the best runs I've ever seen a team go on. I'll always love Bruce because of it, but it's time to move on. He will catch on at another BCS school and do fine things for them, but Illinois has higher expectation for its team, and it's coach.
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