Illinois fires Bruce Weber

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Is anyone surprised? Let's just hope they don't bring in Smart.
 

Frank Martin and Smart are names being tossed around. Someone is going to get a butt ton of money thrown at them. As an Illini Fan growing up and seeing their run to the title game it's sad to see him go. He was a good guy and represented the state and university well. Rumor has it that he may be interested in going back to Southern Illinois.
 

CrocShots said:
Frank Martin and Smart are names being tossed around. Someone is going to get a butt ton of money thrown at them. As an Illini Fan growing up and seeing their run to the title game it's sad to see him go. He was a good guy and represented the state and university well. Rumor has it that he may be interested in going back to Southern Illinois.
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Weber is a very good man, so far as one can tell. Tough to watch him get interviewed yesterday, it's hard not to feel pretty bad for him.
 

bga1 said:
Weber is a very good man, so far as one can tell. Tough to watch him get interviewed yesterday, it's hard not to feel pretty bad for him.
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This should be a slam dunk for Shaka. He won't have a better opportunity to succeed at the High D1 level. He once worked with the athletic director, recruiting gold mine in the state and indianapolis, facilities, on campus arena and a bunch of good players on the team already. Look out Big Ten!
 


notagopherfan said:
This should be a slam dunk for Shaka. He won't have a better opportunity to succeed at the High D1 level. He once worked with the athletic director, recruiting gold mine in the state and indianapolis, facilities, on campus arena and a bunch of good players on the team already. Look out Big Ten!
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Shaka could be like the guy at Gonzaga though. There is no reason to think he WANTS to move.
 

zambam said:
Shaka could be like the guy at Gonzaga though. There is no reason to think he WANTS to move.
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Mark Few was a 10 year assistant at Gonzaga before getting the head coaching job, here is Smart by comparison:
2003–2006 Akron (asst.)
2006–2008 Clemson (asst.)
2008–2009 Florida (asst.)
2009– VCU (head)
Something tells me he's more than likely not Mark Few...
 

zambam said:
Shaka could be like the guy at Gonzaga though. There is no reason to think he WANTS to move.
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True, but it shouldn't be hard to win at Illinois. No offense but it's a lot tougher at Minnesota to get players than it is at Illinois. If you can't find 5 ballers in Chicago you shouldn't be coaching. Kind of like Georgia and Georgia Tech, can't understand why you can't find 5 ballers in Atlanta or the state of Georgia.
 

He might not be ok with the need to cheat to win at Illinois. You can't recruit chicago without cheating unfortunately.
 



From the Barn said:
He might not be ok with the need to cheat to win at Illinois. You can't recruit chicago without cheating unfortunately.
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Bill Self disagrees
 

Yet another reason why Tubby will get extended and not fired...Ill is a way better Big Ten job and we are immediately the second best job available in our own conference and maybe, based on what happens, the 4th or 5th best HC job available in US.
 

notagopherfan said:
True, but it shouldn't be hard to win at Illinois. No offense but it's a lot tougher at Minnesota to get players than it is at Illinois. If you can't find 5 ballers in Chicago you shouldn't be coaching. Kind of like Georgia and Georgia Tech, can't understand why you can't find 5 ballers in Atlanta or the state of Georgia.
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He's talking about Few, not Monson.
 






From the Barn said:
Who did Self get out of chicago?
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Luther Head for one was from the Chicago Public League and Dee Brown was from a Chicago suburb. Aside from this however, you insinuated that you have to cheat to win at Illinois, which is not true. Bill Self did not cheat and won there.
 

GopherGod said:
Luther Head for one was from the Chicago Public League and Dee Brown was from a Chicago suburb. Aside from this however, you insinuated that you have to cheat to win at Illinois, which is not true. Bill Self did not cheat and won there.
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The insinuation was made because notagopherfan was talking about recruiting Chicago.
 

zambam said:
The insinuation was made because notagopherfan was talking about recruiting Chicago.
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That is not how he wrote it though, he seperated those two statements. However I showed that Bill in his short time there was able to recruit in Chicago without cheating. My point is you don't have to cheat to win at Illinois, so Weber likely didn't fail because he was on some moral high ground. His best years were with Bill's players.
 

GopherGod said:
That is not how he wrote it though, he seperated those two statements. However I showed that Bill in his short time there was able to recruit in Chicago without cheating. My point is you don't have to cheat to win at Illinois, so Weber likely didn't fail because he was on some moral high ground. His best years were with Bill's players.
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2 players means little. Very small sample size to prove your point there.
 

Does anyone doubt Lou Henson didn't cheat?
 


zambam said:
2 players means little. Very small sample size to prove your point there.
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I am sure you realize that Bill Self was there at Illinois only 3 years so two is a decent sample size taking that into consideration. So now are you trying to say that you have to cheat to get 3 or more recruits from Chicago but not two since I listed two and he didn't cheat.
 

The burbs aren't chicago.

Anyway, this should be quite entertaining as Illinois' self perception of being one of the top programs in the country battles with reality. Reality usually wins, right NC State?
 

From the Barn said:
The burbs aren't chicago.

Anyway, this should be quite entertaining as Illinois' self perception of being one of the top programs in the country battles with reality. Reality usually wins, right NC State?
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Luther Head was not from the burbs as i stated already and yet Self got him to come to Illinois and was able to win without cheating. I don't dislike Weber but think it is an excuse when someone says you have to cheat to win at Illinois and you have to cheat to recruit Chicago, simply not true. What you need is a coach who can recruit well to go along with the X and O's. By the way there is also some very good talent in the state outside of the Chicago inner city schools, in places like Joliet, Peoria, etc.
 


Illinois made the right decision, albeit one that was a couple years late. Weber never was able to build a team of his own recruits that won or was close to winning the Big Ten championship or advancing deep into the tournament, and that's what Illinois is used to doing. Of course he had that type of success in his early years with Self's recruits, but after they left in 2006 he did a whole bunch of nothing by Illinois standards.

I'm very hopeful that they will get an upgrade there, and I hope the new hire has a more uptempo style (i.e., no more games decided at 38-33 or 42-40, please!).

I hope Weber lands on his feet at another mid-major and does well, there, but he did not belong as head coach at Illinois. He, like Todd Lickliter, was promoted to a position beyond his abilities.
 

yeah 5 top 25 rpi ratings in the last 5 years proves weber was in over his head
 

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