Chicago Herald-American

When I read a column in the Tribune touting Bruce Weber as a contender for national coach of the year last Sunday, I knew what was coming next: Ohio State 72, Illinois 53 at the Assembly Hall. That's kind of the way it's gone for Weber since he ran out of Bill Self's players: impressive victories followed by surprising and disappointing losses. Illinois will beat Wisconsin on the road, then fritter away a lead at home by milking the shot clock for a really bad shot or not shot at all.

So while Weber is doing a fine job keeping Illinois in contention for the Big Ten title this season, when it comes to coach of the year honors, I'd look first to whoever is coaching Butler, which is 24-4 overall,   17-0 in the Horizon League. And while the Horizon League is not the Big Ten, Butler's dominance in that league can't be ignored: the Bulldogs have won their league games by an average of more than 13 points, winning 12 of 17 games by 10 or more. And they've beaten Ohio State, Northwestern and Xavier in nonconference play. 

And I have to admit I would consider it a cumulative honor -- Butler loses head coaches to bigger schools (Barry Collier to Nebraska, Thad Matta to Xavier, Todd Lickliter to Iowa) and still keeps winning with players form Nowhere, Ind. And the Bulldogs always seem to overachieve (and never crap out) in the NCAA tournament. Last year's first-round loss to No. 8 seed LSU -- with one starter returning from the previous year's team -- is as close as they've come to a disappointment.

Butler is 3-3 in the tournament since 2005, reaching the Sweet 16 in 2007 and losing  to No. 1 Florida in 2007 (they were up 54-53 with 3:25 to go) and No. 2 Tennessee in overtime in 2008. In the same span, Illinois is 1-3 in the tournament, losing to No. 12 seed Western Kentucky in the first round last year. 

Like Weber's teams at Southern Illinois, Butler almost always plays its best in the tournament, even in defeat. In 2000, the 12th-seeded Bulldogs lost to fifth-seeded Florida 69-68 on a last-second shot in overtime -- a game that had grave implications for Illinois, which had beaten Penn in the first round. Instead of facing a Butler team due for a letdown after the biggest victory in the history of its program, the Illini instead played a talented Florida team due for a bounceback after surviving a scare. Sure enough, Florida whipped Illinois 93-76 and went all the way to the championship game, losing to Michigan State. 

After that impressive showing, Butler coach Barry Collier was hired by Nebraska. He was replaced by Thad Matta, who parlayed his own success at Butler into the Xavier job and eventually Ohio State -- which brings us full circle. Matta's Buckeyes brought Illinois down to earth -- and back on the NCAA tournament field bubble -- with that 72-53 rout last week. Matta and Weber both came up through programs where they had to coach to win. The difference now is recruiting. Weber has made inroads with a promising freshman class this season and a nationally-ranked class coming in next season. We'll see how much of a difference it makes. 

Anyway, here's the column I wrote for the Sun-Times. It didn't go over well with people partial to Bill Self (click on the link if you want to see the comments).

The best coach in the history of Illinois basketball is Bill Self recruiting and Bruce Weber coaching. And until Weber wins an NCAA tournament game or two with his own players, it's going to stay that way.

Don't get me wrong. Weber should coach at Illinois for as long as he wants. He gets the most out of players who want to be coached. He prepares his team well. He outcoaches the other guy more often than not. He's funny, candid and real. If moms and dads still were the predominant influence on where prep basketball standouts went to college instead of AAU coaches, siblings and shoe-company money, Weber would be a better recruiter than he's given credit for. What parent wouldn't want their kid to play for a guy like Bruce Weber?

But there's the rub. Those days are gone. Weber's strengths as a coach have been diluted. To wit:

Weber honed his coaching skills at programs where developing players was a key to success. But prospects are identified and reeled into AAU programs so early these days that by the time many of them get to a guy like Weber, they are either uncoachable or need way too much work in too short a time.

Weber doesn't pamper his players. But his penchant for "riding" even his best players, privately and publicly, is not the way to attract high school phenoms who have been nurtured by entitlement, coddling and whatever lies it takes to keep them in the AAU program.

And he doesn't cheat—obviously a credit to him, but still a problem. While Weber doesn't cross the line, the criticism is that he also doesn't even go near it. You don't have to get a kid's brother a job, or hire a kid's coach as your video-coordinator or his dad as "director of basketball operations." But befriending an AAU guru or kissing the feet of a Public League coach or two every now and then is within the rules (however unseemly) and likely to pay dividends. You don't have to fight dirty. But you do have to fight.

So what you get is a Weber ledger that is uneven at best since the last of Self's Illini starters graduated: a first-round loss as a 12th-seed in 2007; reaching the Big Ten postseason tournament title game after a 5-13 conference season in 2008; an upset loss to 12th-seeded Western Kentucky last year.

And there was no better example than last week. The Illini beat Michigan State at home and Wisconsin on the road for a five-game winning streak that took Illinois off the NCAA tournament field bubble and put Weber in the running for national coach of the year honors. Sunday they were blown out by Ohio State 72-53 at the Assembly Hall, their worst home loss since 1976. The Illini fell behind 21-10, missed 15 of their first 16 three-pointers and never challenged.

Weber deserved every bit of the credit he received for the Illini's magnificent 2004-05 season. He took players who had underachieved and/or stagnated under Self and produced one of the best and most entertaining college teams of the decade. He made a star out of Dee Brown, a millionaire out of Deron Williams, a first-round draft pick out of Luther Head and, until the final minute of the championship game, a fool of critics who thought the Illini shot too many threes. Jack Ingram was Bill Self's valet for all we knew until Weber got a hold of him. Ingram made key plays in several games that season, including the steal that capped the unforgettable comeback against Arizona in the Elite Eight.

What a great year that was for coaches who "coach 'em up": Texas Tech (Bobby Knight) and Wisconsin-Milwaukee (Bruce Pearl) made the Sweet 16; Wisconsin (Bo Ryan) and West Virginia (John Beilein) made the Elite Eight; and Illinois and Michigan State (Tom Izzo) made the Final Four.

But North Carolina and its five McDonalds All-Americans won it all. And since then, the NBA's ban on high school players entering the draft that began in 2006 has tilted the field even more in favor of recruiters: Instead of playing in the NBA, Greg Oden (Ohio State) and Derrick Rose (Memphis) led their teams to the Final Four. John Wall (Kentucky) could be added to that list this season. Bill Self, who looked like he'd be better off recruiting players for Weber to coach after Kansas lost to Bucknell and Bradley in stunning upsets in 2005 and 2006, won the NCAA title with a roster stocked with prep superstars, including Darrell Arthur, who might have gone straight to the NBA if not for the ban on high school players, and Brandon Rush, who withdrew his name at the last minute as a high school player in 2005.

If you want to get to the Final Four these days, you better have the horses. In the last three NCAA tournaments, the 12 Final Four berths have been comprised of eight No. 1 seeds, three No. 2s and one No. 3.

So while Weber deserves all the recognition for a job well done this season, it remains to be seen how far all this good coaching will take his team. Illinois has not been to the Sweet 16 since 2005. With all Weber-recruited players, Illinois is 0-2 in the NCAA tournament, losing to Virginia Tech as 12th-seed in 2007 and getting upset by 12th-seeded Western Kentucky as a fifth-seed in 2009.

Coaching awards are nice, but taking the next step is what counts. And that step is a huge one for Illinois. The influx of talent is impressive and promising. Freshmen D.J. Richardson and Brandon Paul are hot-and-cold, but look like players who can be part of something special. Joseph Bertrand, redshirting after an injury, is supposed to be in their class. And more is on the way for 2010-11.

It's fitting that the biggest piece of the puzzle is Waukegan senior Jereme Richmond, a McDonalds All-American who committed to Illinois the night before his first game of his freshman year. How difficult it must have been for Weber to stoop closer to the muck of college basketball by offering a scholarship to a player just months out of the eighth grade. But the big question is: how much further will he go to accrue the talent even a good coach like himself needs to return Illinois to national prominence?