Illinois/Michigan Observations

[JHHawk]

I hope Weber is retained. I fear that talent in a coach like Fran's hands.

Howard, the assistant is a good recruiter,but the talent he gets needs to play fast and Weber does not really want to play fast,like fran.

He already has a very good class of two top 75 players committed for 2013. If a coach who will play fast gets that job...look out. Could be Missouri all over again,with a new coach inheriting a full cupboard.

 

[IAJay]

Weber is a terrible X and O coach but an amazing recruiter.

Early in the game the plays were designed to go through Leonard and they had a nice lead. Leonard got in foul trouble and the remainder of the game we saw Illinois guards dribble around and play streetball.

Leonard is damn good but the team doesn't do him many favors. The commentators were even talking about it early in the game where Illinois guards would never get the kid the ball in the right location or at the right time.

This is generally the complete opposite of what most people have said about him. I have no idea what has happened to him, but he has regressed with the more talented players.

 

[NewMexHawk]

Let's all hope he stays for years to come...Illinois could get lucky and hire a very good coach...

 

[Section136]

I've never been overly impressed with Weber. He made his name with that early group of Brian Cook, Deron Williams, Dee Brown (I'd forgotten just how incredible he was until I looked the basketball team's Wikipedia page), Luther Head, and James Augustine. They haven't made past the second round since that group made their run to the national championship game in 2005.

Brian Cook never played for Weber. Roger Powell was the 5th starter on that team. McBride, Ingram, Nick Smith and Warren Carter got some run off the bench as well.

 

[Section136]

Weber is a terrible X and O coach but an amazing recruiter.

Actually Weber's recruiting was pretty poor until Howard came on the staff. Howard is the guy that has been able to pull the Chicago kids down to Champaign. Weber swung and missed on several highly rated kids early in his tenure at Illinois. Howard was hired in the fall of 2007 and has been on staff for pretty much all of Weber's best recruiting classes.