It's just getting worse for Weber, Illini
Illinois and Bruce Weber both fell off the bubble Saturday afternoon.
The Fighting Illini were so bad in an 80-57 loss at Nebraska that they made the Bulls' simultaneous 97-85 home loss to the Nets seem close.
Now the competition in Champaign is between the Fighting Illini head coach and his players. Like, will he or they embarrass him more?
Much was made last week of Weber's meltdown in a news conference after the loss to Purdue.
What many ignored was Weber's pregame talk to his team that night, as televised by the Big Ten Network.
Back in the 1990s, a football aficionado told me that Illinois football coach Lou Tepper couldn't sell heat to Eskimos.
That's how Weber came across before the Purdue game. It was almost painful to watch him try to make his point.
For a while Illinois' slump was reaching a point where you could almost feel sorry for Weber. However, his irrational defiance of criticism makes him more a villain and less a victim.
Weber attempts to defend the indefensible: His Big Ten record over the past seven years, his lack of success in the NCAA Tournament and his team's recent implosion.
The Illini coach doesn't seem to understand that Illinois' current record (16-11 overall, 5-9 Big Ten) is as bad as it ever should be at what considers itself to be a basketball school.
Weber has been proven wrong if he expected criticizing players by name — specifically Brandon Paul and Meyers Leonard — would motivate them.
Not that Weber's assessment of his players was inaccurate. It's the way that he coaches and manages them that's wrong.
As disgusted as I was with Bobby Knight's methods, it's difficult to believe I'm going to say what I'm about to say.
Heck, it had to be 25 years ago when Illinois was beating Indiana during the first half in Champaign and Knight replaced his entire starting lineup with reserves.
As unable as Weber has been to get through to Illinois' best players, maybe something dramatic like that would have attracted their attention a few weeks ago.
Or maybe when the 7-foot Leonard shoots a 3-point shot from beyond the top of the key, maybe Weber should sit him down and say right then and there, “Son, that's not the shot we want.”
Then again, maybe it is the shot Weber wants. Illinois' offense is so discombobulated, it's difficult to tell what he wants from it.
Whatever Weber is trying to do, he should do something else, perhaps the direct opposite of what his coaching instincts say.
To state the obvious, sir, it isn't working.
The way Illini players played at Lincoln, they have lost all respect for their coach's coaching … if they had any for him to begin with.
Illinois players had to know the coach's job is in jeopardy, if not already a lost cause, and that it would be supportive to play hard for him.
Instead, the Illini played without purpose or passion or emotion or commitment or energy or interest or hustle or any quality.
Not only didn't they play to maintain Weber's position on the occupational bubble, they didn't play to maintain their own position on the NCAA bid bubble.
The loss to a Nebraska team that was 3-10 in the Big Ten burst all over Bruce Weber's slim chance to stay at Illinois beyond this season.
mimrem@dailyherald.com