Bruce Weber is off the grill (no pun intended). For now at least. After the grill marks were made evident on his orange blazer after losing 3 of 4, including a defeat to in-state rival Northwestern, Bruce was definitely feeling the heat. His Fighting Illini hadn't won a game on the road since they scooped up a win on what is now referred to as MediaCom court in Iowa City on December 29th. Before that, their last win outside of the House of Paign was in Kalamazoo in late November (shout out to Toad, Tez and Lindo). To make matters worse, as of late, the Illini hadn't just been struggling in games they couldn't walk to from their off-campus houses, they've been struggling all together. It seemed as if Weber was losing control of his senior-laden Illini bunch after the first go-round in the conference schedule.
It's hard to imagine that U of I's marquee players were satisfied with their success from a year ago amidst those "I-L-L,N-I-T" chants that were bestowed upon them as they strolled through the campus quad, but that just might indeed be the case. Consider this, a year ago Demetri McCamey established himself as one of the premiere floor generals in college basketball by leading the Big 10 in helpers and also being amongst the conference's elite in assist to turnover ratio. Mike Davis led the Big 10 in rebounding. And Tisdale, well Mike was running up $50 tabs and making out with sub 5 footers at Kams and Station like he was the MVP (most valuable primate, of course) of the Big 10 tourney. Maybe they got a little comfortable. A little too content perhaps?
In the same breath though, all of this burden shouldn't be shouldered by the men in uniform. Not saying that this means anything at all, but Weber has made it out to seem that him and McC have this blossoming father/son relationship reminiscent of Chevy Chase and JTT in 'Man of the House'. He has micromanaged his star player this season at the end of games and has consistently opted for running structured sets instead of isolating #32 with hopes of him probing the painted area. Recently, he has gone as far as publicly criticizing his senior leaders. The animosity reached a boiling point last night when McCamey and Tisdale were both left out of the starting lineup for the first time in 3 years, giving the ever-worthless Bill Cole the nod.
Now, does Bill Cole have more talent than Demetri McCamey in some areas of life? Certainly. Euclidean Geometry and Neurophysiology just to name a few, but basketball is definitely not one of them. I know this, McCamey and Cole know this, and some freshman Delta Gamma pledge who knows nothing about hoops other than the fact that both the rim and the ball are monochromatic orange knows this. I have to give it to McCamey though, instead of reacting like an infantile worm like most Cousy Award finalists would have done had they been benched (Sean Wallis), he came out and got after it, diving on loose balls like he was Lucas Johnson circa 2002. Last night in 'The Barn', Bruce rolled out the ball and let McCamey run the show in a high-octane, fast paced game. Sure, the Orange and Blue gave up some easy buckets, but they looked free-flowing on the offensive end which is something that hasn't exactly been U of I's calling card in 2011.
So even if it came at the expense of my favorite player in college basketball, Minnesota's Blake Hoffarber, last night's win was a huge statement for Illinois. As the season has progressed, I have become increasingly pessimistic about the final outcome of Illinois' season in 2011. But last night might just have been a flicker of light from a Yankee Candle. They took down a man named Tubby, in a barn, on an elevated stage, in front of 20,000 people. Does that sound eerily similar to underground wrestling to anyone else? This has to be a good thing.
As for Pick of the Day, how do you tell when you're on a losing streak? When your alma mater betrays you by a half of a point when they're getting 15+! The Pulse Man was up in arms at the travesty that occurred against Morehead State last night as his beloved Panthers fell by 16 after the oddsmakers sized them up as 15.5 point dogs. Oh, well. For this weekend, the Pulse Man likes the OVER in the Cavaliers/Clippers game tonight set at 206. Just to make it known, HE IS NOT ADVISING YOU TO WATCH THIS GAME. In fact, he is advising you not to. Just check the box and cut that check.
Pick of the Day: Clippers @ Cavaliers- Total Points, OVER
Record:(52-39-0)
Now I'm done. Rack me
Frost
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