Illinois few years after Final Four....

[MUCHI814]

Of, Acker, Lazar, Christopherson, Cubillan, Hazel, O'tule, Williams, Williams, Fulce, Taylor, Mbakwe, we have seen only 4 of them play.  Lazar and Cubillan are thus far the only ones that have impressed myself.  I'm just saying a lot of weight and hope going on a bunch of players that none of us have seen play.  Assuming that everyone is back next year, excluding Barro and Fitzgerald I don't see many of them getting significant playing time other than Mbakwe.  It's gonna be interesting.  All speculation though of course.

[Big Papi]

Illinois finished 2nd in the Big Ten the year after they went to the Finals -- after losing two players to the NBA.

We were in the NIT for two consecutive years, followed by two NCAA appearances when we were completely unprepared.

Weber has also been to 2 Big Ten Tournament championships, with one victory. He also coached SIU to the Sweet 16.

The screw job on Weber by Eric Gordon and Kelvin Sampson has obviously been widely reported. If that had happened to Marquette, I can assure you we wouldn't be too thrilled.

By the way, do you think Illinois fans are happy with Weber?

All true, but as much as people rip on Crean he has NEVER had a losing season let alone something as disasterous as 2-9.

I am in no way advocating firing Crean, but with the teams he brings into the Bradley Center, of course he's got a winning record.

We were 7-9 our last year in Conference USA, by the way.

Are you forgetful or are you glossing over the fact that if it wasn't for Diener, Novak, Chapman and Bradley making some big shots against Holy Cross, Mizzou and Pitt we don't even get to play Kentucky?  You act like Wade did it all by myself which is FAR FROM THE TRUTH.

[ChicosBailBonds]

Of, Acker, Lazar, Christopherson, Cubillan, Hazel, O'tule, Williams, Williams, Fulce, Taylor, Mbakwe, we have seen only 4 of them play.  Lazar and Cubillan are thus far the only ones that have impressed myself.  I'm just saying a lot of weight and hope going on a bunch of players that none of us have seen play.  Assuming that everyone is back next year, excluding Barro and Fitzgerald I don't see many of them getting significant playing time other than Mbakwe.  It's gonna be interesting.  All speculation though of course.

Considering who offered some of those kids, I feel we'll be fine.  Among all of them, one is a "project" the others were all offered by mostly very high end programs including Wisconsin, North Carolina, Virginia, etc or respectable high major programs like Providence, etc.

[ChicosBailBonds]

Is it documented anywhere that Al said anything bad about a previous coach?  He did MU tv games when Deane was coach and probably had a good relationship with him.  I know he used to drop in at the offices and take O'Neill's car for a ride and run up his car phone bill back in the day.  Al seemed to like most people and they liked him.

I never saw the movie, but wasn't Million Dollar Baby based on the real life story of Wade turning an average paid coach whose teams faded in Feb and March, into an idol and one of the highest paid coaches in the country?  When is the sequel coming out?

Well I can tell you first hand from what I saw with Al, yes I worked with Al for 5 years on the broadcast, a different take of his toward Crean then Deane.  He certainly wasn't anti-Deane or anti-anyone, that made Al what he was.  But I would suggest he was certainly more pro-Crean then others.

There's a difference between liking and who he thought was a guy that was a cut above what we had in terms of work ethic, etc, etc....that was the sense I got from both Hank and Al.

[tower912]

You are right, caveman, all of those guys that the other big schools wanted that we landed are guaranteed to suck.   We should just shut the program down, hope we can beat Depaul, and/or go Dlll.    We may turn into Rutgers.   We will think longingly of the Dukiet days.  I am sure you are right.     F Sarcasm.    College sports will always be cyclical.   There will always be the unknown of what the recruits are going to produce.   Either you trust the coaches' collective judgement or you don't.   And it is possible we will have a down year, one where we barely win 20 and finish 500 in conference and are on the bubble.   Lots of programs have rebuilding years.   Like UF this year.    Or the Illini.  Or LSU.   It would be great to be a program that reloads instead of rebuilds.   I will choose optimism until proven otherwise.

[4everwarriors]

LSU's coached got canned today.

Apparently, a Final Four doesn't get you a lifetime pass.
[/quAote
Apparently at some schools it does especially if you can talk your way
through like a used car salesman.

[Coobeys Oil Depot]

LSU's coached got canned today.

Apparently, a Final Four doesn't get you a lifetime pass.
[/quAote
Apparently at some schools it does especially if you can talk your way
through like a used car salesman.

Used car salesman? We're not talking about Jerry Wainwright in this thread.

[ChicosBailBonds]

LSU's coached got canned today.

Apparently, a Final Four doesn't get you a lifetime pass.

Apparently at some schools it does especially if you can talk your way
through like a used car salesman.

Explain the "lifetime pass" for us....or if that's not the case, you must be saying he should be fired....explain why.  You may be 100% right, I'm just curious to understand the reasons.  It's obvious he doesn't have a lifetime pass or a 50 year pass or a 20 year pass or a 1 year pass (yes, he's under contract...so was John Brady).  So since we all know the lifetime pass comment is just tremendous hyperbole, one has to make the logic assumption you believe he should be fired...because obviously it's only this magical lifetime pass that keeps him employed.

Could you explain why he needs to be terminated?

[Marquette84]

If it is the latter, wouldn't it be more appropriate to credit The Al as "the house that Dwyane built?"

Based on your logic, it shouldn't be called the Al, either--it should be the Bo Ellis center.  We should have a statue of Bill Neary out front and play on Dean Memminger court.

I'm sure you'd find that to be more "appropriate" as well.

[Canned Goods n Ammo]

LSU's coached got canned today.

Apparently, a Final Four doesn't get you a lifetime pass.

Apparently at some schools it does especially if you can talk your way
through like a used car salesman.

Explain the "lifetime pass" for us....or if that's not the case, you must be saying he should be fired....explain why.  You may be 100% right, I'm just curious to understand the reasons.  It's obvious he doesn't have a lifetime pass or a 50 year pass or a 20 year pass or a 1 year pass (yes, he's under contract...so was John Brady).  So since we all know the lifetime pass comment is just tremendous hyperbole, one has to make the logic assumption you believe he should be fired...because obviously it's only this magical lifetime pass that keeps him employed.

Could you explain why he needs to be terminated?

I'm afraid you will never get a rational response to this (if any).

Unfortunately, there are some fans of the MU program who don't care for the current coach, and use any chinks in the armor they can find to take shots at him and the program he runs.

These shots taken at the coach are not based upon reason, facts, or common sense, but rather based upon a personal dislike of Coach Crean, and therefore skewing their judgment of the program's actual performance.

I hope MU rolls big tomorrow so the negativity and sweeping generalizations can subside (at least for a little while).