CHAMPAIGN -- Sunday news wasn't unexpected for Illinois. Still, when they found out they didn't make it in, the news cut pretty deep.
"It's one of the hardest things I've been through in a long time," junior Bill Cole said. "The disappointment was huge, to have to sit there and watch teams -- we were probably better than a lot of them -- see them get picked and us slide through, that was tough just to sit there with your teammates."
First, Minnesota and Florida were announced as bubble teams, and that's when the concern grew that Illinois might not make it. And after UTEP and Utah State made the field, it was all but certain Illinois would be in the NIT.
"There are teams that you definitely see up there that you think that you're better than, that you had a better year than, but it's not up to you to complain or anything like that, it's up to the committee," junior Demetri McCamey.
Not surprisingly, Illinois coach Bruce Weber had some nitpicks with the committee's decision making. He didn't know how the committee could criticize Illinois' strength of the schedule (34, according to realtimeRPI.com) while allowing Utah State in the tournament (whose schedule strength was 100). He also felt like that Big Ten was disrespected in terms of seeding.
But at the same time, the Illini have nobody to blame but themselves, especially after losing 82-80 to Minnesota at home on Feb. 27 -- a game that helped the Golden Gophers get in the field. The problem, Weber said, was that Illinois had become complacent after thinking its tournament prospects were good following a victory over Michigan.
"We listened too much to you guys and the TV and everything, when everyone was saying we were in," Weber said. "And then the coaches' rhetoric was blanked out and we didn't come ready to play against Minnesota. Then I think we were hit by a little shock. To our kids credit they recovered."
Now, the Illini will try and shake off the disappointment, and play Stony Brook in Long Island Wednesday in the first round of the NIT.
"Hopefully we can use it as a building block going into next season, especially for our young guys," Cole said.
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I'll support the Illini since you can't expect to be No. 1 every year that these guys whine for? Rocket Man can go root for Iowa. Alford didn't want the Hawkeyes.
Just when you thought Weber couldn't be any more inept he comes up with this crap. Go schedule some people outside of the Big 10/ACC Challenge and the Mizzou game and magically your RPI will improve. Maybe winning games against the crappy teams you do schedule would help too!
Good luck with Jerrance Howard's recruits. After one season under Weber they'll make sure their buddies don't come there.
That's ok, let's live in 2005 because Weber did such a great job with the 5 NBA players that were handed to him. They were the greatest comeback away in NCAA history from being the biggest bust.
Have fun @ Stony Brook!! What a low for this program over the past 30 years....
The only shocking thing about Illinois not making the tournament is that Weber didn't get fired for not getting his team prepared to win games they should have won at the end of the regular season. Any time a coach blames press clippings as the reason they're on outside looking in it's a sure indication that he's not doing his job. Terrible. Since he's not getting the ax, the amount of money U of I athletic dept loses for missing the NCAA should be deducted from Weber's future earnings.
This guy continues to be a blockhead. Call him Coach Charlie Brown. They lost 14 games this year. The only way they could have made ti was to win the Big Ten Tourney. It doesn't surprise me about Weber's comments. Look as the way his team squandered wins this year and turned them into losses. I feel sorry for the recruits coming into this worthless program.
OBTW, who really cares about the NIT? Any Illini fan who goes to the one game they will paly is nuts!