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| Coach Bruce Weber will be in the chat room Thursday, Oct. 8, starting at Noon CT. |
Here's your chance to ask Coach Bruce Weber questions on a variety of topics, as he and the Fighting Illini basketball team approach the start of official pre-season practices. He'll be in the chat room Thursday, Oct. 8, starting at Noon CT. Send in your questions today.
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| Moderator: Welcome everyone to today's chat. Coach Weber is wrapping up a phone call and we'll get started as soon as he's done. We've got a lot of questions in the queue already... |
| Moderator: OK, Coach is here and ready to get started. |
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| Michael (Crystal Lake): Bruce,
Just letting you know that the Orange Krush will be better then ever this year. |
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Bruce Weber: Thanks Michael, that's great to hear. From the updates I've been given, it sounds like Krush numbers will be dramatically increased this year. That's great news, especially for our players who thrive off of that student support. |
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| Nick (Sterling, IL): Coach, How is Joseph Bertrand doing? Is he going to be red shirting this season? Can't wait until Basketball Season! Go ILLINI!!! |
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Bruce Weber: Hi Nick, I've enjoyed my trips to Sterling, a lot of great support for our program there. Tomorrow will be exactly four weeks since the surgery. Joseph has made steady progress, is back on the court now doing some drill work. We hope to have him as a part-time player when practice begins next Friday, and at Illini madness.
As far as redshirting goes, we wouldn't make that decision until after the exhibition games. The injury does not look severe enough to be a determining factor in a redshirt decision for him. By the way, how are you guys getting along without Coach Goff? |
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| Rob (Traverse City): Can we expect to see a greater endurance and fitness from McCamey this year? What kind of off season conditioning was expected of him? |
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Bruce Weber: Demetri has made a concerted effort to get his weight down, right now he is 20 pounds lighter from the heaviest weight he's played at. So right there you can see he's worked at it over the spring and summer. Our goal is for him to maintain that weight or lose maybe even a few more pounds, which will hopefully help his game rise to another level. |
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| Ray (Chicago): Will Jeff Jordan be rejoining the team?
Good luck this year. |
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Bruce Weber: There's been a lot of publicity about this topic in the last couple days, hasn't there? Jeff has maintained a great relationship with several of our players and our program, and has had some conversations with our staff in recent days. Jeff is a quality person and we will explore the possibility of him returning to the team. |
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| Chris Johnson City TN.: Coach,
How will this tears team compare to last years team Defensively? |
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Bruce Weber: It's definitely a concern of our staff as we head into the season. We've lost what we felt were our 3 best defensive players. Our hope is that every year our players improve, including on the defensive end, so we hope that the upperclassmen will take on those roles of defensive stoppers. We feel we are better offensively, but we don't want to sacrifice our defensive effort because of what we are trying to accomplish on offense. Championship level teams in any sport are usually teams that are solid defensively, so it will always be a focus of our program. |
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| Kay (Winnetka): Coach, Spike the Record is coming up,I hear it is going to be amazing! What can you tell us about this unique event? |
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Bruce Weber: It's a unique event because we've partnered with our volleyball team to help create a record crowd for both an NCAA volleyball match as well as Illini madness. Our players really look forward to this night each year, and nothing would make them more excited than to see a full house at The Hall. It's also become a very important recruiting tool, as we hope to have a number of prospects in attendance, including many young players who will get their very first impression of Illini Nation that night. We hope to see you all there, it should be a great night. To guarantee a good seat, you need to be there early. Volleyball match starts at 6:30, and the doors open at 5:30. |
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| Don (Normal): Coach,
What do you think the biggest challenge is this year for you and the caoches on such a young team with great expectations? |
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Bruce Weber: Great question Don. In addition to becoming a strong defensive team, which I talked about in an earlier answer, I think we need to figure out who our leaders are, and our upperclassmen need to rise up and take on more consistent, established roles. We're asking them to take their game to another level, and we'll need positive contributions from all of the upperclassmen, in terms of production and most importantly leadership. |
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| Batesville, IN: Coach, I'm over here with your friend Paul Ehrman. Who has the better chance - you versus Paul on the golf course, or the Illini vs the Boilermakers? |
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Bruce Weber: Paul would take me on the golf course, because Coach Keady made me give up the game years ago because he said I needed to be out there every day looking for players. Illini vs. the Boilers should be great match-ups, there are going to be so many outstanding teams in our league. We had nine teams in the postseason last year, and our league could have even more than that this year. On paper, it looks to me like we have the deepest league in the country. |
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| Bette (Champaign): I thought about joining Orange Krush but found out I missed the deadline. I still want to come to games but I am only a freshman, can I still get tickets? |
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Bruce Weber: Yes, Bette, we want you at The Hall! We truly appreciate the great support of Orange Krush, but I realize it's a big time commitment and may not be for everyone. We want as many students as possible at our games, helping create the energy that our players feed off of. To me, the best feeling I have is before tip-off when I look up and see the student section full. There are regular student tickets available for purchase, contact our ticket office at 333-3470. |
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| Dave J, Glen Carbon IL: Best of luck in the up-coming season. It looks like all of the hard work on the recruiting trail is starting to pay off in terms of BigTen ready talent. Congratulations.
My question is, do you think you and the staff will be able use your bench more in the coming seasons to keep the young guys happy and the established guys fresh? This a big concern for many in the message board community. ;)
Thanks. |
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Bruce Weber: One of our goals as a staff is to utlilize the bench more this season. We feel going into the season that depth is one of our strengths. The season is a long grind, and it's important to keep our players fresh so that we can have a great finish. We appreciate all the coaching pointers on the message boards, but seriously, we do appreciate the passion that Illini fans have for basketball. I'm very fortunate to be part of one of the best programs in the country. |
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| Jeff, Chicago: I'm excited about our new class of Freshmen. How much of a role do you see them having this season? |
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Bruce Weber: We are also very excited about all of our freshmen. At this point they've done a great job with the transition and getting adjusted to college life. One of the most difficult parts of preseason is our conditioning program, and they have shined in that and have been some of our top performers, which is very rare for freshmen. Not only do they have great athleticism, they have impressive basketball ability this early. Each one of them has stengths that we can utilize this season. Now the next step comes next Friday when we turn up the intensity with the start of practice; how they respond and perform on a daily basis. |
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| Mackenzie (Normal): ESPN's College GameDay is coming to Assembly Hall this season! What will it be like to play in that type of game atmosphere? |
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Bruce Weber: We are honored to be selected. There are only 8 schools that get to host Gameday this season. It will put a spotlight on our basketball program and will show the nation how unbelievable our fan support is. State Farm, who is the main sponsor of Gameday and is one of our top corporate sponsors as well, was very instrumental in helping secure this opportunity for our program. Our first goal is to set an attendance record for Illini Madness next Friday, but we also hope to set the record for the most fans ever to attend a Gameday taping on Saturday morning. West Virginia has the current record, and I cannot handle the West Virginia native on our staff, Coach Nottingham, reminding me of that. |
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| Jayne (Mahomet): Any ideas about who might win the MATTO award this year? |
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Bruce Weber: Just like last year, the MATTO points will play role in our team's success. I just talked with Chester Frazier on the phone yesterday, he's doing well in Germany. Chester was clearly our leader in this category last year, and I think everyone watching saw how important the contributions he made were for our team. In terms of this year on that MATTO, I hope the upperclassmen take the challenge of doing the little things that make a difference in winning. But it wouldn't surprise me if D.J. Richardson becomes our leader on the MATTO play hard chart. He is a typical hard-nosed Peoria guy who loves to get after it, which makes Coach McClain proud. |
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Bruce Weber: Thanks for all your questions, I've got to run. I enjoy hearing from our fans, we'll have to do this again as we progress in the season. Hope to see you all at Spike the Record at Assembly Hall on Oct. 16. And I personally appreciate all of your support for Coaches vs. Cancer, we continue to be one of the top schools in the country in raising money for the American Cancer Society, something we can all take a lot of pride in. I'll be at Memorial Stadium Saturday cheering on the Illini, let's beat the Spartans! GO ILLINI! |
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| Moderator: This chat was a great success. The questions continued to pour in for Coach, sorry we couldn't get to them all, he's already back working the phones. We'll do this again soon. |
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