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| Coach Weber will chat with fans Tuesday at 1 p.m. |
Illinois head men's basketball coach Bruce Weber will be chatting with fans on Tuesday, Oct. 19, prior to Sunday's Orange and Blue Scrimmage. Send in your questions now!
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| Moderator: Hello everyone we're about to get started, Coach Weber is finishing up an office visit with his youngest daughter, Emily, who is a freshman at Illinois this year. Emily stopped by over lunch to wish her dad a happy 54th birthday. |
| Moderator: OK, let's get to the questions...great job Illini fans, there are a ton already. |
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| Jeremy ,Benton IL: Hey,Bruce my question is will this be the fastest team you have had and if so will we see more fullcourt press? |
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Bruce Weber: Jeremy, there's no doubt that overall this is our most athletic team. Dee was by far our fastest player on the court, but when look at the entire roster from 1-to-12, we definitely have the most speed and athleticism since I've been here. Our goal is to use that speed and athleticism on the defensive end to create turnovers. Our priority right now is to become a sound defensive team in the half court first. If we accomplish that, we will look to extend that pressure full court. |
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| WalterMt.Olive): What factors will be considered in determining a starting five for the team this season??
Best wishes and GO ILLINI!! |
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Bruce Weber: We have all five starters and seven of our top eight players returning this year, then you factor in the newcomers, there will definitely be competition for the starting rotation and for quality minutes. There are a number of factors to consider, which unit plays the best together, who is comfortable starting role, who can give us a spark off the bench. I really think early in the season it could change from game to game. It may take us a month or so before we feel like we can settle in on a regular starting lineup. |
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| Chrisman: Hey Coach Weber, so has Demetri stepped up and matured more so he can be the leader of this team and a good one at that? |
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Bruce Weber: Demetri has made major strides since his freshman year both on and off the court. He has matured, and his statistics show that he's made great improvement during his Illinois career, especially as the No. 2 assist player in the country. He's also made a commitment to improve his body which has allowed him to be able to handle the demands we've put on him as the go-to guy and leader of our team. His goal and our goal is that he continues to put that all together and become more consistent so he can have a big-time senior year and achieve his dreams. As a coach, and I know Demetri feels the same way, the number one job of a great point guard is to help their team win. |
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| Chris (Mattoon): Defensively Bill Cole seemed like he was unable to slow down players to due is lack of skill. Do you see him playing as much this year with all of the talent we see when he statistically brings nothing to the floor offensively and appeared to be a defensive liability more often than not? |
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Bruce Weber: Chris, I disagree with your assessment of Bill's ability and contribution to our team. Bill made a commitment last year to help us in whatever way he could. He made a goal to lead our team in the Matto chart, which keeps track of all the hustle plays you don't see in a box score, but matter in terms of wins. He went on to accomplish that goal. In terms of defense, our entire staff considers him to be one of our top two or three defenders. And offensively, Bill let's the game come to him, doesn't force the issue, and has been effective, ranking second in the Big Ten in 3-point shooting last year in the conference. |
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| Illinirunin07 (Champaign): Coach, the news of Robbie Hummel is devestating for not only Purdue, but for all fans of college basketball. I know Crandall Head suffered a similar injury, but has had a longer resting period and did not push it to get back on the court like Hummel did. Nonetheless, are you worried about a second similar injury to CH? |
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Bruce Weber: Saturday was a sad day for Robbie Hummel and Purdue, and college basketball as a whole. Injuries are part of the game, but when you have a quality student-athlete like Robbie go down with the same injury in two straight years, it's devastating for the player, but also the game of basketball. As for Crandall, we have tried to take every precaution in bringing him along slowly. We actually sat him out Sunday's practice to help him rest and may consider to do that periodically during this early part of the season when we are going 4 or 5 days in a row of long, hard practices without a day off. Crandall is an exceptional athlete and is much further along than we even anticipated, however we want him to be healthy throughout the season and not have another setback so we will continue to be cautious with him. |
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| Alek, Chicago: Illinois has struggled for a few seasons now to get to the charity stripe with any regularity, can we expect a more concerted effort to attack the basket and draw contact this season? |
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Bruce Weber: It is definitely one of our concerns and has been a focal point for us over the last year. There are a variety of ways to get to the free throw line, most of which come from attacking the basket. But you can't just put your head and drive in out of control. One way to get to the line is if we can create more turnovers and get transition opportunities. Another way would be to do a better job on the offensive glass. A third way would be to attack the lane through offensive schemes. A fourth way would be to emphasize getting the ball into the post. We definitely felt we settled for too many jump shots last year and we hope to get to the lane more effectively this year. |
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| J.B. (Chi): Major props on the lvery impresive list of attendees @ MM.
What single factor do you believe has contributed to the rescent success in your recruiting? |
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Bruce Weber: Now that we've been here for a few years and created and established relationships throughout the state, it has allowed us to pursue younger, talented players. We have been aggressive in not only identifying them, but getting them and their families on campus at an early age to show them all of the outstanding qualities that the University of Illinois and our basketball program offer. We've found that if we can make an impression at an early age, it definitely helps us down the road. |
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| Pat Spain (alton): Bruce, where do you think the big ten stands in college hoops? |
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Bruce Weber: Our league has received a great deal of pre-season notoriety this year. With many returning veterans and some highly touted recruiting classes -- including our own -- the expectations our high not only for our program, but many in the Big Ten. I've seen as many as four teams in preseason Top 10 polls, and as many as six in the preseason Top 25. I feel we have great depth in our league that as coaches in the league we all realize and respect, but that may surprise people nationally. On paper, it looks like we should have the best conference in the country, obviously we must back that up on the court. |
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| paul villanueva plainfield: Coach Weber i have been an illini fan since the days of Johnney Kerr.
will the freshmen play a big role
in the offense, and can they contribute on defense? |
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Bruce Weber: There have been a lot of questions submitted about our freshmen, I'll answer all of those here at one time by talking about them. There is no doubt they are a physically gifted group, which you may have had a chance to see for the first time at Illini Madness. How much they will play and contribute will be determined by how fast they can transition and understand what college basketball is about. The intensity level and accountability is worlds apart from high school. All four freshman -- I'm including Joseph Bertrand here with Jereme, Meyers and Crandall -- have had shining moments in our early practices and show great potential. They have definitely made practices much more competitive and will all push our veterans for minutes. |
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| Mary, Spriingfield: My Mother who will be celebrating her 89th birthday Nov 4th asked me to ask you to tell the team to run, run, run. She loves ILLINI basketball. |
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Bruce Weber: Mary, happy early birthday to your mother, please tell her that one of our early points of emphasis in practice has been to use our athleticism to push the ball in transition and run, run, run. |
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Bruce Weber: Thanks to everyone for all your questions and birthday wishes. Sorry I couldn't get to more, but we have practice coming up and I have to get ready for it. We're looking forward to the Orange & Blue intrasquad game on Sunday, and our first exhibition game, which is only a week and half away, next Friday Oct. 29 vs. Lewis. I hope to see you all at The Hall this season. Thanks for the great support Illini Nation. |
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| Moderator: Thanks so much for joining us, we received nearly 100 questions for Coach. Join us in the chat room again next week here at FightingIllini.com. |
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