Hoopraker

With the same certitude that over nine pound babies become large adults (just ask momma Landry) the Big Ten team playing tonight in Columbus, like its brethren in the brackets, will guard for forty, unrelenting minutes. In the often bleak House of Weber this season it is knee bending, hand in grill, cooperative defense that has provided the one unfailing source of heat, light, and hope. It has been six months of drama in which the team’s medical staff, a white guy in an Indian costume, and the Champaign-Urbana district attorney’s office have all played starring roles. Many a coach would’ve surrendered to the mire and gone happily to the asylum of the NIT.

Of course, Bruce Weber is not any coach. He is a coach with a system, inherited from Master Keady and built upon with skill and tenacity, that puts teams in a good position to be successful. It is no mystery that Weber’s career record in nine seasons as a head coach stands at 215-81 (73% winning percentage) and that this will be his sixth straight NCAA appearance. When teams defend and rebound as well as Illinois they beat a lot of good teams. And when such teams add consistent, timely offense to the equation, the sky is the limit.

Whither Jumpshot?
Illinois’ tournament prospects beginning tonight against Virginia Tech will depend on their location of a missing jumpshot, be it on the arm of senior Rich McBride, walking mummy Brian Randle, hometown hero Trent Meacham, Calvin Brock, Chester Frazier, or any combination of these five. Warren Carter, Shaun Pruitt, and Marcus Arnold have been more than holding up their end of things of late for the Illini. Carter in particular has had the purest looking shot on the team for much of the season. But the swing players and guards have been intermittent scorers at best and though they have gutted out twenty-three wins despite it, the NCAA quickly dispenses with unbalanced teams.

And not that Weber has trotted out excuses, but the lack of good shooting on his team can’t be blamed on the loss of Jamar Smith. Even Smith’s seemingly flawless stroke was a more fallible than reliable weapon this season. In the absence of good shooting this is a team that has won on pure heart and great coaching. But the loss to Wisconsin last weekend as a cogent example, it’s going to take more jumpshots at the bottom of the net to beat March competition. The amazing feat is that Weber has gotten them this far and the fact is, if he can find some jumpshots beginning tonight, he may be able to take this feat even further into the realm of pure magic.

The Senior Six
The other story of the night is the battle of seniors. The Illinois trio of Carter, McBride, and Arnold versus the Zabian Dowdell, Jamon Gordon, and Coleman Collins Hokie threesome. March is when legacies are written and these six players will be keen on doing a good bit of the storytelling. McBride in particular has to be hellbent on redeeming himself after a wrenching near month of offensive inefficacy. If he can relocate his scoring capacity, he is the kind of momentum based player who can string together some solid games. A resurgence of his shooting is the just the thing that could put the rugged, gutsy Illini into next week or beyond.

It also merits mention that Illinois has closed the season 7-3 while the Hokies have limped home at 5-5. NC State’s season sweep of the Hokies also may be auspicious for the Illini, indicating a defensive minded, tempo controlling club can be an Achilles heel for a Tech team that likes running and gunning. The Wolfpack video has likely been eyeballed by Weber the greater part of a week and it shows how to hold the Hokies to an average output under 60 points. It’s called team defense and Weber’s team already has more than a fair start on that phase of the game. A few Illini jumpshots later, the Hokies may be licking their wounds on the way back to Blacksburg.

Posted by DJ Elsass on Friday, March 16th, 2007 at 5:36 pm.