IU fans pretty riled up about what Bruce Weber said

[tornado]

In his talk to local boosters at the Meet and Greet, Bruce Weber said....
"The league should be wide open and we can be right in the middle of it. I do know one thing,
though. I think Indiana will suck. Don't put that on the Internet."

http://www.pjstar.com/sports/x875593243/Illini-coaches-are-good-humor-men

There are dozens of threads with angry responses over on the Indiana boards.
I think even if Bruce Weber thinks this, and even if he is just trying to be funny in a closed setting,
he really has to realize that his words WILL get on the internet, and will motivate the other team and fans.
Personally, I couldn't imagine the head coach at most schools, and certainly the one I follow most,
saying this kind of thing about any other team.
I assume BW knows his team was 5-13 in the Big Ten last year and may be as bad this year.

[vbird]

Not sure if I've ever seen a coach come across more like a crybaby than Bruce Weber.

[tornado]

Sampson is a bigger crybaby, blaming everyone else for getting caught cheating.
At least I admire Weber does what he does without cheating and with players who recently were inferior, but still played up to their max.
Sampson had all those McD All Americans, and still played his way out of the Big Ten race, out of the Big Ten Tournament in a single game, and out of the NCAA in one game as well. He has only himself to blame but tried like crazy to blame anyone else, even the message board posters who were so mean to him.

[That Guy]

If by "all those All-Americans" you mean two (D.J. White and Eric Gordon), only one of which (Gordon) was actually recruited by Sampson...

[SFP]

Let the IU fans cry they should be crying more when they are handed their Sampson punishment. BW should be able to say what he wants without being chastised for every little thing. IU will suck next year and BW was just saying the truth.

[tornado]

If by "all those All-Americans" you mean two (D.J. White and Eric Gordon), only one of which (Gordon) was actually recruited by Sampson...

Yeah...sorry, they only had two starters who were McD All Americans, and I'm sure almost all their opponents had more than that.

it would probably also be fair to note Sampson also had another who was a McD All American Nominee (Bassett) AND had THREE other juco All Americans (Stemler, Ellis, White) and the National Junior College Player of the Year (Ellis), plus EIGHT Top 100 rated recruits on the roster (Bassett, Ratliff, Crawford, Holman, McGee, Thomas, White, Gordon), as well as a Sun Times Player of the Year (Thomas) and two Indiana Mr. Basketball's (Gordon & Ratliff).

his cheating landed him one of the greatest rosters of all time, and there is absolutely no excuse for the dismal ending of the season where they tanked it and lost 4 of their final 5 games, and bowed out looking like road kill.

[lefty]

I could care less about wat IU fans think....they know they will s#$k but they don't want anyone else to tell them

[mportsch]

This is definitely a case of "the truth hurts."

[MacabreMob]

Even when the "truth hurts", this is a sport where on any given night.... and you don't need to give another team any extra motivation... well, you know....

But then we'll hear how it's just tough to win on the road in the B10.

LOL!

Could you imagine Coach Les saying this about ISU (or any other team in the conference)?

OMG - KW and his ilk would would go OFF!

[scout4126]

Yeah...sorry, they only had two starters who were McD All Americans, and I'm sure almost all their opponents had more than that.

it would probably also be fair to note Sampson also had another who was a McD All American Nominee (Bassett) AND had THREE other juco All Americans (Stemler, Ellis, White) and the National Junior College Player of the Year (Ellis), plus EIGHT Top 100 rated recruits on the roster (Bassett, Ratliff, Crawford, Holman, McGee, Thomas, White, Gordon), as well as a Sun Times Player of the Year (Thomas) and two Indiana Mr. Basketball's (Gordon & Ratliff).

his cheating landed him one of the greatest rosters of all time, and there is absolutely no excuse for the dismal ending of the season where they tanked it and lost 4 of their final 5 games, and bowed out looking like road kill.

Indiana did not start tanking it until Sampson was gone...after he left it was like then motivation for the players were no longer there. Can't blame the end of the season on Sampson's coaching.

[scout4126]

Let the IU fans cry they should be crying more when they are handed their Sampson punishment. BW should be able to say what he wants without being chastised for every little thing. IU will suck next year and BW was just saying the truth.

If Sampson were to say that about UI last year I guarantee your entire opinion would take a 180 flip.

[Da Coach]

If Weber was the one who broke rules and took Indiana's top recruit away from them, I believe their coach would be saying similar things about Illinois. I Have been to a couple informal meet&greet events with Bruce Weber, and he sometimes does get quite frank about how he feels about things. But in this case I can forgive him for his feelings about IU.

[tornado]

..Can't blame the end of the season on Sampson's coaching.

OK then I'll blame it on his lack of coaching (caused by Sampson himself) and his lack of preparation.

[SFP]

If Sampson were to say that about UI last year I guarantee your entire opinion would take a 180 flip.

No I would not!!!!!!!!! Scout4126 you do not know me one iota... If Sampson said that and believed it then so be it. To many crybabies out there. Political correctness and such have been taken way over the limits of where they are useful. I'm the kind of guy that kinds of like the feud between NC and Duke and where the coaches seem to go with it. It's good for the sport and it should add some good stories for the press when they play each other. So Scout do not take these things that serious. This is only a sport, not life or death.

[Braves4Life]

I like Weber and always thought he was a funny, classy, and honest guy but I thought this comment about IU was classless and uncalled for. Now, I don't blame Weber for having a vendetta against IU (Lord knows I would) but he should have just kept that "sucks" comment to himself. It can only come back to bite him in the @ss.

I would not want Coach Les saying this about another team -- even ISU