Lets take a trip back in time shall we? The day is October 11, 2008. The location: Memorial Stadium in Champaign. The Illini dropped a disappointing game to the Golden Gophers, and all though the Illini came back in the closing minutes, ultimately it wasn't enough to win. The loss was so deflating that by the end of the game, very few people were left in the stands. Even fewer waited around to see "the world's largest outdoor basketball practice" as it had been unfortunately named. Where a year before hand the Assembly Hall had been packed for Midnight Madness, now the Illini basketball team took the court at a very sparsely attended kickoff to their season. The expectations for the year were clearly reduced.

The team's 07/08 campaign was not one worth remembering, a losing season, a recruiting defection, a player suspended for nearly killing a team mate, that team mate possibly never regaining his full abilities. Anger, infighting and not living up to expectations. Bruce Weber's job even appearing to be in jeopardy.

Following that season a lot of changes took place. Brian Randle and Shaun Pruitt graduated. Brian Carlwell transferred, a depressing end to a once promising career at Illinois, but one that was more than likely hampered by the car accident with Jamar Smith. Jamar violated his probation and was finally removed from the team. Rodney Alexander  transferred to Oklahoma City University.

There were three new players to the team,  Stan Simpson, who took a redshirt, Dominique Keller,  another JUCO, and Alex Legion, who transferred the previous year but still had to wait until halfway through the season before he could begin playing. Recruiting, the Achilles heel of Bruce Weber's tenure was looking up thanks to the addition of former player Jerrance Howard as an assistant coach. The '09 commits seemed to be a bright light at the end of the tunnel, but the 2008 season did not look to be all that bright.

This could seem like a long protracted apology or excuse for why the Illini lost in the first round of the tournament, but its not. I am simply trying to provide some context for this season, as much of a failure and a breakdown as last season was for the basketball team, I believe this season was a success that eclipses that failure.

I have been told that the expectations for a season do not matter, and that the success of a team should be judged solely on the end result. I have also been told that no matter how bad we thought this team could have been, the fact that they did not live up to the expectations they had established for themselves through a season of play matters even more. Essentially that a team that won 24 games in the regular season and finished second in the Big Ten should have been able to win at least one tournament game.

So that's the question, what set of expectations do you use to judge a season?

I for one think that you can't judge a season without context, nor can you determine it's success purely upon the team's performance in the tournament.

I honestly think as far as an entire season goes this was a phenomenally successful season for Weber, and showcased just how good of a coach he can be. Without the team's best shooter (Jamar Smith), and the supposed team savior (Alex Legion) never finding his shot and riding the bench all season Weber put a team together that won 12 games in conference.

He did it with a former walk on at shooting guard, a player who was never a real scoring threat at point and 3 sophomores who all had potential but no guarantees that they would pan out. Mike Tisdale and Mike Davis were both undersized big men who relied on open shots and jumpers to score and had trouble getting rebounds because of their light weights. Demetri McCamey, although having shown flashes of NBA talent is, and probably always will be inconsistent, but when he does show up, he is the most talented player on the team.

There are people who would respond then, that if he can engineer a successful  season in which the team beat 2 sweet sixteen teams, why couldn't he beat WKU in the first round. My answer would be, in the  same way that the team lost to Penn State twice in the last month. This was a very good team, but a team that is also limited in a lot of ways, and always vulnerable to the inconsistency youth. This team lived and died by the jump shot, and when it was not there it was as vulnerable as any team in the nation. This was a shortcoming that was almost always masked by lock down defense. When the shots don't fall and the defense has a Chester Frazier sized hole, the team is very vulnerable.

There are people who want to categorize this as a letdown, as an individual game yes I would agree, I think we could have beaten the Hilltoppers. But as a season, where this team began and where it ended up are miles apart. If there was one year where the the lackluster recruiting came home to roost, it was this year. For the past 3 seasons the best players on the team were the ones graduating. This year for the first time in some time, there is real talent to build on for the future and incoming talent that will actually play a large role in the team's success. Given what Weber  could do with a team that was a work in progress, it should be exciting to see what he can do with the level of talent that it incoming.Better times than this are ahead, and a team that overachieves with this level of talent foreshadows a team with a great coach. It may be optimistic, but I do believe this season's success is nothing but a good sign for next year. If nothing else, it has raised our expectations.

I know my opinion isn't universal, so feel free to share your thoughts on Bruce, the team and the season.