Can Bruce Weber control his players?

Bruce recently made some interesting quotes on "The Waddle & Silvy Show" on ESPN 1000, which raises some questions as to his ability to keep his players motivated and focused on basketball. Read the full story at espnchicago.com here. More of my thoughts after the jump.

Bruce Weber has shown that he's an excellent college basketball coach. He took a team all the way to the National Championship Game, and tied the NCAA record for most wins in a season. While he did it with Bill Self's players, Bill Self did not coach that team. Bruce Weber did.

Since then, his teams have had limited success. Much of that has been blamed on his recruiting ability. His more recent teams just didn't have the star power and talent that the 2004-2005 squad had. Until this season. Coming into this year, it seemed like the Illini had all of the pieces in place to make a serious run at a Big Ten title. They had a solid front court with seniors Davis and Tisdale, a legitimate star in McCamey, rising talent in Paul and Richardson, and solid crop of freshmen to round it out. This is one deep and talented team on paper.

And the season started out well. The Illini played well at the Garden, losing to the (now #2) Longhorns by six points. They soundly defeated arch-nemesis UNC and won big at Gonzaga. There was the stumbling block against UIC, but to me, that game was more about overlooking UIC than anything else. A big game against Mizzou was just around the corner, and it was very easy to overlook the Flames. But not excusable.

The Big Ten season has just been a roller coaster. There were times where the Illini have looked unbeatable, and we have to credit Bruce for having his team ready to play. And then there were the losses to Penn State. OSU. INDIANA. NORTHWESTERN. And now Purdue. In all of these games, the Illini had a chance to win. They were close to pulling out the victory in each and every one of those games. I'm willing to forgive OSU and Purdue, since those are good teams, and good teams are going to make a run that just can't be stopped sometimes (see Johnson, JaJuan). But the losses to Indiana and Northwestern? The Illini came out flat in those games, and at times, struggled to hang on against inferior opponents. Who's to blame for those losses, the absolute lack of fire and passion? Weber? The seniors (Demetri specifically)?

After reading the ESPN article, I'm inclined to believe it's both. I credit Weber for not blaming his players for being influenced by outsiders by saying they're just kids. I respect that. But the fact that he feels the need to mention it at all just shows that he's lost them. He made some similar comments after the game against Purdue (see Joe's recap here). Those comments, along with the benching of Demetri and Tisdale against Minnesota, tell me that Bruce is at his wit's end. He doesn't know how to keep this group focused on basketball (McCamey in particular). When was the last time you heard Coach K or Roy Williams or Bill Self talk about outsiders distracting their teams? It doesn't happen, and those coaches have much higher profile players than Weber does.

At the same time, McCamey has to know that he can't always trust those around him flashing dollar signs. To me, this all comes back to McCamey never really trusting Weber. It showed when he was a freshman and sophomore, and the more recent public clash. Maybe McCamey has a problem with authority figures, or maybe it's just Weber. But when your best player and your coach aren't on the same page, it never leads to good things. Perhaps these comments are Weber's final attempt at getting McCamey to see things from his perspective, and to get him to believe in his coach. In any case, I hope they get it together really quick. March is approaching, and this team is too talented to go one-and-done (or even worse, NIT).