What is the deal with the Illini basketball program?Here's a quick list of things that annoy me about the team:
- the three seniors - Demetri McCamey, Mike Davis, and Mike Tisdale - are inconsistent and don't appear to have a winner's mentality;
- Tisdale can't stay on the court because of foul trouble;
- Davis, despite having innate rebounding talent, manages to have games where he only gets 1 rebound;
- Tyler Griffey doesn't get much playing time and then whines about it;
- Meyers Leonard looks like a goofy doofus, is often out of position, and looks like he's focused on dunking every play rather than improving his post presence on the offensive and defensive ends;
- D.J. Richardson hasn't made a basket in two games;
- Brandon Paul always seems to be knicked up or fighting a cold and isn't all that good on defense;
- Bill Cole should play for a mid-major;
- Jereme Richmond mysteriously missed practice last week and was benched for the Wisconsin game;
- the team in general relies too much on the three-point shot; and
- Bruce Weber yells all the time, calls out his players all the time in the press, and generally seems like a guy the players don't have a ton of respect for.
I say Bruce has two months to get this together. If Illinois isn't in the Sweet Sixteen in March I say we hand the program over to Jerrance Howard or Wayne McClain and start anew.
