Illini won’t travel
Illinois men’s basketball coach Bruce Weber doesn’t mind scheduling games against in-state opponents, but there’s one thing he won’t budge on.
He won’t take the Illini on the road to Carbondale, Peoria, DeKalb, Normal or any other campus inside the state lines during the non-conference season.
When No. 23 Illinois hosts Northern Illinois at 7 p.m. today it’s the first meeting between the schools in basketball.
“We’ll play the state schools, if they want to come to us,’’ Weber said. “It’s difficult for us to return games.
There has been a lot of chatter from SIU fans. We’re going to try to work that out and play them some place.
“It’s good for the state schools. It’s good for us. There are good coaches and teams in our state. It gets them extra exposure. It’s a positive game for us. If it’s at our place, it’s much better.’’
For Illinois, there’s nothing to gain and plenty to lose by taking games on the road, and Illinois needs home games to raise money.
With regular games in St. Louis and Chicago, plus returning the Chicago game and playing on the road in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge, Illinois plays away from home enough already, Weber said.
Meanwhile, Northern Illinois coach Ricardo Patton gets the benefits of playing against Illinois while trying to improve the Huskies.
“Good players want to play against other good players,’’ Patton said.
“It helps in recruiting to show athletes that you have an attractive non-conference schedule. It also identifies your weaknesses early rather than later.’’
Weber held a Coaches vs. Cancer fundraiser with SIU coach Chris Lowery in Marion last week. Lowery, who has Weber’s old job, would like the next shot.
“It was the first question,” Weber said. “I said since I left there we’d try to play sometime.”
We’ll work it out if we can.”
ticket package.
a player or a coach is that whoever shows up to the park and has a uniform on, that’s who we’re going with.
“We’re not making any excuses, we’re not worried about what we don’t have. This is our opportunity and we’ll do the best we can with it.”
Pitino had his share of difficulties before the season. He spent the summer under an uncomfortable spotlight after admitting to a sexual encounter six years ago with a woman later charged with trying to extort millions from him.
Pitino and Pelphrey still talk all the time and have been there for each other through the difficult times, including Pelphrey’s current dilemma.
“Tough decisions have to be made, but the one thing you can’t do is sweep them under the carpet,” Pitino said. “You have to make the right choices as a college basketball coach for the future of the program. Those are the tough decisions he’s making right now and they’re going to become stronger because of it.”
Memphis? Nothing easy there, either.
The NCAA stripped the Tigers of all their victories in the 2007-08 run to the title game for using an ineligible player and they had to replace coach John Calipari, who bolted for Kentucky and caused an exodus by his recruits.
Josh Pastner, Calipari’s 31-year-old assistant, was left to pick up the pieces. He takes over a team that only has a couple of players — role players, at that — from the title-game team and little depth.
Memphis was able to beat Jackson State 82-53 to give Pastner his first victory.
Kansas will be a completely different story. The Jayhawks are loaded with preseason All-Americans and talented newcomers, raising hopes of another championship.
Senior guard Sherron Collins was a key contributor to the 2008 title — he had the assist on Mario Chalmers’ last-second shot in regulation — and center Cole Aldrich outplayed North Carolina’s Tyler Hansbrough in the national semifinals. Both were preseason All-Americans.
Kansas has its top nine scorers back from a year ago and its freshman class, headed by former Calipari recruit Xavier Henry, was one of the best in the country. The Jayhawks opened the season No. 1 and routed Hofstra on Friday night.
“You look up and down their roster, they’ve got many, many pros,” Pastner said. “They’re the favorite, no question we’re the underdog and we’ll just have to be ready, be prepared and it’ll be a fun night.”
