Weber might be a great coach, but recruiting needs work

Even as No. 1 Illinois barrels toward perfection, an ugly slice of reality is lurking outside Assembly Hall, knocking on the door, waiting to get inside:

Illini coach Bruce Weber has not recruited well.

Bruce Weber's first two recruiting classes at Illinois ranked 159th and 112th by the Hoop Scoop. (Getty Images)

Maybe it doesn't matter. Weber might just be the kind of coach who takes his players and beats yours, even if yours have more talent. Bob Knight has been that kind of coach. John Chaney has been that kind of coach. Eddie Sutton, Gary Williams, Bo Ryan. They've not been credited with brilliant recruiting, but they always win.

Weber is only seven seasons into his head-coaching career, and only two years into his Illinois tenure, so it's too early to say for sure. But he might belong on that list of men who coach better than they recruit. Illinois fans had better hope so.

Because he's not recruiting well.

Weber is one-third of college basketball's Golden Triangle, the guy who slipped into the Illinois job after Bill Self slipped into Kansas and Roy Williams slipped into North Carolina. That series of dominoes fell after the 2002-03 season, and two years later all three teams could end up in the 2005 Final Four.

For the most part, Weber, Self and Williams have taken someone else's players and won big. Self and Williams have continued to recruit at a high level, each signing a star-studded class last year and following with an even better class this year. Both Kansas and North Carolina have three 2005 McDonald's All-Americans.

Illinois has no 2005 McDonald's All-Americans, or even one consensus top 100 recruit. Charles Jackson of Buena Vista, Ga., comes closest, tied with eight others for the No. 100 spot on analyst Bob Gibbons' Top 100. Analyst Dave Telep doesn't rank Jackson among his top 40 power forwards, suggesting a spot outside the top 200. Analyst Clark Francis ranks Jackson the No. 394 player in the class of 2005. That's a mistake, Gibbons says.

"He's a sleeper," Gibbons says of the 6-foot-8, 270-pound Jackson. "He's rated by some football services as the best football prospect in Georgia -- the guy is an absolute, physical stud. He's going to give them inside help."

That's great, but more than inside help, Illinois needs guards -- maybe an entirely new backcourt. Luther Head is a senior. Juniors Deron Williams and Dee Brown are expected to enter the 2005 NBA Draft, and only Brown is remotely likely to return to school.

That's a problem, Gibbons says.

"Who replaces Deron Williams? Who replaces Luther Head? Nobody," Gibbons says.

It isn't like Weber doesn't want the best of the best high school players. He has tried to replace his star upperclassmen with star recruits, but has repeatedly swung and missed. Last year, McDonald's All-American Shaun Livingston of Peoria -- an Illinois pipeline that produced stalwarts Frank Williams, Marcus Griffin, Jerry Hester and Sergio McClain -- chose Duke before entering the 2004 NBA Draft.