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Injury gods beginning to smile on Illini
CHICAGO - In past seasons, when Bruce Weber talked about "personal pain," he was talking about actual physical injuries. There was the appendectomy that laid the Illini basketball coach low. There was the mishap tending to the family swimming pool, which placed his painfully swollen ankle and foot in a restrictive walking boot.
At least he didn't overdose on beef jerky, which contributed to former coach Bill Self's bout with diverticulitis. That landed him on a surgeon's table.
This season, Weber has been injury-free, which is more than we can say for his team. In fact, the joke around the Illini basketball program is that if Weber would be willing to endure another personal injury, perhaps it would satisfy the "injury gods," who in turn would leave his players alone.
Maybe he was thinking along those lines the other day when he tempted fate by stacking sandbags on the tarp that covers his pool. Pool work, he should have learned by now, is best left to others.
Amazingly, he escaped unscathed.
This season, Weber's physical pain has been replaced by mental anguish. Dealing with Rich McBride's suspension for a DUI arrest; with Brian Randle's surgery; with Jamar Smith's high ankle sprain; with the chipped bone in Shaun Pruitt's hand; with Chester Frazier's sore foot; and most recently with freshman Richard Semrau's rather serious surgery to address an infection in the wall of his chest has left Weber wondering from which thundercloud might the next pitchfork fall.
"It's a lot like the first year, to be honest," he said, recalling the 2003-2004 season made difficult by the awkward transition from Self to his new system, by suspensions to three players involved in a burglary and by Deron Williams' broken jaw.
"Everyone remembers the end of the first year," when Illinois pulled together, won the Big Ten Conference championship and reached the Sweet 16. "I remember the start of the first year," said Weber, who has felt like he is reliving the rough stretch when each day seemed to bring about another unexpected pothole.
"I don't sleep much," Weber said of his current state of affairs. "I cramp. It's hard, to be honest. I sit back and hope and pray.
"It seems like it's one crisis after another, every day. Between Dr. (Jeff) Kyrouac, (trainer) Al Martindale and myself, it's hard."
Weber was asked if the stress manifests itself in actual physical illness?
"No, I'm mentally ill," he said, barely suppressing a slight smile.
The good news (knock on wood) is that the injury situation seems to have sorted itself out. Smith is back. Pruitt and Frazier are playing through their aches and pains. And on Saturday, Randle returned from his surgery after missing nine-and-a-half games.
Only Semrau will be lost long-term.
Maybe the clouds are lifting, and just in time to rediscover substitution patterns and the chemistry that comes from playing together. Most important, Weber believes, is simply practicing together, something this team has not been able to do since the season began.
"We're starting over," Weber said after Saturday's 71-66 victory over UIC. "It's been a mess. Practice hasn't been good. I love practice. That's where I think your team gets better. How they deal with this over the next couple weeks will be huge in terms of preparing for the Big Ten.
"Today I wrote on the board the importance of playing 40 minutes. We played 20 minutes. If we play 20 minutes, we won't beat teams like Wisconsin."
One thing is certain: If players don't take seriously Weber's plea for urgency over the next two weeks, they'll be making a big mistake.
"They're going to find out when we get back together for practice on Tuesday," he warned. "It's going to be hard."
And long.
Now that Weber has a deeper roster, he can make players accountable by limiting their playing time. That wasn't as possible when Randle, Smith and McBride were out. He had few options. Normally, teams figure out substitution patterns and lineup combinations in October and November. Circumstances made that impossible for the Illini.
Now they can finally begin. Doing it quickly, and doing it right, will determine just how good this team will or will not be.
That assumes, of course, that the rash of injuries has ended, an assumption Weber is too nervous about to make.
Mark Tupper can be reached at mtupper@herald-review.com or 421-7983.
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