Monday, March 14, 2005

Bruce Weber Named National Coach of the Year

Bruce Weber won the Henry Iba Award today...the award is presented to the National Coach of the Year by the United States Basketball Writers Association. Read more about Weber's selection here and here.

To read more about the Henry Iba award itself and for a past list of recipients, click here. Click here to read Iba's bio.

This award is well-deserved in our book, and not just because of the stoicism Weber has shown the past few days with his mom passing away. I don't think this team would not be this good if Weber wasn't the coach...if you know what I mean and I think you do.

Rick Morrissey had a great article on exactly what I'm talking about a few weeks ago. Here is my favorite excerpt:

Please, no stories during the NCAA tournament about Illinois being Self's team too. It's not anymore. It's Weber's team. He did the heavy lifting, turning skeptical players into believers. If a priest had been available last year, Weber would have requested an exorcism to get rid of the ghost of Self.

These are Self's players, but this is not his accomplishment. There is no way of knowing whether he would have produced the same results from these players, but there's no doubt Weber's motion offense is perfect for Deron Williams, Dee Brown and Luther Head.

# posted by Chief : 2:40 PM


<< Home |

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?