Farewell, Class of 2011 - Illini Season Wrap-up

I always find the day on which the NCAA tournament carries on without the Illini to be a sad one. This year, thanks to the vagaries of scheduling, the Illini were the last team eliminated in the "third round" (f/k/a "the second round")*, so today is that sad day. It also provides a good opportunity to remember the accomplishments of the class of 2011 - Demetri McCamey, Mike Davis, Mike Tisdale, and Bill Cole.

* I guess you could say we made the "Sweet Seventeen" - maybe we should hang a banner in the Assembly Hall to commemorate it!

EDIT - we actually weren't the last team eliminated in the "third round". I forgot that FSU's evisceration of Notre Dame finished after our game did. How about an "Elite Eighteen" banner instead?

The outgoing senior class featured four good citizens who never caused any trouble off the court, and as individuals they made quite an impact on the Illini record book: McCamey finished second all-time in assists; Davis finished second all-time in rebounds; Tisdale finished second all-time in blocked shots; and Cole...ummm...posted a lot of Matto Chart points, I guess. Unfortunately, they never achieved much in the way of team success. They never came close to a Big Ten title (don't throw the second-place finish of 2008-09 at me when they were closer to ninth place than first), they only made two NCAA tournament appearances, and they managed just the one NCAA tournament victory this year against UNLV. They also have the misfortune of being probably the most disrespected class in Illini history (mostly by supporters of Bruce Weber, who'll do anything, including trashing players, to prop him up). But despite their limitations as players, I'd say that their lack of team success falls in Weber's lap, as Weber failed them in so many ways:

• Even though Tisdale, McCamey, and Davis started together from their sophomore year on, Weber never was able to get them to run his motion offense effectively, and he never adjusted to find a scheme that would better suit his players' skill sets.
• Weber failed to recruit anyone of consequence in the classes immediately before and after their class.
• Although recruiting finally picked up with the high school classes of 2009 and 2010, Weber still failed to bring in a true point guard to back up McCamey or a non-finesse big man to complement Davis, Cole and Tisdale.
• Weber failed to properly integrate the younger talent (the Illini featured five consensus top-100 players, including one McDonald's All-American, among their underclassmen) with the upperclassmen.

So thank you, class of 2011 - you had to do a lot of heavy lifting to carry the team throughout your Illini careers, and there was a lot of disappointment, but you handled yourselves with dignity and at least you went down fighting. A lot of Illini fans may not realize it yet, but we'll miss you and your contributions going forward. Best of luck to you in your future endeavors.