I couldn't sleep last night. So I rolled over, flipped open the laptop, bought a subscription to the Southern Illinoisian newspaper archives and then proceeded to read roughly 100 articles from Bruce Weber's first season at SIU in 1998. Why, I do not know.
Figured I'd share what I learned, and yes, some of this will sound familiar.
—Bruce was passed over by Drake, Bowling Green and Toledo in the years before getting the SIU job. Despite all his success under Gene Keady (18 years), nobody seemed to want to hire him. And Bruce himself didn't expect to get the SIU job until the call came. He beat out five other candidates.
—The local newspaper hailed Weber's "squeaky clean image."
—The SIU search committee didn't recommend Bruce. To a man, the top pick was Mike Glenn. But AD Jim Hart went with Weber instead after receiving a big endorsement from Keady. Hart knew Keady personally and credited him for "turning me on to Bruce."
—A good chunk of the fan base wanted Rich Herrin to keep the job, while others wanted Bobby McCullum or Glenn to get the gig. There were definitely people who wanted Weber, but he was hardly viewed as an exciting, obvious hire by the fan base. A local columnist lobbied for the school to hire its first black coach. (Chris Lowery would eventually become the first.)
—Hart said there was one intangible that helped Bruce stand out from the crowd. "He smiles. He's got a smile on his face the whole time. I like that. I want someone to be happy."
—Hart also liked Bruce's affability and his family-first nature. Bruce put this on display in his first press conference when he bragged of his 6-year-old daughter's Candyland prowess. "I've never beaten her," he told the media, "so if you think you're any good at it, you can come to the house and try to play her."
—Bruce didn't inherit a bad program, despite contrary belief. SIU had made three straight NCAA tourneys before missing three straight. But in the three years prior to Weber's arrival, the team improved its win-loss record each season. Herrin won 20 games in six of his final 10 years. Weber himself admitted that he liked the returning pieces he inherited—other than the lack of PG.
—Bruce's top assistant at SIU? Matt Painter. Interestingly, when Bruce left SIU, Painter took over for one year before departing for Purdue. Here's what the local columnist said of Painter's early exit: "Painter has had just one outstanding year, a year with Weber's players and, basically, a year where he just took Weber's principles and expanded them a little." (Just a note: Painter and Lowery both led their teams to higher ratings than anything Bruce had in his five years at SIU.)
—Bruce leaned heavily on Keady's advice early in his head-coaching tenure, but felt that Keady had been in the game so long that he maybe forgot what it was like to be a first-time coach. So Bruce instead turned to one of his best friends in the coaching business for advice ... Kevin Stallings.
—Bruce's early recruiting philosophy: "With recruiting, you have to be smart and not waste time. You have to focus on kids you think you can get."
—Bruce signed a top-100 level player his first year on the job. "I think you build a program with the point guard first. Then you go big."
—Bruce had a knack for saying odd things. While explaining the importance of academics, Bruce said the following of his time at Purdue: "There were many nights, before I had kids, I was at a study table until 10 or 11 o'clock. There's a lot of guys my name should be on their diploma, or at least slash Bruce Weber."
—Bruce was determined to sell the SIU program. "We joke that you never have a second chance to make a first impression, and almost every day it's a first impression with a lot of things. One thing I learned from Gene Keady was he was always selling the program at Purdue."
—Bruce had some swagger! Well, kind of. "Everyone says don't worry about the season, we expect a down year. Well, I'm not satisfied with that. I've been in college coaching 19 years and I have only been part of one team that wasn't a .500 team. We're not going to settle for just saying it's a rebuilding year. We're going to go out and see what happens."
—Bruce was even keeled: "I was always the mild one on the Purdue staff. Coach Keady was very emotional all the time, and Kevin is pretty emotional. I tried to sit back and analyze, but once in a while I blew up. I always thought, when you do blow up, the players better listen. And if you do it all the time, I don't think they listen."
—Bruce's first SIU team was picked to finish 8th in the MVC. They finished tied-5th and Bruce earned second place in Coach of the Year voting.
—SIU lost Bruce's coaching debut at Murray State after rallying from a 17-point deficit. Murray State entered with a 31-game home win streak. "It's sad we lost; we shouldn't have lost. We were hoping to make history and it didn't happen. But you gotta be pleased. The big thing is, now where do we go?"
—Bruce's first win at SIU was a 15-point second-half comeback against VCU. Afterward, a player said: "With coach Weber, you just don't quit. That's exactly what happened. We fought back, we were diving on the floor, on defense people were just getting after it, and the crowd was phenomenal. Usually I don't really hear the crowd, but tonight it was loud."
—After a 1-4 start in his first year, including a 76-62 loss to SW Missouri State, Bruce cranked up the excuse machine: "We've had a tough schedule. Not only tough teams, but the way it's been set out with one game a week, no flow. Then we've had some things ... God decides when things happen, and some bad things have happened to us. We've got to deal with those things and hang in there."
—The try-hard chart was used in Bruce's first season.
—Bruce lost three times to Bradley his first year, including in the MVC tourney. But they were close defeats! "It was one or two field goals that changed the game," Weber said. "They beat us three times by a total of nine points."
Figured I'd share what I learned, and yes, some of this will sound familiar.
—Bruce was passed over by Drake, Bowling Green and Toledo in the years before getting the SIU job. Despite all his success under Gene Keady (18 years), nobody seemed to want to hire him. And Bruce himself didn't expect to get the SIU job until the call came. He beat out five other candidates.
—The local newspaper hailed Weber's "squeaky clean image."
—The SIU search committee didn't recommend Bruce. To a man, the top pick was Mike Glenn. But AD Jim Hart went with Weber instead after receiving a big endorsement from Keady. Hart knew Keady personally and credited him for "turning me on to Bruce."
—A good chunk of the fan base wanted Rich Herrin to keep the job, while others wanted Bobby McCullum or Glenn to get the gig. There were definitely people who wanted Weber, but he was hardly viewed as an exciting, obvious hire by the fan base. A local columnist lobbied for the school to hire its first black coach. (Chris Lowery would eventually become the first.)
—Hart said there was one intangible that helped Bruce stand out from the crowd. "He smiles. He's got a smile on his face the whole time. I like that. I want someone to be happy."
—Hart also liked Bruce's affability and his family-first nature. Bruce put this on display in his first press conference when he bragged of his 6-year-old daughter's Candyland prowess. "I've never beaten her," he told the media, "so if you think you're any good at it, you can come to the house and try to play her."
—Bruce didn't inherit a bad program, despite contrary belief. SIU had made three straight NCAA tourneys before missing three straight. But in the three years prior to Weber's arrival, the team improved its win-loss record each season. Herrin won 20 games in six of his final 10 years. Weber himself admitted that he liked the returning pieces he inherited—other than the lack of PG.
—Bruce's top assistant at SIU? Matt Painter. Interestingly, when Bruce left SIU, Painter took over for one year before departing for Purdue. Here's what the local columnist said of Painter's early exit: "Painter has had just one outstanding year, a year with Weber's players and, basically, a year where he just took Weber's principles and expanded them a little." (Just a note: Painter and Lowery both led their teams to higher ratings than anything Bruce had in his five years at SIU.)
—Bruce leaned heavily on Keady's advice early in his head-coaching tenure, but felt that Keady had been in the game so long that he maybe forgot what it was like to be a first-time coach. So Bruce instead turned to one of his best friends in the coaching business for advice ... Kevin Stallings.
—Bruce's early recruiting philosophy: "With recruiting, you have to be smart and not waste time. You have to focus on kids you think you can get."
—Bruce signed a top-100 level player his first year on the job. "I think you build a program with the point guard first. Then you go big."
—Bruce had a knack for saying odd things. While explaining the importance of academics, Bruce said the following of his time at Purdue: "There were many nights, before I had kids, I was at a study table until 10 or 11 o'clock. There's a lot of guys my name should be on their diploma, or at least slash Bruce Weber."
—Bruce was determined to sell the SIU program. "We joke that you never have a second chance to make a first impression, and almost every day it's a first impression with a lot of things. One thing I learned from Gene Keady was he was always selling the program at Purdue."
—Bruce had some swagger! Well, kind of. "Everyone says don't worry about the season, we expect a down year. Well, I'm not satisfied with that. I've been in college coaching 19 years and I have only been part of one team that wasn't a .500 team. We're not going to settle for just saying it's a rebuilding year. We're going to go out and see what happens."
—Bruce was even keeled: "I was always the mild one on the Purdue staff. Coach Keady was very emotional all the time, and Kevin is pretty emotional. I tried to sit back and analyze, but once in a while I blew up. I always thought, when you do blow up, the players better listen. And if you do it all the time, I don't think they listen."
—Bruce's first SIU team was picked to finish 8th in the MVC. They finished tied-5th and Bruce earned second place in Coach of the Year voting.
—SIU lost Bruce's coaching debut at Murray State after rallying from a 17-point deficit. Murray State entered with a 31-game home win streak. "It's sad we lost; we shouldn't have lost. We were hoping to make history and it didn't happen. But you gotta be pleased. The big thing is, now where do we go?"
—Bruce's first win at SIU was a 15-point second-half comeback against VCU. Afterward, a player said: "With coach Weber, you just don't quit. That's exactly what happened. We fought back, we were diving on the floor, on defense people were just getting after it, and the crowd was phenomenal. Usually I don't really hear the crowd, but tonight it was loud."
—After a 1-4 start in his first year, including a 76-62 loss to SW Missouri State, Bruce cranked up the excuse machine: "We've had a tough schedule. Not only tough teams, but the way it's been set out with one game a week, no flow. Then we've had some things ... God decides when things happen, and some bad things have happened to us. We've got to deal with those things and hang in there."
—The try-hard chart was used in Bruce's first season.
—Bruce lost three times to Bradley his first year, including in the MVC tourney. But they were close defeats! "It was one or two field goals that changed the game," Weber said. "They beat us three times by a total of nine points."
