Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Weber Moves On to Illinois
04/30/2003 | 12:00:00 | Men's Basketball
April 30, 2003
Southern Illinois University said a figurative goodbye to men's basketball coach Bruce Weber Wednesday, who left the school after five years to accept the head coaching position at Illinois.
Weber met with Saluki players Tuesday evening to inform them of his decision and then flew to Champaign where he was introduced at a Wednesday afternoon press conference as the Illini's successor to Bill Self, who departed last week for Kansas.
In a phone interview Tuesday night, an emotional Weber said his time at SIU was "five of the best years of my life for me and my family."
Weber guided the Salukis to back-to-back NCAA Tournament bids, including a Sweet 16 appearance in 2002. Overall, he compiled a 104-54 record. He was 58-10 at home, including a 27-game winning streak the last two years, the fourth-longest active streak in Division I basketball.
"We hopefully re-energized the basketball program and brought focus back to the university," he said. "Along the way, we had some success and did the job that we set out to do, which was to bring back the basketball tradition to Southern Illinois."
When asked to recall highlights of his tenure, Weber began with the 1998-99 season saying "the first year was just surviving. Putting a team together was a great accomplishment."
Weber said beating Colorado in the NIT in 2000 was a turning point for the program. He called the Indiana game at home when SIU beat the #24-ranked Hoosiers on Dec. 1, 2001, "a special moment."
And Weber said he will always cherish the "Sweet 16 run, coming back to the airport and the pep rally." He praised the 2002-03 team for beating Creighton at home and posting a 16-2 record in the conference. "We kept topping what we did the year before."
Weber was always frustrated with the difficulty of scheduling home games with "name" opponents, and when asked whether he would bring his Illinois team to Carbondale, he said, "the schedule for next year is already set, but I hope to try to do something in the future."
SIU athletic director called a press conference for 3 p.m. Wednesday to discuss the coaching search for Weber's replacement. Audio of that press conference will be available on the website this afternoon.
