Hi, Jim is on assignment so I'll be here alone. Loren

BIll, I can't explain the RPI. It bewilders me. Illinois' non-conference schedule is vastly better than most of the teams in the NCAA tournament. Some of the teams that Illinois played were part of the Vegas tournament. Illinois playerd 16 games against NCAA teams. That is a lot. The trouble, as it turned out, is that 13 of Illinois' 19 wins came against teams that didn't rank in the top 100. Loren

Gabe, good luck hunting today. But don't shoot Bambi. Loren

Tim, your question is: "Do I think Weber should be fired?"
My answer is quite simply: "No."
Should he be held accountable? Of course. Should he be fired. No. You have every right to disagree. Loren

Chris, Illinois tried for neutral sites but couldn't come up with anything on short notice. Like you, I would have loved Huff, but there are problems because it is a contruction area and a wall has been put up inside on the north side. It is a complicated business. Loren

Brian, we will learn at some point whether Weber intends to play Keller after the incident when Keller refused to pay attention on the bench after Weber pulled him from the Wisconsin game after less than a minute. Keller appears to be a very disappointed senior and the likelihood is that Griffey will get his time from here on out. Loren

Illinigator, like you, I wonder how much money they'll lose. It will be substantial. Too bad they couldn't find a site in Illinois. Maybe they didn't get started early enough on that. Loren

Bruce, Huff is a construction site, parking is a serious problem, and it wouldn't have seated much more than 3,000.But I would have loved to see it. Loren

Russ, they ran it once and, with the official delaying the play, it failed. The idea was to catch the defense off guard, but it didn't happen. Loren

Bill, I'm not saying Bruce Weber isn't responsible. All I'm saying is that this silly business of bracketology, that goes on for weeks, can't possibly be accurate when we never know how many of the 34 at-large positions will be lost. The upsets led to what I called the Incredible Shrinking Bubble. Loren

dj, I'm just one person. Others can present their own ideas. In my opinion, because recruiting has picked up, Weber has several more years before that kind of discussion should take place. That's just me. As I said, I'm just one person and I don't have a vote.
I didn't call for Zook to be fired, but I really did think Guenther was on the verge of doing it. I was wrong. I don't think there is any consideration of that nature about Weber. But, again, I could be wrong. Loren

redgrange, if you want me to take you seriously, why do you refer to "Saint Guenther." That pretty much establishes, with me at least, that you are unreasonable on this entire subject. I answered the Huff question earlier. Loren

Ben, as I've said several times, Weber is under no pressure from the people that matter, and will have several more years to put Illinois where you think the program should be. It won't be easy because the top four teams in the conference are very strong. But Illinois figures to get better. Loren

Cameron, Illinois beat Kent State in overtime last year, and beat Tulsa by 4. A game with either should be very competitive. Loren

Karl Z, I'm always looking for column material. We'll see. I take my direction from Jim Rossow, sports editor. And I seldom think beyond the next column, they come at me so fast. Loren

Karl, Self had talent on hand and coming at the time and would probably have sustained it. Recruiting is always the key, and Illinois is paying for several years of mediocre recruiting right now. Loren

Dave, the Assembly Hall is co-managed by the athletic department, but when the opportunity came for a 7-show circus, a really special event, they had to make a choice. One in the hand is better than two in the bush. It was a gamble, and it makes far more sense, financial and otherwise, to have the circus. Loren

Chad, I'm going to work on this subject for Tuesday's column. I haven't had time to get into it yet, although I understand that it would have been costly to rent another arena. The UI looked into it over the weekend and couldn't line anything up. Loren

Bob, I'm fine with the Minnesota loss because I considered it a tough game that either team could have won, and the Gophers had as much right to win as they did in beating Michigan State and Purdue this past weekend. Why is it that everything thinks Minnesota shouldn't beat Illinois? The Gophers are just as good, if not better, than Illinois. Sure, Illinois could have won. But, in my opinion, it was a 50-50 game. Loren

Mike, I don't give grades. But I assume it would be somewhere in the area of a B. He has players who lack all the qualities needed to win at the high level. The lineup lacks mobility. He got more out of them defensively than I thought he could. Offensively, the team is too reliant on McCamey, but there is no other choice. Weber is operating on a thin margin because of past recruiting disappointments. Loren

Dr. Phil, it is OK to have high expectations. Illinois should always seek to be better. But the unspoken question, as with most of these chats, is what do you do when expectations aren't met. For me, we simply have to play it out and try to do better. That doesn't mean we can't blame the coaches. Everybody always does that. The real question is how far do you go before making coaching changes. That is a different question. Loren

Larry, Cassie Arner is leaving football after 12 seasons, and she is going into the marketing department while Kent Brown takes over as football SID. Loren

Tony, I don't think Weber is in over his head, and I don't think for a minute that my answer will satisfy you. Rave on. Loren

John, I look for Griffey to get increasing time after his showing in the Big Ten tournament. Loren

Illini1973, yes that has happened before. I don't have time to look it up, however. There are past leapfrog examples in a number of conferences. The committee does not differentiate between conference and non-conference games. Loren

Lou, Matta has lost five players to the NBA draft, all of whom could be playing now, and has a very thin squad in which four players are vastly better than the others. So he plays them. Not many coaches do it that way, but it is appropriate for Ohio State this year. Loren