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CHAMPAIGN – With long, determined strides, Mike Tisdale makes a direct path to the desk in Bruce Weber's office. There, he raids the bowl of candy that seems bottomless.

"He's still the candy man," Tisdale says.

The same is true in film sessions at the Ubben Basketball Complex. When the head coach arrives, so do the Sweet Tarts and Blow Pops. He picks at the film – "Why didn't you block out?!" – as players pick out red Skittles.

Constructive criticism, apparently, goes down easier with candy corn. Bringing sweets to team functions is an old habit of Weber's, dating to when he would fetch bags of Jolly Rancher suckers for his players at SIU.

"He has a secret stash in his office," says Tisdale, a fourth-year veteran. "I found it."

"I spent $100 on Halloween candy after Halloween," Weber adds. "It was half price."

Through seven seasons on the Illinois sideline, so much about Weber hasn't changed. He's still the candy man. He still hosts team dinners where players – Meyers Leonard, these days – beat him in ping-pong. He's still prone to unusual injuries, evidenced by the splint that protects a torn tendon in his finger.

"I did it while making the bed," he says.

He still clips coupons and carries them in his wallet.

"I used to do it a lot more," he says. "My goal would be to have them give me money back."

That's right – the coach whose contract is worth $1.5 million annually still uses coupons in the checkout line at County Market.

Other things have changed, and Illinois hopes it's for the better. The past four seasons on the court brought as many lows as highs, especially compared to the historic run that preceded them.

Those were seasons defined more by their trials – from car accidents to recruitments that ended like one – than their games. And since Dee Brown's exit after the 2005-06 season, Illinois has been the definition of Big Ten mediocrity: 35-35 in conference games.

Those four seasons included anything and everything a coach could encounter, and they've brought Weber to a light at the end of the tunnel.

"It's a bright light. A really bright light. And I think it's great when you can weather those storms," Michigan State coach Tom Izzo says. "Now he's kind of built it again from scratch. Only this time, that foundation is so solid. This time he's going to be a force to be reckoned with."

                                                       ***

At Illinois, the future appears as sweet as the candy bowl on Weber's desk.

On Monday against UC Irvine, the 13th-ranked Illini will open a season in the AP Top 25 for the second time since 2006. The starting lineup will include four seniors who have played in a combined 379 games. A third consecutive nationally rated recruiting class will sign letters of intent Wednesday.

"I'm ready to get down here right now," says Chicago Mount Carmel guard Tracy Abrams, one of four prep seniors committed to Illinois.

"We've got people buzzing again," says senior Mike Davis. "But we've got to live up to peoples' expectations."

Just as important, there's a confidence around the basketball offices that hasn't been there over the past four seasons.

At the urging of the seniors, players spent their off day Wednesday watching film of the final exhibition game. When freshmen Crandall Head and Jereme Richmond arrived for practice Thursday, their first stop was Weber's office, to say hello to the coach. The other freshman, Meyers Leonard, recently thumped Weber in a game of ping-pong at the coach's home.

"I watched him play Meyers," senior Bill Cole says. "It was a pretty heated battle."

"It wasn't really a contest," Leonard boasts.

A pair of sloppy exhibition games took some of the shine off the season's start. The 10- and nine-point wins against Lewis and Southern Indiana also showed you can put all kinds of talent on the floor, but that won't equate to success.

"We haven't won anything yet," Davis says.

Still, Weber is cautiously optimistic about a team – and a future – he says can be "special."

"I haven't seen him this excited before," Tisdale says. "He talks about how he's excited but says, 'I don't want to get my hopes too high.' I think he's really excited and I think we are, too. Now we just have to win."

"Right now you don't feel like you can compete against a Division II (team). So that makes you realize (there's work to do)," Weber says. "But I think we've made some strides. We've had back-to-back recruiting classes. Now they have to prove they were worth the hype, especially the highly touted guys.

"It might take a little bit of time with Jereme and Meyers and Crandall. You can kind of see that. You have to get some continuity if you're going to be a national player. But coaches are always cautious. You don't want to get too overboard. When they prove it on the court and we keep advancing on the court, then you can celebrate recruiting."

                                                    ***

Jamar Smith is packing. The next day he will leave central Illinois to start his professional career with the Maine Red Claws of the NBA Development League.

"All I know is they told me to bring a coat," he says with a laugh.

That he can laugh – and play for pay – is a life victory.

Over the past four seasons there were three outstanding circumstances that dropped Illinois from the Big Ten elite. One was the car accident involving Smith. Another was the recruitment of Eric Gordon. Another was poor leadership, namely the flammable relationship between then-senior Shaun Pruitt and the coaching staff.

For Weber, the first was nearly devastating in a human sense. Smith remains one of his favorite players and personalities, and Smith's bout with alcoholism hit Weber in the heart. The second was devastating in a recruiting sense. The third was devastating in a locker-room sense.

But there was growth from all three. Illinois altered its recruiting approach after Gordon, and its recruiting exploded soon after. The current seniors were there when toxic team chemistry led to 19 losses in 2007-08, and they've made an extra effort to prevent class division this season.

Finally, two years after Weber was forced to dismiss Smith from the Illinois program, the 23-year-old gives much of the credit for his lifestyle turnaround to his former coaches.

"There was a point where I was so disappointed in myself. You don't realize what you've got till it's gone," Smith says. "Everyone in Peoria would like to be playing at Illinois. That's what I grew up dreaming about. Having that taken away from me, it was a real dark time in my life. I really thought about not playing anymore.

"But Coach Weber, he told me to keep playing basketball. He said basketball is what keeps you cool. I don't know if I'd still be playing without him. Sometimes I'll be just watching college basketball and I'll say to myself I wouldn't still be playing if not for Coach Weber. That's how much he means to me."

Weber says, "He's really grown up. He's a once-in-a-lifetime person."

Weber says he'd change only one thing about how he handled Smith's case.

"The only thing I wish is that I would have known more about him and his illness, how strong it was. It wasn't just a college kid going out and having fun. He had a disease. He had an illness. I learned about it, but maybe not before it was too late to maybe do something about it.

"If he has success in life, I'll feel good about it. He'll text me in the middle of the night and say, 'Thank you.' Those are the things that make you feel pretty good."

And the Gordon drama – what would he change there?

"With E.J., I don't know what else you could have done. We recruited him young. You had him committed," Weber says. "I always felt like I ended up being a victim. All I did was say that I don't think it's right when you recruit someone that's committed. I still feel that way. Yet somehow the national media made that a negative toward me.

"I guess maybe you just don't say anything. I don't feel bad about it. You do what you have to do and you don't look back."

As sweet as the Illini's future appears, those cases are a reminder it can all change in a moment's notice.

"It was a tough time. At the same time life is not always easy," Weber says. "We had a magical run. I wouldn't trade the magical run for anything. We had no injuries, the Final Four. Except for a couple possessions it was magical. You've got to take the good with the bad.

"Maybe overall it helped us. We ended up with Coach (Jerrance) Howard on the staff. Maybe it will work out. Right now our season is testing your patience and we haven't even lost a game yet. That's a part of coaching. Basketball's very humbling."

                                                      ***

The nervous reaction that followed two exhibition games also showed this Illinois team will play under a microscope. Every coaching decision, every loss, every narrow win will be analyzed and overanalyzed, even.

That happens when you miss the NCAA tournament twice in three years. By March it will be five years since Illinois won a tournament game, the longest drought in 30 years.

So, yes, there's pressure on these Illini. They haven't won enough. And Weber feels it.

"Obviously when everything doesn't go perfect it's not easy going to the grocery store, because of your position," he said. "(Retired referee) Jim Bain asked me, 'Do you go to a restaurant after games?' He said, 'Not even after wins?' I said no. After wins I want to have some relaxation. After losses I don't want to see anyone.

"Then I said, 'That's just what we deal with.' I get a pizza or some carryout food and go home and relax and maybe watch the game or whatever."

Weber's critics have done a turnabout, too. In previous years the catcallers said he could coach but couldn't recruit.

"Somebody asked (Purdue coach) Matt Painter about recruiting. They used to ask me that. Now they want to know if I can coach," Weber says. "Matt's won the Big Ten and took a program that's not doing very well (and) now they're worried about recruiting. You can't keep people satisfied. You've just got to do your job the best you can and try to at least enjoy life a little bit."

Weber says he doesn't worry about the message-board critics and talking heads who question his ability. Assistant coaches and the sports information staff will pass along what is written or said, if they feel he should see it.

"People overall are pretty good. I think the worst people are the Internet people that have no face to an opinion. Or the call-in radio guys that have a voice and no face," he says. "So they can say whatever they want. I'll be honest, I don't pay attention to any of that."

He adds, "They'd probably be right next to you and never say anything to you and ask for your autograph."

The low points over the past four seasons tested everyone's patience, including Weber's. During a game at Mackey Arena, for example, he yelled back at a Purdue fan who taunted the former Purdue assistant as he left the court.

If anything, though, the valleys seemed to make Weber more determined to return Illinois to its previous standing as a Big Ten contender.

Take the recruitment of Chicago forward Mike Shaw, for example. Though Illinois had his commitment all but locked up, Weber tripped to De La Salle the day before Shaw's announcement to make certain nothing changed his mind.

"He didn't have to be here," De La Salle coach Tom White says. "But he was."

It's not all seashells and sunshine, however. Weber's sideline histrionics got out of control last season. There are too many player-coach spats, some of them caught by ESPN cameras, and this roster is more combustible. Illinois missed on a recruit it probably should have landed, Rock Island senior Chasson Randle, whose family members are lifelong Illini fans.

Still, there's a feeling Weber has "weathered the storm," as Izzo put it.

And the future appears sweet.

"Has it always gone like you would have wanted? No," Weber says. "Do we feel positive about where we're going? Yes, we've made strides recruiting, our guys have worked at it. You've got a nice mix with seniors and some talented younger guys.

"But until you prove it on the court it doesn't mean anything."