Before Illinois could go 25-0, Weber had to win over players

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- The Assembly Hall is filled with 16,000 screaming basketball fans and the roar is almost deafening. Still, above the din Bruce Weber's raspy voice booms from the home team's bench.

"MOOOVE! MOOOVE! LOOOTHER, MOOOOOVE!" shouts Weber as he urges guard Luther Head and his top-ranked Illinois teammates through their motion offense.

"We tell him he never needs a microphone," Head says. "He's always the loud guy that can talk to any crowd without a microphone."

Weber's never-give-up message, delivered in a blunt-but-honest style, is getting through to the No. 1 Illini. The group of hardworking role players has reigned at the top of the rankings for 10 straight weeks while becoming the nation's only undefeated team. They turned back their latest challenge, No. 20 Wisconsin at home Saturday to improve to 25-0.

"I could not fathom what's happened, and the success and how we've done it," he said in an interview with The Associated Press. "They have a great desire to be successful, a great desire to win, to compete."

Weber, 48, grew up in northwest Milwaukee and brought a no-nonsense personality to Champaign when he arrived in May 2003. He replaced the popular Bill Self, who had left suddenly for Kansas, and that made for some tough days at the beginning. But Weber's team has adopted his share-the-burden, share-the-wealth philosophy.

No Illinois player averages more than 17 points per game and the Illini are ranked third in the nation with 19.5 assists per game.

Weber's trip to the top of college basketball has taken 25 years, but only once has he been part of a losing team. In 1988-89, halfway through his 18 seasons as Gene Keady's assistant at Purdue, the Boilermakers were 15-16.

There were six Big Ten titles and 14 NCAA tournaments at Purdue before Weber got his first head coaching job at Southern Illinois in 1998. In his five seasons, the Salukis compiled a record of 103-54, two Missouri Valley Conference titles and two trips to the NCAA tourney.

Two seasons later, Weber led Illinois to its first outright Big Ten title since 1952 and a trip to the NCAA regional semifinals, where the Illini lost to Duke.

In the arena, Weber is rarely seated on the bench, exhorting his team as he leans into the action. Once a referee warned him that if he got any further onto the court he'd have to trade in his sports coat for a jersey.

Off-court, he's just as quick to help unload the team bus.

"I try to. They get mad at me," he said. "I don't care. To me, that's part of being a team and not putting yourself above everybody. If I expect them to dive on the floor during a game, why can't I get on my knees and drag a bag out of a bus?"

That team concept is not lost on Weber's players, nor is his tenacity. The Illini have never trailed by more than nine points all season and have battled back from second-half deficits three times to win games at Purdue, Wisconsin and Michigan.

Trailing 28-24 at halftime against Michigan last Tuesday night, Weber changed the defense. It led to a flurry of steals and baskets by Dee Brown, as the Illini outscored the Wolverines by 10 in the second half to win 57-51.

"He's telling us that we're down but we're not out," Head said. "We can always get back into it and defense is going to help. It shows, too, that if we play defense we're going to win games, and that's what we did."

Weber and his players got through the rocky honeymoon early last season to forge a relationship based on mutual trust. He knows they respect him, and they know he has their backs.

"It's him caring about everything we do, not just basketball," Head said.

Weber suspended Head twice last season _ once after he was linked to an off-campus burglary that didn't result in criminal charges and once after Head was caught driving with a suspended license. But Weber supported Head through the off-court troubles, and the senior has returned the favor, becoming a model citizen who now leads the team in scoring.

That support also won Weber the other players' trust, said Chris Lowery, a Weber assistant before becoming head coach at Southern Illinois last spring.

"I think it was so important," Lowery said. "He wanted to help him. He could have dumped him. He barely knew Luther when all that happened."

Not long after Head returned from his second suspension last season, the Illini lost by 20 points at Wisconsin. In the 40 games they have played since, they've lost only to the Badgers in last year's Big Ten Tournament and Duke in the NCAA tournament.

A 91-73 win over then-No. 1 Wake Forest on Dec. 1 vaulted the Illini to the top of the rankings and they've stayed there ever since. It matches the longest streak on top since Kansas' 15-week run in 1996-97.

"A lot of coaches say you have a special team when the players want it just as much as you do," Weber said. "And at this point, I would say that most of the guys want it just as much as we do."

Ten weeks at No. 1 brings publicity. Analysts pick apart every game, the crowd of reporters grows each and talk show after talk show wants to talk to the coach.

"There's some days that it wears you down," said Weber. But he knows the attention is good for the program and helps recruiting.

So Weber tries to accommodate all the requests from media and from fans, even if they stop him at the grocery store like they did about 11 p.m. one night this week.

"All of a sudden there was like nine people at the checkout and I was signing autographs at 11 at night," he said with a bit of a smile. "The meat guy was out there. It was funny and they were laughing about it, but I said, 'Why do you think I'm here at night? Because I didn't think anybody would bother me.'"