Illini refuse to go on road: Weber will play in-state opponents, but only in Champaign
CHAMPAIGN – Illinois coach Bruce Weber doesn’t mind scheduling games against in-state opponents, but there’s one thing he won’t budge on.
He won’t take the Illini on the road to Carbondale, Peoria, DeKalb, Normal or any other campus inside the state lines for a non-conference game. When No. 23 Illinois hosts Northern Illinois tonight, it’s the first meeting between the schools in basketball.
“We’ll play the state schools, if they want to come to us,’’ Weber said. “It’s difficult for us to return games. There has been a lot of chatter from SIU fans. We’re going to try to work that out and play them someplace.
“It’s good for the state schools. It’s good for us. There are good coaches and teams in our state. It gets them extra exposure. It’s a positive game for us. If it’s at our place, it’s much better.’’
For the Illini, there’s nothing to gain and plenty to lose by taking games on the road, and they need home games to raise revenues. With regular games in St. Louis and Chicago, plus returning the Chicago game and playing on the road in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge, Illinois already plays away from home enough, Weber said.
In Weber’s six years as Illinois coach, the Illini have played home games with Western Illinois and Illinois State. The Illini played Illinois-Chicago in Chicago and Bradley in an exempt tournament championship game in Hoffman Estates. The Illini could meet Bradley again in Las Vegas later this month.
Illinois hasn’t played Southern Illinois since 2001, when Weber coached the Salukis and lost to the Illini and former coach Bill Self in Las Vegas. While everyone wants a shot at big brother, the best matchup still appears to be an Illinois-Southern Illinois game, considering the backstory of Weber’s years at Southern and the Salukis’ success in the decade.
But unless Southern Illinois wants to play in Assembly Hall, there’s little chance it would happen.
“They can come here,’’ Weber said. “We talked a little bit about Chicago. They’d like to play in St. Louis. I don’t know if that would work out. We have the Missouri game there. We’re not changing the Missouri game. Would it hurt our crowd for that game?’’
When Weber held a Coaches vs. Cancer fundraiser with Salukis coach Chris Lowery in Marion last week, “it was the first question” Weber said. “I said since I left there we’d try to play sometime. We’ll try to work it out if we can.’’
Meanwhile, Northern Illinois coach Ricardo Patton gets the benefits of playing against Illinois while trying to improve the Huskies.
“Good players want to play against other good players,” Patton said. “It helps in recruiting to show athletes that you have an attractive non-conference schedule. It also identifies your weaknesses early rather than later.”
N. Illinois (0-1) at No. 23 Illinois (1-0)
When: 7 p.m. today
Where: Assembly Hall, Champaign
