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Tate: Snubbing Weber, Frazier huge mistake

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CHAMPAIGN – This is not said with bitterness. But what's wrong with expressing the other side of a business where Illini basketball coaches too often seem to get the short end of the stick?

Let's begin with a little history. Gene Keady received seven Big Ten Coach of the Year awards at Purdue. He was outstanding – and besides, after 1981, voters didn't have positive feelings about the other guy in Indiana – and Keady received an added boost from a perception that his talent wasn't as good as some others.

Fine. It makes sense to award those who appear to do more with less. Lou Henson received the media-voted honor almost as a lifetime achievement award in 1993, after winning 233 games with no awards in the 1980s.

Fast forward to 1998. Michigan State, a developing national powerhouse, went 13-3 and shared the Big Ten title with Lon Kruger's Illini. That Spartan team took the floor with four athletes who remain among the school's top 16 career scorers – Mateen Cleaves, Mo Peterson, Charlie Bell and Andre Hutson – and would take six all-conference awards in a career that included the 2000 national championship.

Kruger, on the other hand, pieced together scraps that included a walk-on (Brian Johnson), a medical redshirt (Jerry Hester), an undersized center (Jarrod Gee) and marginally recruited guards (Matt Heldman and Kevin Turner). These overachieving Illini had the Spartans 13 down in East Lansing before Cleaves went on a spectacular long-shooting run, and in mid-February they walloped the Spartans 84-63.

Kruger should have been the Coach of the Decade, but the media, which voted on this award from 1992 to 2006, preferred Izzo ... though, oddly, he didn't get it the next three years when his teams were even better. And that's a shame because Jim O'Brien, honored in 1999 and 2001, had his awards vacated along with the Ohio State records in those years. And dare it be said, Bill Self, whose Illini tied Michigan State at 13-3 in 2001, probably deserved it as much as anyone that year.

Then came Bruce Weber in 2004. He inherited quality talent from Self and produced Illinois' first undisputed Big Ten champion since 1952. Trumping a half-century jinx ought to be worth something, right? Wrong. Bill Carmody pulled Northwestern to 8-8 that year – Northwestern's only .500 Big Ten finish in what is now 40 years – and the media vote favored Carmody even as Weber's gang won its last 10 conference games.

So here we are in 2009. In Big Ten balloting announced Monday, the coaches favored Izzo because his team dominated the conference, and the media chose Penn State's Ed DeChellis because his Nittany Lions improved from 7-11 to 10-8. Give DeChellis credit. He has Weber's number. But DeChellis had one great advantage. When it came down to the wire, all he had to do was stand back, spread the floor and let Talor Battle go one-on-one. The fleet Battle won some stunningly close games, including two against Illinois. And if you want to be critical, DeChellis' defensive strategy against Iowa on Saturday still has me scratching my head as the Hawkeyes kept creating mismatches that allowed their mediocre big men to post up the smaller Penn State guards.

Weber, 5-13 in the Big Ten last year, operated in large part with his arms tied behind him. With only one established defensive standout, Chester Frazier, the UI led conference play in points allowed and opponents' field goal percentage. With no player averaging quite 12 points in a 23-8 season, the Illini averaged 65 points and shot 46 percent by leading the nation in assist-per-basket ratio. This was, by Weber, a masterpiece of coaching. He was the secret behind everything they accomplished. His Illini tied Purdue for second in the conference and suffered no outside losses comparable to those sustained by Penn State against Temple and Rhode Island, nor did Penn State post a nonconference win comparable to the UI's defeat of Missouri. And, remember, Penn State had five returnees who started at least 13 conference games a year ago, while Weber was restructuring without Brian Randle and Shaun Pruitt, not to mention Jamar Smith.

So here are my thoughts, stated flatly.

– Izzo is one of the nation's premier coaches. But he has an enormous advantage in talent and, after a shaky start caused by injuries and illness, did basically what was expected. Weber far exceeded anyone's dreams. Weber deserved Coach of the Year.

– Weber's incessant prodding made two sometimes-lethargic sophomores, Mike Davis and Demetri McCamey, better than they would otherwise have been, and Davis received the coaches' vote as a second-teamer. But the media and coaches, as expected, missed the boat in handing out honors. Frazier was the UI's most tenacious, most demanding, most clutch ... in short, the Illini's MVP, Player of the Year or whatever designation you give to being the best. Don't throw numbers at me, unless you want to mention that he led the Big Ten in all-games assists. You had to see it game after game to understand. If any Illini deserved second-team honors, and the media didn't believe anyone did, it was Frazier.

– Frazier always will be my Defensive Player of the Year. He set the tone for what would otherwise have been a mediocre unit. The coaches' pick, Michigan State's Travis Walton, was exceptional, but he didn't tackle some of the 6-foot-7 forwards that Frazier took on, and Walton had a lot more physical support around him.

Just one man's opinion, with no hard feelings.

Loren Tate writes for The News-Gazette. He can be reached at ltate@news-gazette.com.

All-Big Ten teams

COACHES
First team
Kalin Lucas, Michigan State
Manny Harris, Michigan
Evan Turner, Ohio State
Talor Battle, Penn State
JaJuan Johnson, Purdue

Second team
Mike Davis, Illinois
Goran Suton, Michigan State
Kevin Coble, Northwestern
E’Twaun Moore, Purdue
Marcus Landry, Wisconsin

Third team
Demetri McCamey, Illinois
DeShawn Sims, Michigan
Craig Moore, Northwestern
Jamelle Cornley, Penn State
Robbie Hummel, Purdue

Honorable mention
Mike Tisdale, Illinois
Jake Kelly, Iowa
Raymar Morgan, Michigan State
Lawrence Westbrook, Minnesota
William Buford, Ohio State
Stanley Pringle, Penn State
Trevon Hughes, Wisconsin

All-Freshman team
Matt Gatens, Iowa
Delvon Roe, Michigan State
William Buford, Ohio State
B.J. Mullens, Ohio State
Lewis Jackson, Purdue

All-Defensive team
Travis Walton, Michigan State
Chester Frazier, Illinois
Damian Johnson, Minnesota
Chris Kramer, Purdue
JaJuan Johnson, Purdue

Coach of the Year: Tom Izzo, Michigan State
Player of the Year: Lucas, Michigan State
Sixth Man of the Year: Mullens, Ohio State
Freshman of the Year: Buford, Ohio State
Defensive Player of the Year: Travis Walton, Michigan State

MEDIA
First team
Manny Harris, Michigan
Kalin Lucas, Michigan State
Evan Turner, Ohio State
JaJuan Johnson, Purdue
Talor Battle, Penn State

Second team
DeShawn Sims, Michigan
Goran Suton, Michigan State
Kevin Coble, Northwestern
Jamelle Cornley, Penn State
E’Twaun Moore, Purdue

Third team
Mike Davis, Illinois
Demetri McCamey, Illinois
Craig Moore, Northwestern
Robbie Hummel, Purdue
Marcus Landry, Wisconsin

Honorable mention
Chester Frazier, Illinois
Mike Tisdale, Illinois
Jake Kelly, Iowa
Raymar Morgan, Michigan State
Travis Walton, Michigan State
Lawrence Westbrook, Minnesota
Jon Diebler, Ohio State
Stanley Pringle, Penn State
Chris Kramer, Purdue
Trevon Hughes, Wisconsin
Joe Krabbenhoft, Wisconsin

Coach of the Year: Ed DeChellis, Penn State
Player of the Year: Lucas, Michigan State
Freshman of the Year: William Buford, Ohio State

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