We have arrived at a turning point in the coaching career of Bruce Weber and the Illini basketball program. After the Illini’s heartbreaking loss to Virginia Tech ended their season, the program’s immediate future is completely up in the air.

Heading into every new season in Weber’s tenure, one had a general idea of the potential of the team. With Deron, Dee and Luther, the team had potential for greatness. Even after Deron and Luther left, the team still had a potential tournament run in them thanks to the leadership of Dee and James Augustine.

This year, the team was destined to take a hit after the previous two left, but seasoned players still remained and you figured they at least would make the NCAA Tournament. But the outlook after this year looks a little bleaker.

Seniors Warren Carter and Rich McBride are gone, leaving the Illini without two of their top three scorers on the team. Even with McBride and Carter, the Illini were a low-scoring team, so, without them, it’s going to be an even greater struggle to put points on the board.

Shaun Pruitt established himself as the only consistent scoring option on the team, but other teams figured that out and constantly double-teamed him, strangling the Illini offense.

The Illini’s number one goal in the offseason will be to find other consistent scoring options, either through their offense, or a player. The latter will be harder to achieve, since Jamar Smith’s future with the team is uncertain.

Smith would have probably been the next option, since he has the ability to shoot and penetrate, but he might not be on team next year. The pressure will fall onto redshirt senior Brian Randle, who will get one last year to see if he can reach the potential he has teased us with for the last four years.

There is no question that Randle is an incredible athlete, but his athleticism hasn’t translated into consistent performances on the basketball court.

It will take an extraordinary coaching effort by Weber to get the team into the big dance again because outside of these two, no one has singled themselves out as a candidate to have a break-out season.

The incoming freshman class will include four-star recruit point guard Demitri McCamey and two three-star recruits in power forward Bill Cole and center Mike Tisdale. All three are from Illinois, but none of them are expected to have an impact as a five-star recruit such as OJ Mayo or Derek Rose.

Another four-star recruit, Quinton Watkins, a shooting guard from Compton, Calif., has given a strong verbal commitment to Illinois, but hasn’t signed a letter of intent.

While it probably won’t be a repeat of the Eric Gordon saga, Illini fans would breath a sigh of relief as soon as Watkins sends in that letter.

Even with the addition of Watkins, Weber rarely plays freshmen, so it will be up to the likes of Calvin Brock, Trent Meacham and Chester Frazier to provide a spark or else they will struggle to be in contention for the NIT, let alone the NCAA’s.

Only three players remain from that fabled 2005 squad which went all the way to the NCAA championship game. At that time, few would have thought the Illini would have fallen so far only two years later.

Illini fans envisioned star recruiting classes enticed by the play of the 2005 team. We thought guards would be licking their chops to play Weber’s offense, which focuses on guard play and made stars, and NBA players, out of Deron, Dee and Luther.

Now, Bruce’s old team, SIU, is advancing farther than his new team in the NCAA Tournament. To add insult to injury, Bruce’s former understudy, Matt Painter, has recruited a top ten class for Purdue in 2007.

Right behind Purdue in the rankings is DePaul, an in-state rival who we should beat in recruiting, considering the Blue Demons haven’t even made the NCAA Tournament since the 2003-04 season.

Add that to the competition Weber faces every year from other Big Ten teams, and he has a tall task ahead of him in bringing the Illini back to prominence.

For the last six years, Illini fans have simply expected the Illini to be invited to the Big Dance. But unless things drastically change, it looks like next year’s invitation will be lost in the mail.

Majesh Abraham is a junior in LAS. He can be reached at

[email protected].