Weber pulls off Illini clean sweep

Raise your glass, clap your hands, tip your cap, whatever. Feel free to perform whichever gesture you feel is appropriate.

Bruce Weber has earned it.

The Illinois head coach pulled off a truly remarkable feat Wednesday. He signed four top 100 players from Chicago, and he did it clean.

Orr's Mycheal Henry, De La Salle's Mike Shaw, St. Ignatius' Nnanna Egwu and Mount Carmel's Tracy Abrams all signed with Illinois on Wednesday.

"He's a hard-working son of a gun," De La Salle coach Tom White said. "And he's an honest guy that does it the right way."

Things like this don't regularly happen in college basketball. In fact, no one has ever done it before.

DePaul came close in 1998 when it landed three Chicago players: Bobby Simmons, Lance Williams and Quentin Richardson.

"It's good for the city to have these guys at Illinois," said Orr coach Louis Adams. "We've had players from Chicago leading other schools to the Final Four for too long."

And don't think Illinois' clean reputation is lost on the recruits.

"You feel comfortable signing up with Illinois because nothing will go wrong," St. Ignatius senior Nnanna Egwu said. "There won't be sanctions or investigations."

Illinois' 2010 class of Jereme Richmond, Meyers Leonard and Crandall Head was all in-state players, but besides for Head none of the players had Chicago ties.

That's especially significant for Weber. His reputation as a local recruiter was in the gutter three years ago.

The Illini lost out on Julian Wright, Derrick Rose, Jon Scheyer and Sherron Collins in a three-year period. Not to mention the Eric Gordon debacle.

"Getting Chicago guys shows how far Illinois has come in recruiting in the past three years," recruiting analyst Joe Henricksen said. "They weren't able to capitalize on the Final Four run, but a lot of those misses were out of their control."

So what changed?

If you ask around the Public League, the answer is simple: Jerrance Howard.

Weber hired Howard as an assistant coach in September of 2007 to replace Tracy Webster. Since then, Howard has romanced city coaches better than anyone in recent memory.

"I think Jerrance is the main reason for the resurgence," Simeon coach Robert Smith said.

Henry summed it up simply after signing his letter of intent Wednesday at Attack Athletics on the west side: "Jerrance is the main reason I'm going to Illinois."

Henry, who wore an Illini-orange tie borrowed from Young coach Tyrone Slaughter while he signed, may be the most closely-scrutinized recruit in the class. He's the first Public League player to head to Illinois since Simeon's Stan Simpson in 2008.

"Kids want to play with their friends," Orr coach Louis Adams said. "So getting city kids to come will probably keep city kids heading to Illinois."

Howard's impact is obviously huge, but Weber hasn't received enough credit. He's the one that hired Howard. He took a chance on a young guy with almost no coaching experience--not the easiest call to make. And three of the four recruits signed Wednesday are Catholic League players with veteran coaches that admire the way Weber has done things at Illinois.

"He's the most gracious, humble Division I coach I've ever met in my life," said St. Ignatius athletic director Jim Prunty.

Shaw was Weber's biggest recruiting victory. He seemed destined to wait until the spring to sign--which would have significantly hurt Illinois' chances to land him.

"Weber got that one done," Henricksen said. "I can't say enough about the job he did on Shaw. Not many high-major coaches are as active in recruiting as Weber is now."

The state's 2012 class is virtually barren as far as high-major talent goes, so Illinois' attention will turn to the loaded class of 2013 which includes Young's Tommy Hamilton Jr., Simeon's Jabari Parker and De La Salle's Alex Foster.

"Today was huge for Illinois from a public relations standpoint," Henricksen said. "And that is only going to help as they target the big names from 2013 and 2014."

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