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Preseason trash talk.

The IU blogosphere has been all abuzz about Bruce Weber's recent comments about IU. At some sort of Illini circle-jerk a few days ago, Weber said:
The league should be wide open and we can be right in the middle of it. I do know one thing, though. I think Indiana will suck. Don’t put that on the Internet.

I have made clear on many occasions that I don't like Bruce Weber. He was right to be miffed about losing a recruit as talented as Eric Gordon, but as I have said many times before, Weber's inability to shrug it off has done real damage to the Illinois program. After IU's double overtime win at Champaign last year, in that toxic atmosphere created and abetted by Weber and the Illinois administration, I said this about Bruce:
For a college head coach, Weber just doesn't seem to relish competition.
That line, perhaps more than any other, led some Illinois fan to write a Unanbomber-style manifesto about how wrong I was about everything. Certainly, Weber can say whatever he wants to say. And of course, IU coaches have been known to take shots at opponents, albeit with a bit more creativity.

I thought Weber's approval of Chester Frazier's tech-worthy chest bump of Eric Gordon said something about Weber's character and supported my contention. I think his current willingness to talk trash about a team that doesn't return a single recruited scholarship player is exhibit B. Wow, Bruce. Takes a big man to say that you'll have IU's number this year. Weber took over a program that had NCAA championship-caliber talent on hand and drove the program into the crapper. Hopefully the trajectory of Crean, who was Illinois's first choice in 2003, will be the opposite.