January 1st 2009, oh what a difference a year makes.

So 2008 has come to a close, and my new years day couldn't be more different than last year. Jan 1 2008 saw the Illini playing in their first Rose Bowl in over 20 years, playing well above everyone's rational expectations. Today of course there is no Illini football to speak of, not the Cap 1 bowl, or even the outback bowl for Ron Zook. Increased expectations decidedly not met.

The basketball team on the other hand, was not experiencing what anyone would call a dissapointing season. They were entering conference play after the most embarrasing loss at Assembly Hall in decades, to Tennessee State, and were about to get pantsed once again in the hall by Ohio State, all on their way to the first losing season in a decade.

At no point in his tenure here in Champaign has Bruce been so close to losing his job. Fast forward exactly one year, and things are looking much different. All of what was bad then seems to be good now. The most glaring inadequacy, his recruiting, has been seemingly cured by the new assistant coach Jerrance Howard. The next two incoming recruiting classes for the Illini are ranked in the top ten. Last year close games and overtimes were frittered away by poor free throw shooting and an inability to hit a game winning shot. This year with the exception of the Clemson game, this has not been the case. Overtimes are going to the Illini, free throws are falling, and instead of playing down to competition like last year, they are closing out inferior teams and playing up to the good ones.

Senior leadership last year left something to be desired as Shaun Pruitt and Brian Randle came to personify many of the ills of last years team. There have been reports of bickering and team infighting from the '08 squad, that eventually led to Pruitt being suspended. This year however, you can not find more team first players than Meachum, Brock and one Mr. Chester Frazier.
Perhaps Chet's turn around from this year to last year is the best representation of this reversal of fortune. Last year no one was criticized as much as Chet for all of his shortcomings, he can't shoot the ball, he plays too erratic and for a point guard throws way too many balls away. While there is some evidence that he has improved since last year part of his transformation from team goat to fearless leader has to do with the fact that he does not have near as much pressure on him as he did last year. No one expects him to be Dee Brown anymore. He can run the offense, get tons of assists and even rebounds, and is a defensive juggernaut. His tough play has become the standard for the rest of the team, completely unlike the senior leadership offered the year before.

The turnaround that has flowered in this season had its seeds in last season's Big Ten tournament. Even though the did not win, the team showed more poise and heart than it had all season. The team that beat Purdue the other night did it because as much as we all think we know better, Bruce can effing coach. If he can get the right players, and get those players to buy into his system he will win games. Finally the rest of the College Basketball world is giving Bruce credit for something other than just "winning with Bill Self's players." Thankfully, it seems that our stay in the cellar of the Big Ten has been very brief.