Tom Izzo seldom couches his opinions. Not surprisingly, he had a few words about the firing of Bruce Weber. He did not feel Weber should have been fired and felt compelled to let the media know he was “sick of it,” three times over at his press conference in Indianapolis.

“My wife and I shed tears this morning,” Izzo told the assembled media. “Some were for Bruce and some were for our profession.”

His dates were a little off, but Izzo seemed especially irked by Illinois AD Mike Thomas declining to support Weber during a Feb. 11 interview, when the team was 16-8. Illinois lost 7/8 afterward, finish 17-15.

“And whenever you’re in an organization, whether it be yours, whether it be mine, or whether it be a business one, the only way you can be successful is if, top to bottom, from the president to the trainer, we’re all on the same page, and that in five, six months, you can determine something.

“I feel bad for the Illini nation, because somebody’s — somebody pulled the rug out from under them. I feel bad for those players that have been there that, in my estimation, weren’t given a fair chance back about the middle of January, whenever that famous statement was made.

“But if you look at that team from that statement, it went directly down.

Previously: Bruce Weber’s Out at Illinois. Would Gregg Marshall Make More Sense Than Shaka Smart?
Previously: Bruce Weber is in Trouble at Illinois