All things considered, he said. Illinois basketball redefined itself with Lou Henson; 1989 showed what this program could be with the right recruits and right leadership, and that should have been our vision going forward. The sanctions were a hiccup, and what did we do after the inevitable down years?? Rebounded with our 1998-2006 stretch. It's really as simple as that. The non-sanction years of 1980-2007 should be our expectations, because we proved (over a VERY long stretch with FOUR different coaches who all won a Big Ten title) that it can be done here beyond a shadow of a doubt. Weber tailed off, and we needed to replace him, and it just so happened that we (read: Mike Thomas) made a very costly mistake in that replacement. If we are going to right the ship, everyone needs to transport themselves back to 2008-level thinking and pretend we were firing Weber after that season. Who would we want? Who would we believe we could get? I'm optimistic that the leadership in place now believes in this program's potential and believes that we can return to what HAD become the new baseline in the modern era of college hoops for Illinois basketball.