There is a guard with above-average size and athleticism, a 6-foot-9, 200-pound forward with good range and a 7-foot, 220-pound center with solid footwork and a soft touch. This would have been an outstanding recruiting class for Bruce Weber in November 2002.

The problem?

Weber was coaching at Southern Illinois then. You could do well - very well, in fact - in the Missouri Valley Conference with Demetri McCamey (the guard), Bill Cole (the forward) and Mike Tisdale (the center).

That is not a slam dunk, or even close, in the Big Ten and at Illinois, where Weber coaches now.

McCamey is rated the No. 57 senior in the country by Rivals.com , which would make him a real catch for Southern Illinois. The "wow" factor is far less at a Big Ten school one year removed from the national championship game.

Neither Cole nor Tisdale is ranked among the top 100, leaving Weber with more questions than answers.

Top-flight recruits project well immediately. The rest are projects. Cole and Tisdale appear to be the latter.

They are good players who, if bulked up and coached up, could eventually be competitive in the Big Ten. McCamey, from tradition-rich Westchester St. Joseph High School, could make an impact sooner.

Yet, none of them is Jon Scheyer, Sherron Collins, Julian Wright, Derrick Rose or, yes, Eric Gordon.

The easy thing is to blame all of this on Kelvin Sampson and Gordon, the superstar guard out of Indianapolis who, after committing to Illinois months earlier, reneged recently and signed a national letter of intent Wednesday with Sampson and Indiana.

Sampson is only months removed from NCAA violations at Oklahoma. That he likely courted Gordon and lured him away from Illinois is not a stretch.

Still, say what you want about Sampson and Gordon - and plenty has been said about both - the bottom line is Weber lost a recruit he desperately needed.

Again.

Illinois' recruiting irons have never been hotter than in the past three years, stoked by an 89-16 run under Weber and the 2005 national runner-up finish.

Despite that, he went 0-for-5 in pursuit of Scheyer (Duke), Collins (Kansas), Wright (Kansas), Rose (Memphis) and Gordon (Indiana). All but Gordon were blue-chip in-state recruits who got away, clearly an inability to strike while the aforementioned irons were ablaze.

To be fair, the commitment from Gordon hindered Illinois' chances with Rose and others.

However, there was no such hurdle in regard to Scheyer. Weber had the ultimate "in." His brother (Dave) coached Scheyer at Glenbrook North. Still, the sharp-shooting guard went elsewhere.

To his credit, Weber has proven to be a fabulous Xs and Os coach, in Carbondale and Champaign. He worked wonders last year, going 26-7 despite losing three starters and 63 percent of the scoring from the 2005 team. The returning starters, Dee Brown and James Augustine, were the winningest players in Illini history, and now, they too are gone.

Weber will have to rely on his coaching expertise more than ever, and likely will find a way to make Illinois competitive. Problem is, the fan base now expects better than "competitive," and Scheyer, Gordon et al would have fed the beast nicely.

Instead, Illinois signed the second-best player on Westchester St. Joseph's team (Evan Turner is rated No. 45 among seniors and headed to Ohio State) and two guys who, for now, are closer to Nick Smith than Nick Anderson.

It is easy to root for Weber. He is as down-to-earth as they come, and again, few are better in the film room, on the practice floor or on the bench.

He just may need some help in living rooms, where recruits and their parents are swayed. Most perennial powers have an assistant coach who is a dynamite recruiter. Weber would do well to find one.

Sooner than later.

Randy Kindred is a Pantagraph columnist. To leave him a voice mail, call 820-3402. By e-mail: rkindred@pantagraph.com . The Randy Kindred Blog is at www.pantagraph.com /blogs