ST. LOUIS – Southern Illinois basketball coaching legend Bruce Weber has been selected to the Missouri Valley Conference Hall of Fame, the League office announced Wednesday.
Along with Weber, the 28th MVC Hall of Fame class features coaching legends Bob Warn of Indiana State and Lisa Bluder of Drake; track & field All-American Tyler Mulder of UNI; student, coach, professor, administrator, mentor, and trusted advisor Betty Wiseman of Belmont; and men’s basketball star Marcellus Sommerville of Bradley.
Including this year’s six inductees, the MVC Hall of Fame consists of 157 former student-athletes, administrators, coaches, and contributors.
A highly successful men’s basketball coach, Bruce Weber began his Division I coaching career at Southern Illinois in 1998. He coached SIU to a 103-54 overall record (.656) in five seasons from 1998-99 through 2002-03. During his five-year sting in Carbondale, the Salukis recorded a 62-28 record in MVC games-only (.689); the 13th best win percentage in MVC history.
Weber led SIU to two MVC regular-season titles (2002 and 2003) and two NCAA Tournament appearances (2002 and 2003). Both teams received at-large bids. The 2002 team reached the Sweet 16: one of three Sweet 16 appearances in SIU history. The 2002 team was ranked 22nd nationally in the final USA Today/ESPN poll of the season and is the second winningest team in SIU history (28 victories), which is tied for seventh-best in a single-season in MVC history.
The 2003 MVC Coach of the Year, Weber led the 2000 Salukis to the NIT where they won at Colorado and lost at BYU. Weber coached three MVC All Conference First Team players: Kent Williams (2X) and Rolan Roberts. Roberts was 2002 MVC Newcomer of the Year.
A 2018 SIU Hall of Fame inductee, his 2002 and 2003 teams launched a stretch of six consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances by the Salukis. Weber has an overall head coaching record of 497-302 (.622) in 24 seasons. He coached SIU, Illinois (2003-2012) and Kansas State (2012-22) to a total of six conference championships, to 13 NCAA tournaments (including the 2005 Final Four), and to two NITs. Weber won Big Ten regular-season titles in 2004 and 2005 while Illinois was crowned as Big Ten tourney champs in 2005. While at K-State Weber earned two regular-season Big 12 titles (2013, 2019). Weber was Big Ten Coach of the Year in 2005, and he was named the Big 12 Coach of the Year in 2013.
Weber’s long list of national coaching accolades include AP Coach of the Year (2005), the Henry Iba Award (2005), NABC Coach of the Year (2005), Naismith College Coach of the Year (2005), Victor Awards National Coach of the Year (2005), USBWA District VI Coach of the Year (2013, 2019), NABC District 8 Coach of the Year (2013), and USA Basketball National co-Coach of the Year (2019).
Weber currently works as a studio analyst and color commentator for the Big Ten Network.
The league will conduct its annual Hall of Fame ceremony as part the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Men’s Basketball Championship in St. Louis, Mo., on March 6-9, 2025. The Friday, March 7, festivities begin with an 8:00 a.m. breakfast, followed by the induction ceremony at 8:30 a.m.
Tickets to the 2025 Hall of Fame event, which will be held at Stifel Theatre — adjacent to Enterprise Center – can be obtained by contacting the league office. Tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis.
The 2025 State Farm MVC Tournament marks the 35th-straight year the event has been staged in St. Louis. With 35 consecutive years at the same neutral site, Arch Madness is the second-longest neutral site tenured collegiate tourney in the nation (following only the Big East in New York City). It marks the 31st anniversary of the tournament at Enterprise Center.
