Bruce Weber: Our Prayers are with You in loss of mother The Illinois Fighting Illini won their quarterfinal game in the Big Ten Tournament today, but sometimes other events intrude on sports that make winning and losing seem trivial. News came shortly after the game that the mother of Illinois Coach Bruce Weber was taken to the hospital to repair a torn aorta. The 81-year-old Dawn Weber did not make it and passed away at about 6:00 p.m.

Apparently, Mrs. Weber felt chest pains shortly after arriving at the United Center for the game and was taken to Rush University Medical Center. The Associated Press has more details here.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Bruce Weber and his family, particularly his four siblings. There's nothing more important in this life than family and Illini Wonk can't imagine how tough it would be to lose your mother.

Earlier in the season, Illini Wonk posted a profile of Bruce Weber done by Pete Thamel of the New York Times. You may remember from that profile, that Dawn Weber was a widow as her husband, Lou, died of a heart attack in the late 1980's.

The aorta is The main vessel leading from the heart providing oxygenated blood to the body(courtesty of WebMD). Illini Wonk will ask Mrs. Illini Wonk (a cardiovascular technologist) more about this tomorrow and dutifully report.

UPDATE: Not surprisingly, Weber's status for Saturday's tournament semfinal against Minnesota is undetermined.

Stay tuned to Illini Wonk for updates as they come in.  posted by Illiniwonk at 8:18 PM