Bruce Weber admits he has never been as openly harsh with center Mike Tisdale in practice as with fellow juniors Demetri McCamey and Mike Davis. But this week he challenged the 7-1 center in front of his teammates after Tisdale got off to a slow start to the season.

Tisdale responded with a bit more assertiveness in the Illini's win over Wofford as he scored 12 points and grabbed five rebounds. It wasn't a breakout game by any stretch but an improvement over the first three games.

"I got after him in practice,'' Weber said. "Mike is sometimes such a good person, a good team guy. I don't know how to say it. It's not that he's just going through the motions, but he doesn't exert as much as he needs to and got a little complacent. I tried to light a little bit of a fire under him and he responded.''

This is the point last season when Tisdale made his presence known in a big way. He averaged 7 points and less than five rebounds in the team's first four games as a sophomore and then had 32 and 14 in two games at the South Padre Island Invitational and was named MVP of the tournament.

Illinois relied heavily on its guard play in the first three games and Tisdale was not a heavy focus. When the Illini got him the ball against Wofford, he made six of eight shots, employing his mini hook with great effectiveness.

Against Utah on Friday night in the Las Vegas Invitational, Tisdale will face players much closer to his size. Facing smaller frontline opponents previously was not a good matchup.

"He kind of got lost a little bit,'' Weber said. "Some of it was who we were playing quickness-wise. ... He needs to get some touches because he's one of our better shooters and his hook is good. I hope he got a little confidence.''

Through four games, Tisdale is averaging 8.8 points and 4.8 rebounds and shooting 68 percent from the field while averaging only 20 minutes.

"We'll need him to be competitive for us if we're going to continue to be successful,'' Weber said.