CHAMPAIGN, ILL. ? Bruce Weber is tired of being compared to his predecessor, Bill Self.

So tired is the first-year University of Illinois basketball coach of talk that he’s not as good as new Kansas University coach Self, Weber vented after Saturday’s 74-64 victory over Memphis.

The coach, who was under fire from critics after Tuesday’s 70-51 blowout loss at Providence — fans saying Self never would have lost that game — revealed that prior to Thursday’s win over Maryland-Eastern Shore he no longer would tolerate talk about Self.

“I wore a black tie and black pants and black sport coat, and I told them (players) before the game, ‘This is a funeral. I’m going to throw a funeral. It’s the end of Bill Self,”’ Weber told the Arlington Heights Daily Herald. “It’s over. There’s no more comparing. He’s gone. No more talking about it. I’ll be honest: I’m fed up with it.

“I had one guy say if (Self) was coaching here, you would have beat Providence by 10. Well, when I faced Bill (when Self was at Tulsa and Weber at SIU), with 13 minutes left in the game at SIU we were up 27 points.

“Then, when we faced (Illinois at Las Vegas) we had them down the stretch and he had three NBA guys and we had two guys in the developmental league. I don’t know. Unless he’s a miracle worker, I kicked his butt in both games.”

Truth be told, Weber didn’t actually kick Self’s butt in Vegas. Self’s Illini prevailed against Southern Illinois, 75-72, in the 2001 finals of a tourney in Glitter City.

“Even after the Providence game, you know, ‘They didn’t lose any double-figure games (under Self).’ Well, horse(bleep). They did! I told the guys I was going to coach my butt off, and I hoped they were going to play their butts off,” Weber said.

The last straw might have been media and fans criticizing Weber for not dressing as sharp as Self.

Illinois is 6-2 under Weber, who said he felt like a “stepfather” to his players, who have said they miss Self.

“People had mixed emotions about coach Self leaving,” sophomore forward James Augustine said. “I know there were a lot of problems with that, the offense, the defense — a lot of different things were going on.”

Illini guard Dee Brown joked about the situation. When a reporter approached him after a recent game and mentioned Self during the postgame news conference, Brown had some fun. “Who?” he said, before adding that Weber and Self both “are great coaches.”

Brown, who considered following Self to Kansas but didn’t have the approval of his family, played 40 minutes against Memphis with seven assists and seven rebounds, but just five points.

“He wasn’t our leader before, but tonight he was,” Weber said.