Illini Basketball: The Freshmen and More

The Illini basketball season is just around the corner with the first regular season game on Friday. After watching the Freshman play in the Orange and Blue scrimmage and also 2 exhibition games, you can see a little bit of the type of skills that each one of them bring to the table. Have no doubt that this Illini team will be much different from the teams that they have fielded the past 3 years.

The first thing that you everyone needs to do is to temper their expectations. I was just like everyone else, and couldn't wait for this recruiting class to get here because of their athleticism and high school ranking, but there Freshman are very raw. You see flashes from each on of them, but with the good, you also get a lot of bad.

Like I stated before, we are going to miss Chester Frazier and Trent Meacham more than anyone thought. The fact that Chester did a phenomenal job of not allowing opposing point guards to get their team into their offense was lost on a lot of people. His ball pressure defense was amazing. Be prepared to never see a ball-handler get a 5 second call against him with this team. Also dribble penetration is going to drive you crazy. 2 things are occurring right now that need to be rectified in a hurry. First, obviously is that ball handlers are getting way to deep into the Illini defense allowing open shots. Second, the post players for the Illini got a little spoiled with the guard defense last season, because right now they are not helping correctly. Either they are sitting back waiting for a backside block which isn't going to occur because the initial defender is not getting back into position, or they are too quick to help and they are leaving people wide open for easy jump shots. I think Bruce will get this worked out, but it will take some time.

Also this team is so young that they don't quite grasp where open shots are in the motion, and they are not patient enough to let the offense run. Pretty much every guard jacked up the first open 3 that they got. Many times this occurred on the first pass off of a screen during a possession. I think there will be a little leniency early on, but eventually if Legion, Paul and Richardson continue to throw up the first shot they get, you will see a lot of Jeff Jordan and Bill Cole. It took almost 6 minutes for Illinois to get the ball into the post on Sunday, but in those 6 minutes, they took 6 3's and hit only 1.

Here are 3 things to expect from the offense:

1) Illinois will throw up a ton of 3's - Legion, Paul and McCamey all love to shoot 3's. Richardson can shoot them and will, but so far I haven't seen him take a really bad one. Keller still thinks he is a guard, and will put up at least 2 a game, and the only thing I have ever seen Bill Cole do is shoot 3's. On a side note, I just don't understand why everyone feels the need for Bill Cole to play? In all the time I have followed Illinois basketball, I have never seen fans get behind a player this much. In 29 games here are his stats. 20 FG made in 46 attempts, 6 of 16 from 3, 30 rebounds, 6 assists, 9 turnovers, 5 steals, and 9 blocks. He has only played 157 minutes. He can't play defense, and he isn't a good rebounder. He hit a couple of 3's in games that we were really behind last season, that's about it. In over 2 years, I have never seen him on the floor and thought "Why the hell is Bruce not playing him more?" Yet for some reason everyone who is an Illini fan wants Bruce to change his coaching philosophy, and everyone else on the team to learn how to play zone so Cole can play. What the shit am I missing??? On the other hand, everyone is ready to crucify Alex Legion after he only played 1/2 of a season. If anything Legion has shown you that he can score in big games.

2) Illinois will look to run - Believe me, if Brandon Paul and DJ Richardson are in the game, then on every rebound, Illinois will look to get easy baskets. They both know how to finish, and they are fast. Illinois honestly has not had guards this athletic since 2004-2005. Along with the guards you have Davis and Keller who can also run, and their should be many more easy baskets.

3) Tisdale and Davis have to get the ball inside - It is amazing how much more smoothly Illinois' offense runs when these two get touches inside. Both of them are even better in the post than they were last season. The only problem will be if the guards get too jump shot happy. In the past, if Tisdale and Davis did not get off to good shots, they can disappear. It is imperative that McCamey gets them the ball early. Getting them scoring will only help the guards. Bruce Weber knows this, and even though the guards had their fun the last 2 games, Bruce knows that you dance with the one that brought you, and that is Mike Davis and Mike Tisdale.

Now on to the Freshman:

DJ Richardson:

Richardson has basically been the most consistent performer in the exhibition season. He can score from outside, and he can also get to the hoop and finish. Out of all of the Illini guards with the exception of McCamey, he is the most rounded. The only knock I have on him is that he isn't as good of a ball handler as I thought he was going to be. Sometimes he picks the ball up before he should, and pressure can get to him. Beyond that, everything else he does is in the flow of the offense, and he really waits for his shots to come to him. He is a much better outside shooter than I expected, but as I said before, he doesn't take bad 3's so he should shoot a really good percentage. I know a lot of you have read that he will be a great defender just like Chester Frazier, well I think that those predictions are very premature. He has the ability, he still gets beat off the dribble. Give it a little time.

Brandon Paul:

Paul is going to be Bruce Weber's new whipping boy. Demetri McCamey is now off the hook because a lot of what McCamey used to do is what I am now seeing from Paul. All of the potential and talent is there, but Paul takes a lot of ill advised shots, and that is probably Weber's biggest pet peeve. 4 of Illinois' first 8 shots were from Paul, and 2 of them were bad 3's. The fact that Paul has so much potential means that Weber is going to harp on everything he does. As soon as his shot selection gets better, he could be a force. As far as all the guards go, Paul is the worst ball handler, and he isn't great on the defensive end. He is amazing at getting to the hoop, he finishes really well, and he will get to the free throw line more than anyone else on the team. Write it down. I think Paul probably has the most potential out of the Freshman, but he is going to have to work hard at it. Be prepared for him to be a little inconsistent.

Joseph Bertrand:

Even though he didn't play in the last exhibition game, I was really impressed with the one game I did see him play. Shockingly I thought he handled the point best against full court pressure. He could end up being the one legitimate point guard out of this class, and that would be awesome because he is 6'5". He is the most raw out of the guards, but actually I think that if he will be healthy for a major part of the season, then he shouldn't red shirt. The only thing that I am afraid of with Bertrand is that if falls behind because of an injury, he will not get the playing time he will need to progress. As much as Bruce Weber says that his bench will be longer this season, I still don't believe it. Now with Jeff Jordan back, Bertrand is basically going to end up being the 5th guard, and that means little to no minutes.

Tyler Griffey:

To me it is much harder to evaluate post players than it is guards. I feel that way because so much of a post player depends on his size, and in a motion offense, post players can get lost in the mix. Griffey has shown that he has good range, he can hit baseline jumpers which are always abundant for post players in the motion, and he also moves well without the ball. I feel that he can be just like a James Augustine, but maybe a little bit bigger. I have yet to see post moves from Griffey, but as a Freshman, he does seem like he can give this team a few good minutes off the bench. Just like every other post player though, his time on the floor is tied to how well he defends and rebounds. He will most likely be a better scorer than Rich Semrau this season, but scoring shouldn't really be a problem this season, so he is going to have to do all the little things to see the floor. In my opinion, he is not going to start, and at best he will be the second post player off the bench after Keller. However, like I stated before, if somehow Cole or Semrau is able to defend and rebound better than him, he won't get many minutes. I really doubt that either of them beat him out, but stranger things have happened. The one thing that I have seen, is that Griffey seems much more comfortable in the offense than many Freshmen post players have at Illinois. He has no problem having the ball in his hands 20 feet away from the basket, and he can also put the ball on the deck for a couple dribbles if needed.

That it is, look for a Big Ten preview/prediction post later this week, along with our weekly pick'em. We are also working on a post about the most hated women in television or movie history. It will be up soon.