Illinois Fighting Illini: A look back at last year and a look ahead to this year.

As some of you know, and some of you will soon find out, I am an Illinois fan.  Having grown up in a community that worships the blue & orange, I couldn’t even try to rout for another college.  I have been watching Illinois since the ’03-’04 team up until last year. 

I have seen greatness happen, such as the magical ’04-’05 run with starters Dee Brown, Deron Williams, Luther Head, Roger Powell Jr., & James Augustine.  I have also witnessed several bad times, such as the ’07-’08 team which finished with a final record of 16-19, going 5-13 in the Big Ten, and surprisingly making it to the Big Ten finals, where they came up short to the #6 ranked team in the nation, Wisconsin. 

Now, after a disappointing end to the 2010-2011 season, the Illini are looking for a fresh start, with a much younger cast.

Illinois was a very inconsistant team last year.  Some blame the coaching staff, some blame the immaturity of the players, and some blame both for the lack of chemistry.  I watched every Illinois game last year, and I would like to run through my 3 favorite players from last year that won’t be returning to our team this year.

My favorite player on the team was senior point guard Demetri McCamey.  I admired almost everything about McCamey’s game as I watched him play, up until the NCAA March Madness tournament when I came to realize he wasn’t a very hard-worker, and he did not take leadership over this team as a senior point guard should.  McCamey had a great junior season, and his production dipped last season.  He was down in both scoring and assists, even though he did alright in both categories, netting a career high in 3Pt%. 

My second favorite player that left was senior forward Mike Davis.  Davis was easily the spark plug to our offense.  He was a good medium range shooter, and he had some electrifying dunks that vamped the Champagin, Illinois crowd.  He was just a good team player, and never tried to take over the work load like some talented forwards try to do.

My third player I liked to watch who left our school for the NBA draft as a freshman was Jereme Richmond.  I will admit, whenever he first showed up, I loved the kid.  He cam off the bench and provided pretty decent scoring and unlikely solid rebounding considering he played the 3 and he isn’t built like some small forwards you see in the NBA and even college.  Richmond was not a good shooter, but he could work magic from down in the post, and it was remarkable how talented the kid really was.  But unfortunatly, he had troubles in school, and then out of school and opn the court which led him to get suspended twice, and eventually up and leave our university.  He is now likely to go to prison from domestic battery, which is a shame because of how much potential the dude really had.

But I’m tired of looking back on that disappointing season last year, and I’m ready to move on to this season.  Now, I am going to tell you the 3 players I am looking forward to most this season.

1.) Brandon Paul (G) Jr. – Brandon Paul has impressed the hell out of me his first 2 seasons.  Whether it was starting at point guard, shooting guard, or coming off the bench and playing both positions, he has played very well.  The stats don’t show it, but he does everything right it seems like.  He is a good scorer from beyond the arch and from underneath the basket.  He is a good passer as well, and does not turn the ball over much.

2.) Meyers Leonard (C) So. – Meyers is an intriguing guy on this Illini squad.  He didn’t play much his freshman year due to the fact that we had a senior center in Mike Tisdale who was 7’1" and ate up a lot of minutes.  But Meyers is a talented player.  He too is 7 foot, and he played over the summer for the All-American U19 team, I believe it was?  Correct me if I’m wrong, but he played pretty well there, and I predict that he will play well this year, and may even be the scorer down low to help us compete with teams like Wisconsin and Ohio State who both played very good basketball last season. 

3.) DJ Richardson (G-F) Jr. – Richardson is probably the best scorer on this team now that McCamey has graduated.  He can finish on the fast break with a dunk or layup, he can effectively finish at the free throw line, he can shoot the 3-ball very well, and can also pass the ball too.  Now that he is a junior, he will probably play a lot of minutes alongside Brandon Paul, so these two will need to mature and take over this team like McCamey, Tisdale, and Mike Davis failed to do during the previous season.  If they can do that, this team will have much better chemistry then that of last year’s team, which will hopefully land them with more victories. 

Please do let me know your opinions on this year’s team, last year’s team, or anything else that has to do with Illinois, as I’m interested in hearing some of your guys’ opinions. 

Thanks for reading this post.