So go ahead, pick your favorite terrible Big Ten offense from the last five years: Indiana in 2009-10, the Nittany Lions in 2011-12, Nebraska in 2012-13, Northwestern last season. That's one instance of even more inept shooting in 58 team seasons. Over the past five seasons of Big Ten basketball, only one team has shot worse from the field in conference play than Illinois did last season: Penn State in 2012-13. Sometimes the best friend a struggling unit has is simple math, and Illinois' shooting was so jaw-droppingly bad last season that it's almost certain to improve in 2014-15. And if Illinois does indeed score more points this season, any good news here might turn out to have been equal parts mathematical and personnel-based. The Illini offense won't be confused for that of the Stauskas-era Wolverines anytime soon (sorry, Illinois fans), but to my eye, there are some encouraging straws in the wind. The conference average was 1.04, and John Beilein, as he is wont to do, rang up a rather showy 1.17 points per possession from his perch at Michigan. For seven consecutive seasons, Illinois has had an offense that's been average (2012-11) or worse (every other year since 2006-07) in Big Ten play.įor example, last season Illinois scored just 0.95 points per trip in Big Ten play. Yet while Groce's defense projects to be pretty fair in 2014-15, the offense is another story entirely. Syracuse, Florida, the Illini - it's uncanny. Still, if you're waiting to see average defense or worse from a major-conference team wearing some form of orange and blue, history says you'll have to be patient. True, you can speculate that there might be some slippage there this season, particularly if the minutes that used to go to the 6-foot-2 Abrams are picked up in bulk by the 5-foot-9 Starks (a Chicago product who's now eligible after transferring from Oregon State). Only Ohio State and Nebraska played better D in conference games. In 2013-14, the Illini held conference opponents to just 1.02 points per possession. It almost always is, and it was again last season. How good are these guys going to be in 2014-15? 44-ranked prospect in the class of 2014), Malcolm Hill, Nnanna Egwu et al. Rather than focus on who's not at Illinois or on who might come in the future, it might be equally profitable to consider the roster as it is: Rayvonte Rice, Kendrick Nunn, Ahmad Starks, Aaron Cosby, Leron Black (ESPN's No. Still, that's not so very far out of line from what one sees at several (though by no means all) other Big Ten programs. Granted, that figure isn't keeping Kentucky up nights, and, anyway, the team won't be getting much help this season from onetime top-100 prospect Tracy Abrams, who's out for the year with a torn ACL. Groce currently has five players on scholarship who were rated as top 100 recruits out of high school. Let's see if we can substantiate these wild rumors with same cold, hard numbers. I'm even hearing reports from sources close to the program that there are enough warm bodies on hand for two squads of players to practice against one another. Yes, you heard that correctly, Illinois has enough players to put a full team on the floor. Today, however, I want to break free from this well-covered topic and talk about the players whom John Groce already has on his roster. Elite recruits keep putting on ball caps or unzipping hoodies to reveal shirts that don't say Illinois. You have reached a degraded version of because you're using an unsupported version of Internet Explorer.įor a complete experience, please upgrade or use a supported browserĪpparently the only way Illinois can attract notice in the offseason is by missing out on yet another really good player.
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