 The haters are out in full force. They love every morsel of bad news
in the program as they hope it will usher out the coach, the
athletic director and anyone else they think doesn't measure up to
their "own" greatness. Those who try to say anything positive about
the team or the program are labeled as "merry men" and are
immediately written off.Regardless of which camp you are in, my
question would be more to the point. What did you expect? Did you
think that this team would never have any growing pains? As I said
before and will be quick to remind everyone, this team will have
some big wins and some terrible losses. Saturday was one of them.
Games like that you have to win, but obviously sometimes you don't
and that's why they play them.
I don't want to rehash the game. I don't want to second-guess and
I don't want to overstate the obvious. They pay a lot of analysts
ridiculous amounts of money to do that when I can find junior
highers who will do it for free and be a lot less annoying while
sharing the information.
What I would like to tell you about are the things that I saw
that give me hope for the team's improvement:
First, I really liked the play of Shaun Pruitt. He had a badly
sprained ankle and was doubtful before the contest. We had no chance
without him and what does he do? Just a warrior's performance with
24 points on 10-of-11 shooting and nine rebounds. His post presence
was as effective as I've ever seen him. He wasn't a "black hole"
where the ball goes in but never comes back out. He'd toss it back
out, reposition himself in the post, get it back and score. And
while many are bemoaning the missed free throws (I won't because it
only overstates the obvious), his 4-for-7 may be as good as it gets.
He was just huge. And at times I think he dissuaded the Wildcats
from even coming inside the paint. We'll need more huge portions of
Pruitt to find success in the weeks ahead. He especially will have
to pass the ball out to the perimeter more as he will no doubt be
seeing a steady bevy of double-teams and even worse on some
occasions.
That brings me to the vastly improved play of guard Trent
Meacham. He went off for 16 points on 5-of-10 shooting and six huge
assists in 39 minutes. He knocked down three big 3s and had a chance
to ice the game for the Illini. You can blame him for the loss if
you want to, since he missed a free throw at the end, but the Illini
are not even in the game without him. His ball control and heady
play were keys when Illinois played well in spurts.
I personally liked how he put the ball on the floor, went around
defenders and made some midrange shots, which is something this team
will need to do more of in the future.
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Shot selection will need to continue to improve as the season
progresses, especially early and mid in the shot clock. This team's
strength is not running special sets at the end of the shot clock.
Calvin Brock also really impressed me Saturday. He hit some big
shots with people hanging all over him. He finished with 11 points
but could have had more. He also dished off three assists and had
three steals. He has absolutely insane hops. One time he was so far
above the rim that they could have attached their special camera to
him, but they would have had to wait to use it until he came back
down into focus. He grabbed a wayward Illini shot and threw it down
with authority but was just off balance enough to keep the ball from
going in.
He's just playing with the kind of confidence that many of us
hoped to see last season. Now that it's there, we need to be able to
rely on him heavily. If he can become a consistent force, this team
reaches its goal of more improvement.
Mike Tisdale, who tallied four points and two boards in nine
minutes of action, and Mike Davis, who had four points, three
rebounds and two assists, also made the most of their limited
action. As they develop more and can be trusted to play more
minutes, it will take a huge load off the starters.
If I could be so bold as to throw out a suggestion, mine would be
to not let the fans get them down so much. Just concentrate on
practice and on the next upcoming game. I see a lot of things to get
excited about, but so many people are worried about the postseason
and winning so many games, etc., etc. I say worry about today;
tomorrow will take care of itself.
There also appears to be a little bit of a leadership void that
is prime for somebody to step up and take. If the right player or
players can take that step I think this team will have more upside
than a lot of people think. Yes, it's going to be difficult, but not
impossible. I know our defense will improve. I think our rebounding
will too and maybe even our shooting.
Our bench will have to learn on the fly and give us bigger
minutes game by game. Coaches will have to work harder than they
ever have before. More adjustments and adaptations will have to be
made than we have been comfortable with in the past. Perhaps even
more sets will have to be learned and used than ever before. But I
still think this team has potential, and I'm excited to watch it
grow over the next few weeks.
[By JEFF MAYFIELD]
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