Illini destroy Southern Illinois-Edwardsville 96-69

By Greg Taylor

[November 14, 2009]  CHAMPAIGN -- Illinois absolutely destroyed the Cougars of Southern Illinois at Edwardsville, winning their season opener 96-69. The crowd was alive for much of the game, and the future is so bright thanks to some exciting freshmen, you might just want to throw on some shades. Bruce Weber is cooking up some interesting evenings of hoops, and Friday was a fantastic start. Among the highlights:  

1. The freshmen exploded out of the gate -- especially guards D.J. Richardson and Brandon Paul. Richardson played a strong all-around game, finishing with 14 points and three assists, while Paul set an all-time Illinois record for first-game freshmen, scoring 22 points and beating a 19-year-old mark set by all-time leading scorer Deon Thomas. 
   
   These two freshmen started and sent their coach a message that they plan to continue hearing their names introduced on the public address system each night. Tyler Griffey also shows promise for Illinois. 

2. I loved the two Mikes' respective efforts: Davis' double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds, while Tisdale scored eight points, grabbed six rebounds and said "no thank you" to three SIU-E shots via the shot block. I shared earlier this week that maybe fans were expecting too much from Davis and Tisdale, and yet I'm pretty excited with the energy each brought Friday night. 

3. Illinois appears to be as deep as they have been in a long time. Not since Bill Self played nine regularly in 2000-2001 have the Illini been loaded with strong "Big Ten-ready" talent. Don't get me wrong -- this team isn't North Carolina, Kentucky or even Michigan State. But this team is deep, and I feel good that Richardson, Paul, McCamey, Jeff Jordan (who couldn't play thanks to NCAA non-sense), Alex Legion, Davis, Tisdale, Griffey, Dominique Keller, Rich Semrau and Bill Cole can all contribute on the big stage this year.
   
   I'm pretty sure Weber isn't going to be excited about an 11-man rotation, but nonetheless, depth should be Illinois' friend for the first time in a while (maybe the first time in the Weber era). 

Finally -- what can I say about Demetri McCamey and his newfound leadership? No blowups and prompt pine-time sessions with Weber -- just lots of assists and all-around leadership.   

All in all, I say two thumbs up on the season opener, and with the Lady Toppers winning as well (see article), two thumbs up on this edition of Friday the 13th!

[By GREG TAYLOR]