The 2007-2008 season was not kind to the University of Illinois' basketball program. The Fighting Illini finished the season with a 16-19 record -- including a 5-13 mark in conference play -- and the team was left out of both the NCAA tournament and the NIT. With the losing also came the criticism of head coach Bruce Weber, with his inability to recruit the top talent in Illinois and Chicago area being the critique du jour.
All of which tempered expectations coming into this season. Where as in previous years the Illini were always considered amongst the favorites to win the Big Ten, if not thee favorite, this year folks were just hoping for a record over .500 and hopefully a fifth place finish in the conference. Well, five games into the season the Illini are 5-0 and have been playing pretty well. Now, admittedly, their competition hasn't been the fiercest. Of their five wins so far, only one has come against a quality opponent, and that came on Friday night against Kent State in the South Padre Island Invitational.
That win moved the Illini into the final of the tournament where they'll take on Tulsa tonight and look to improve to 6-0. Still, even though the strength of their schedule hasn't been that great so far, I am pleased with what I've seen from the team so far, in particular a couple of sophomore big men.
While Chester Frazier has provided the senior leadership you expect from your point guard, and sophomore Demetri McCamey continues to grow, the difference this year has been the play of MIke Davis and Mike Tisdale. Davis, a 6'10 forward from Virginia, leads the Illini in scoring at 14.8 ppg and rebounding at 10.0 a game. If Davis continues to average a double-double per game this season, who knows how far the Illini can go as the ability to score inside will only help Illinois' outside shooters.
Along with Davis' strong play has been 7'1 center Mike Tisdale. Tisdale is only averaging 9.6 points and 5.2 rebounds a game so far, but he took over the second half and overtime of Illinois's win over Kent State on Friday. If he continues to play well with Davis up front, that will give the Illini two big men that other teams in the Big Ten are going to have trouble matching up with.
When you look at the rest of the Big Ten, there really are no teams that blow you away, and if Davis and Tisdale keep playing strong they could give the Illini a legitimate shot to win the Big Ten this season. I'm not expecting it to happen -- after all the team started out 6-1 last season as well -- but the fact that I think it can happen is a huge shift in what I thought the team would do this season.
Maybe Bruce Weber knows what he's doing after all.
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