The scrimmage as a whole: It was great to see an entirely new team inhabiting Assembly Hall on Sunday. Sure, we have plenty of returnees, but the roles for those returning will be greatly expanded for the most part. The Illini were getting up and down the court and scoring heavily in the first part of the scrimmage. Part of that was due to weaker defense than we will likely see during the season, and some of that was due to hot shooting by the Illini. After the first half (and congratulations are due to the geezers assistant coaches for winning the three point contest), the defense got more intense and legs got tired. Scoring fell off dramatically. Each player got some run, though, so we have some observations to work off of as we attempt to imagine this team against real competition.

First, the returnees:
#3 Brandon Paul Brandon looked to distribute more than in the past. He can definitely still hit the 3 (more…)

After the disappointment of not being selected in the NBA draft, former Illinois point guard Demetri McCamey is headed to Turkey to play in the Turkish Basketball League.

Reports were confirmed Thursday by Demetri McCamey’s agent Roger Montgomery that the former Illinois point guard has signed a one-year deal with Mersin in Turkey.

In an interview with Scott Powers from ESPN, Montgomery addressed the decision.

We thought this was a good opportunity for the year. There’s a lot of uncertainty with what’s going on with the NBA season. We wanted to get his career started. There were a lot of teams that were interested in him. We had to sift through them and do our due diligence for what was the best fit for Demetri.

We decided this situation from a financial standpoint, basketball standpoint and location standpoint was the best fit. Turkey is a really, really quality league. It’s been in the news as of late. That’s why we made the decision. (more…)

Just a short post today. I thought that this is something people might find interesting. The Lincoln Journal Star, a paper in the town of new Big Ten member Nebraska, has been running a series introducing Husker fans to their new conference foes. Yesterday they covered Illinois. I just found it interesting to look at the school from the perspective of someone who is not as familiar with it as most Illinois, or Big Ten teams for that matter, are.  (more…)