Illinois Basketball: Mark Smith would help make up for lost production
Heading into the 2017-2018 season the Illinois basketball team will be losing a lot of their scoring production.
Right now the two leading scorers on the team are Malcolm Hill and Maverick Morgan, who both average 17.2 and 10.4 points per game, respectively. That alone is a lot of production to make up for heading into next season.
You also have to account for the fact that Tracy Abrams is departing who is averaging 7.9 PPG as well. That makes up for three of our top five scorers for this season. That will be difficult to replace, but I think the Illini can do it.
Te’Jon Lucas will start next season after lighting the world on fire the second half of the current campaign. I can’t imagine where he would be, or for that matter the team, if he was played earlier on in the season.
The three point guards combined this year for 15.3 PPG and 8 APG. I could easily see Lucas and incoming freshman Trent Frazier exceeding those numbers. Honestly, I expect Lucas to average roughly 9 points and 6 assists by himself next year.
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I think incoming freshman Jeremiah Tilmon will make up for Morgan’s 10.4 PPG and 4.5 RPG in year one. That shouldn’t be too much of a problem for him to hit. That would take care of the center position for the Illini.
But the one area I am worried about is where will the points, rebounds and assists come from to make up for the loss of Hill?
Well, I think it comes from multiple different players contributing. I am most excited about the potential of maybe Mark Smith coming in and helping out with this problem.
Smith is still in recruiting mode despite being a member of the class of 2017. I assume he is waiting until after the college season comes to end to make a decision. A lot of his list actually consists of teams with extremely unstable coaching environments.
If Smith would come to Illinois it would help fill that void left by Hill. I know they play two different positions. Smith is more of a two-guard and Hill is more comfortable at the three, but having a scorer like Smith will help tremendously.
I am picturing the starting lineup for the Illini being something like Lucas, Jalen Coleman-Lands, Kipper Nichols, Leron Black and Tilmon to start the season. Smith and the rest of the crew would be coming off the bench.
This is a starting lineup that could do some serious damage in the Big Ten and the bench would help make up for the lost production from Hill the previous season.
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While the Illini are losing three of the top five scorers on the team, the future is still tremendously bright. Illinois will be able to find that missing production already on the team and with the incoming recruiting class. Getting Smith would be a huge upgrade and would make the Illini instant contenders in the Big Ten once again.