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Illinois Basketball: Player expectations for 2017-2018 season

By Rees Woodcock

March 17, 2017; Sacramento, CA, USA; General view of the court before the game between the Oregon Ducks and the Iona Gaels in the first round of the 2017 NCAA Tournament at Golden 1 Center. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
March 17, 2017; Sacramento, CA, USA; General view of the court before the game between the Oregon Ducks and the Iona Gaels in the first round of the 2017 NCAA Tournament at Golden 1 Center. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports /
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Illinois basketball
Mar 9, 2017; Washington, DC, USA; Illinois Fighting Illini forward Kipper Nichols (2) shoots the ball as Michigan Wolverines guard Duncan Robinson (22) defends in the first half during the Big Ten Conference Tournament at Verizon Center. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports /

Kipper Nichols

Leron Black is projected to have a nice bump in numbers this upcoming season, but the player who is going to have an even bigger change is Kipper Nichols.

Nichols came onto the scene late last year because of the transfer rules. He had to sit out until the first semester was over. He was then unleashed on the Big Ten and he played pretty well. He finished the season averaging 4.9 points and 2.9 rebounds in the 13.6 minutes he received per game.

In the 21 games Illinois fans were able to watch Nichols, he was electric. He brought energy to the court that we haven’t seen a player like that bring in quite some time. His energy helped the Illini at times when they would get into a lull.

Nichols is going to thrive in Underwood’s system and look for him to continue to develop. He will get a lot of minutes this upcoming season as well. Look for him to run the court and get easy baskets in transition.

Since Nichols will be able to get easy baskets at times and the offense will flow a lot better than before, expect him to average around 25 minutes, 10 points and 6 rebounds per game next season. He has the abilities to be a big-time contributor on this team.

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