Illinois Basketball: True freshmen don new era for Illini
If nothing else, the upcoming Illinois basketball season should be fun to watch. That is what an Illini fan says when the team is extremely young but the future is bright.
The current Illinois roster comprises of five true freshmen players. Out of those five players, I assume all of them will see significant playing time this season because the team needs them to play well. I wouldn’t be surprised if all five saw at least 10 minutes per game during the 2017-2018 campaign.
If each of the five true freshmen received at least 10 minutes per game, we would all be witnessing something that hasn’t happened with the previous two coaching regimes. John Groce nor Bruce Weber ever played this much freshman talent on the court.
Groce was the closest to playing this much freshman talent for this many minutes. In 2013-2014, he played Malcolm Hill, Kendrick Nunn and Jaylon Tate each over 10 minutes per game. That class was good on paper but didn’t produce the amount of wins needed to get to the NCAA tournament, though.
Overall, Groce ended up playing 10 freshmen at least 10 minutes per game in his five years as the head coach of the Illini. Illinois still has five of those players on the roster right now actually.
The Bruce Weber era of basketball was a lot less freshmen oriented. He should have had a springboard off the national title run that was led by Bill Self’s players but Weber failed to capitalize on the opportunity. The only year Weber had three freshman play at least 10 minutes per game was in 2007-2008 when Mike Tisdale, Mike Davis and Demetri McCamey took over the program.
In the nine-year career of Weber at Illinois, only 11 freshmen played at least 10 minutes per game. The most shocking and one of the reasons Weber didn’t keep his job with the Illini is why Meyers Leonard didn’t see 10 minutes per game his freshman campaign. That was the biggest blunder of Weber’s career.
Illinois now enters a new era of basketball. Brad Underwood brought in a class of 2017 that will be talked about for years.
Out of this class, Mark Smith will likely lead the way with somewhere around 22-25 minutes per game. That is a decent allotment of minutes and I think he will be sensational. Following Smith, I expect to see Trent Frazier getting 18-21 minutes per game off the bench. He comes in as a top 100 player, like Smith, and should be a spark the Illini need.
The other three freshmen, Da’Monte Williams, Matic Vesel and Greg Eboigbodin are up in the air minutes wise. I expect Williams to get around 12-14 minutes per game. He will spell time for whatever guard needs a breather. He will be a wildcard for this Illini team.
Vesel and Eboigbodin will share time at the No. 4 and No. 5 spots for the Illini this season. Vesel should see the most minutes with around 15 per game. After the team picture yesterday, Vesel is clearly the tallest player on the team and that should help with how many minutes he receives. Eboigbodin is the freshman that might be around 10 minutes per game. It wouldn’t surprise me if he receives a little more or a little less. It all depends on how he plays.
Next: First two years of recruiting is key to success
But, there is no question in my mind that Illinois will play at least four freshmen 10 minutes or more per game this season. That is something the previous two coaching regimes have never done. Hopefully, Underwood can win on a consistent basis, which is also something the previous two regimes failed to accomplish as well.