Illinois Basketball: Most productive Illini freshmen since 2000

CHAMPAIGN, IL - DECEMBER 29: Illinois Fighting Illini guard Trent Frazier (1) takes the ball up the court during the college basketball game between the Florida Atlantic University Owls and the Illinois Fighting Illini on December 29, 2018, at the State Farm Center in Champaign, Illinois. (Photo by Michael Allio/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /

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CHAMPAIGN, ILLINOIS – DECEMBER 15: (Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images)

The Illinois basketball team has had some great freshmen come through the program over the years.

Some of these great freshmen go on to play for the Illini and have legendary careers. Other freshmen don’t make it all four years and decide to head to the NBA. Some other freshmen take their talents elsewhere.

Overall, though, it is really tough to judge what type of output a freshman has for a team. Total points or total rebounds don’t tell the entire story. Production is hard to tell without actually watching players play the game. Another metric I put together is how much production each player produces per minute.

This metric is flawed, like every other metric. A larger sample size for each player would be nice, but that isn’t the case here. I did eliminate anyone who played less than 60 minutes except for Tevian Jones and Samba Kane. They are both at 59 minutes and will be over 60 minutes this year, most likely.

The results of the numbers are fascinating, actually. There are some familiar names toward the top and some names that will show you there is hope for the future.

Here are the most productive Illini freshmen since 2000.

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