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Illinois Basketball: Top 5 Illini freshman seasons of all-time

By Rees Woodcock

CHICAGO - MARCH 26: Luther Head #4 of the Illinois Fighting Illini kisses teammate Dee Brown #11, L, as they celebrate victory over the Arizona Wildcats in the Chicago Regional Final in the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship at the Allstate Arena on March 26, 2005 in Chicago, Illinois. Illinois defeated Arizona 90-89 in overtime. (Photo by Doug Benc/Getty Images)
CHICAGO - MARCH 26: Luther Head #4 of the Illinois Fighting Illini kisses teammate Dee Brown #11, L, as they celebrate victory over the Arizona Wildcats in the Chicago Regional Final in the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship at the Allstate Arena on March 26, 2005 in Chicago, Illinois. Illinois defeated Arizona 90-89 in overtime. (Photo by Doug Benc/Getty Images) /
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CHAMPAIGN, IL – DECEMBER 06: General view of Illinois Fighting Illini basketballs seen before the game against the IUPUI Jaguars at State Farm Center on December 6, 2016 in Champaign, Illinois. (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images) /

No. 3 Deon Thomas

Some people might perk up and question how Deon Thomas isn’t No. 1 on this list, but I have the star big man checking in at No. 3 on the all-time Illini freshman seasons list.

Thomas came in with a ton of hype at Illinois. He was a 6-foot-9 big man who was super athletic and was one of the best players in the country. The Illini were lucky enough to land him, and it paid off in Thomas’ first season with the Orange and Blue.

Illinois was coming off a run where they went to the Final Four two years prior and just lost some of the best talent the program had ever seen. Thomas was the start of a new era. He kicked off this new era averaging 15.1 points, 6.8 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game. That is a great start to a freshman campaign.

The Illini would forge ahead with a 21-10 record overall and an 11-7 Big Ten record. This would have been good enough to make the NCAA tournament. I assume they would have been somewhere around a No. 4 or No. 5 seed that postseason.

Sadly, Illinois was banned from the NCAA tournament due to some recruiting violations. But that doesn’t deter this from being one of the best freshman seasons in program history. I honestly believe you could take any of the top three freshman seasons on this list and reorder them, and I wouldn’t have a problem with that at all. Thomas is at No. 3, though.

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