No. 5 Jalen Coleman-Lands
This one is a little weird since Jalen Coleman-Lands didn’t end up finishing his career at Illinois. He also only spent two seasons with the program.
Coleman-Lands does belong on this list, though. He started his career at Illinois, and he hit the ground running when it came to three-point shooting.
As a true freshman, Coleman-Lands attempted 6.1 three-point shots per game and hit them at a clip of 42.2%. That is a great number for a veteran let alone someone who just entered the college ranks.
During Coleman-Lands’ sophomore season, he managed to take 5.3 three-point attempts. Those shots were hit at a clip of 38.0%.
After his sophomore season at Illinois, Coleman-Lands transferred out. But those two seasons were pretty great as far as shooting numbers were concerned.
A big reason why Coleman-Lands made the list and cracked the top five is that he did something that was extremely rare. There are only 19 instances of an Illinois player shooting at least 5.0 three-point attempts per game and hitting over 37.0% of those attempts in a season.
Only two players in the history of the Illinois basketball program have accomplished this feat more than once. Coleman-Lands is one of those players, as he accomplished this in both of the seasons he was in Champaign.
The fact that Coleman-Lands could attempt over 5.0 three-pointers and hit them at a clip of better than 37.0% is special, and the fact he did it twice is extremely rare. If he had played more than two seasons at Illinois, there is no doubt he would have been higher on this list.