Seven gives us a couple of guards who could get a whole lot done from behind the arc. Tracy Abrams had waited a long time for his afternoon. Trent Frazier was just getting started. And Frank Williams gives us a seven worth remembering even though he barely needed to shoot.
Tracy Abrams and seven threes after two lost seasons
On December 10, 2016, Abrams made seven of his eight three-point attempts and scored a career-high 31 points in Illinois’ 92–73 win over Central Michigan at State Farm Center. He went 10-for-12 from the field.
Two missed shots all afternoon. One from three and one from two. Pretty efficient work.
The first half was especially ridiculous. Abrams had 23 points by the break and had made all five of his threes. Illinois led 46–36, with its point guard responsible for exactly half the scoring. He finished with five rebounds and three assists in 26 minutes, too.
There was a milestone tucked into all that shooting. Abrams came in needing four points to reach 1,000 for his Illinois career. A jumper with 15:47 left in the first half got him there. He was the 49th Illini to reach the mark, and he kept right on going.
Getting that chance had taken some doing. He missed 2014–15 with a torn ACL, then missed 2015–16 with a torn Achilles. The NCAA granted him a sixth year of eligibility for 2016–17. Two entire seasons disappeared between his junior year and this return.
Then came seven threes, a career high, and 1,000 points on the same afternoon. That’s a helluva game to have waiting on the other side of all that rehab.
Frank Williams had three different sevens
On January 20, 2001, No. 11 Illinois beat Penn State 92–60 at Assembly Hall. Williams finished with seven points on seven shots, plus seven assists. Add four steals and just one turnover.
Frank had plenty to do while everybody else was scoring.
He drew Joe Crispin, who came in leading the Big Ten at 22 points per game. (You just imagined a step-back jumper, didn’t you?). Crispin went 0-for-6 in the first half and didn’t score. Penn State needed eight minutes to make its first basket and went 4-for-25 before halftime.
Four makes in twenty-five tries. That’s a miserable way to spend a half.
Sean Harrington hit a three at the buzzer to make it 39–18. By then, Illinois had done most of the work necessary to turn a conference game into a comfortable afternoon. Robert Archibald contributed 12 points and 12 rebounds, and the Illini got 35 points from their bench.
Seven points can get lost when your team scores ninety-two. Seven assists and an opposing scorer spending the first half stuck on zero make it a little easier to see what Frank was doing.
Trent Frazier was already letting it fly
Frazier’s seven comes from February 8, 2018, when the freshman scored 32 against Wisconsin. He made seven of eleven threes and ten of twenty shots overall.
Illinois lost 78–69, so this one comes with the frustrating ending attached. Frazier hit a three to tie the game with eleven minutes left, but Wisconsin answered with an 11–2 run. Ethan Happ finished with 27 points.
Still, look at what the freshman had already put together. He had also made seven threes against Iowa on January 11. Two games with seven makes from deep, less than a month apart, during his first Big Ten season.
The 32 points against Wisconsin remained his Illinois career high. He eventually finished with 310 made threes over five seasons, but those two early nights gave us plenty of evidence that the kid could shoot. The buckets didn’t stop when he left Champaign, either. Alex Kyi covered Trent’s early pro success at Armchair Illini, including a 45-point game in Serbia.
Seven days from now, we get to start seeing what this year’s group can do. Illinois opens its exhibition schedule at Cincinnati on Saturday, October 17, at 4 p.m. Central.
One week. Let’s go, Illini!!