We’ll finish the countdown with a No. 1 team that had a rough night in Champaign, a No. 1 jersey from a very familiar recruiting class, and the freshman wearing it now. Let’s remember some guys and get to know a new one.
No. 1 Wake Forest comes to Assembly Hall
December 1, 2004. No. 5 Illinois against No. 1 Wake Forest. Chris Paul and Justin Gray on one side, Dee Brown, Deron Williams, and Luther Head on the other. Assembly Hall was orange, and Bruce Weber had the jacket to match.
That is a helluva setup for a basketball game.
Then Deron picked up his second foul less than three minutes in. He played only eight minutes in the first half and didn’t score. Illinois led 54–33 at halftime anyway.
The Illini shot 60 percent in that half and made eight threes. The lead eventually reached 32. Illinois won 91–73, and even an eighteen-point margin made the game look more competitive than it had been.
Roger Powell Jr. led Illinois with nineteen points on 8-for-10 shooting. Dee and Luther had sixteen apiece. Deron finished with eleven assists, and Illinois assisted on 27 of its 38 baskets while turning the ball over just six times.
Paul and Gray combined to shoot 7-for-27. Illinois was making life miserable at both ends.
Five days later, Illinois took over No. 1 in the AP poll. The Illini stayed there for fifteen straight weeks. Wake Forest had come to Champaign with the ranking, but Illinois gave everybody a pretty good look at who deserved it.
The first to wear Number 1
Aaron Spears arrived from Chicago’s Dunbar High School in 2002, joining a freshman class with Dee Brown, Deron Williams, James Augustine, and Kyle Wilson. Bill Self called the 6-foot-9 big man “the missing piece” when he signed.
That’s the part worth remembering before jumping to the career totals. Spears came in with real expectations, wearing No. 1 alongside some guys who would become very familiar.
He played in Illinois’ first six games, including eight points and four assists against Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Then a knee injury in practice that December interrupted his freshman season. He finished the year with nineteen points in 55 minutes.
He returned to play in twenty games in 2003–04, adding another twenty-one points. That left his Illinois career at 26 appearances and forty points. It was a short stay on the court, but it puts another name back into that 2002 recruiting class.
His college career continued through Highland Community College and then St. John’s. The Illinois chapter was small. There was more basketball after it.
Lincoln Williams is the new No. 1
Lincoln Williams gives us a No. 1 for this season. The 6-foot-5 freshman from Kankakee averaged 26 points as a senior and left as his school’s all-time leading scorer with 1,853 points.
There’s a little hype worth paying attention to here. Brad Underwood has talked about Williams’ ability to play and guard all the perimeter positions, along with his potential to become an elite college defender. A guy who can score like that and has his coach excited about his defense? That’s a pretty interesting combination.
Illinois opens its exhibition schedule at Cincinnati tomorrow, Saturday, October 17. Tipoff is scheduled for 4 p.m. Central.
One more day. Let’s go, Illini!!
What did I miss?