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A Look at the 2006 Illinois Basketball Team

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  • A Look at the 2006 Illinois Basketball Team

    This Team is Different no dobut about it from last
    year, and the article attached sums it up pretty well.

    Should be a fun team to watch down the stretch
    as they get healthy and are molded under Coach Weber.

    Updated: Sunday, November 26, 2006 12:52 AM CST
    Gritty Illini scratching surface
    By MARK TUPPER H&R Executive Sports Editor
    By MARK TUPPER H&R Executive Sports Editor

    HOFFMAN ESTATES - The University of Illinois basketball team is tackling a new challenge this season, something it didn't have to confront in 2004-05 or 2005-06.

    Illinois is trying to discover its identity, and despite the sometimes ugly nature of its championship won at the Chicago Invitational Challenge on Friday and Saturday, it's an ongoing process that won't truly take shape until injured players Brian Randle and Jamar Smith are back on the floor.

    Ooops. Smith did return somewhat unexpectedly for Saturday's 75-71 victory over Bradley, and it's doubtful Illinois would have won without him.

    Two years ago, when Illinois was the darling of college basketball and roared all the way to the national championship game, the team's identity was spelled out before the very first game. It was that of an experienced, richly talented team fueled by Deron Williams, Dee Brown, Roger Powell, Luther Head and James Augustine, among others.

    Last year it was Brown and Augustine's team, and they filled the spotlight. Their personalities and reputations defined the team.

    This season, however, Brown and Augustine are gone, and the current players practically grit their teeth each time they are asked, "So, how is it playing without Dee and James?"

    It was revealing after a recent game when Shaun Pruitt and Chester Frazier made a point of saying this team has better team chemistry and more confidence and togetherness than last year's team.

    "We're starting to click more as a team than last year," Pruitt said.

    "We all have fun together, we're so close," Frazier said. "We always laugh and joke together. We come together on and off the court. More guys hang out together this year than last year."

    Hmmmm.

    Through no one's fault, Brown and Augustine were simply elevated to another plane last year, both as four-season stars who would become the two winningest players in Illini history, and as decorated Final Four veterans who achieved exalted status as basketball royalty on a team the Illini Nation will never forget.

    They received a different level of national media attention. They were fawned over and adored by fans. They were NBA-bound. And all that attention, understandable as it was, separated them from their teammates.

    There was no way around it.

    It turns out that those teammates, who both liked and looked up to Brown and Augustine, were nonetheless cast as something less than royalty. Not paupers, necessarily, but there were two classes, and if your name wasn't Brown or Augustine, you were in the lower of the two classes.

    This season, there is only one class, and the current players are pretty sure the rest of the basketball world looks upon this team without Brown and Augustine as something less than first class.

    It's definitely not as pretty as the Final Four team and it may lack the skill to be as successful as last season's team.

    But for now, that's OK. They're together, they're one, and they're equals in the locker room and in the attention they receive from the media. Oh, by the way, they're also 7-0.

    No more are there 30 tape recorders and microphones poked at Dee Brown and 10 focused on Augustine while everyone else in the room is being ignored.

    Maybe after Randle and Smith are together again in top form, some individual will rise up and become the bell cow of this bunch. But right now, the balance and parity on the roster is remarkable and each night a different player seems to emerge as the hero.

    What this team should cling to as its primary personality trait is its grit, the unrelenting will to fight back defensively after falling behind by 16 against Miami (Ohio) on Friday, and the will to withstand Bradley's upset bid Saturday with another strong second-half surge.

    Weber has already said this team plays harder than any other group he's coached here, and that Frazier individually lays more of himself on the line every game than any other individual player, Brown and Williams included. That's significant.

    What must also develop, however, is a feeling that there is more than just grit and hard play pushing the Illini. This team must demonstrate a greater level of offensive skill and that's where the return of Smith and, hopefully, Randle, should help.

    I would simply encourage people not to judge this team until the roster is full again just before Big Ten Conference play begins.

    If the personality of this team is a gritty defensive toughness combined with a balanced and reasonably talented cache of weapons on offense, that will bode well.

    And if you find yourself missing the dominant personality of a Dee Brown, or the comfort you found relying on a veteran like James Augustine, remember that's just the way these current players like it.

    Nothing against Brown and Augustine, but these guys like being equals while sharing the spotlight as well as sharing the praise and the blame.

    This team may prefer an identity that no longer includes the considerable presence of Brown and Augustine. Whether that makes them as good enough, however, is yet to be determined.

    Mark Tupper can be reached at [email protected] or 421-7983.
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