Austin Illini Club
Austin Illini Club
|
|
The Austin Illini gather to watch games together at Third Base Sports Bar, located at the end of 6th Street West of downtown just before 6th street hits MoPac. Third Base is the newest High-Definition Sports Bar in Town that is family friendly and has lots of parking. A map to Third Base is on its website: http://www.thirdbaseaustin.com/map
Please Click the Following Links for Austin Illini Recaps of the Following Seasons:
2007-2008 A Season That Wasn't Even Worth Forgetting 2006-2007 A Season to Forget, On and Off the Court 2005-2006 Dee & Augie's Senior Season 2004-2005 (The Season to Remember) (Regular Season, including the Wake Forest Crushing) 2005 Season to Remember Postseason (including the Arizona Elite 8 game)
Recruiting Summary: Help is on the Way!Many have maligned Bruce Weber for his recruiting woes the past four years, especially in light of Ron Zook's jaw-droppingly amazing and unbelievable recruiting in football. However, with the 2007-2008 season finally over, we do have lots of reasons for optimism for the near future. Weber's recruiting woes stemmed mostly from losing the best talent in Illinois the past five years to out-of-state schools, most especially to schools like Duke, Kansas, Memphis, and Kentucky. They climaxed last year when perhaps the best freshman in the country this year, Eric Gordon, reneged on his verbal commitment to Illinois just a few days before signing day by showing up at Indiana's midnight madness last year and announcing he would play for Indiana, instead. After all of Weber's recruiting failures, Eric Gordon was supposed to be the messiah. Instead, he turned out to be Judas. Weber's recruiting woes provide half of the equation behind this past year's snafu of a season. With a NBA lottery pick like Eric Gordon on this year’s team (or even Duke star John Scheyer or Kansas stars Brandon Rush or Sherron Collins), Illinois would have been competitive and would have won most of those excruciatingly-close games. Weber also lost incoming freshman recruit Quentin Watkins this year due to academic ineligibility. Quentin Watkins was supposed to be as good if not better than current freshman sensation Demitri McCamey, who scored 31 against Indiana. Weber also lost Jamar Smith and Brian Carlwell due to last year’s car crash. Thus, the talent on this year’s team is much weaker than Weber had reasonably expected it would be. Despite the frustration of losing so many close games, we all knew this year would be tough; the surprising part of this year thus is not our final record so much as the fact that we remained competitive in virtually every game this season. The other half of this season’s decline stems from the remaining upperclassmen talent not coming close to meeting their own expectations. Brian Randle has shown flashes of brilliance, but his off-the-ball movement and passing effectiveness is virtually non-existent. Chester Frazier shows amazing heart on defense, but he tends to dribble the ball into corner traps instead of setting up the offense and allowing it to work. Shaun Pruitt has developed some amazing inside post moves and is an incredible rebounder, but his free-throw shooting and limited range have also hindered his evolution into a professional-caliber player. However, help is on its way in the next three years. The following summarizes the additions to Illinois’ basketball roster in the next three years, which should provide the foundation for another run through the Final Four. 2008
Alex Legion is a 6’4” highly-recruited, top-50, 4-star freshman shooting guard who did not mix well with Billy Gillespie’s new system at Kentucky and left the program after his first semester, opting to transfer to Illinois over many other suitors. He is no doubt the best available transfer out there, and gives the Illini a real boost in talent when they need it most. He played an average of 17.5 minutes per game and averaged only 6.7 point per game, but he had worked his way into the starting line-up in that short time and would have produced more if he had not decided to part ways with Gillespie first. Because he did not start his spring semester at Kentucky, he will be eligible to play for Illinois after fall semester grades are posted next year. He was the 10th best shooting guard prospect in the nation last year with NBA potential according to Rivals. Legion was born in November 1988, near the start of the 1988-89 Flyin Illini Final Four season. Although also not a superstar who can single-handedly carry a team on his shoulders, Stan Simpson’s commitment is very significant because he is the first highly-recruited Chicago Public League player to commit to Illinois since Lou Henson left and Jimmy Collins was passed up for the head coaching job in favor of Lon Kruger. Jimmy Collins had a tight relationship with CPL coaches, who thereafter held a grudge and (ahem) “advised” their students to stay away from Illinois. The CPL had given us the likes of Nick Anderson, Deon Thomas, and other significant players throughout our program, so re-opening this recruiting pipeline is tremendous. Simpson also had initially favored other schools, making his commitment to Illinois that much more pleasantly surprising. At 6'10', Simpson could see a lot of minutes as a freshman big man next year with Brian Carlwell transferring and Shaun Pruitt graduating. Although not technically a recruit, Jamar Smith returns next year after his agreed-upon year-off to straighten his life out following the DUI car crash last year that left teammate Brian Carlwell in intensive care. Although not a superstar who can carry a team by himself, his quick-release shooting would have provided this year’s team with some much-needed offensive options from outside. His sophomore slump had more to do with persistent ankle injuries than anything else. He has practiced with the team all year, and many reports from practice say that he is the best player in practice and has grown up quite a bit. He and Alex Legion (who also cannot play but can practice this year) have bonded quite a bit in practice and off the court. http://www.pjstar.com/stories/021108/ILL_BFOHTLJ0.076.php With the emergence this season of Demetri McCamey, many think that the backcourt of McCamey, Legion, and Smith will be similar to the 2005 trio of guards that led Illinois to the Final Four. And that is a full year ahead of a highly-recruited trio of guards that was supposed to be the next coming of the Illinois triple-guard threat. In a joint decision with the athletic department's support, Brian Carlwell announced this season that he plans to leave Illinois to transfer to another school so he can obtain more playing time. He apparently had too much difficulty putting in the extra effort necessary to recover from the tragic car crash in the spring of 2007. He only played one year of his scholarship, and his vacancy will open up a scholarship slot possibly for Trent Meacham in his senior season (currently a walk-on). After Trent graduates, the scholarship slot will then probably become available for a ju-co transfer in 2009. 2009
The trio of guards in this class (Betrand, Richardson, and Paul) sparked all of the buzz about the revival of Illinois recruiting under Bruce Weber because Weber finally got the best high school talent in the state to stay in Illinois. Instead of allowing Illinois’ best talent to go to Duke, Memphis, Indiana, Kansas, or elsewhere like other top-Illinois recruits the past five years, Weber landed three of the top-ten players in Illinois. Although not yet on the National radar, Richardson and Paul are tied at the top of the Sun Times’ most recent rating of Illinois high school juniors as the two best high school juniors in Illinois; Bertrand is rated #7 in the State. Last November, Richardson verbally committed first, causing the other two to verbally commit within the ensuing three days, all in hopes of becoming the next great three-guard rotation under Weber. Although they will play behind the trio of McCamey, Alex Legion, and Jamar Smith, they are two or three years behind this elder trio of guards, and thus should not provide chemistry problems on the team. Instead, they should provide Illinois with a succession of talent at guard for the next six years. Tyler Griffey just verbally committed to Illinois last month and rounds out the 2009 class. He is supposed to be a bulkier version of current freshman forward Mike Cole: a solid top-100 forward. 2010
Not only are Jereme Richmond and Crandall Head the #1 and #2 top prospects (respectively) in the State of Illinois for their class, Jereme Richmond is rated as the #4 player in the Nation by Rivals: one of the best high school recruits out there in the 2010 class. He is higher-rated than Eric Gordon was as a Junior in high school. Many consider Crandell Head (Luther Head's younger brother) to be even better. One high school basketball reporter blogged the following about Head:
With this talent coming in the next three years, and this year's freshmen developing into stars of their own right, this season's aberration should be just that: an aberration. Lawrence Page THE Austin Illini Club
What a fantastic start to the Bruce Weber era, where we will likely be able to look forward to more of the same!!
Illinois' 2004-2005 Basketball schedule results were as follows:
Austin is also home to the University of Texas. After the Illini crushed #1 Wake Forest on December 1, 2004, several stars of the University of Texas basketball team (Brad Buckman, PJ Tucker, and Kenny Taylor) came in and hung out with us as we watched the Indiana-North Carolina game. They were very friendly, and agreed to take a picture with us so long as we agreed to flash the "hook 'em horns" sign with our hands. Who were we to decline?
|
|
Copyright © 2004, 2007 Austin Illini
|
Thanks
to the 2004-2005 Fighting Illini basketball team for a great year!
