Fictional Declarations

Now that the official signing period has started, The Board Room is happy to announce that we have signed Kevin Hart to a scholarship. It came down to a close race between us, Cal and Oregon, and there was some last minute consideration of 'Bama when Coach Saban called offering a scholarship. However, we are pleased to have added Kevin to our program.

Wait. What?

Really?

Oh.

Nevermind. We're actually not recruiting anyone named Kevin Hart. We just made that up. We apologize to our 7 readers for the confusion.

Returning to our normal programming...

Meanwhile, here in Illini land, behind the stellar play of our phenomenal freshman tandem of PG Dimitri McCamey and SG Eric Gordon, we improved to a Big Ten leading 10-1 and 21-3 overall. We took out hapless Indiana, whose D.J. White is stuck as the lone bright spot on a team that's unable to handle the ball or create shots from the guard position. Having McCamey as the calming influence on the offense and Gordon as the assassin from outside has really opened up Shaun Pruitt on the inside, and cleared the lanes for Brian Randle and Calvin Brock to slash at the hoop without defenders waiting. And having the two freshmen control the ball on offense, Chester Frazier has been freed up to play defense, rebound, and otherwise be the emotional heart of this team that's starting look a lot like our team from 2005.

And things look good for us down the road. Despite Gordon going one and done, we're looking to be able to keep things up, as Mike Tisdale is starting to look like he'll be a much tougher version of Nick Smith, and Alex Legion should be able to come and step right in next year. And getting Jamar back will help with any depth problems. It was crucial for Bruce to not only get Gordon, but also show that he could run his system with star players, not the scrappy, good, tough, but not great players like he did at Southern. Certainly, the motion offense isn't conducive to having any one play score over 18 a game, but being able to have someone come in and play well enough to show off NBA skills is crucial to future recruiting.

In any case, it's looking more and more like the 2008 Illini are a Final Four contender, and if we can overcome Bruce's recruiting shortcomings. Derrick Rose (the Chicago kid that Bruce wasn't able to keep in-state) and Memphis, Bill Self's Kansas squad (which includes more Chicago connections), Coach K's Dukies (whose 6th man, Jon Scheyer, was Bruce's brother's player in HS), and our 2005 nemesis, the UNC Tar Heels are all strong squads. But where we have a chance is that we got our guys in Gordon and McCamey.

One thing that's intriguing to me is the parallels between this team and the Syracuse championship team w/ Carmelo and Gerry MacNamara as freshmen a few years ago, and Hakim Warrick as the established rock on the inside. Carmelo was the one and done and the best player. G-Mac was the one who was going to stay for 4 years and build a program. Warrick was an NBA prospect who had shown potential, but needed to have one more good year to lock up his draft status. Throw in the Orange and Blue, and the similarities are eerie. We all remember the run they had.

This year's Illini have Gordon and D-Mac filling in the freshmen roles and Shaun Pruitt and Brian Randle doing the Hakim Warrick thing. So, we're actually a little ahead of the Orangemen. It's a little premature to say that we're going to win it all, but a deep run is certainly within reason.

Wait...

The Illini actually did not have Eric Gordon sign. We just made that up. We apologize to our 7 readers for the confusion.

Down the road, we may actually write a little more about Bruce's program. There are some folks who are high on what we've got coming in.

-Chairman