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Welcome to “Good Morning, Illini Nation,” your daily dose of college basketball news from Illini writer and AP Top 25 voter Scott Richey. He will offer information on Brad Underwood’s team every morning:
Brad Underwood told us on Illinois Media Day that he has no idea who his starters might be this season. For one, he has 12 days to find out before Illinois faces St. Francis (Illinois) in the first of two exhibition games. On the other hand, I imagine it would be safe to assume that Andre Curbelo, Trent Frazier and Kofi Cockburn will start.
That leaves two spots that Underwood will say (for perhaps the millionth time) that he doesn’t really care who fills them. The five players on the pitch at the end of the games, of course, being more important.
But who could fill these last two places? Based on four seasons of precedence in the Underwood era, there will likely be two more guards – “wings” to be exact in this new era of basketball nomenclature. Underwood said he wanted to play Cockburn and Omar Payne together. He never said he would throw them together.
Looks like fans are leaning towards wanting Austin Hutcherson at one of these places. Maybe Coleman Hawkins in the other, which would put another “big man” on the court next to Cockburn even though the 6-foot-10 second has more of a wing-type play.
New is always better. Hutcherson and Hawkins represent the new. Hutcherson is an elite athlete and a good marksman. Hawkins represents a type of player the Illini have not had in the past four seasons. Both have obstacles in their way to more playing time – or in Hutcherson’s case, any playing time. Hawkins has to show he’s both a rebounder and a more consistent finisher in traffic. . Hutcherson needs to show he can handle the physique of Division I and Big Ten hoops in particular.
Even so, those two will factor into the rotation – and possibly even the starting lineup – this season. But after watching Saturday’s free practice, don’t be surprised if Da’Monte Williams and Jacob Grandison are hard to replace. This veteran duo is the “glue guy” for this Illinois team. They are fulfilling their role, and they don’t make a lot of mistakes in doing so. It has value. Clearly. This is why Williams has played such an important role since his first season and why Grandison started having a serious look midway through last season once he settled down with the Illini.
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