Illinois sophomore big man Meyers Leonard will forgo his final two years of eligibility and remain in the 2012 NBA Draft field, he announced on Monday.
Leonard is an incredibly skilled big man and has an NBA-ready body. His maturity has come into question numerous times in his tenure at Illinois, but that really seems to be his only knock at this point. Most draft experts project Leonard as a late lottery-pick, somewhere in the 10-15 region.
Conference play got underway for most of the college basketball world this week. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday featured some high quality match-ups in the B1G, Big East, MAC, Horizon and Missouri Valley. Below are the results for the 3 days worth of games, plus some highlighted individual performances.
Note: Bottom team is home, bold italic indicates winner, all ranks are from the AP, any overtimes are indicated above the score.
TUESDAY:
**2OT**
72 Minnesota (12-2, 0-1 B1G) – R Sampson III: 22 pts, 9 reb, 2 blk / J Welch: 15 pts, 3 ast
81 Illinois (12-2, 3-0 B1G) - M Leonard: 20 pts, 11 reb, 5 blk / B Paul: 21 pts, 7 reb, 6 ast
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64 #11 Wisconsin (12-2, 1-0 B1G) - R Evans: 22 pts, 6 reb, 9-11 FG / J Taylor: 15 pts, 5 ast, 3 stl
40 Nebraska (8-4, 0-1 B1G) - T McCray: 16 pts, 9 reb, 2 stl / B Ubel: 8 pts, 9 reb
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59 #22 Pittsburgh (11-3, o-1 Big East) - T Zanna: 13 pts, 12 reb, 5-10 FG / A Gibbs: 12 pts, 5 ast
72 Notre Dame (9-5, 1-0 Big East) - A Dragicevich: 22 pts, 2 reb, 4-7 3pFG / J Cooley: 8 pts, 14 reb, 2 blk
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Illinois sophomore guard Crandall Head announced Tuesday that he had withdrawn from the University and will seek a transfer. Head, the younger brother of former Illinois star and NBA guard Luther Head, told IlliniHQ’s Paul Klee that the decision came down to just needing a fresh start. “I still love the players and the coaches,” he said. “It’s just not the right place for me.”
Head is a product of Rich South High School in Richton Park, IL and came to the Illini as the #84 overall prospect in the 2010 Rivals150. Head coach Bruce Weber’s 2010 class was a good one, featuring Head, current sophomore big man Meyers Leonard (#31 overall) and former wing Jereme Richmond (#35). Richmond left after last season and went undrafted, so Head’s departure leaves Leonard as the only remaining verbal commitment from that class.
Because of the timing of his departure, Head will be eligible next season as a mid-year transfer and will be able to play at the start of the second semester. The 6’5″ guard will be going through the recruiting process a second time now, and the Windy City Source will provide any and all updates regarding his future destination.
The Windy City Source is profiling the top 12* players in the Big Ten Conference for the upcoming season. The reason we say “12*” is because rather than choosing the best players regardless of school, we will be taking 1 player from each team. Some players will be obvious, others not so much. And in case you forgot, Nebraska is in the conference now! Anyways – here’s the first part of four, featuring players from the “I” schools:
Bruce Weber’s team will be experiencing a huge turnover this season with the loss of four seniors (three started), a one-and-done freshman (now an alleged criminal) and the addition of six freshman and a senior transfer. Normally teams would have a tough time recovering losing three senior leaders and a star freshman, but in Illinois’ case the turnover is for the better. The culture of the Fighting Illini program has been more of a “me first” situation. With Demetri McCamey, Mike Davis, Mike Tisdale and Jereme Richmond gone, Weber will have cleared his team of almost all of last season’s headaches in one swoop. Now the team is turned over to the underclassmen, led by junior guard Brandon “BP3″ Paul. Having been a solid contributor in his first two years, Paul (9 ppg) will take on a serious leadership position this season. Paul improved his stats across the board from his freshman to sophomore years, which can be partially attributed to an increase of minutes. It’s safe to say Weber will rely on Paul for more than 22.4 minutes a game this year. The most encouraging numbers are his FG, 3FG and FT percentages. Paul has shown that he can be a lethal shooter and is a tremendous athlete (my apologies to Carlton Fay). Brandon poured in 20+ points three times in conference play last year, hitting 4 three-pointers on two of those occasions. As the top returning scorer, Paul will certainly need to put points on the board if the Illini want to get back to the NCAA Tournament. Paul has the ability to play the one, two, or three, which makes him a versatile asset in a guard-heavy lineup.
Along with junior DJ Richardson, sophomore Meyers Leonard, Bradley senior-transfer Sam Maniscalco and a parade of highly-ranked Chicago freshmen, the Illini will have a fresh look that should have fans feeling good about the future. (more…)