Tate | Hang on, Illini fans

Brad Underwoods Illini havent lost two consecutive basketball games since March 2023, a laudable show of consistency during 49 games.

And theyve gone an inconsistent W-L-W-L-W in five recent big-game showdowns on four different courts.

So its a bumpy ride with more questions than answers as the full Big Ten season approaches.

How do you defeat Missouri, 80-77, Sunday with so many fouls (24) and turnovers (17) a frequent pair of problems and a noticeable inability to attack the Tigers part-time zone? Even as Illini fans celebrated, werent they left with the same conflicted feelings they had as in the previous 66-64 loss to No.

1 Tennessee? Well, the Illini survived in St.

Louis by converting 22 of 23 free throws, outrebounding Mizzou, 42-30, and getting clutch field goals by 21-point scorer Kasparas Jakucionis with 2 minutes, 5 seconds left and with just 28 seconds left ...

plus, repeating, 22 straight free throws (Missouri went 28 of 37) before game standout Kylan Boswell missed the last one with eight seconds left.

Illinois started both halves in a seemingly careless manner with.

But they jumped ahead early by draining four three-pointers before a series of off-line misses led to a 4 for 21 game-ending slump.

As it turned out, Illinois sank just one basket from long range in the final 15 minutes as freshman Will Riley, the early-season shooting sensation, saw his five-game audit on three-pointers fall to 2 for 23.

As predicted, this was a game of streaks, with Illinois seemingly taking charge at 67-57 ...

only to see Missouri tally 11 straight to take a brief lead.

Three transfers for Missouri Dukes Mark Mitchell, Indianas Tamar Bates and Iowas Tony Perkins were a headache as they combined for 53 points, mostly on the mid-range penetration similar to Northwestern.

With Jakucionis setting an Illini freshman record of 20 or more points in six consecutive games, it raises a question: Who is the greatest pure freshman in Illini basketball history? This exercise begins by eliminating Nick Weatherspoon, Dave Scholz, Dave Downey and all those before 1972 required by NCAA rules (except during wartime) to sit out their first year of college.

And it also eliminates Illini standouts Nick Anderson, Marcus Liberty, Cory Bradford and Frank Williams, who had to wade through a year of academic issues, plus all-time scoring leader Deon Thomas.

Back to business, we begin with six Illini who averaged at least 12 points in their first Illini season after high school.

This arbitrary cutoff eliminates Derek Harper (8.3), Eddie Johnson (8.1) and Deron Williams (6.3), all of whom became college and NBA superstars as they matured.

Two strong contenders are centers, Efrem Winters (12.4 points, 6.9 rebounds on a 21-11 team in 1983) and Kofi Cockburn (13.3 and 8.8 on a 21-10 team in 2020).

Cockburn deserves especially strong consideration.

Scoring leader among all Illini in their first year out of high school is Kiwane Garris at 15.9, and he stands as the schools No.

2 all-time scorer behind Thomas.

By comparison, Harper and Bruce Douglas were better defenders than Garris, and Cockburn was a powerful rebounder who shot 53 percent from the field in 2020 and converted free throws at 67.7 percent, roughly the same as Ayo Dosunmu (69.5) and Dee Brown (68.1) as freshmen.

Hey, did somebody mention Ayo and Dee? Both were standouts from the beginning.

But Dee, in sharing setup duties with Deron Williams, led a 25-7 club in 2003 while Ayos freshman season was a disaster at 12-21.

Dees four-year scoring average was a mere 13.2 but he was consistently eye-popping throughout, had 231 career steals and was always a one-man fast break.

Dosunmu, now enjoying his best season with the Chicago Bulls, added muscle, improved more dramatically than Brown and Garris, and peaked in the UIs clutch situations.

But in harking back, our collective mind is blurred by their latter campaigns.

My uncertain vote goes to Dee while recognizing that Cockburn, from the beginning, was a powerhouse at his position.

Jakucionis, 18, has the maturity and ball-handling skills to pass them all ...

particularly if he is a little more careful with his ballhandling.

Loren Tate writes for The News-Gazette.

He can be reached at [email protected] ..

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