I can’t personally speak to what having the Stockholm Syndrome feels like, but I imagine it’s quite similar to being an Illini basketball/football fan. You’re held hostage to an athletic program(s), but you’re also endeared to your captors. All the losing on the field/court and the severe issues off the field/court which have occurred under the watch of Mike Thomas, Tim Beckman, John Groce and Bill Cubit have been well documented.
Pointing out what’s wrong is quite easy.
The life of an #Illini football/basketball fan: pic.twitter.com/ZS5RmfOdCu
— The Tomfoolery of Professor John Frink (@Frustrated_Fan) January 27, 2016
Highlighting the positive? Now that’s a challenge!
True freshman shooting guard Jalen Coleman-Lands is doing his best to make that task easier. Illinois entered this season with some of the highest ranked freshmen in the Big Ten, and he’s the jewel of the class.
“J Cole” as he’s colloquially known is shooting about 40% from three-point range and averaging around double figure scoring per game. He poured in a career high 26 on Wednesday versus Rutgers and led the Illini in scoring with 17 today versus Iowa. He’s also sixth in the Big Ten in three-point field goals made per game.
Neither D.J. Williams nor Aaron Jordan have consistently looked like Big Ten caliber players this season. (although Williams looked pretty good today in the 15 minutes that he played) They’re just not developing at the rate JCL is. In an ideal situation, both would have been able to redshirt this season.
With all the injuries Illinois has suffered in 2015-16, they really need(ed) their highly rated freshman to live up to the hype immediately. For the most part, it hasn’t happened, but there have been flashes of this potential here and there.
Of course, in today’s day and age of college basketball, you have to get something substantial out of your freshmen class.
Obviously not everyone is going to be Duke and Kentucky, where you win with instant impact 5-star freshmen. However, the days of freshmen being almost always buried on the depth chart are long gone.
Jalen Coleman-Lands, the first player from the state of Indiana to sign with the Illini in 30 years, is the highest rated recruit of the John Groce era. He checked in at #37 on the recruiting services consensus index for his class. Leron Black was #46 the year before. Although Coleman-Lands wasn’t selected to the McDonald’s All-American Game, he was regarded one of the top overall pure shooters in the class of 2015, and he did make the Jordan Brand Classic.
He’s showing that shooting stroke with regularity during his rookie campaign.
“He’s always been able to do that,” said John Groce.
“What I like now is that he’s starting to figure things out defensively. He cares a lot, a hard worker, I think he’s untapped.”
Groce then went on to point out that Coleman-Lands didn’t start practicing until November 1st due to injury, and then played in the opener two weeks later. As the Illini basketball coach pointed out, JCL missed all of the summer exhibitions and fall camp. Therefore, his development is still far behind where it could be at this point.
If JCL keeps developing, he’ll be a great piece of a potentially good nucleus next year and beyond. Getting better on defense, as Groce pointed out, is the key.
Black hasn’t been able to consistently stay healthy, and even when he’s been fit, he can’t stay on the floor due to incessant foul trouble. He had a double double in his first start last year versus Purdue, but hasn’t come close to having a game like that since.
He may live up to the hype someday, as might some of the other guys in the sophomore and freshmen classes, but for right now, Jalen Coleman-Lands is one of the few reasons for excitement in Illini sports fans right now.
If you still have your #5 Deron Williams sherseys, you can break those out of retirement. Now you have a new reason to wear that number.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication and Bold Global.
He also consistently appears on numerous talk shows all across the country. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram
