The Illinois Fighting Illini will have one less guard on the bench tonight when they take on the Minnesota Golden Gophers. Bruce Weber announced Tuesday that sophomore guard Crandall Head, little brother of NBA veteran Luther Head has decided to leave the Illinois college basketball program.
Head was suspended for four games for the very arcane “violation of team rules” at the start of the season. He also ran into some off-the-court trouble last season. Unfortunately, he leaves Champaign being known as just “Luther’s little brother” because he never accomplished anything with the Illini.
Head played in only 26 career games with the Illini over 1.5 season, averaging a miniscule 1.2 points. He appeared in 17 games as a freshman, totaling 23 points, and saw action in nine games this season, tallying nine whole points. He scored a career-high five points last year vs. Northwestern and dished out a career-high six assists vs. Chicago State this year.
And you media types will certainly agree with this statement: he wasn’t exactly a great, interesting interview either.
His career is nothing short of a let-down given a.) his older brother was an All-American and b.) he came into school very highly regarded ranked No. 76 on the recruiting services consensus index, including No. 62 by Prep Stars and No. 79 by ESPNU. Of course that hype cooled down somewhat when he missed his senior season at Rich South after having knee surgery last September to repair a torn ACL.
That injury was used as an excuse for his lack of performance as a freshman. But given Head’s tendency to get into/stay in Weber’s doghouse, it seems like Head had some issues in his (wait for it, obvious pun in 3…2…1…) head.
Weber released a statement today on Crandall’s defection.
“We are disappointed with Crandall’s decision not to continue his career at Illinois, but ultimately we want what is best for him,” Weber said. “We have developed and maintained a close relationship with Crandall and his family through the years and will alwayssupport them. We wish Crandall all the best and hope he is successful in the next chapter of his career.”