Where was this Brandon Paul in February and March? For the second year in a row, Paul started the Illini season off with an impressive showing.
Last year against Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, Paul stole the spotlight of the season opener, draining 4 of 6 shots from behind the arc and finishing with 22 points – a freshman debut scoring record. Tuesday, opening the season against UC Irvine, he shot a career high 6 of 8 from three-point land. He finished the game with 18 points.
“Brandon, he’s pretty good in first games,” Bruce Weber joked in the post game press conference. “He’s continued that trend, and obviously he’s not going to shoot that well. But there’s no doubt he’s improved his three-point shooting from last year.”
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