Ten things from Illini hoops media shindig

CHAMPAIGN -- 1. Illinois’ basketball staff heads for its annual retreat on Wednesday and Thursday to set out their plans for the preseason practice that starts at 5 p.m. Friday. Among the topics? How much zone pressure to include in their package.

With so many slender, long-armed athletes on the squad -- and the last-minute zone-press successes against Northwestern and Western Kentucky uppermost in mind -- the Illini staff has been evaluating Louisville’s zone concepts and debating how to borrow them for their purposes.

“If we’re going to play it, I want it to be aggressive,” Weber said. “Louisville, we played them a few years ago (in the Final Four) and coach Pitino years ago was an all man team. Now he’s almost all zone. We’ve watched their stuff because they play it aggressively. It’s got ‘man’ principles.

2. Junior guard Demetri McCamey is down to 197 pounds -- approximately 10 fewer than last season. More impressively, his arms and shoulders are noticeably more muscular and his ears are much more receptive.

“He was an excuse guy,” Weber said. “He always had an excuse. We had to sit him numerous times because…we always tell him videotape doesn’t lie. We’re going to watch it the next day, so you can tell us this, but. Last year, the great example at the end of the Missouri game in our press offense, he never cut. And he said, ‘Oh, someone denied me,’ or something. He never moved one foot! I was like, ‘Demetri! Go look at the tape!’

“I’ve said he’s matured as a person and as a student. Now, can we take it the next step on the basketball court, too?”

6. Weber said there have been days when freshman guard Brandon Paul, the 2009 Mr. Basketball from Warren Township, has been the best player in the gym. What happens on those days?

“He just hits about 10 3s in a row,” said senior forward Dominique Keller. “Tip dunks. Playing the passing lanes and getting a couple steals. Just his athleticism is crazy. He’ll catch offensive rebounds and just straight up and dunk like nothing happened.”

4. Weber provided another classic Bruce-ism while describing one of his coaching moments with junior guard Alex Legion -- who, by the way, Bruce believes can average double figures this year. I watched him shoot a bit this afternoon and his set shot has more arc to it, which I take as a good sign. But it's not Bruce's biggest issue with Legion.

“I’ve harped on him,” Weber said. “I tell him he can’t tippy-toe anymore on the basketball court. Finally, one day, he came in. ‘Coach, I just want to know what that means, tippy-toe.’

“He’s just real careful. In workouts, you can be careful because no one’s guarding you. In a game, you’ve got to go play. You’ve just got to make a decision. Make a cut. If the shot’s open, shoot it. If not, pass the ball and go do something else.

“He’s used to kind of just, ‘Tiny Tim, tiptoeing through the tulips.’ You know, there’s no flowers out on the court. You’ve gotta go, you’ve gotta play. Knock somebody over. If we can get him to do that and compete, he has a chance to be successful.”

5. Jeff Jordan’s future with Illinois will be determined no later than Friday night, which happens to double as “Illini Madness” night at Assembly Hall. The junior point guard dropped from the team during the offseason, but talked with Bruce Weber on Monday about returning.

“Before we move forward with it, I think we’ve got just to continue to have some discussions,” Weber said. “I think the key words that we’re looking for is, ‘total commitment.’ Make sure if Jeff, if he wants to come back, that he is totally committed to move forward and become part of the team.”

6. Wayne McClain, who’s starting his ninth year at Illinois, has been elevated to associate head coach. It won’t change his duties, but should give him a bit of a pay boost as well as provide some recognition for the job he does. Anyone who has heard McClain work on players in practice knows how he’s able to appeal to a guy’s prideful side as well as improve his fundamental game. “I’ve always said he’s the wisdom of our program,” Weber said.

7. Weber has coined a few themes for this year’s squad: “Rising Up” and “Blue Collar, Orange Pride.” No word on whether Don Draper worked with him on these concepts, but feel free to have these mottos put on T-shirts and underwear.

8. Junior power forward Mike Davis says he’s up to 218 pounds, which is 6 more than he finished last season. Davis also felt his ballhandling was in such good shape earlier in the offseason, he was ready to play the “3.” But once he broke his ankle and had to sit on the sidelines for six weeks, the ballhandling went down and he hasn’t quite had the time to build it back up.”

9. For the second year in a row, Illinois will refrain from putting its players’ surnames on the back of the jerseys. Weber has a long spiel explaining his decision, but I like this sentence best: “If you’re not good enough that they don’t know who you are -- at Illinois and all the times we’re on TV and all the times we’re on the news -- you probably shouldn’t be here anyway. They shouldn’t need your name on the back.”

10. Illinois women’s coach Jolette Law has brought in a six-freshman class that ranks No. 3 nationally according to HoopGurlz.com. Law threw out such phrases as “We’re trying to win the national championship,” but she also doled out praise to Wheeling sophomore center Lana Rukavina. The lefty averaged 1.2 points and 1.3 rebounds in 6.4 minutes per game last season.

“The most surprise person to me, on my team, has been Lana Rukavina,” Law said. “Just this last year has really helped her a lot. She’s coming in now, pulling the younger kids in and demonstrating (what to do). Last year, Jenna (Smith) and Lacey (Simpson) were the main demonstrators. But Lana, she’s going to see a lot of minutes.”

LW