Work Ethic, Maturity Pull Illini Up to No. 1

With 10 weeks to go until the NCAA final, there could be as many as 10 teams staking claim to the No. 1 ranking in college basketball. But after waiting 36 years for its chance, is it any wonder that Illinois chose to celebrate raucously even before it’s recent 103-92 double-overtime victory over Georgia Tech?

When the buzzer sounded in Champaign, the revelry reached a new level, just like this season’s Fighting Illini. At 17-0, the nation’s only undefeated Division I team, Illinois moved to the top of the AP poll this week for the first time since the start of the 1952-53 season.

“There’s a little pressure. Everyone is jumping up and down to play you,” said reserve guard Steve Bardo. “Being ranked (No. 1) doesn’t matter because you have to play hard every night no matter where you are, but being undefeated is great.”

Glory is often short-lived in the rugged Big Ten, where a loss and subsequent tumble is always lurking. But a berth in Seattle, site of this year’s Final Four, is of greater import and Illinois, one of the great disappointments in recent tournament play, has shown that it may just have what it takes to make the trip.

Last season, Illinois lost, 66-63, to Villanova in the second round of the Mideast regional when it came up blank on 5 1-and-1 opportunities in the final 2 minutes. In a 96-84 victory over Michigan 11 days ago, Illinois hit 10 of 11 from the line in the final 2 minutes; the Illini went 13 for 16 in 2 overtime periods against the Yellow Jackets. After hitting a mediocre 67% of its free throws last season, Illinois is up to 74% this season.

“I think this is a good basketball team, but I don’t know how good,” said Coach Lou Henson. “These guys put everything on the line every night. We have to hustle hard--things aren’t as natural as a lot of outsiders think.”

Illinois’ work ethic will be put to the test very soon. Guard Kendall Gill broke a metatarsal bone in his left foot against Georgia Tech and will miss the next 7 weeks. He was averaging 15 points and was a big reason why the Illini’s 3-point field-goal shooting had risen from 28% in 1987-88 to 47% this season.

“We could shoot last year but we didn’t have confidence,” said Bardo. “The group that’s here now wasn’t cohesive last year and we really didn’t know what the coach wanted. But going through the Big Ten last year helped get us experience. Now everyone is comfortable and we know that we can play.”

As the high-fiving and hugging during the waning moments of the Georgia Tech game would attest, that confidence has resulted in spontaneous emotion, unlike the bored arrogance that typified many recent Illinois teams. It’s also helped the Illini compensate for being one of the shortest top-ranked teams in recent years. Its tallest player is 6-foot-8 sophomore swing man Marcus Liberty; 6-7 Lowell Hamilton starts in the pivot, with a pair of 6-6 forwards, Kenny Battle and Nick Anderson.

That front line might have been considerably bolstered had LaPhonso Ellis, a 6-9 high school All-American from East St. Louis, decided to attend Illinois instead of Notre Dame, where he’s averaging 16 points and 11 rebounds as a freshman. Leaning toward Illinois at one time, Ellis changed his mind for two reasons. One was an aversion to playing center (“Coach Henson never told me I’d have to play there, but I was going to be the tallest guy on the team; where else was I gonna play?”). The other was a desire to be All-American by the end of his sophomore year.

Such a personal quest wouldn’t have washed at Illinois, which hasn’t had a first-team All-American since 1943 and only two second-team mentions during Henson’s 14 seasons. Battle, the leading scorer, is only averaging a shade over 17 points; Liberty, the most highly recruited player in the country 2 years ago, doesn’t have a double-figure scoring average and barely gets 20 minutes of playing time.

Those meager statistics would cause conflict on many college teams, and it was thought Illinois also would succumb to dissension. Most of the team’s players faced off against each other during heated Chicago-area rivalries; those who went to high school in downstate Illinois grew up resenting the attention given to the city players. But everyone has meshed to a point that borders on Brady Bunch saccharine.

“When you see one of them you see the others. If I want to know where (end-of-the-bench reserve) Andy Kaufmann is I can call Lowell,” said assistant coach Jimmy Collins. “There are no animosities or jealousies. If one guy gets hot during a game, the others will come to the sideline and tell the coaches to get him the ball. If one guy starts to get a lot of print, the rest will try to pick up the players who didn’t get it.”