Heading into the Big Ten season

[HouseofPaign]

MVP to this point???

Luther has been HUGE, Rog has been solid, arguements can be made for a few players

but I am going with Dee, personally I think he is one person out there with the most spark. In the past we had players like Serge, Lucas and Brian (feel weird calling them the Johnsons), etc....that added something when they were on the court other than their game. Dee is the one player that attention is focused on more, gets vocal, shows a lot of emotion. Those things add A LOT to the game IMO

[IlliniNYC]

It is a real tough decision between Luther and Dee. Luther has the stats and Dee has a some of the stats but also the intangibles. The thing that stands out the most to me with Dee is how he will decide that it is time for Illinois to put a team away and he will step up his game, starting with defense and take the whole team to another level. A great exhibit is the Oregon game with the couple of sequences that ended with Dee going after a lose ball, lsing it out of bounds buy getting the crowd and team fired up. We proceeded to put them away in the next several minutes. Every great team seems to be able to dictate offense by playing great defense. I cannot remember ever watching a team where it was so obvious to me. You can really see the guys (Dee in particular) step up the defense and really start to take it to the other team on offense. It is a thing of beauty.

With that said, though, I have to go with Luther. Every game he puts up great numbers, plays great defense and though he isn't necessarily the leader like Dee and Deron, he is simply playing at another level. It took three years, but now I really want to see the ball in his hands on offense when it is time to score.

[HouseofPaign]

Yeah I really wish that Luther would have had his medical issue, (stomach I believe?) taken care of much sooner. It just seemed like no one really knew what the problem was or how to correct it. It took him out of a lot of games early on in his career. Now they are talking about possible POY award and 1st round draft pick! He has stepped it up big time. His shot is the most consistant and fluid on the team IMO.

[The Sprouting Divot]

Dee is definitely the most electrifying, but if "improvement" were to be part of the criteria, I'd have to go with Roger or Luther. I was blown away with Roger's emergence last year, and he seems to have taken it up another level this year, and NYC made a good case for Luther.

Deron, and to a much lesser degree Luther, always strike me as having 'quiet' nights where all of a sudden they've got huge numbers. While I'm glad I don't have to actually cast any real votes, I'm torn between whether to look at 'quietness' as a good thing or a bad thing--is it good because they just get it done without making a spectacle or drawing attention, or is it bad in the sense that since they can be under the radar, that it doesn't jazz up the rest of the team like Dee typically does?

One of the best things about this team is how it can be anyone on any given night who has a dominating game. I don't think we're going to be in the position as much this season (hopefully...) where we barely eek out a victory due to a superhuman effort of one particular player like we seemed to find ourselves last year.

Ultimately, I think I'd have to just go for the sexy vote of Dee, since compelling arguments can be made for several other players as well.

[LongtimeIllini]

The beauty of this team is that there is no MVP! They all are most valuable players. To select one and put them ahead of the others (as far as most valuable) is to deny the most outstanding characteristic of this team...unselfishness. The MVP (most valuable person)...is Bruce Weber. I liked Bill Self and was disgruntled when he left. But Bruce Weber IMHO is a better fit for the Fighting Illini.

[LongtimeIllini]

This article was in the Minneapolis Star Tribune today. Living up to the increasing hype may be difficult.

http://www.startribune.com/503/5169182.html

[LongtimeIllini]

Oops! The link didn't work. I'll try again. I promise to get better in the future.

[LongtimeIllini]

:confused: :confused: :confused:

Ahhhhh! The link requires a registration...like the Chicago Tribune. Probably not worth it for the Minneapolis paper.