Illini Basketball All-21st Century Team

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#1      

ChiefGritty

ChiefGritty
Chicago, IL
ChiefGritty
I saw this for another school on social media and thought this might be a topic this board would enjoy arguing about.

The best Illini players of the first quarter of the 21st century (2000-01 to present).

First Team: G Dee Brown, G Deron Williams, G Ayo Dosunmu, F Brian Cook, C Kofi Cockburn
Second Team: G Frank Williams, G Terrence Shannon Jr., G Luther Head, F Malcolm Hill, C James Augustine
Third Team: G Trent Frazier, G Brandon Paul, G Demetri McCamey, F Roger Powell Jr., C Coleman Hawkins
 
#2      
BleedOandB
As great as Dee was, do you bump TSJ into his spot just for the increase in size and power? Or are you thinking that Deron’s physical size is enough that Dee can still find a place to work? I mean, it obviously did in real life, just curious.

Or are you not necessarily looking at how these pieces would play together at all and are just filling positional spaces with athletes 1, 2 and 3 in the past quarter century. That may change my thinking.
 
#3      
Rooftop
ChiefGritty said:
I saw this for another school on social media and thought this might be a topic this board would enjoy arguing about.

The best Illini players of the first quarter of the 21st century (2000-01 to present).

First Team: G Dee Brown, G Deron Williams, G Ayo Dosunmu, F Brian Cook, C Kofi Cockburn
Second Team: G Frank Williams, G Terrence Shannon Jr., G Luther Head, F Malcolm Hill, C James Augustine
Third Team: G Trent Frazier, G Brandon Paul, G Demetri McCamey, F Roger Powell Jr., C Coleman Hawkins
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Has to be someone better than Hawkins for third team. Corey Bradford to name one
 
#4      
lstewart53x3
ChiefGritty said:
I saw this for another school on social media and thought this might be a topic this board would enjoy arguing about.

The best Illini players of the first quarter of the 21st century (2000-01 to present).

First Team: G Dee Brown, G Deron Williams, G Ayo Dosunmu, F Brian Cook, C Kofi Cockburn
Second Team: G Frank Williams, G Terrence Shannon Jr., G Luther Head, F Malcolm Hill, C James Augustine
Third Team: G Trent Frazier, G Brandon Paul, G Demetri McCamey, F Roger Powell Jr., C Coleman Hawkins
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Long time no see. Welcome back
 
#5      
BleedOandB
Rooftop said:
Has to be someone better than Hawkins for third team. Corey Bradford to name one
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Thinking of CoHawk as a multi-tool, though, he would fill a lot of deficiencies on a loaded team and he wouldn’t demand to “get his”.
 
#6      
Rooftop
BleedOandB said:
Thinking of CoHawk as a multi-tool, though, he would fill a lot of deficiencies on a loaded team and he wouldn’t demand to “get his”.
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Sorry, can’t agree. Overrated.
Bradford, Sergio, Griff are several that come to my mind
 
#7      
ChiefGritty
BleedOandB said:
Or are you not necessarily looking at how these pieces would play together at all and are just filling positional spaces with athletes 1, 2 and 3 in the past quarter century.
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Just the best 5 players, with some effort made to avoid position fraud.

Rooftop said:
Has to be someone better than Hawkins for third team. Corey Bradford to name one
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Bradford and McClain had better careers than CoHawk for sure, but if you limit it to just 2000-01 to present? Arguably not.

Also thought about Leonard (short career), Domask (short career and positional fraud), or Mike Davis (quantity over quality) for that CoHawk spot.

BleedOandB said:
As great as Dee was, do you bump TSJ into his spot just for the increase in size and power?
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Frank for Deron was the 1st team swap I wrestled with. IMO Dee and Ayo are the two absolute etched in stone locks.
 
#8      
FreshlySqueezed
Tisdale was 3x All-Big Ten honorable mention.

Mike Davis made the coaches 2nd team and media 3rd team in '09 and he was honorable mention in '10 and '11.

Coleman made the media's 3rd team once and that's it.

Just throwing it out there.
 
#9      
Piotyr
I'd probably go Tisdale over Hawkins if we're talking 15 best players, with honorable mention shoutouts to Robert Archibald and Damir Krupalija who started a year early for the time frame.
 
#11      
the juiceman cometh
ChiefGritty said:
Bradford and McClain had better careers than CoHawk for sure, but if you limit it to just 2000-01 to present? Arguably not.

Also thought about Leonard (short career), Domask (short career and positional fraud), or Mike Davis (quantity over quality) for that CoHawk spot.
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I think that's the toughest spot. I like CoHawk a lot but think I'd give it to Davis, based mostly on him being just exceptionally good at rebounding (whereas CoHawk contributed a lot of ways but was not exceptional at any particular thing). And the only reason I don't go Domask (the position thing doesn't bother me for this kind of list) is because he had just one season. He had the best season out of any of the other candidates, but it was still just one season.
 
#13      
Ghost77
This is fun, but I'm curious to know what your 21st century all BENCH team would be?
 
#14      
21ChampaignSt
TSJ for Cook on the first team is one change I'd consider. Don't have any problem with it as is but, besides Dee, TSJ might be the closest an Illinois player ever got to Naismith NPOY.

I also might swap Demetri and Malcolm. Demetri has a 1st team all big ten selection on his resume and is still top 5 all time in assists in the big ten. He also led his team to a couple tournament appearances which is something Malcolm unfortunately could not do.

That final spot is hard. There are guys like Feliz, Plummer, Curbelo, and, Domask who had great individual seasons but not enough years in an Illinois jersey. Kendrick Nunn is a name to consider here. DJ Richardson might be as deserving as Coleman. Both had long Illini careers. Good but not great individual contributions but Coleman had more team success. Leron Black is another good not great player on lousy teams.

Fun exercise. It always blows me away that we had such an insane stretch of point guards. Frank > Dee and Deron > Demetri. We were Point Guard U in the 2000s.
 
#16      
BleedOandB
Piotyr said:
I'd probably go Tisdale over Hawkins if we're talking 15 best players, with honorable mention shoutouts to Robert Archibald and Damir Krupalija who started a year early for the time frame.
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I’ve often wondered this in the past and this post seems the best place to bring it up. Is Tisdale considered a more valuable piece of the puzzle in today’s era than he was when he played? He was decent back to the basket and had that sweet baby hook, but the way he was able to shoot threes would have played dividends in today’s college basketball.
 
#18      
the juiceman cometh
NarrowJ said:
I'll try!

1st Team
K.Wagler
A.Legion
A.Hutcherson
C.Booth
S.Simpson

2nd Team
C.Head
J.Bertrand
C.Brock
T.Jones
A.Colbert
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Cheers Thumbs Up GIF by VadooTV
 
#19      
IlliniwekKDR
People keep saying Bradford over Hawkins...are...are you putting Bradford at F/C?
 
#22      
Navy_illini
ChiefGritty said:
I saw this for another school on social media and thought this might be a topic this board would enjoy arguing about.

The best Illini players of the first quarter of the 21st century (2000-01 to present).

First Team: G Dee Brown, G Deron Williams, G Ayo Dosunmu, F Brian Cook, C Kofi Cockburn
Second Team: G Frank Williams, G Terrence Shannon Jr., G Luther Head, F Malcolm Hill, C James Augustine
Third Team: G Trent Frazier, G Brandon Paul, G Demetri McCamey, F Roger Powell Jr., C Coleman Hawkins
Click to expand...
I would move TSJ up to first team over Ayo because of the Elite 8 run. Both are really great players but TSJ has the edge for me.

I would also move Augustine up and Kofi down because he is the school leader in rebounds and having 1000 points and rebounds and FG percentage

I think if 05 team had Kofi off the bench that could have been one of the best teams all time. I am a big Kofi fan

I would put Marcus Domask as third team over McCamey. He had a short stay here but was very good in his short period. Marcus was more consistent especially if you compare senior years
 
#23      
IllinitripleJ
3nDGuy said:
Bubba Chisholm
Jeff Jordan
Nick Huge
Charles Jackson
Ibby Djimde
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Lot of real good high school players in Illinois from the 2005-2006 season and we end up with Charles Jackson and some stiff from Ohio...I never understood how Weber recruited better at Southern Illinois than he did for the Illini. Very strange.
 
#24      
Luwdoo
Navy_illini said:
I would move TSJ up to first team over Ayo because of the Elite 8 run. Both are really great players but TSJ has the edge for me.

I would also move Augustine up and Kofi down because he is the school leader in rebounds and having 1000 points and rebounds and FG percentage

I think if 05 team had Kofi off the bench that could have been one of the best teams all time. I am a big Kofi fan

I would put Marcus Domask as third team over McCamey. He had a short stay here but was very good in his short period. Marcus was more consistent especially if you compare senior years
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Kofi on the bench? He was 20 and 10.
 
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