I have said it many times, and will do so again...nobody loves shooters more than I do. Not kids who bomb away at 25%, but truly elite shooters. I understand that they enter that category only after outworking everyone else by shooting hundreds of thousands of shots over a dozen years or more. Not only that, but they do it in about 80% of their games and do not force shots when not hitting 40-50% of them. That is what I see from Plummer. He is an aggressive shooter and will fire away from anywhere inside 30 ft. But if he is not hitting, he will look to get others involved and scoring. He does what he can on defense...knowing he has to score to be a plus player overall. Having watched every Illini team since the mid-50s, I have never seen a shooter in his elite category for consistency. I have seen hundreds of "willing" shooters, most of whom hurt their teams chances of winning from time to time by going 0 for 11 or 1 for 13 more than once. Rick Mount of Purdue, JJ Reddick of Duke, and Pete Maravich of LSU (who took way too many circus shots) were of the ilk. We have all been marveled by the performance of shooters who were on at a particular time, most recently by Carson Edwards of Purdue in a FF loss. But there are nights that the same guy goes 3 for 14 in a loss, most recently Ron Harper Jr. last Friday (1/9). I don't include the dozens of elite shooters in the NBA today because most become elite shooters because the practice continually to insure they stay in the league...college and high school kids do not have that time available....but some, even women like Jackie Stiles, spend unbelievable amounts of time shooting.
Point is, and we have only seen a small sample size, Plummer has made a strong case to becoming part of a select group of players.. Deron Williams, Dee Brown, and Luther Head were not quite there but seldom, if ever, were all three cold. Nick Anderson became pretty good as a pro, but I would not consider him elite...just a green lighter like his Orlando teammate, Dennis Scott. But Plummer, if not elite, is close, or has shown to be as a starter. Best grade transfer, one year Illini transfer ever at a minimum. Hope he becomes our Rick Mount. What is elite? You will know it when you see it. Start with Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant.....or let's hope I can say it about Alphonso Plummer at the FF!!