Illini basketball, on the men’s side, comprised one quarter of the inaugural Illinois Athletics Hall of Fame class. That’s fitting as U of I is a hoops school. As current Illini basketball coach Brad Underwood reminded the media ahead of the first ever HOF gala, Illinois was ranked the #11 hoops program of all time by the Associated Press in 2017.
Although the program has sharply declined lately, over the many years backing the Illini to emerge victorious on betting sites has proven to be a lucrative practice. Perhaps the program can return to their winning ways someday soon.
When you reflect on the Illinois basketball program’s glorious past, you see that you definitely can win in Champaign. Nick Anderson, Dee Brown, Jerry Colangelo, Dike Eddleman, Manny Jackson, Andy Phillip and Deron Williams were the seven representatives of the hoops program in the 28 member class. Class two includes Lou Henson, Kendall Gill, Dave Downey, Charles Carney and Johnny “Red” Kerr.
With your first 12 roundball representatives in the HOF, let’s take a look at who should be next to get a call to the hall. Here are the next five that we would put in.
Deon Thomas
The Illini basketball all-time leading scorer and current broadcaster/commentator is a no-brainer pick.
Bruce Douglas
Second all-time in the B1G in career assists, he missed out twice, and you just can’t take a pass on him the next time around.
Kenny Battle
Only one member of the Flyin’ Illini got in each year so far, and they need to keep that nascent tradition going in year three. Battle is the only member of the ’89 Final Four team who is in the Illini basketball honored jerseys ring hanging from the rafters but not in the hall.
Luther Head
Second team All-American and one of the best three-point shooters in program history, this would give the Hall of Fame a troika from the ’05 team to match the triad from the ’89 team once two HOF classes are inducted.
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James Augustine
Leading rebounder in school history and co-winningest individual player all time (Dee Brown is the other) is an obvious choice.
Just missed/names to consider in future years– Frank Williams, Kiwane Garris (second leading scorer in program history is a rather underrated player. He doesn’t even have his jersey number in the arena’s ring of honor), Brian Cook, Kenny Norman, Derek Harper, Bruce Weber, Malcolm Hill
We also took a look at the Football snubs, and compiled a list of six more Illini names that deserve to go in next time. Read that at this link.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and Chicago Now.
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