Illini Player Ratings: @ Purdue

I think I am going to start giving individual player ratings after every Illini game.  They do it in soccer, and I like it.  We'll see how it goes.


Mike Davis: 7 (out of 10)
Bruce said "I thought Mike Davis was finally Mike Davis," after the game. 
 I kind of agree, but only in the sense that his jump shot came back.  I guess that is all I am going to ask of Davis for now, because the Illini are a much better team when Davis is shooting well. 
Unfortunately, when it mattered Davis missed a bunny around the 2:00 mark off a McCamey dish that would have cut the deficit to 3. 


Amazing stat - Davis had 5 blocks in the game, in his previous 15 games (going back to the Missouri loss) he has 5 total blocks.  Do I think that Davis is a inconsistent headcase?  Yes, yes I do.



Demitri McCamey: 6
The 16 dimes clearly jump out at you.  DMac did a great job of distributing the basketball, as he has done all season long.  The problem is that he only scored 6 points.  For the Illini to be a good team, he needs to be a scorer as well.  Deron had the advantage of only needing to be a distributer, with the great teammates he had around him.  Demitri does not have that advantage.  
The 6 turns also hurt.


Mike Tisdale: 4
It could be 2, because that is how many rebounds that Tisdale grabbed.  
The Illini allowed Purdue to grab 12 O-rebounds, and Tisdale was the primary culprit.  He had a nice game on offense, hitting his jumper consistently.  But if you are 7-feet tall, you cannot get away with only 2 boards.  


DJ Ricardson: 5
A pretty forgettable game for DJ.  He shot the ball pretty well, but only took 7 shots.  DJ played solid D against E'Twaun Moore, but was ultimately too small to stop him.


Bill Cole: 5
Made both of his shots, but battled foul trouble and fouled out.  Had a couple of blocking calls go against him that would have been a big lift.


Brandon Paul: 6
Gave the Illini a big lift off the bench scoring 13 points in 18 minutes.  Hit some big shots going 3-7 from downtown.  Had no real impact on the game outside of his scoring.  


Dominique Keller: 0
You cannot put him in the game at this point.  He fouled Robbie Hummel 30 feet from the basket while the Illini were in the double bonus.  I'm not sure that Dom had ever played organized basketball before he came to the U of I.


Jeff Jordan: 0
The underrated story line of this season's Illini team is the deterioration of the depth at the guard position.  With Legion transferring and Bertrand's injury, they are forced to have Jeff and his ability to pick up his dribble at inopportune times as the only back-up option at PG and Paul the only back-up at the 2 and the 3.


Tyler Griffey: 2
That is the number of points he had and the number of minutes he played.  With Davis going the full 40 minutes, it wasn't really a game for Griffey.