Posts tagged JeffJordan at FanHouse

Going into this college basketball season, there's been a general consensus that the Big Ten Conference will finish up with Michigan State, Indiana, and Ohio State somewhere in the top three. I'm not questioning this thought process or anything, because it's one I whole heartedly subscribe to.

After watching Illinois handle Arizona State in Maui late Monday night though, I think we'd all be pretty foolish to write off the Illini in the Big Ten this season.

Granted, the Sun Devils went 8-22 last season, and this was their first game of the season, but the Illini were very impressive in their 77-54 victory. What I was most impressed with were the Illini newcomers. Ever since Eric Gordon left the Illini at the altar for Indiana, Bruce Weber has taken a lot of heat for his recruiting, but after last night I'm not so sure it's deserved.

Demetri McCamey and Jeff Jordan didn't take the game over, but both should provide solid depth for the Illini in the backcourt this season. The guys who really got my attention though were big men Mike Tisdale and Bill Cole. Both showed a lot of polish for freshmen, and if they move into the weight room, Illinois is going to have a formidable frontcourt for years to come.

You add those guys with a solid upper class that features Shaun Pruitt and Brian Randle (who if he could somehow manage to stay healthy would compete with D.J. White and Drew Neitzel for Big Ten player of the year honors) and you get a team that isn't going to make it easy on Indiana or Michigan State.

There are chinks in the armor though, because much like last year, this team still isn't very impressive at the free throw line. It was their achilles heel last season, and it's probably going to be the thing that keeps Illinois from overtaking the conference's big three.

Illinois basketball coach Bruce Weber has been ripped (and not undeservedly) for his failure to attract top-notch recruits to Champaign.

But Weber has attracted one recruit who, although he's not expected to do much this season on the court, should do plenty to draw attention to the program. The recruit is Jeff Jordan, son of Michael Jordan, and father and son are both doing what they can to promote the Illinois basketball team.

Jeff and Michael had a sit-down with Matt Lauer for a Today show piece that will show how Jeff is adjusting to Illinois and how his old man feels about his son following in his footsteps. It sounds like it'll be a feel-good story, and a rare piece of good news surrounding the Illinois basketball program.

And the best may be yet to come, as Jeff's younger brother, Marcus (pictured with dad 14 years ago) is a junior in high school and considered a better prospect than Jeff. If Weber can land the other Jordan brother, it might help put to rest that talk that he can't recruit.