4 Illinois

Last December, after Illinois freshman point guard Frank Williams played erratically in consecutive losses to Duke and Maryland, he retreated into his dorm room and closed the door. This didn't surprise Sergio McClain, his roommate and former teammate at Manual High in Peoria, because, as McClain says, "Frank's the type of person who deals with problems by himself." But McClain wasn't expecting what he saw when he walked into the room: Shoes lined up against the wall; duffel bags stuffed and sitting on the bed; Williams, shifting about, still packing. "I said, 'Man, what are you doing?' And he said, 'I'm out,' " McClain says. "It took awhile to calm him down, but eventually he came to the conclusion that he shouldn't be a quitter."

All the Illini could have packed it in during the next month when they dropped three of their first four Big Ten games. Instead Illinois, which had six freshmen and sophomores among its top eight players, hung in there and matured over the second half of the season. None of the Illini came more remarkably of age than Williams. After averaging three assists and 3.5 turnovers in those first four league matchups, Williams had 4.2 assists and 2.3 turnovers a game as Illinois won 12 of its next 15 and reached the second round of the NCAA tournament, where it lost to Florida. Now, with all five starters returning, the Illini are primed to launch a Champaign campaign that could end with their first Final Four appearance in 12 years.

Bill Self, who left Tulsa to replace coach Lon Kruger in June after Kruger had left to take over the Atlanta Hawks, plans to run fewer set plays than Kruger did. That will be perilous considering the questionable shot selection exhibited by Williams and his backcourt mate, 6'3" junior Cory Bradford. Bradford actually had a lower percentage from two-point range (37.1) than from three (37.6).

The Illini still lack a classic post player—6'9", 235-pound senior Marcus Griffin comes the closest—but they do have a pair of veteran forwards who pose matchup problems. McClain is a chiseled 6'4" senior who goes inside and bullies big men; 6'8" junior Lucas Johnson, by contrast, goes outside and nails long jumpers over smaller defenders.

Few players, however, can bedevil a defense like 6'10" sophomore Brian Cook, whose light-footed athleticism and perimeter skills could make him a lottery pick next spring. Cook was voted co-freshman of the year in the Big Ten (along with LaVell Blanchard), but he also had a knack for playing poorly at inopportune times. He scored a total of two points and had only four rebounds in the Illini's two NCAA tournament games. Part of that inconsistency can be attributed to his slender, 230-pound frame—a liability that wasn't helped by Cook's tendency to skip meals. "I never ate breakfast, and half the time I skipped lunch, too," he says. "I just had so much going on, I was always on the run. Sometimes I'd have to sit out practice because I was getting light-headed. The coaches would have to give me a granola bar."

After an off-season spent hitting the weights and feeding his face, Cook is now up to 245 pounds. His added muscle and Williams's blossoming maturity will be the main ingredients in a season shaping up to be much more feast than famine. "Last year everybody got a little taste of what we can do, but now we have to be hungry from the start," Cook says. "Being young isn't an excuse anymore."

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