(1) Illinois (32-1)
(16) Fairleigh-Dickinson (20-12)
(8) Texas (20-10)
(9) Nevada (24-6)
(5) Alabama (24-7)
(12) UW-Milwaukee (24-5)
(4) Boston College (24-4)
(13) Penn (20-8)
(6) LSU (20-9)
(11) UAB (21-10)
(3) Arizona (27-6)
(14) Utah State (24-7)
(7) So. Illinois (26-7)
(10) St. Mary's(CA) (25-8)
(2) Oklahoma St. (24-6)
(15) SE Louisiana (24-8)
The Prospects:
Illinois
Deron Williams, 6-3, PG, junior, Illinois, potential lottery pick
The most highly regarded of Bruce Weber's trio of superstar guards, Williams is the guy you want to play PG on your team. He absolutely controls the game without having to be a scoring threat, by directing tempo and getting people the ball in the right places. In this way, he might remind you a bit of Jason Kidd. A thick-bodied 6'3, Williams is somewhat similar to Kidd physically as well. While he doesn't have Kidd's top-tier speed in the open floor, he does shoot the ball a lot better than Jason ever has. When the Illini need a big shot, Williams is often the guy taking an off balance jumper at the top of the key. He also is very crafty at getting to the basket, using pump fakes, spin dribbles, and other tricks of the trade to their full advantage. Where Williams falls a bit short is in the athleticism department. He doesn't have that killer first step that most PG's depend on, and looks quite slow at first glance. However, most scouts aren't hung up on this. They see Williams as a guy who can come in and run a team right away, and make everybody around him better. In the tourney, watch how he matches up against quicker PG's. If he can make a good impression in this area, he could hear his name called as high as the late lottery on draft night.
Dee Brown, 5-10, PG, junior, Illinois, 2006 first rounder?
The yin to Williams' yang, Dee Brown is another Illinois guard that has a serious shot of hearing his name called in the first round eventually. If Williams is the captain of Illinois' battleship attack, Brown is the engine. There isn't a player with better end-to-end speed in all of college basketball, and he has a virtually endless supply of energy. Some players tend to slow down as the game goes on, and Brown literally feeds on guys that can't go a full forty minutes. Dee's question marks are somewhat serious, however, in that at 5'10, he isn't his team's primary ballhandler. He clearly has the handles to play lead guard in the league, but probably doesn't have a feel for the floor general type things that Deron Williams excels at. However, Brown's game is tailor-made for that lead guard off the bench role that Bobby Jackson and Earl Boykins currently excel in. Brown probably comes back in 2006, hones his PG skills, and makes a run at the mid to late first round in 2006. He has said that he would declare for the draft if he was a first rounder this year, though, so an excellent NCAA tournament with Brown at the helm could push him over the top and out.
Luther Head, 6-3, guard, senior, Illinois, 2nd round pick
Luther Head, the final piece of Illinois' guard trio, just may be the most difficult of the three to project. He currently plays more of a wing role for the Illini, and his 6'2 or 6'3 height just isn't going to cut it as a wing in the league. So the question that has to be asked is, can he make the transition to PG? Head's PG skills are very up in the air at the moment. He moves like a guard and has a decent handle, but it's not clear whether he has the vision and natural mentality to make the switch. He is a superior leaper and can clearly defend points at the next level, however. Devin Harris has been mentioned as a possible comparison, and that isn't entirely out of the question. Harris was a wing when he entered college, and made a very nice transition over the course of his career. Of course, he had two years to hone his skills at Wisconsin, while Head is about to get thrown into the fire. He probably needs a GM picking in the late first round to fall in love with him, much like Danny Ainge did with Delonte West last season. If not, he's a 2nd rounder all the way.
James Augustine, 6-10, PF, junior, Illinois, 2006 2nd rounder?
Augustine has spent the 3 seasons tantalizing scouts with some very nice post fundamentals, but always playing second fiddle to the guards and never producing as consistently as he should. At a slender 6'10, Augustine has a beautiful jump hook, and has the defensive textbook down pat. He bangs and rebounds well enough to keep Illinois afloat in the paint, though he sometimes has trouble with more wide bodied post players like Terence Dials of Ohio State. To get into the first round in 2006, Augustine will have to assert himself as one of Illinois' go-to options on offense. He will have his chance to impress the scouts with the spotlight on Illinois during this tourney, so stay tuned on Augustine