Pruitt gets passing mark in opener
CHAMPAIGN -- If you can tear your eyes away from Illinois' football team for a moment, then you'll notice a few things have changed for Bruce Weber's guys.
For starters, senior center Shaun Pruitt has turned into a passing fool.
After managing just 7 assists in 929 minutes last year, the West Aurora product handed out a career-high 4 assists in Illinois' 63-55 season-opening victory over Northeastern on Sunday before perhaps 12,000 at the Assembly Hall.
Three of Pruitt's passes led to dunks, including an open-court alley-oop to high-flying junior-college transfer Rodney Alexander as Illinois turned a 3-point halftime edge into a 23-point lead.
Pruitt, a preseason all-Big Ten pick, also grabbed a career-high 17 rebounds and scored 12 points to guide the Illini to their ninth straight win in an opener.
"I've been trying to work on my passing," Pruitt said. "I think they told me I only had 7 assists on the year last year. I don't agree with that."
Pruitt offered that opinion with a hint of a smile.
"If I'm going to get double-teamed, I should be able to kick the ball out and make teams pay," Pruitt said. "And that will help my team and help myself in the end."
Another new thing? Fifth-year senior Brian Randle shrugged off 2 early fouls and a 14-minute stint on the bench -- that's not new -- to produce a game-high 14 points.
That marked the first time in Randle's 89-game career that he led the Illini in scoring by himself.
Randle and Pruitt paced a veteran-heavy performance as Illinois' five returnees who played combined for 134 minutes, 39 points, 31 rebounds and 10 assists.
Meanwhile, the Illini's seven newcomers teamed up for 66 minutes, 24 points, 12 rebounds and 1 assist.
Alexander, the lone newbie in the starting lineup, accounted for much of that with 9 points and 5 rebounds in 20 minutes.
After much conjecture about which freshman big men might redshirt, Weber played all three of his tall and slender recruits.
"All three of them, they did not want to redshirt," Weber said. "And I've told them, they could be a seventh man (or) they could be a 12th man. And there's a big difference. They've got to understand that."
Seven-foot-1 Mike Tisdale, the first sub off the bench, had 1 rebound in eight minutes. Mike Davis had 1 rebound in two minutes.
Bill Cole, meanwhile, scored 6 points, grabbed 2 rebounds and took two charges as he earned a team-high 11 points on the "Matto" Play Hard chart in his nine minutes.
The freshman trio's emergence relegated sophomore big men Brian Carlwell and Rich Semrau to the end of the bench. Neither played.
"I wouldn't want to look back and say, 'Oh, I should've redshirted,' " Cole said. "I made the decision. I'm happy that I made the decision to play and I think I can definitely contribute just doing what I do. I think we all made the right decision."