Paul's performance one for the ages

With his 43-point performance in Illinois' upset of Ohio State on Tuesday, junior guard Brandon Paul joined some elite company, moving into third place for most points in a game in school history.

But just how spectacular was the former Warren High School star's career-high scoring night, which came on 11-of-15 shooting from the field, including 8 of 10 from the 3-point line?

To put it in perspective, here's an interesting take from Loren Tate on a couple of the players Paul joins on that list.

“When Andy Phillip scored 40 points in 1943 to set a record that stood for years, he took 54 shots,” said Tate, longtime sportswriter at the Champaign News-Gazette. “That's a school record for a number of shots.”

And what about the guy who tops the scoring list, Dave Downey, who turned in a 53-point effort against Indiana in 1963?

“Dave Downey took 34 shots and Brandon took only 15,” Tate said. “The other thing was, when Downey scored his 53 points, Illinois scored 100 points ... and got beat.”

That didn't happen to the Illini against Ohio State because Paul almost seemed to will it, knocking down shots from anywhere and everywhere en route to scoring the team's final 15 points.

He was so hot he even amazed himself.

“I was laughing a couple times,” Paul said. “After the first couple 3s, I just said I was going to keep shooting.”

And he did. And he rarely missed.

“It was a special game,” Illinois coach Bruce Weber said.

But just how special? Where does Paul's performance rank?

“It ranks extremely high,” Tate said. “Very, very high.”

But ...

“When you say performance, you have to include everything,” Tate said. “He had 4 blocks, he had 8 rebounds, and he had 7 turnovers (including 4 of the team's 10 in the first half), so there was some bad parts and some awfully good parts. “

“The way he started, he was special bad,” Weber said with a smile. “But he was special good down the stretch.”

Said Paul: “I had way too many turnovers. I have to take care of the ball better.”

Turnovers aside, it was a heck of a night and it couldn't have come at a more opportune time.

“It was meaningful because they won and it was efficient because he only took 15 field-goal attempts,” Tate said. “And it came against a top-5 team at a time when everyone has been down on Illinois — all the news on Illinois has been bad. There was just a lot of negativity even though they were 14-3 going in.”

Make that 15-3, thanks to Paul's heroics.

“It caught me by total surprise,” Tate said. “It was just one of those fluky things.

“Brandon Paul had been shooting 28 percent on his 3-point shots for the season then he comes out and makes 8 out of 10. If you can figure it out ... I can't.”