Dec. 7, 1999

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Wednesday's game marks the third-straight season these two teams have met, closing out a three-year contract that gave the Illini two home games against the Broncs and one game at Texas-Pan American, last season. Illinois is 2-0 against the Broncs. Last year UTPA guard Brian Merriweather lit up the Illini for 22 points, and he returns averaging 21.5 ppg through four games this year. John Braxton was the team's other double-figure scorer against the Illini with 11 points.

Texas-Pan American is coming off a 41 point loss (97-56) at Texas-El Paso on Monday night. In that game, leading scorer Brian Merriweather was held to eight points.

#22/24 Illinois (3-2) vs. Texas-Pan American (1-3)
Wednesday, Dec. 8, 1999 - 7:00 p.m. - No Television
Champaign, Illinois - Assembly Hall (16,450)

Rewind ... 1998-99
After falling behind and trailing by four at the half, Illinois rallied to outscore the Broncs 38-19 in the second half and return to Champaign with a 71-56 victory. Cleotis Brown led the Illini with 24 points and Victor Chukwudebe registered his first career double-double with 13 points and 13 rebounds.

UI Players vs. Texas-Pan Am

ILLINOIS
F - 21 Robert Archibald (So., 6-11, 228, 4.2ppg, 4.0 rpg)
F - 32 Cleotis Brown (Sr., 6-5, 220, 7.8 ppg, 3.6 rpg)
C - 52 Marcus Griffin (Jr., 6-9, 235, 11.4 ppg, 6.0 rpg)
G - 13 Cory Bradford (So., 6-3, 200, 16.0 ppg, 2.6 rpg)
G - 30 Frank Williams (Fr., 6-3, 197, 13.0 ppg, 2.2 rpg, 2.8 ast)

Reserves
00 - Victor Chukwudebe (F., Sr., 6-7, 230, 3.2 ppg, 3.4 rpg)
5 -- Nate Mast (G, Jr., 5-11, 160, 0.0 ppg, 1.0 rpg)
22 - Lucas Johnson (F, So, 6-8, 217, 4.0 ppg, 1.2 rpg)
24 - Sean Harrington (G, Fr., 6-3, 185, 1.0 ppg, 0.5 rpg)
33 - Damir Krupalija (F, So., 6-9, 216, 3.4 ppg, 4.6 rpg)
34 - Brian Cook (F, Fr., 6-10, 231, 5.2 ppg, 3.4 rpg)
40 - Sergio McClain (F, Jr., 6-4, 222, 3.7 ppg, 2.7 rpg, 3.0 ast)

TEXAS-PAN AMERICAN F - 11 John Braxton (Jr., 6-4, 205, 5.3 ppg, 3.0 rpg)
F - 31 Kyle Sanders (So., 6-5, 205, 15.0 ppg, 5.8 rpg)
C - 33 Matt Palmquist (Sr., 6-9, 210, 9.5 ppg, 7.5 rpg)
G - 23 Brian Merriweather (Jr., 6-3, 185, 21.5 ppg, 2.0 rpg)
G -- 5 Kwasinda Curtis (Jr., 6-1, 7.3 ppg, 4.8 rpg)

Illinois Head Coach Lon Kruger

Texas-Pan American Head Coach Bob Hoffman

On the Air

GAME TIME CHANGE
Illinois vs. Loyola-Chicago
Dec. 30 -4 p.m. - No Television

Team Comparisons

Illini Head Coach Lon Kruger
In his fourth season at the helm of the Illini program, Lon Kruger is only one games away from the 300-win mark. He posted back-to-back 20 win seasons in his first two years at Illinois and took the Illini to consecutive NCAA Tournaments (1997, 1998). In 1999 with the Big Ten's most inexperienced team, Kruger led the 11th place Illini to the tournament championship game. In his career he has guided four teams to 20-win seasons and taken three to the NCAA Tournament.

Kruger Career Record

Win No. 300 for Kruger
Wednesday against Texas-Pan American, Illini Head Coach Lon Kruger has the chance to collect the 300th victory in his career. With win No. 300, he will join 47 other active head coaches who have reached the 300-club.

Kruger notched his first victory as a head coach against Air Force, 78-44, in the 1982-83 season at Pan American. It took the first-year coach three games to pick up win No. 1 after losses to Louisiana Tech, 66-58, and LSU, 76-67.

Illini Record Under Lon Kruger

Illini Record in 1999-2000

Familiar Territory
Illini Head Coach Lon Kruger is seeing some familiar teams in the next two weeks. First he faces Texas-Pan American on Dec. 8, the school where he got his head coaching start. Then he will coach against his alma mater, Kansas State, for only the second time in his 18-year career as a head coach (the other was at Pan American). The next two games pit the Illini against familiar foes for Kruger, Kansas and Missouri. He has both played and coached against those two teams a total of 62 times. As a player, he was 4-2 against Kansas and 5-3 against Missouri. As an assistant coach at Kansas State, he was 8-3 against Kansas and 4-5 vs. Missouri. He is 4-10 against both Kansas and Missouri as a head coach.

Week-by-Week Rankings

National Polls

And That's Bradford with a Three
Last year, Cory Bradford set the Illinois school record for three-pointers made in a season with 85. Even more impressive is that he has made a three-pointer in 37-straight games, every game in his Illini career. His 102 career three-pointers rank eighth on the Illinois career list.

Last year, he hit a season-high seven threes against Wisconsin (Feb. 6, 1999) and made six three-pointers in games against Kansas (Dec. 19, 1998), Ohio State (Jan. 30, 1999), Minnesota (March 4, 1999) and Michigan State (March 7, 1999). In the 1999 Big Ten Tournament, Bradford made 17 three-pointers in four games, which was more than any other team made in the tourney.

Bradford on Wooden List
Illinois' Cory Bradford is one of 25 players named to the preseason list of candidates for the 2000 Wooden Award All-American team. The 1999 Big Ten Freshman of the Year is one of only four sophomores tabbed on the preseason list, being joined by St. John's Erick Barkley, Florida's Mike Miller and DePaul's Quentin Richardson.

Bradford led the Illini last year with 15.4 ppg and broke the school record for three pointers in a season with 85. He earned a spot on the Big Ten All-Tournament team after averaging 18.8 ppg in four tourney contests. He also made a statement with his three-point shooting accuracy in the tourney games, hitting on 17-of-29 (.586) attempts from behind the arc. Bradford's 494 points in 1999 were the most ever by an Illini freshman and he is the first player in Illinois history to hit a three-pointer in every game in a season.

More on Bradford
With his 22 points against the Bradley Braves on Nov. 22, Cory Bradford posted his ninth 20-point scoring effort. Here's a list of the games when Bradford has hit the 20-point mark.

Still More on Bradford
Cory Bradford is riding a 20-game double-figure scoring streak. He has hit double figures in 33 of his 37 career games. The last time he was held to under 10 points was on Jan. 16, 1999 against Michigan State. He had nine points in that game and rimmed out a half-court shot at the buzzer that would have given Illinois the victory.

More Threes this Year
Even with sharp-shooter Cory Bradford on the floor last season, the team high for three pointers in a game was only nine against Missouri. In the season opener this year Illinois hit 10 three pointers, led by Lucas Johnson's four treys. Illinois' 10 threes against Western Illinois are the most since Feb. 18, 1998 when the Illini drained 11 against Northwestern.

This year Illinois is averaging 7.8 threes a game compared to only 5.15 per game last season.

Long Rangers
Seven Illini players have made a three-pointer this year. Cory Bradford leads the team with 17 threes and Frank Williams is second with 10. The other five players who have made a three-pointer this year are Lucas Johnson (5), Cleotis Brown (2), Damir Krupalija (2), Brian Cook (1) and Sean Harrington (1).

Bench Points
The Illinois bench is outscoring the opponent's bench by an average of 21.0 ppg to 11.4 ppg. Illinois has outscored the opponent's bench in three of five games.

Illini Items
Frank Williams had a season-high six assists against Maryland. His previous high was three against Duke. He also posted his best assist-to-turnover ratio (2:1) against Maryland with six assists and three turnovers.

Marcus Griffin ranks third in the Big Ten in blocks with 2.8 per game ... Cory Bradford ranks seventh in the Big Ten in scoring (16.0 ppg) ... Bradford is tied with Michael Redd for first in free-throw shooting (1.000 pct.) and Williams is third (.867) ... Bradford is first in three-pointers per game with 3.4 and he's fifth in three-point field goal percentage (.405).

The Illini backcourt duo of Cory Bradford and Frank Williams was perfect from the line at the BB&T Classic, hitting 11-of-11 from the line. For the year, the two are a combined 28-of-30 from the free-throw line. Bradford has not missed a free throw this year.

Freshman Brian Cook has averaged 6.7 points and 4.3 rebounds in the last three games. He blocked two shots against Maryland and played a season-high 15 minutes against Seton Hall.

In every game this season either 11 or 12 players have seen game action. Cory Bradford is the only player on the roster averaging over 30 minutes a game (32.8) and the range of minutes for the Illini team is 32.8 to 6.0.

Illini junior Sergio McClain did not see action against Maryland or Seton Hall. Sore knees have bothered McClain, who had arthroscopic knee surgery in the summer, and he was rested this past weekend.

The Illini are 1-2 on neutral courts this year. Illinois lost to Duke at the United Center on Nov. 30 and was 1-1 at the BB&T Classic at the MCI Center in Washington, DC.

The Illini have been out-rebounded twice this year, against Duke and Maryland. Illinois lost both games. Duke edged the Illini in rebounding, 46-45, and Maryland was 11 better than the Illini, 40-29.

Cleotis Brown scored 13 points against Maryland, his season high for the year and the first time he has logged double figures this season. Last year, he was the team's second-leading scorer and hit double figures 14 times.

New Faces on the Floor
There are several new faces donning the orange and blue this season. New on the Illini roster are freshmen Brian Cook, Sean Harrington and Frank Williams and junior Marcus Griffin. The Illini also have a new face on the coaching staff this year. Steve Henson, a former player under Lon Kruger at Kansas State, is in his first season as an assistant coach after spending the last 10 years playing professionally in the NBA, CBA and overseas.

Johnson Honors Former Illini Matt Heldman
On October 10, 1999 Matt Heldman, the starting point guard on the Illinois 1998 Big Ten Championship team, was killed along with his father and two others in a two-car collision in his hometown of Libertyville, Ill. Lucas Johnson, the younger brother of former Illini Brian Johnson wears tape on his arm with the number 21 to honor his friend and his brother's teammate and roommate.

Even with a shooting style that made coaches cringe, Matt Heldman was one of the Illinois' best three-point shooters, ranking fourth on the all-time career list with 161 treys. In the Illini's first game Johnson hit 4-for-4 from three-point range.

From the Line
The Illini team is shooting 68.7 percent from the free-throw line and three Illini are shooting over 80 percent from the line. Cory Bradford is a perfect 15-for-15, Frank Williams is shooting 86.7 percent (13-for-15) and Cleotis Brown is shooting 81.8 percent (9-for-11).

More Scoring
Last year Illinois struggled offensively, scoring over 70 points only eight times in 32 games and averaging 61.5 points for the season. This year, Illinois appears to be more balanced in the scoring column and the Illini are averaging 72.3 points per game.

Illini Basketball is a Hot Ticket
Single game tickets for Illini basketball games went on sale Nov. 3 and the Iowa game on Feb. 12 sold out on Nov. 22. Here's a look at the games with the least amount of tickets remaining.

The remaining Big Ten home games have approximately 2,000 tickets remaining.

The Peoria Trio
For the first time since the 1997 season, Sergio McClain, Marcus Griffin and Frank Williams are reunited on the court. All three players starred at Manual High School and teamed to win three state high school titles (1995, 96, 97). In 1994, McClain and Griffin were freshmen on the first of four consecutive championship teams.

McClain and Griffin signed with Illinois in the fall of 1996. McClain was a freshman at Illinois in 1997-98 and Griffin attended junior college the last two years. Williams signed with Illinois in the fall of 1997 and was a partial qualifier. He spent the 1998-99 season practicing with the team but was unable to play.

Griffin, McClain and Williams have combined to average 28.1 ppg and 10.9 rpg through five games this year.

Did you Know ...