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Champaign Dreams

An atypical power forward and a pass-happy cast of unselfish teammates have made Illinois this season's most surprising team in the nation's most surprising conference

THERE'S LITTLEabout the build or the game of Illinois sophomore Mike Davis that fits theconventional mold of a power forward. At 6'9", his reedy, 210-pound frameis more reminiscent of Beaker than Barkley, and his aversion to contact in thelane, which almost borders on the neurotic, would seem to disqualify him asboth a dependable low-post scorer and a rebounder. Even his voice, quiet andadenoidal, doesn't fit the image of a man expected to bang in the paint formore than 30 minutes a game. Were Davis to try to go sneaker-to-sneaker withone of the Big Ten's prototypical bruisers—say, 6'8", 235-pound DeShawnSims of Michigan—there's every reason to suspect the initial impact alone wouldsend his wispy body tumbling to the floor, or perhaps even spinning off intothe stands.

But what Davislacks in brawn he more than makes up for with other gifts, which have made himone of the best all-around forwards in the Big Ten. Instead of scrapping downlow, he plays the game up high, using his long reach and skywalking ability towork the glass. (He ranked fourth in the conference through Sunday with 7.5rebounds per game.) And with his exceptional quickness and soft shooting touch(he's averaging 11.9 points), he has become one of the most important cogs incoach Bruce Weber's five-man motion offense, which emphasizes passing andabrupt cuts through the lane rather than a more static post-up game. Indeed,Davis is tied for second in the Big Ten in double doubles this season, withfour. "He's so long and athletic," says Weber. "He's the kind ofguy you see all the time in the SEC or the ACC, but for whatever reason, rarelyin the Midwest."

Witness Davis'sperformance in the first half of the Fighting Illini's 76--45 trouncing ofhapless Indiana in Champaign last Saturday. There he was trailing an earlyHoosiers break, gliding into the lane and, in one motion, rising above the rimto swat away a short jumper. At the other end of the floor a short time laterhe knifed inside with the ball and pulled up—just short of contact, ofcourse—to throw in a soft little jump hook. Later he smoothly buried a baselinejumper from 15 feet. By the time the horn sounded, Davis had poured in 10points, snatched seven rebounds and grabbed two steals. "My whole game isto try to take a different approach," he says. "Athleticism is myadvantage."

Not bad for a guywho was an afterthought in Weber's recruiting class two years ago, committingjust three weeks before school started in August. He averaged 2.6 points a gamelast season, but suddenly he's the biggest surprise on a team, and in aconference, that have been full of them this season. While the Big Ten'scollective ego has suffered because of its struggling football programs (leagueteams won just one of seven bowl games this season and are 6--16 in thepostseason since 2006), its basketball teams are redeeming it. Four teams rankamong the Top 25, and nine have won at least 10 games already despite astrength of schedule that the RPI rates the toughest in the country. (The BigTen has been first or second all season in the conference RPI rankings.)Michigan State coach Tom Izzo, whose Spartans are 13--2 after beating defendingnational champion Kansas 75--62 last Saturday and lead the Big Ten at 3--0,predicted recently that as many as eight league teams could make the NCAAtournament. "You're going to have to be a stud to win this league,"says Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan, whose Badgers (3--1) are tied for second in theconference with Minnesota (box) and Michigan.

The Illini mightbe up to the challenge. Coming off of a disastrous 16--19 season that saw themmiss the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1999, they were picked tofinish sixth in the Big Ten this season. Now, with a 14--2 record that includesvictories over then 25th-ranked Missouri and ninth-ranked Purdue, Illinois isvying for the Big Ten lead at 2--1. "I told the guys before the season wehad to fix our image," says Weber. "How you get up after you getknocked down goes a long way toward determining how successful youare."

LAST SEASONactually started to go off the rails for Illinois in November 2006. That's whenIndianapolis guard Eric Gordon, one of the top recruits in the country (andcurrently a rookie with the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers), rescinded his verbalcommitment to Weber and signed to play for Indiana. The aftershocks weredevastating. The Illini had already lost out on several prized prospects whohad balked at the idea of sitting behind, or playing second fiddle to, Gordon.Soon other players began to back away because, with Gordon gone, they didn'twant to play for a loser. "It hurt our reputation," says Weber.

Enter Davis, whohad been so lightly recruited out of T.C. Williams High in Alexandria, Va.,that he was planning to spend last year in prep school to try to put some bulkon his 190-pound body. But while Davis played in an AAU tournament in NorthAugusta, S.C., in July 2007, his fluid, high-flying game attracted theattention of a number of coaches. Suddenly, he was getting scholarship offersfrom Clemson, LSU and South Florida. Illinois assistant Tracy Webster (now onthe staff at Kentucky) had been following Davis for two years, and thatconnection gave Weber an edge when he swooped in late with an offer of his own."I said, Why not come here and try to develop?" says Weber. "We'vegot a weight coach, a nutritionist, academic help. A prep school doesn't havethose kinds of resources."

Davis joined ateam with several flaws, perhaps most notably the absence of a reliable scorer.It was also a team divided against itself. During a second-half meltdown atPurdue in January 2008 that led to a 74--67 loss, Illini players beganscreaming at one another on the court. After the game they kept it going in thelocker room. (Citing a "team matter," Weber benched senior center ShaunPruitt for the next game.) "People were putting personal stuff ahead of theteam," says guard Chester Frazier. "Our chemistry was awful."

To correct that,Weber put his young team—last year's four recruits were joined by walk-on guardJeff Jordan (Michael Jordan's son) and Kentucky transfer Alex Legion, who wassitting out the semester in accordance with NCAA rules—through a spring ofgrueling workouts that focused on the fundamentals of the motion offense ratherthan individual skills.

He also turned toFrazier, a steady if unspectacular senior who aspires to be a college coach. Acareer 34.8% shooter, Frazier says he has accepted the fact that he'll neverplay at the next level. Before the season, he cut off his cornrows in order topresent a more professional appearance. "It was time to grow up," hesays. "How many executives and coaches do you see with braids?" Histeammates quickly took to calling him Coach.

Throughout thesummer it was Frazier who organized team workouts and pickup games and whodragged Davis to the weight room four times a week. On the court Frazier has"surrendered himself to being a distributor," says Weber. And thatpass-first mentality (Frazier leads the Big Ten in assists with 6.2 per game)has permeated the roster. Illinois leads the nation with assists on 72.1% ofits field goals and in assists per game, with 19.9. Four players average indouble figures in scoring. The Illini's three starting guards—Frazier,sophomore Demetri McCamey and senior Trent Meacham—have combined for 43 assistsand just seven turnovers in the season's first three Big Ten games. "We'regetting extra possessions that we didn't have last year," says Weber.

The superlativeguard play creates abundant opportunities for the agile Davis. Whether he'sprepared to take advantage of all of them is another matter. He has a maddeningtendency to drift during games, seemingly out of boredom or lack of interest.In the second half against Indiana he scored just two points and grabbed onerebound. Weber finally yanked him for good after watching him stand rooted tothe floor under the basket for the better part of nine minutes while histeammates fought for rebounds. "I think part of it is because we live inthe suburbs," says Davis's father, Steve, of his son's upbringing inAlexandria. "He was always comfortable and didn't have to grow up fast.He's competitive, but sometimes he's just not aggressive."

Davis admits thathe has a tendency to lapse into passivity but then in the next breath also vowsthat he always plays hard. "I'm like, 'Coach, I'm sweating!'" hesays.

Weber is impatientfor Davis to realize his potential as a dominant player, but Frazier knowsthat, like the Illini in their offense, patience is required. "We look atMike, and the game seems so easy [to him]," he says. "Playingaggressive, that's not his nature. He's just got to keep working."

Illinois may findit hard to wait. But the rest of the Big Ten just hopes he takes his time.

"People were putting personal stuff ahead of theteam," says Frazier of last season's Illini squad. "CHEMISTRY WASAWFUL."

Tubby's Turnaround

Mr. Smith went to Minnesota, reversed its fortunes andproved he's still a top-notch coach

ORLANDO (TUBBY) SMITH, in his latest gig as the coachat Minnesota, is not so much a man reborn as a man remade. Before he abruptlyresigned as Kentucky's coach in March 2007, he'd been driven nearly todistraction by the state's hoops-obsessed fans, who overlooked hisachievements—five SEC championships and 10 NCAA tournament appearances in 10seasons—to focus on his most glaring shortcoming: After winning the 1998national title in his first season, he never got back to the Final Four. But atMinnesota, which hasn't won a Big Ten championship in 27 years, Smith has gonefrom beleaguered underachiever to program savior. Last season he took over ateam that had finished 9--22 the year before and went 20--14, and at week's endhis Golden Gophers were 15--1 (3--1 in the Big Ten) and ranked No. 18. (Beforethis season they had not been in the Top 25 in six years.)

The move from Lexington may have cost Smith more than aquarter of a million dollars in guaranteed salary, but it's turning out to havebeen worth every lost penny. Louisville coach Rick Pitino, who hired Smith as aWildcats assistant in 1989, told the St. Paul Pioneer Press in December thatwhile the atmosphere at Kentucky was "extremely stressful ... Tubby handledit well. But I think he enjoys coaching a lot more now."

Smith is still a talented coach, and he's proving itwith a young lineup that features two freshmen and two sophomores among its topsix scorers. In the Gophers' 68--59 win over then No. 23 Ohio State inMinneapolis on Jan. 3, the 57-year-old Smith showed his usual cool hand.Trailing 22--15 midway through the first half, he calmed his jittery team,which was coming off its only loss of the season, a 70--58 drubbing by10th-ranked Michigan State in the conference opener, and he switched fromman-to-man defense to a 2--3 zone. That slowed the Buckeyes' transitionoffense, and they scored just two more points in the final seven minutes of thehalf. "We lost our composure at both ends of the floor after that,"says Ohio State coach Thad Matta, whose team shot just 34.6% from the field forthe game. "They've got a lot of different ways they can hurt you."

Most of those ways begin with guard Al Nolen, a6'1" sophomore out of Minneapolis's Henry High. In his first full season asa starter he has established himself as one of the best floor leaders in theBig Ten, ranking second in the league in assists (5.81 per game) and inassist-to-turnover ratio (4.04), and third in steals (2.06). He has become afavorite of Smith's because of both his defensive intensity and his ability toinvolve his teammates in the offense. "He's always comparing me to [formerKentucky point guard] Rajon Rondo," says Nolan. "I'm a pass-first kindof guy."

Smith went outside the state to find a pair of highlyregarded freshman big men, whom the local press has dubbed Tubby's Towers.Centers Colton Iverson, who's 6'10", and Ralph Sampson III, the 6'11"son of former Virginia All-America Ralph Sampson II, hail from Yankton, S.D.,and Duluth, Ga., respectively. "I told Tubby that he could recruit on anational scale at Minnesota," says former Gophers coach Clem Haskins, wholeft the program in a shambles of academic scandal in 1999 but advised hislongtime friend to take the job. "I also told him that the people wouldembrace him."

They have indeed. On a weekend when thousands ofMinnesota Vikings playoff tickets remained unsold the day before theirwild-card game against the Philadelphia Eagles, the Gophers' ancient WilliamsArena, a 14,625-seat, 81-year-old field house affectionately known as the Barn,was filled to capacity for the Ohio State game. The victory was the second thisseason for Minnesota over a ranked opponent (the Gophers beat then No. 9Louisville in Glendale, Ariz., on Dec. 20) and provided a needed boost on theheels of the loss to the Spartans. "That was a rude awakening," saysSmith. "Our guys got a lesson that night on how hard they have toplay."

In a tougher-than-expected Big Ten this season, theircoach isn't likely to let them forget. He may not be as tightly wound thesedays, but he still knows how to pull the right strings.

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Photograph by Scott Rovak/US PRESSWIRE

PROVIDING A LIFT The Illini thrive on the acrobatic moves of Davis (24) and the one-for-all, all-for-one attitude of his teammates.

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GREG NELSON

[See caption above]

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GREG NELSON (SMITH)

VOCAL HERO Smith could never live up to expectations in Kentucky, but he's seen as a savior by Gophers fans.

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ROBERT K. O'DONNELL/AP (FRAZIER)