When the season began, Rennie Clemons made it clear that he wanted to move from the point to the “2” guard spot at Illinois. It seemed that the job of directing the offense would be handed to touted freshman Richard Keene.
“I wasn’t really pouting, but I wanted to play (“2″) instead of point,” Clemons said.
He has since changed his mind. Or had it changed for him.
“I didn’t have a choice,” he said with a grin.
With gentle urging from Lou Henson’s coaching staff, Clemons has committed himself to the point. His performance is a big reason that the Fighting Illini are on their way to a first-division Big 10 finish.
Since the conference season began, he has had 50 assists and only 20 turnovers in 289 minutes. In non-conference play, Clemons had 20 fewer assists but the same number of turnovers in 205 minutes. He also has picked up his scoring; his 53 points in the last four games are four fewer than he scored in eight non-conference appearances.
The difference isn’t just mental. Clemons also has recovered fully from a bad thigh bruise that sidelined him for the first three games.
“Right now, I think I’m at my peak,” said Clemons, a quick-footed junior from Springfield’s Calvary High School. “My leg’s better, and I feel really good. I wasn’t in shape before.”
Hot ticket: De Paul basketball attendence, averaging 10,000 to 11,000 a game the last four years, is off about 15 percent this year and headed toward an average of about 8,500. But fans are eager to watch NCAA playoff games in the 17,500-seat Rosemont Horizon.
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De Paul officials reported Thursday that fewer than 1,000 Horizon tickets remain for NCAA Midwest Regional first- and second-round playoff games March 18 and 20.
The eight-team field at the Horizon is likely to include at least one Big 10 team as well as Marquette, if the Warriors win the Great Midwest tournament title and are seeded No. 2 or 3 in the Midwest. Marquette is familiar with the Horizon and has played well there. The Warriors drew most of the 13,000 fans who saw them beat De Paul in Rosemont.
Brawl-game feedback: The consensus among Big 10 coaches is that the fight last week involving Northwestern’s Cedric Neloms and Matt Purdy and Wisconsin’s Andy Kilbride was an “isolated incident” rather than a sign of a trend toward overly aggressive play.
“I’ve seen nothing that would lead me to believe there will be an eruption of violence,” Michigan coach Steve Fisher said. “This is hard-fought, stressful basketball that lends itself to emotion, but I think what happened in Wisconsin is an isolated incident.
“We’ve not had anything close to an incident. The other night against Michigan State, the crowd was going crazy, but the players were helping one another off the floor.”
Slow learners: Miami, which joined the Big East in hopes of upgrading its basketball program, has been the surprise of that conference with home victories over Georgetown, Providence, Connecticut, Syracuse and Boston College. But ‘Cane fans, evidently still ensnared in the football fog that fell over them back on New Year’s Day, have taken little notice.
A quick check of the figures shows just how little. Though some 13,000 students attend the school, average student attendance at home games is 257. Though 3,800 season tickets were sold, average attendance at Miami home games is 2,864. On the average, 40 percent of advance ticket buyers don’t bother showing up.
Sight seen: Among those who watched Indiana destroy Ohio State in Assembly Hall a couple Sundays back was a young man named Jahidi White. He is a junior at Cardinal Ritter High School in St. Louis and-oh, yes-checks in at 6 feet 10 inches and 256 pounds.