The Big 10 on Monday named Illinois point guard Kiwane Garris conference player of the week. He is the first Fighting Illini to earn that distinction since Tom Michael on Jan. 13, 1992.
In home victories over Penn State and Iowa, Garris scored 60 points on 18-of-32 shooting. He was 3 of 6 on three-pointers, and he hit all 21 of his free-throw attempts.
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Garris also dished out 11 assists and had only two turnovers, especially noteworthy accomplishments against the pesky Iowa press. And he came up with a huge defensive play against the Hawkeyes that forced overtime.
“When he’s playing well, he gets points a lot of different ways,” said coach Lou Henson, who noted that Garris can shoot from outside or drive. “I don’t think he is great at any one of them, but he’s good at all of them. So you put all of that together and he’s a pretty good ballplayer.”
Northern Illinois: Coach Brian Hammel has developed a 1-2 point guard punch. Ronald Minter, a 5-9 sophomore from King, started the first 21 games for the Huskies. But for the last three games, Minter has been coming off the bench and Donte Parker, a 6-0 freshman from Provisio East, has been starting.
In this time frame, Parker has averaged 8.6 points and three assists and Minter has averaged 10 points and three assists. Parker has shot 7 for 9 from the field and Minter 10 for 18.
“It wasn’t anything that Ron was doing poorly,” said Hammel. “I wouldn’t trade him for any point guard in our conference. He plays well beyond his years and was giving us good offense and good defense. But I just wanted to try something a little different at the start.
“I’m more concerned with who’s on the court at the end of the game than at the beginning.”
Parker and Minter were playing simultaneously during crunch-time in Saturday’s 74-65 victory at Loyola. Parker wound up with 11 points, four assists and four rebounds, while Minter had 12 points and three assists.
“I’m a team player,” says Minter. “Not starting doesn’t bother me. Winning is what’s important. In high school I won and I want to win here.”
Northwestern: Dan Kreft, the 7-foot junior backup center who didn’t play high school basketball, had his second noteworthy performance in the last three games when he collected five points and four rebounds in a 12-minute stint during Saturday’s 70-66 defeat at Ohio State.
A week earlier, Kreft delivered five points and four rebounds in the 88-67 home-court loss to Indiana-although the scoresheet showed only three points. Kreft was deprived of a tip-in basket in the first half because of an error by the official scorer.
A longer look at Kreft may be in the offing Wednesday night when Wisconsin invades Welsh-Ryan Arena with one of the Big 10’s biggest and best centers, 6-foot-11-inch Rashard Griffith.
Indiana: Bob Knight could reach a significant Big 10 coaching milestone Tuesday night, and it may happen on the same campus where he played in college. Knight could become the first coach to win 300 Big 10 games when his Hoosiers play at his alma mater, Ohio State. Knight, who is in his 24th season at Indiana, has 299 conference wins against 114 losses (72 percent).
No one else has come close to 300 wins in the conference, and only three others have even 200 conference wins: Ward “Piggy” Lambert of Purdue (228), Branch McCracken of Indiana (210) and Illinois’ Lou Henson (204).
Notre Dame: Coach John MacLeod, whose Irish were thumped by fourth-ranked Kentucky 97-58 Sunday, has another immediate concern on his mind-Butler. The Irish travel to Indianapolis for a Wednesday game against the Bulldogs. In the last four years, the Irish have beaten North Carolina, Syracuse, Missouri and UCLA (twice), but have lost to the Bulldogs all four times. Shooting guard Ryan Hoover is questionable for the matchup with a sprained ankle suffered in the second half of the Kentucky debacle.
Great Midwest: The six schools that left Dayton behind and withdrew from the Great Midwest to form a new league have agreed to share a $700,000 payment to Dayton.
The six schools are DePaul, Marquette, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Memphis and Alabama-Birmingham. In addition to the payment, DePaul, Marquette, Cincinnati, and St. Louis agreed to schedule future basketball games against Dayton.
Loyola: Coach Ken Burmeister reinstated junior substitute guard Monee Nelson to the squad Monday. Nelson was suspended Feb. 2 for “disrupting team unity.” He apologized to coaches and teammates.