New captains same as old captains

Posted In: Herald & Review Mark Tupper Illini
Date: Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Bruce Weber said this week he’d have the players vote on new team captains, giving them a chance to selected their own team leaders after he had picked Demetri McCamey and Bill Cole before the season began.
So the players held their vote. And who did they pick as the new captains starting with Wednesday night’s game at Penn State?
They picked Demetri McCamey and Bill Cole.
So Weber was certainly not off base when he singled out McCamey, his best player and a guy who had worked extremely hard in the off-season, and Cole, whose own hard work had been impressive.
It would have been interesting if the team had picked Stan Simpson and Rich Semrau, but that wasn’t going to happen.
The Penn State game is kind of falling into that “must win” category if Illinois is going to stage some kind of dramatic push. Win that one, win the home game Saturday against Indiana and win the road game next week at Iowa and Illinois would be 15-8 and 7-3. That would set up an interesting stretch run against a difficult final eight games (at home against Michigan State, Ohio State, Minnesota and Wisconsin; on the road against Wisconsin, Purdue, Michigan and Ohio State).
To start with, Illinois would need to make improvements in individual play and team consistency that we just don’t see forthcoming right now. But I’m ready for a surprise.
For it to happen, it has to start at Penn State, a team that is vulnerable having lost seven in a row, but a team that is probably due to bite someone. I’d have to believe Penn State will win the game, but will be happy to be wrong if Illinois can show otherwise.
One thing we know won’t lead the charge – a stunning change in team captains.

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