Head coach Bruce Weber said that while Mid-day Madness was for the fans to enjoy highlight reel dunks, the Orange and Blue Scrimmage was for him to see how far along his team is.

Obviously his team didn’t get that message – the 7,200 fans in attendance got their Homecoming’s worth.

Watching the show preseason Big Ten Player of the Year Deron Williams put on was worth faking a smile after the football game. Williams scored 29 points and dished out 12 assists in only 27 minutes of work; he was 11-14 shooting.

Combined with Luther Head’s 27 points, Dee Brown’s 21 and Rich McBride’s 20, Weber was inspired to smile and say, “We played great defense today.”

But besides backcourt bonanza, a few other bright occurrences shined. One in particular was the depth shown by the Illini team – depth Weber considers the strongest part of his team. While the proven backcourt showed their skills, sophomores Brian Randle and Warren Carter played with confidence. The two showed why they can be relied on for strong minutes off the Illini’s deep bench.

“Every day, our scout team is going hard,” Randle said. “We want playing time too; they come at us and we come at them.”

The extra depth has benefited the Illini in practice so far.

“The biggest thing is improvement,” Randle said. “Top five, number one, whatever you want to call us. We have a lot to live up to for us and our fans so we go hard at it in practice and it carries onto the court.”

Weber conceded that it was nice to see that his seventh, eighth and ninth players off the bench can step in and play well when the lights are on.

The fans’ enjoyment was cut short for a few minutes when junior forward James Augustine fell to the floor and aggravated an ankle injury that occurred during practice this week.

“After Augie went down I was not only scared of losing him but that somebody else could get hurt during the scrimmage,” junior in advertising Sarah Martin said. “I liked watching the scrimmage but when the players fell it became nerve-racking.”

Weber says that Augustine wanted to play but would be better suited resting the ankle to have it strong for practice.