That black eye was Tisdale’s fault. It doesn’t help being 5-10, going up for a rebound against a 7-1 guy. His elbow is right at my eye level so it just kind of happened. Whatever gets me attention is what I’m looking for.

Coaches actually make fun of me; they say that I go home and pound my head against the wall to make it look like I work hard in practice, so they give me a hard time about it. It makes my parents think I actually do something in practice so I don’t mind the bruises.

I played two years in junior college (Lincoln Land Community College), and I wasn’t ready to stop playing basketball. It’s always been a dream of mine – I used to watch all the games with my dad when I was a little kid. I actually worked a couple games in Assembly Hall when I was in high school. I worked at Gameday Sports, too, sold T-shirts and stuff. So I was a big fan. I had to try out for my dream.

I had a couple NAIA and D-III schools I could have gone to but when I thought about Illinois – when you look at the academics and the chance to walk on – I really wanted to come here. My whole family went here. I’m the fourth of six kids and I had two older sisters and an older brother that went here. So Orange and Blue runs in the family.

(Trent Meacham and Brian Randle) helped me get my foot in the door. But it was up to me whether my hard work would pay off and if I would impress the coaches. It was my job to keep that door open, make sure it wouldn’t close, and make sure nobody walked in behind me.

I came to Weber before my sophomore year ever got out. I called him four or five times and then he finally returned my call and I was really happy. He told me, ‘I can’t guarantee you anything.’

I tried to come to as many summer workouts as I could. They actually made me leave a couple times. I had to do all the stuff beforehand. They didn’t tell me (if I made the team) through walk-on tryouts or anything. They didn’t even tell me. I had to go through three weeks of practices before they finally let me know. I saw my name up above in the locker room and that’s when things got really exciting. The coaches really didn’t tell me anything. I think most of the coaches wondered, ‘Who is this kid?’ I’m not sure they even know Andrew is my real name.

Bubba is from when I was a little kid. My mom actually gave me that name. It’s not a very exciting story. When I was little my first words were always, “buh-buh, buh-buh. buh-buh.” I had a little basketball I would sleep with, I was always “buh-buh” carrying it around. The name kind of stuck.

Quick hits:

Position: Guard

Hometown: Champaign, Ill.

High school: Central

Height: 5-foot-11

Weight: 180 pounds

Major: Finance

Favorites:

Gum: Dentyne Ice Whitening

Music: Latino, Christian, rap and country

Athlete: Steve Kerr

Movie in theaters: “Batman”