Illinois men’s basketball opens season against North Florida

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Brenton Tse | Senior Photographe

Illinois’ Malcolm Hill (21) drives to the basket during the game against Northwestern at State Farm Center, on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2015. The Illini won 86-60.

By Joey Figueroa, Staff writer

The Illinois men’s basketball team will kick off the 2015-16 season with a matchup against North Florida Friday night in Springfield, Illlinois. It will be the first of four regular-season contests played at the Prairie Capital Convention Center, the Illini’s temporary home until renovations at State Farm Center wrap up.

Illinois had no problem adjusting to its new court Sunday when it dismantled Illinois-Springfield for a 104-69 exhibition victory. Five different Illini scored in double figures, and while head coach John Groce doesn’t necessarily expect the same level of output in every game, he expressed excitement over Illinois’ depth.

“We’re going to have some depth now,” Groce said. “We have multiple guys that could get double figures, but I said the other day, ‘I’ve got news for you guys: you’re not all going to get them in the same game because if you did that, we’d average about 200 points a game, and that’s just not happening.’”ch

North Florida will immediately challenge Illinois’ depth and will provide a tough first test to the slate of non-conference opponents. The Ospreys were a NCAA tournament team a year ago and were four points short of a date with the eventual champs, Duke. Their 23-12 mark included a comeback win over Purdue in Indiana and was their first winning record since becoming a Division-I team in 2005.

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Illinois’ first two non-conference games will be against tournament teams from last year, and Groce said he hopes the Illini will take advantage of the demanding task at hand.

“We scheduled pretty aggressively, probably more than in the previous years, and that’s OK,” Groce said. “We’re going to learn a lot about our team. Our guys are excited about the challenge. They understand how good North Florida is.”

The Ospreys are led by junior point guard, Dallas Moore, who is fresh off breaking his school’s single-season scoring record with 554 total points. He averaged nearly 16 points and four assists per game and finished among the top ten in field goal percentage, three-point percentage and assist-to-turnover ration in his conference.

“He’ll be one of the best point guards we play against all season, bar-none,” Groce said. “He’s really talented.”

Fresh off an impressive debut Sunday, freshman guard Jalen Coleman-Lands may be tasked with guarding Moore for large chunks of the game. Groce said Coleman-Lands is still working on the conditioning in his legs following the stress fracture that held him out for months but should only progress with more time on the court.

Sophomore forward Leron Black is also working his way back from injury, and Groce said the next two days of practice will be the biggest indicators to whether or not Black will see the court Friday. Black worked out before Sunday’s game and remains on schedule in terms of rehabilitation.

Despite the inordinate amount of injuries, Groce finds the silver lining in dealing with them now rather than in the midst of the Big Ten schedule. Likely without two regular starters to start the season, it will be a group effort for the Illini to find success in Springfield.

“We have a group right now that I think has been through so much,” Groce said. “We’ve talked a lot about playing for each other. They’re doing that right now.”

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@joeyfigueroa3