On paper, Nnanna Egwu and Sam McLaurin are complete opposites.

The sophomore Egwu isn’t your traditional center. His greatest asset on offense is his towering jump shot and speed to run the floor in transition, even with his 6-foot-11 frame. On defense, it’s his length. First-year Illini men’s basketball coach John Groce is hoping his center can use his long arms to disrupt shots in the paint and become one of the Big Ten’s leading shot blockers, much like Egwu’s predecessor Meyers Leonard.

One probably wouldn’t call McLaurin a traditional center either, as the fifth-year transfer from Coastal Carolina has been told he must learn two positions this season. He’ll back up Egwu at center and see minutes alongside the sophomore center at power forward. He’s listed at a generous 6-foot-8, but he’s physical. He’ll play on the block, work the glass and disrupt opposing big men with his tough brand of defense.

Because Egwu’s and McLaurin’s games are so different, the two have a lot to teach each other. That becomes obvious in practice, where the two are constantly matched up in drills.

“He’s strong, physical and experienced, so he can teach me a lot of things,” Egwu said. “He’s teaching me the way to do things and ways to make shots more easy.”

McLaurin admitted that Egwu is the only true collegiate center the Illini have on the current roster, but he said he’s a better back-to-the-basket player because of the experience he gathered en route to becoming Coastal Carolina’s all-time leader in blocked shots and rebounds.

Even after four years of college experience, McLaurin is still learning. Egwu’s frame poses problems for him as an undersized big man, and he’s had to adjust his game accordingly.

“It helps me with my moves because I know in league play, when we reach the Big Ten, these guys are going to be just as long,” McLaurin said. “His length helps me judge how high to get my hook shot or how high to shoot the ball over him, so definitely going against him has helped me a lot.”

Egwu has only played organized basketball since the ninth grade. He arrived at Illinois as a raw, lanky big man, and because he was still figuring out how to use his body, he didn’t see meaningful minutes as a freshman. He’s now the Illini’s primary option at center, and McLaurin said he’s working with Egwu on getting stronger in the paint.

“More than anything else, (Egwu) needs to play. He needs to play five-on-five and connect the dots,” Groce said. “I think that’s where Sam’s helped him. Sam’s played so many games and is so experienced as a fifth-year guy that he helps Nnanna stay even keel a little bit.”

Practice makes perfect

With the Illini close to Friday’s season opener, Groce wasn’t happy with his team’s focus in Wednesday’s practice.

While he didn’t have a problem with the team’s attitude, Groce said he didn’t think his players’ heads were in the right place. Groce is trying to instill a mentality of how the team should approach practice, and so far the team has grasped that concept. He said Wednesday’s practice was a rare outlier.

“I tell them all the time, you have to have a mindset to deliberately practice well,” Groce said. “You can’t just show up, get stretched by the strength coach and then warm-up drills start … and hope that you’re going to have a good practice. It doesn’t work that way. That’s not how you prepare.”

The Illini won’t change the intensity of practice Thursday, but it’ll likely be at an earlier time. It will involve less physical contact to save energy for when the games start counting against Colgate.

Groce yet to finalize rotation

Groce ideally would like to play a nine-man rotation, using the considerable depth to wear down opponents on the defensive end while pushing the tempo on offense.

Yet Groce does not have his idealized roster in his first season at Illinois, and the nine-man rotation might not be feasible with glaring question marks at the tail-end of the roster.

In two exhibition games in which coaches often experiment with varied rotation combinations, the emergent ninth man for Illinois was an unlikely one — freshman walk-on Mike LaTulip.

The generously listed 6-foot LaTulip scored eight points on a perfect field goal percentage in the two exhibition games and even pulled down an offensive rebound.

Groce explained that LaTulip was grading out well in practice, and after a discussion with the assistant coaches, he was given the opportunity as the ninth man.

LaTulip’s biggest hindrance from cracking the rotation is the evolution of his skill set, which is reliant on the 3-pointer, and his ball-handling deficiencies resulted in two turnovers against West Chester.

“The first half, he was pretty good,” Groce said of LaTulip’s performance against West Chester. “The second half, he struggled a bit. But Mike’s his toughest critic. He’s a tough kid. He did some good things in practice that warranted him getting the opportunity (Sunday).”

Ethan can be reached at [email protected] and @asofthesky. Thomas can be reached at [email protected] and @ThomasBruch.