Editor’s note:  When I started this blog, I surmised that the content would be 63% Illini Football, 37% Illini Basketball.  I love both of our “big two” teams with all my heart, and my devotion to each far exceeds any professional teams that I follow.  But football is still king.  I’m in love, and always will be.

That doesn’t mean I won’t toss around a few basketball opinions from time to time.  Especially between November and April.  I might not know Tyler Griffey’s vertical leap like I know Steve Hull’s 40 time, but I still lose my appetite for 24 hours when Taylor Battle goes backboard-rim-rim-backboard-rim-in with 2 seconds left.  So today, to ease my worried football mind, I’m looking at our hoops future.

Not our immediate future.  We’ll get to that soon.  With the Egwu commitment a few weeks ago, I want to look past Davis and Tisdale and see what the future holds for 2011/12 and beyond.

The next few years are mostly set in stone. This fall it’s likely McCamey, Richardson, winner of the Paul/Legion sweepstakes, Davis, and Tisdale starting, with the first two off the bench being Keller and the Paul/Legion loser.  The rest we’ll figure out once the games start.

2010/11 is easy for us and difficult for Bruce.  He has to take a team with 5 returning starters and find minutes for a top-5 recruiting class.  Fantastic problem to have.

After that, it gets fuzzy.  And that’s what I want to look at – how does this whole thing shake out in 2011/12 and 2012/13?

Let’s work under the assumption that Jereme Richmond plays 2 seasons as an Illini and then heads off to the NBA.  There’s a chance he’s good enough to go after one, and a decent chance he’s here at least 3 years.  But for the sake of argument, let’s say 2.  Here’s the lineup for the first game in the fall of 2011:

Starters
PG: Tracy Abrams (FR)
2G: DJ Richardson (JR)
3G: Brandon Paul (JR)
WF: Jereme Richmond (SO)
C: Meyers Leonard (SO)

Bench
Crandall Head (SO)
Tyler Griffey (JR)
Joe Bertrand (JR)
Stan Simpson (JR)
Nnana Egwu (rs-FR)

First off, holy smokes.  The RSCI rankings of that starting 5: Abrams (unknown as 2011 isn’t ranked for the RSCI yet, but likely in the 50-70 range), Richardson (35), Paul (49), Richmond (18), Leonard (36). And no seniors.  Somehow keep that team intact for the following season and I’m buying every preseason magazine in the fall of 2012.

I think a good comparison would be last year’s Michigan State team (yes, really). The RSCI rankings of Michigan State’s big 5 this past season: Kalin Lucas (34), Chris Allen (38), Raymar Morgan (34) , Delvon Roe (10), Goran Suton (UR).  Their rotation was mostly juniors and sophomores, with one key senior and a couple freshmen.  Now, they’re staring at a top-3 ranking for this fall.  Which is exactly where I think we could find ourselves in the fall of 2012 if we keep everyone in the fold (yes, really).

But can it get better?  Yes.  Brad Beal is still interested.  Quincy Miller is curious.  Both will likely visit this fall.  Add the #2 power forward and the #2 shooting guard in the 2011 class to the list above and, well…

I need to stop. I’m getting ahead of myself.  That has to be a pipe dream, no?  There’s no way we could be watching a team of three or four McDonald’s All-Americans and nine or ten consensus top-100 players in 2011/12, is there?  That would be, like, North Carolina-ish.  There’s no way that happens, right? I must be trying to apply the Jerrance balm to my football wounds.  Have to be.  There’s no way we could be one of the three most talented teams in college basketball in a few short years, is there?  There is?  Really?

Why am I a football guy again?