Mike Nadel: McCamey, Illini gun for history

Demetri McCamey didn't make the Big Ten All-Freshman Team because, frankly, others deserved it more.

Really, who cares? That plaque only would have gathered dust somewhere down the line. He's got a chance to do something far more memorable, something folks still will be talking about decades from now.

If the precocious point guard leads Illinois to four victories in the conference tournament - and the automatic NCAA tourney bid that goes with a Big Ten postseason championship - he'll go down in history as an all-time Illini sports hero.

After scoring 26 points in Friday night's 74-67 victory over second-seeded Purdue - including the cold-blooded, 3-pointer that sent the game into overtime - the kid is halfway there.

"You either win or go home, and I don't wanna go home," said McCamey, who was 6-for-6 from 3-point range and also had seven rebounds and three assists. "I'll be down if I don't make the NCAA tournament my freshman year, because I really want to see how it feels."

Crazy talk, huh? Well, so much about what the Fighting Illini have done so far at Conseco Fieldhouse defies reason and common sense.

A team that lost the most games in school history (18) defeated two teams it already had lost to twice (Penn State and Purdue). A team that had been 0-8 against ranked opponents outplayed the No. 17 Boilermakers. A team that had failed in the clutch all season has pulled off big play after big play in this tournament.

Purdue's All-Freshman selections, E'Twaun Moore and Robbie Hummel, played fine Friday but were outclassed by McCamey and fellow Illini rookie Mike Davis (10 points, including 4 in OT) with the game on the line.

That McCamey has emerged as The Man seems incredible, too. He has been in and out of Bruce Weber's doghouse so often, it's a wonder the coach hasn't added Alpo to McCamey's meal plan.

"He probably thinks all I do is yell at him," Weber said. "He's probably been yelled at more than anybody else, whether it's me or the other coaches. He takes it pretty well and he just plays."

Actually, McCamey said his relationship with Weber has been more tasty than testy.

"Like peanut butter and jelly, we've got to be just like that," he said. "I've got to be on the same page he is because I'm the point guard."

While McCamey shrugged off not being chosen All-Freshman, Weber made sure to point out the "slight."

"I told him, 'Here's your chance to show people you should have been included,'" Weber said. "He had the big game against Indiana and the big second half against Wisconsin. Other than that, he's just been OK."

Sure enough, McCamey combined for 49 points against the Hoosiers and Badgers but totaled only 37 (while committing 23 turnovers) in the other six games down the stretch.

"That'll be my message to him: 'Hey, it's great, but you've done this before and then you didn't do much the next time,'" Weber said. "We need consistency."

It will be fun to see how McCamey responds in today's semifinal against Minnesota, which stunned Indiana in Friday's late quarterfinal. So far, he is making Illini Land recall Cory Bradford, who as a freshman in 1999 led an Illinois team with a losing regular-season record all the way to the conference tourney final.

The difference this time: The Illini really do have a chance to win the thing.

Those who follow the Big Ten know there is no SuperTeam like the Michigan State squad that ultimately put the '99 Illini in their place.

Here's how unimpressive Minnesota is: The Gophers already have lost twice to Illinois this season, running their losing streak against the Illini to 19 games. The winner of the Michigan State-Wisconsin semifinal obviously would provide a tougher test - but certainly not an impossible one now that McCamey and his young friends have learned how to win.

This isn't to say the Illini will make the NCAAs, because I doubt they will. The fact that such a thing even is a realistic possibility, well, I said they defied reason, right?

Mike Nadel (mikenadel@sbcglobal.net) is the Chicago sports columnist for GateHouse News Service. Read his blog, The Baldest Truth, at www.thebaldesttruth.com.