Illinois Fighting Illini guard Kasparas Jakucionis entered his team’s 70-66 (OT) loss at Northwestern leading all freshmen, nationally, in assists per game. He tallied seven more dimes tonight, which helps improve his average, as he came in averaging six apg.
He also scored 20 points, to lead the Illini, which again bumped up his average, ( Kasparas Jakucionis came in averaging 13.6).
In addition to dishing out assists, he can also shoot the three ball, as evidenced from his going 6-10 from behind the arc tonight.
You can see why NBA scouts like him so much, as he fits very well into today’s pro game, which is all about guard-centric “small ball” and making treys. In a NBA Cup article at RG, which referenced how a lot of the teams in the league these days treat regular season games as three-point shooting contests, included this poignant passage.
“The NBA can’t exactly legislate how many 3s a team can take per game. But the league’s competition committee can convene and pass additional rules that help defenses play more physically and incentivize teams to prioritize shot selection based on quality over quantity.”
That’s the essence of it right there- if you can knock down the three ball, and distribute to the other guys who can do likewise, there will be a place for you in the league.
You can see where we have Jakucionis in our latest NBA Mock Draft, but he’s consistently showing up in the mid-to-late lottery.
Ditto for his teammate Will Riley, who we often see in the same ranges.
“He’s a NBA point guard,” Northwestern coach Chris Collins said of the Lithuanian, just after beating his arch-rival from downstate.
“KJ- I don’t want to do his name injustice, he’s a really tough cover as a guard, in pick and pop, pick and roll.” The Illini came into this one ranked #19 in the country, and considered one of the leading front-runners to win the Big Ten.
So they’ll rebound from losing their Big Ten opener, which came on the road in a hostile environment, and keep it going to have a strong season.
“I think it’s a tribute to the players we’ve had, and we’ve found some success over the last five year,” Illini coach Brad Underwood said. I think it’s a tribute to our staff and the job we’ve done in recruiting, everyone likes to put stars by guys and tab them as this or that, I think that’s a part of it as well.
“I like where we’re at, I always like to be picked towards the top I always want to be in big games.”
Jakucionis is the latest in a very long line of stellar Illini point guards, a long list that includes Deron Williams, Frank Williams, Ayo Dosunmu, Derek Harper, Dee Brown and many more. The standards are very high in Champaign.
“We’re trying to win a national championship,” Underwood said at Media Day. “The elite 8 was a great run, it was great for the players to experience that, but that’s not why I am here, we want to play two more games.
“We’re gonna keep our foot on the gas, put the petal to the metal or whatever cliche you want to use until we get there. That’s the push.”
It helps that they’ll have Jakucionis leading the way.
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to USA Today’s NFL Wires Network, the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America and RG. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, the Washington Post and ESPN. You can follow him on Linked In and Twitter.
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