As many college basketball fanatics know, Illinois is expected to have a superb season next year.

There is only one way that can happen. Unlike last year, Illinois needs someone to step up when it really matters. When they are down, they need a player who is not afraid to take—and make—the big shot.

Most people expect Demetri McCamey to fill that role.

But he's not the guy.

Last year, McCamey was supposed to be the leader, but he wasn’t always there for Illinois. He stepped up huge in some games, but looked lost in his own world, dozing off into “McCamey Land,” in others.

McCamey did what he needed to sometimes, but he was not someone I consistently trusted game after game.

McCamey should not be the go-to guy next season.

A true leader supports his team at all times. Leaders give it their all every practice, every game, and every second.

McCamey was not that guy last year.

Yes, he has his moments. But what about the moments where he embarrassed himself, and the whole Illini nation?

McCamey's immaturity surfaced during his tremendously poor performance in a game against Wisconsin late last year. Instead of trying harder, he gave up on his coach, his team, and worst of all—himself.

Late in the game, McCamey turned the ball over, and was whistled for an intentional foul on the player who made the steal. Coach Bruce Weber quickly called a timeout. During the timeout, McCamey ran into Weber after being benched.

It was the worst showing of disrespect I have ever seen.

(Check out the YouTube video at the bottom to see what occurred.)

This is just one of the many reasons why I don't see McCamey as Illinois' go-to guy.

We need better.

That leads to a question that will be lingering into the next season: Which player needs to step up for the Fighting Illini next year?

Now, onto my candidate for this season's team leader—Mike Tisdale.

I am confident that he can lead this team. Last year, Tisdale was inconsistent on the court, but I was always in favor of his attitude.

He was never involved in any “McCamey vs. Weber” type of drama.

He never disrespected the coaches.

And he never gave up on his team.

Also, his hard work during the offseason has been noticed. Tisdale has spent long hours in the weight room adding muscle to his frame.

He has also been working hard with a nutritionist, looking to gain weight before the season begins.

He is consuming 6,000 to 7,000 calories a day, which has led to Tisdale gaining 17 pounds since the end of last season.

Tisdale must work extremely hard for everything because he could easily be thrown around with his lack of weight and strength, but his drive to add bulk has proved his determination.

He is working towards the ultimate goal for Illinois next season, which Tyler Griffey posted on his locker after their loss to Dayton.

Houston 2011.

Those are some of the most obvious differences I see between Tisdale and McCamey. The drive to do better is more apparent in Tisdale, which he has shown numerous times already this summer.

Please, don’t get me wrong, the whole team must contribute for this team to be successful next season. But Tisdale needs to be the leader, the boss, and the captain of this team.

Tisdale holds the key to success in his hands.

It all starts now, during the most important time of the year—the offseason.

Article also written at www.Sportsleak.com!

Check this out and much more great work on my blog at Chiefillini.com!

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Illinois fans did not know much about Mychael Henry until Saturday.

On Saturday, he visited Illinois and later said he enjoyed it and felt an instant connection between him and the coaches.

"I went down to the University of Illinois for a visit on Saturday with my brother Santino, and my teammate C.J (Jones). You know, I really enjoyed myself down there. I had a chance to hang with the players, watch them run some games up and down, and I was able to mingle with the coaching staff, and get to know them even more. I also took a tour of the campus, locker room, and the rest of the practice facility, which is all really nice. Another thing that I really like about Illinois is that they are a big family. Tracy (Abrams), Crandall (Head), and Meyers (Leonard) were all hanging out down there as well, and I consider Jerrance Howard to be like a big brother to me."

Henry made it clear that he was not in a hurry to make a decision, but would not hesitate to commit if he felt like it was the right decision.

“I’m not in a hurry to make my decision by any means, but if the situation feels right I will pull the trigger and commit. People think I’m going to let the recruiting process play out, but in my mind if one of the schools recruiting me feels right with my family, my support staff, and myself, then I will probably commit and not wait it out,” said Henry.

He was right: if he feels like it's the right decision and feels comfortable with the coaches and staff, he will commit as soon as possible.

Mychael Henry committed to Illinois yesterday, two days after his visit.

Henry, who is 6'6", is a very athletic player who's stock has been on the rise lately (Coincidentally his AAU team is named the Rising Stars). He can find a way to score no matter where he is on the court.

Henry averaged 27 points and eight rebounds per game in his junior season at Orr High School in Chicago.

A journalist from the Chicago Sun Times had some very positive thoughts about Henry.

"Orr's Mycheal Henry, one of the best shooters in the state of Illinois regardless of class, gave a verbal commitment to coach Bruce Weber and Illinois on Monday. No disrespect to the likes of Trent Meacham and Richard McBride, the program's best three-point shooters over the past four years, but Henry is in a completely different class as a player and shooter."

Henry is currently a three star recruit, via Scout.

He will be joining Tracy Abrams and Nnanna Egwu in the intriguing class Bruce Weber has put together for 2011.

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Expansion, expansion, expansion.

The expansion to 68 teams in the NCAA Tournament is a very hot topic right now.

It's right behind the all the talk about players entering the NBA Draft, and what players will stay in the draft or go back to school.

Many would have been fine with the field of 65. Others are content with them turning it into the field of 68. Then, there are those who want it to be more than 68—possibly 96 or more.

Everyone has opinions in what they wanted to happen, when they wanted it to happen, and why they wanted it to happen. Players, coaches, media, and fans are all guilty of it.

College coaches from the state of Illinois have recently been interviewed about what their opinions are on the expansion. As expected, many did not support the expansion to 96, but they felt more needed to be done.

“I think it’s good,” Bradley head coach Jim Les said of the three-team expansion. “You add three teams to the mix, and the fact that you have a play-in game at each regional should work well. I wasn’t in favor of the 96-team field, but 68 still seems too short.

“The [96 teams] type of growth is a bit far-fetched. It would take away the allure of the tournament. I think three more teams and still continuing to focus on increasing teams is the right idea.”

With the new 14-year deal the NCAA has passed, every game will be viewable, which will result in more money for the NCAA to payout schools.

“I think it’s a good start,” Illinois head coach Bruce Weber said. “To me, there is still room for expansion. I think there is enough parity in college basketball that [expansion] wouldn’t take away that much. For me, the biggest thing is about student-athletes getting the chance to be part of the biggest event in college sports.”

“What’s the goal of a kid playing college basketball? It’s to play in the [NCAA] tournament. The more student-athletes, the more programs, the better. I think it’s a win-win for the school’s benefit to get the experience and a piece of the pie.”

Although the field of 96 may have been a bit overplayed, there are still many positives things that come out of it such as more publicity, and more acknowledgement towards the college.

“The thing about [playing in the NCAA Tournament] is the notoriety and level of enthusiasm that it brings to the university, to the community,” said Les, who piloted his Bradley Braves to a 2006 Sweet Sixteen run.

“When we were on the cover of Sports Illustrated and the USA Today [in 2006], that put the spotlight on us. It boosts your university with the academic environment, the enrollment and money."

Then, there are those who will argue against the whole situation. They get the point across that expanding the tournament will do nothing good for you in the long run, except get you more money, which is not worth it if you are ruining the best tournament in the world.

“Greed is the root of all evil,” said Illinois State head coach Tim Jankovich. “I believe that maybe as much as anything. When money is the master, maybe you’re not doing things for the right reasons. It’s the beauty of college basketball we’re talking about, not the dollar signs.

“And it’s not like [an expansion] just opens up the flood gates. The complaint is that there’s so many teams that get left out. Well, there’s going to be a new bubble, and that bubble will never stop unless everyone gets in and I couldn’t vote for that.”

Weber's team would be the first team to support an expansion, because they were known to many as one of "the first teams out" of the NCAA Tournament.

“It affects people's lives,” Weber said. “It’s hard on the kids, the programs and if affects coaches’ jobs. There’s always three to five teams that it comes down between and how do you justify between them? We had enough top-25 wins [in 2010]. We played more top teams than other teams played. It’s hard to understand.

“I think we could have won games in the NCAA tournament that affected the national championship. We beat Michigan State and they were in the Final Four."

An expansion to 96 would bring many more opportunities to mid-major schools, such as Northern Iowa in the Missouri Valley Conference, who prove they can hang with the best.

“We want to look at it as more opportunities for our league,” said Les. “[The Missouri Valley Conference] is a heck of a league with great coaches. This allows those at-large opportunities that we’ve just missed. You could stretch back to Missouri State in 2006, a team with a No. 21 RPI that didn’t get into the tournament."

Jankovich, who's team has reached the NIT three straight years, has never supported the expansion to 96 teams, even though his team would have been "dancing" for three straight years.

"We would have been in all three years easily. It wouldn’t have even been close,” Jankovich said. “If it’s a self-serving, selfish thing. Of course I would want [expansion]. But if I were not coaching in the Missouri Valley or if I was insurance, I wouldn’t be for it.

“It’s a hard argument and I agree and disagree with everything [the NCAA] proposes because I see both sides of it. Am I for 96 teams for us? Yes. Am I for 96 teams for college basketball? No. I don’t think it’s what’s best.”

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About a month ago, Illinois fans discovered that Demetri McCamey would enter the NBA draft—and he would be very serious about staying in it.

To be honest, we were completely baffled, stunned, shocked, and whatever other word you can think of. To sum it up, we did not think he would seriously consider abandoning a very young, talented team that has an unbelievable amount of potential.

We, the Illinois fans, were wrong.

Our initial thought was that he was just going to go and workout for two reasons: One, for a workout, and two, to compare himself to other elite athletes.

We were wrong, again.

With his latest tweets, he has continued to confuse the Illini faithful more and more every day. Here are just a few of the tweets being discussed across Illinois' forums, resulting in some great discussions and debates:

"Why do people think college basketball players have money?"

"Fin to hit this gym up! Time to get money!!!"

I don't know the true meaning behind the tweets, so all I can do is speculate what they mean. But even when I try to speculate what the purposes behind those are, it's very hard to come up with anything.

Sadly, all I can come up with is that he is only interested in the money, which would not surprise me.

You ask why?

Well, give me a list of 20 college/NBA players who don't care about the money. That's all players care about anymore and it has become more and more evident as time goes on.

But, this in not the only reason I think McCamey will decide to part his own ways.

If you followed the Illinois basketball team this year, all we heard about was the everlasting soap opera between McCamey and Weber.

McCamey was being lazy, he admitted it, and Weber called him it out for it. Weber was constantly publicly speaking about McCamey's work ethic and how he needed to change it. After every game, it seemed as if Weber would somehow add a comment about something he did wrong.

It all started two years ago when McCamey was a freshman. There was a game between a strong Indiana team and a very weak Illinois team. The game was at Assembly Hall in Champaign, Ill.

The real story behind the game was they were playing against Eric Gordon, who had verbally committed, then de-committed, during the recruiting process, and of course, Illinois fans got on him.

Big time.

Every time he touched the ball, the "boo's" would come out very loudly.

But, while all that was going on, a star was being born. McCamey had his first standout game: 37 points.

In case any of you really cared about how the game turned out, Gordon's Hoosiers won the battle that went into overtime.

Getting back to the point—Weber, not many games after that, had to say this about McCamey, “[That night] was definitely a great moment, but I think you have to look at the games after that.”

Head coach Bruce Weber said through laughs, “I don’t think he had 31 points in his next four games.”

I just know this dug into McCamey's ego, but he responded in a very fashionable manor.

“He teaches you mental toughness,” McCamey said of Weber.

“He puts you in situations in practice where your team isn’t as good as the other team, he’d stack the other team to try to make you lose. That’s what he did with the great point guards like Deron [Williams] and Dee [Brown]. It’s all to just make you more competitive and make you want it even more.”

Things like that have gone on and on throughout McCamey's journey at Illinois. Weber has thrown some shots at him and he has responded very well—both verbally and mentally.

In January this season, Weber decided not to start McCamey for two games. He was again able to climb out of a bad situation and Weber labeled him as a completely different person saying his personal growth as a person was "astronomical."

Then, late in the season against Wisconsin, McCamey was struggling tremendously and he pulled a stunt that just stunned every Illinois fan.

Here is a video of what occurred during the game.

This time, Weber was the one who responded like the mature adult. But it doesn't take away from the problem revolving around this situation: The battle of "McCamey vs. Weber."

As you have seen, their relationship is not the greatest, and I am afraid that this could be a factor for McCamey ultimately deciding to stay in the draft.

There is one more reason I am convinced that he will stay in the draft. It is simply that he's a great player with outstanding talents.

He proved himself during the season averaging 15.1 points, 7.1 assists, 3.6 rebounds, and 1.5 steals per game. Not only did he have the stats to make him noticeable, but he was the leader of the team, even with the lack of work ethic. They simply would not have been the team they were without him leading them.

According to many reports I have seen about McCamey's NBA workouts; they have been going extremely well. He has done so well that he has been invited to the Houston Rockets' workouts tomorrow.

I just hope he realizes that another year with Illinois will mature him as a player and also as a person.

His decision is what it is, and no one but he can control what he decides.

He has until Saturday to make his final decision.

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