Many sophomores in the Big Ten have a significantly greater role this season than they did as freshmen. That is to be expected, of course, as the second year is often when players make their biggest strides in development. Some highly-recruited guys, however, continue to disappoint, while others who may not have been so highly regarded have by now become viable contributors for their teams. This series of posts is meant to check in on a few of the different sophomores in the league to determine whether they’ve improved in their first year-plus and what it means for their teams going forward. First, here’s a look at Illinois sophomore Malcolm Hill.

Malcolm Hill has shined in an expanded role for Illinois this season.(Mark Jones, Illinois Athletics)

• 2013-14: 4.4 PPG, 2.4 RPG, 38.3% FG, 34.1% 3FG, 77.0% FT, 14.1 MPG, 19.8% usage, 99.4 Offensive Rating
• 2014-15: 14.6 PPG, 5.8 RPG, 54.8% FG, 43.8$ 3FG, 71.1% FT, 25.4 MPG, 26.3% usage, 120.1 Offensive Rating

If the Big Ten gave out a most improved award, Hill would most certainly be in a running this season. A top-100 recruit out of Belleville, Illinois, Hill showed some nice flashes of his potential as a freshman. He notched a career high 11 points in a conference win against Penn State and averaged 20.7 MPG in the team’s last seven games. Once Joseph Bertrand fell somewhat out of favor with head coach John Groce, Hill made the most of his opportunity. playing reasonably well for the Illini down the stretch. With the subsequent departures of Bertand and Jon Ekey to graduation, Hill added 30 pounds in the offseason and has taken well to his starting spot at the stretch four. He now ranks second on the team in both scoring and rebounding, and has become a clear and quality number two option behind Rayvonte Rice in the offense. He’s a deadly mid-range shooter, making 53.1 percent of his two-point jumpers (compared with 28.6 percent last season), and his game is reminiscent of Ohio State’s LaQuinton Ross last season, without the pressure of being the primary option. He’s shown an ability to knock down the three as well, but with only 19.o percent of his field goal attempts coming from behind the arc (compared to 36.7 percent last year), he’s made his game more efficient by focusing on higher-percentage looks.

Illinois has been much better offensively so far this season, scoring 1.8 more points per possession than the team did last year. Groce has been able to eliminate the Rice hero ball tactics that bottomed out once Big Ten play started, as teams keyed on not letting the only viable offensive option on the roster beat them. This year, the addition of perimeter shooters Ahmad Starks and Aaron Cosby were already supposed to have improved the offense, but those two have struggled, combining to shoot a disastrous 5-of-33 in their two losses. Hill appeared to be the best player in an Illinois uniform against Villanova’s rugged front line featuring Jayvaughn Pinkston and Daniel Ochefu. He’s proven to be quick enough to beat bigger fours off the dribble and has gotten strong enough to score at the rim as well. Look for Hill to continue to shine as the team’s second option and to make a run at a spot on the all-Big Ten Third Team or Honorable Mention should Illinois put together a season where it finishes in the top six of the league standings.

Brendan Brody (307 Posts)

Brendan Brody is in his fourth season covering the Big Ten for RTC. Email him at brendan.brody@gmail.com, or follow him on twitter @berndon4.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 11th, 2014 at 2:45 pm by Brendan Brody and is filed under big ten, microsites. Tagged: aaron cosby, Ahmad Starks, illinois, Jon Ekey, joseph bertrand, Malcolm Hill, rayvonte rice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.