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 Friday, March 9, 2001
Eastern Illinois looking to climb that Hill
By Marc Connolly
ABC Sports Online
Be honest. Had you heard of Eastern Illinois before the Panthers got their ticket punched to the field of 65?
It's OK if you didn't. Senior guard Kyle Hill didn't know Charleston, Ill., from Charleston Chew four years ago, when he was an All-State performer at Argo High School, located just outside of Chicago.
"I had no idea where it was," says Hill. "I hadn't even heard of it."
But when a stress fracture in his left foot scared off big-time programs like Purdue and local colleges such as Loyola-Chicago, only one school remained interested in letting him attend their place of learning for free.
"Eastern Illinois was the last school with me," says Hill, of the state-assisted university with an enrollment of 10,000 located 200 miles to the south of Chicago. "I was skeptical about coming here, but all things pointed to me to come here at that point."
|  | | Kyle Hill drives against Murray State's Justin Burdine during the first half of their Ohio Valley Conference semifinal. |
And now because of Hill and the mighty 23.5 points per game he averages, all things for that anonymous school in the Ohio Valley Conference are pointed at the NCAA Tournament for just the second time in school history after winning the conference tournament last weekend.
The nation's third-leading scorer caused such a ruckus with his play in Nashville last week by exploding for 99 points in three games -- many on a smoking 52.6 percent shooting from behind the three-point line -- that he was named Dickie V's ESPN.com National Player of the Week.
It prompted the following warning from his head coach, Rick Samuels.
"You have to respect Kyle Hill," says Samuels. "He competes every night out and he thrives in this kind of situation and in this kind of environment."
Hill, a quick 6-foot-2, 180-pounder who has been referred to a "Thrill Hill" more than once, believes much of the credit for his success is due to the guard-friendly offensive set that Samuels runs. It's an open-post motion offense that is centered around getting its two wings -- Hill at the 2 and his high-scoring partner-in-crime, Henry Domercant, at the 3 -- endless looks around the 3-point line where they can spot up or create their own offense.
"That means our shooters see a lot of screens from our two big men, Jan Thompson and Todd Bergmann," says Samuels, whose Panthers are 21-9 and finished behind Tennessee Tech for the regular season conference championship.
"Those guys do such a great job of getting me open that I'm left with just having to knock the shots down," says Hill, one of seven national players to return this season who had more than 50 three-pointers (59), 50 offensive rebounds (53), 50 assists (104) and 50 steals (54). "Whenever I get into a rhythm, my teammates and coaching staff recognize that and they try to get me the ball whenever they can."
That's something he's been doing at an alarming rate since his sophomore year, when he was good for 16.6 points per game to earn OVC Honorable Mention honors. It was during this time when Hill says he adapted to both college basketball and life away from home. After not seeing the court for much of his freshman year partly due to what Samuels called a "freshman fog", Hill turned his coaches' bewildered stares into game show host smiles by posting 37 points in his final three games of his first year.
That sort of production inspired him to work harder and refine his game around Eastern Illinois' jumpshot-happy scheme.
"I learned how to read defenses and how to recognize screens," says Hill, a speech communication major/business minor. "We work on staying low and being ready to receive the ball so we can shoot in one motion. In practice, we do so many shooting drills. A lot of coaches don't stress shooting in practice these days, but we do. Twenty to 30 minutes every day."
After averaging 19.1 points per game as a junior behind his lights-out shooting, the game plan was to live-and-die behind his gunning this season. Hill has responded by pouring in over 20 points an astounding 27 times behind a killer first-step to the goal to free himself for mid-range jumpers, knocking down his free throws (83.6 percent), a 37.6 three-point shooting percentage and the emergence of Domercant.
"I knew he was going to be a good player for us this year, but I had no idea he'd do the type of scoring that he did," says Hill of his sophomore teammate's 22.9 points per game that is good enough for fourth in the nation. "They can't focus on me when he's doing his thing. With him on the other wing, someone is going to be open. And he gets me going most of the time.
"It would have been a tough year had he not stepped up this year."
With the Panthers' dance orders yet to be given and with the earliest game not until next Thursday, Hill says his team has been working on rebounding and defending. He believes if the entire unit can excel in both areas, they'll have a chance to pull off an upset in the first round against what is expected to be a No. 2 seed or No. 3 seed.
The belief he has in his shooting exploits and scoring abilities is evident in that he doesn't mention it as being a key. It's a given. And the reason he won't be intimidated whether he's playing a North Carolina, a Kansas or an Arizona.
"Oh no," says the soft-spoken Hill. "I won't back down from anyone. And if my team sees that I'm not intimidated, they won't be. If we get going early, anything can happen. We'll be looking to pull the upset. We got some great guys here who can play.
"My senior year has been incredible and I can't ask for anything more. Just being there will top it off.
But it's been my dream for years, and I'm not about to give it away just because I'm playing against a high-profile team."
Charleston, Ill., hasn't received this amount of attention since Abraham Lincoln defended a slave owner in a trial at the town's courthouse, and Hill knows that there will be some very intrigued onlookers examining his performance under the bright lights. They are the same NBA scouts who have talked to Coach Samuels and the clipboard junkies who extended him an invite to the Portsmouth Invitational for the nation's top seniors.
"I just want to get a chance," says Hill about his possible future in the pros. "I feel if I can get a chance, I can turn some heads."
Whether that happens with a Speedy Claxton-style bang or not, Samuels knows that he may never get as lucky as he did with Hill at Eastern Illinois ever again.
"I hope folks enjoyed watching him play this year," says Samuels. "We may have a dominant player in the future, but I'm not sure if any can be as spectacular as he is."
Marc Connolly is a senior writer for ABC Sports Online.
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