The Last of the Flyin' Illini

What happened to Kendall Gill lately? He's been suspiciously playing sparse minutes the past few games, including last night's loss to Memphis

Gill has averaged 11 minutes in his last three games.

"I don't feel I'm struggling," he said. "I have no idea. Nothing has been said to me."

About the title, Kendall Gill is a cult hero in Illini Basketball lore for being part of the best Illinois team of all time, reaching 1989 final four. And although naturally I'm a big fan, I was a little young to get attached to that team, and in fact are more aware of Frank Williams' and Robert Archibald's pro careers when looking for famous alumni. So I don't pretend to be an expert on Gill's career. So the first thing that came to mind when trying to figure out Gill's slide was that he was playing too many minutes. The Bulls are a bad team, so a player like Gill may be overworked compared to what he's used to. And while his conditioning regimen has reached legendary proportions, he's still getting up there in years. So how many minutes has Gill averaged in his career?

YEAR	TEAM	G	MPG
90-91	CHA	82	23.7
91-92	CHA	79	36.8
92-93	CHA	69	35.2
93-94	SEA	79	30.8
94-95	SEA	73	29.1
95-96	CHA/NJN	47	35.8
96-97	NJN	82	39.0
97-98	NJN	81	33.7
98-99	NJN	50	32.1
99-00	NJN	76	31.0
00-01	NJN	31	28.8
01-02	MIA	65	21.7
02-03	MIN	82	25.2
03-04	CHI	38	27.1
Career		934	30.9

So it turns out, to my surprise, that Gill hasn't been playing any more minutes than usual. If you want to get picky though, it has been the most minutes since the 00-01 season. And I don't see him being fatigued or anything like that. Now lets look at the monthly splits (i've gone table-crazy):

MONTH	G	MPG	FG%	PPG	3PM	3PA	FTM	FTA	PSA
Oct-Nov	16	26.6	0.457	10.0	4	9	18	26	0.985
Dec	15	29.8	0.372	12.4	4	16	46	58	0.892
Jan	7	22.4	0.339	7.3	0	3	9	10	0.768

 

I combined October and November since there were only 2 games in October. PSA stands for 'points per shot attempt', a tool developed by John Hollinger. (I'm not even sure I computed it right, but I think so :) ). So while Gill scored more points per game in December, you could see that his overall effectiveness was in fact slipping. Things have gotten noticeably worse in January, and has forced Skiles' hand in taking away his minutes. So when Gill says "I don't feel I'm struggling", the numbers tell a different story.