Interesting Illini/Marcus Arnold article

[tornado]

John Brumbaugh, the most knowledgable writer for the Illini, has posted an intriguing analysis of every single 5-man combination that Illinois has used on the court thus far.

To hardly nobody's surprise, most of the efficient and most highly rated combinations all include Dee Brown and James Augustine.
There were nearly 30 different 5-man combos played and...

Of the eight worst 5-man combo's (based on point differential while those five were on the floor at the same time, and all eight of the worst combinations have a negative point differential), all eight of them include Marcus Arnold.
Of the 14 worst combinations, 12 of them include Marcus Arnold.

Of the ten best combos, all of which had positive point differentials, only four had Arnold on the court, but all four of those were stretches when Jamar Smith was also on the floor burning the nets.

http://illinois.scout.com/2/465201.html

but scroll to the bottom and see who Brumby finds is Illinois' worst player.
According to all these efficiency figures, Marcus Arnold falls way below his nearest other teammate as being the worst, just look at this:

INDIVIDUAL +/- STATISTICS

Player Differential
Dee Brown 22
Chester Frazier 8
Calvin Brock 15
Jamar Smith 10
Rich McBride 15
Brian Randle 8
Shaun Pruitt 30
CJ Jackson 2
Marcus Arnold 1
James Augustine 19

Illinois???‚¬?„? Best Player: Shaun Pruitt (+30)
Illinois???‚¬?„? Worst Player: Marcus Arnold (+1)
and then he says Weber should use freshman CJ Jackson ahead of Arnold.

Looks to me like Marcus is living up the the predictions I have read on several boards as not being a Big Ten caliber player.

[Bravesguy]

Noticed this about Marcus Arnold.

The Illini are horribly thin on the frontline even if healthy.
Randle is hurt and out, Jamar is hurt and out, Rich McBride is suspended, there are no bigbodied freshmen that are going to help, and Warren Carter has hardly played at all in his 3 years at Illinois.

So the situation is ripe for Marcus Arnold to get heavy, heavy minutes, and virtually own a starting position.

But last night, Illinois gradually pulled away to a 21 point lead, and Marcus still only played a minute and a half.
In the 1st half he subbed in at about 16 minutes, and after a turnover, he was yanked about 45 seconds later.
Later in the 1st half he subbed in again, and after he bricked two FT's, again he was yanked in under a minute.
Then even with all the garbage time in the 2nd half, Marcus never got off the bench.

What gives?
Complete stat line, 2 min, no points, one turnover, 0-2 on FT.