Brandon Paul has seen it all.
He was an impressionable eighth grader during the Illini’s magical 2005 basketball run to the national championship game.
“I told my mom right then that I wanted to attend Illinois,” he said Monday. “That team made me want to stay home. It never changed. I actually committed before my sophomore year although I wasn’t promoted to the varsity (at Warren High) until later that season.”
As the most popular Illini cager since Dee Brown, he rode the highs and lows. He saw touted teammates Jereme Richmond and Crandall Head fall by the wayside as the Bruce Weber regime steadily crumbled.