Eight weeks ago, Luther Head nearly quit Illinois’ basketball team.
Head didn’t stop to think about the odds he had defied when he left Chicago’s perilous West Side three years ago. Nor did he consider the pride Public League coaches had felt in him when he became the league’s first player since 1994 to sign with the Illini.
He forgot about the ACT prep courses he’d sat through on Saturday mornings during his junior year at Manley High School. The extra work helped him earn a qualifying score and make him eligible to play as a college freshman, so he bucked the stereotype that Public League players lack skills in the classroom.
The 6-foot-3-inch junior disregarded his journey to Champaign. He was too intent on righting a wrong.
Two legal jams had resulted in Head being suspended from the team twice during the first two months of the season. Head decided he should disappear to give his teammates an escape from the embarrassment he believed he had caused them and the university.
An expected breakout season, given Head’s successful recovery from off-season surgery for a pelvic injury, took a back seat to controversy.
“I was going to leave,” Head said. “If I was this much of a distraction, I shouldn’t be around.”
His first legal mess came in November, just weeks before the season, when he and teammates Aaron Spears and Richard McBride were implicated in an off-campus break-in. The extent of their involvement never was made public, and no charges were filed. The players were suspended for four games.
The second transgression, and a two-game suspension, came in early January, about the time he had put the first incident behind him and regained his form on the court. Head was arrested for driving on a suspended license and cited for not having proof of insurance. His court case is pending.
With his soft-spoken manner, Head told coach Bruce Weber of his intention to leave when they met to discuss his arrest. It was the last thing Head and his family wanted, but it was his way of holding himself accountable for his actions.
The player, his family and his teammates breathed a collective sigh of relief when Weber told him he had one last chance to remain with the team.
“He said, `What do you want me to do?'” Weber recalled. “I said, `I want you to change.'”
And Head has, steering clear of conflicts and flourishing on the court. Head has played a major role in No. 18 Illinois’ return to the national rankings and its run to first place in the Big Ten standings.
Awesome backcourt
Whether he is burying three-pointers, leading the Illini in rebounding or guarding some of the conference’s top players, Head’s impact has been huge. He played his most complete game last week against Iowa when he kept the Hawkeyes’ Pierre Pierce in check while scoring 16 points and collecting a career-high 10 rebounds.
“He has come a long way,” teammate James Augustine said. “It’s a 180-degree turnaround. He’s one of the best players on the team, with Dee and Deron.”
Dee Brown, Deron Williams and Head form a dangerous trio of guards who have Illinois (20-5, 11-3 Big Ten) riding an eight-game winning streak heading into Wednesday night’s game against Purdue in West Lafayette, Ind. The Illini lead Michigan State (17-10, 12-4) by percentage points in the Big Ten, but the Spartans’ league season is over. Illinois must play the Boilermakers and then at Ohio State on Sunday.
Purdue beat Illinois by four earlier this year with Head on the bench at the Assembly Hall because of the arrest. Weber recently viewed the tape of that game and noted Head’s absence had a glaring effect on the Illini.
“There’s a major difference without him,” Weber said. “The flow of the team, it’s not the same without Luther.”
The team needs him as much as he needs the university. Head has a loving family at home in Chicago, but his parents and four siblings want him to stay.
“If he had come home, he would have fallen into that same melting pot, like a lot of guys who go to college for a couple of years and end up working meaningless jobs,” said his stepfather and high school coach, Bo Delaney. “A lot of folks would have said that’s the norm in Chicago. A big-time athlete goes away for a couple of years and then comes back home.”
When Head was growing up, his mother, Bonnie Delaney, and stepfather worked hard to keep him away from gangs and the turbulent life that overwhelms too many youths on the West Side. Through programs Bo Delaney administers at a church and Young Life Christian ministry, Head’s formative years were spent playing basketball or doing volunteer work in Chicago and other cities.
“All I had was my family,” Head said. “I was growing up doing a lot of cool things, just having fun.”
That’s a side of Head few recalled when he ran into trouble earlier this season.
“Everybody who knows him knows he’s not a bad kid,” Bonnie Delaney said. “Those who don’t know him . . . “
Bo Delaney finished the sentence for her.
“They probably think he’s just another guy from Chicago, another gang-banging thug,” he said. “Once you get to know him, you know he’s laid back and quiet.”
Teammates and coaches at Illinois knew Head didn’t fit the profile of a troublemaker.
“It’s the furthest thing from the truth,” Weber said. “Irresponsible would maybe be a little more fitting. There are thousands of kids in the university who are also irresponsible. They’re young, growing up and do stupid things.”
Support from Weber
On Monday, Weber publicly downplayed Head’s offer to leave the team in January. But he acknowledged Head had put his college career on the line.
“I think it was sincere,” Weber said. “I was going to stand by him. Fans and media question why coaches do it. They think it’s driven by winning. I think it’s driven by people. When you recruit a kid, you owe it to him to stand by him.”
But Weber didn’t recruit Head, as Bo Delaney duly notes.
“Coach Weber could easily have said, `I’ve had enough of this,'” Delaney said.
Weber points out Head has made significant improvement yet has a long way to go–on and off the court.
“He’s so talented that sometimes he doesn’t maybe work as hard as he should,” Weber said.
For all his progress the last two months, Head isn’t kidding himself about the work ahead.
“Right now I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing,” he said. “It’s not really like I’ve made a leap yet.”
A leap, he said, is achieving his goal of excelling to the point where he has a shot at the NBA. His family has other goals in mind for him.
“If he finishes college, that’s successful enough for me,” his mother said. “Every basketball player dreams of the NBA, but as long as he finishes college.
“He has made it this far.”
