The former Illini big man was primed for a Portland breakout before suffering a shoulder injury.
Illinois basketball has the twelfth-best winning percentage all-time and the fourteenth-most wins of any NCAA program. And yet, it isn't often that Illini fans have alums who made it to the NBA to boast about. One of the few former Illini who is currently in the Association, however, is Meyers Leonard. Leonard spent two years in Champaign and averaged 14 points, 8 rebounds, and 2 blocks per game his sophomore year before declaring for the 2012 NBA draft. He was picked eleventh overall by the Portland Trailblazers.