Pruitt may be leaving the Dog House Sunday

According to Mark Tupper, Shaun might leave the Coach Weber's Dog House this weekend, and play against the Northwestern Wildcats Sunday. Apparently, Shaun's attitude during practice has been improving, but it sounds like it is ultimately up to the players to vote prior to the game (very democratic process).

Shaun Pruitt doesn't like the Assembly Hall

Once again, Shaun Pruitt is again telling media people (Terry Bannon of Tribune) he does not like playing in the Assembly Hall. Could the boos from earlier this year still be bothering this fragile Illini team?

"A lot of us personally like road games maybe sometimes as much as home games," senior center Shaun Pruitt said. "We just have to bring our own energy. If we do what we did at Indiana, we'll have some success. We'll have to play very hard. Purdue just beat Iowa, something Michigan State [couldn't do]."

Shaun Pruitt's Troubles this Season

Mark Tupper has some feedback from Coach Weber on Shaun Pruitt's troubles scoring this year, in this article. It's good to know they are talking about it, but it seems to me Pruitt needs to do one of two things when he has the ball on the block: dunk it or pass it to someone who can dunk it. If Pruitt keeps shooting 25% from 6 feet and closer, he needs to sit on the bench.

Shaun Pruitt and the NBA

Shaun Pruitt has aspirations of playing in the NBA, and will try to get some exposure and invitations to tryouts this off season. It's a smart move by Pruitt, to get some feedback from NBA people on what improvement is needed. In case he is in a hurry to get the feedback regardless of the source, I thought I would try to help him out.

Pros:
-Good upper body strength
-Solid rebounder
-Effort around the hoop is impressive, following missed shots
-Defense shows promise

Areas for Improvement:
-Jumping ability suspect
-Has trouble finishing at the hoop
-Does not pass from the low block
-Poor shooting touch
-Poor percentage at free throw line
-Could struggle to get shots off in NBA

Overall, Shaun is a fierce competitor on the court, and has improved in some areas. He does need to improve his shooting touch, jumping ability and refine his offensive game so he can put up big numbers in college, let alone the NBA. He drags down his shooting percentage by frequently taking four shots at layups to get one basket. Seems like he should work on the aspects of his game this summer, and start taking some foreign languages, like Italian, German, etc. to prepare for Europe.