EDWARDSVILLE - Senior point guard A.J. Tillman is a three-year starter as point guard for the Edwardsville High boys basketball team, and is returning for his senior season to help the Tigers enjoy success in the 2023-24 campaign.
Tuesday night in a win over Chatham-Glenwood, Tillman led Edwardsville with 18 points. Last year, Tillman averaged 10.1 points and 2.9 rebounds per game and also had 86 assists, 36 steals and nine blocked shots in helping the Tigers to a 20-11 record before losing to Collinsville in the semifinals of the IHSA Class 4A Quincy regional. In an interview conducted during preseason practice on Nov. 13, Tillman felt things were going very well and was ready to get the season underway. Tillman is off to a good start in the 2023-2024 season for this year's Tigers squad.
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Tillman is a Johnston Law Firm Male Athlete of the Month for the Tigers.
"I think things are going well," Tillman said of the season so far. "We're getting back into the groove on things that we do in practice and just preparing for the games, so it's all good."
The expectations are always high for Tigers basketball, and for Tillman, he had only two expectations for the new season.
"For the team, I expect to just win," Tillman said. "That's what I want to go out there and do with my teammates. I want to learn from my mistakes from last year, some of the stuff I wasn't good at last year, I want to come in better and I want to show it out there. I want to make it past regionals as well. We got bounced out the first round last year, so I'm hoping to do that. And some accomplishments for myself, I want to make first team All-(Southwestern) Conference, limit turnovers and get all my teammates involved."
Tillman and the older players have been helping the younger players get caught up and thriving in the Edwardsville system, and the team will be getting a major boost as the varsity football players, who went to the quarterfinals of the IHSA Class 8A playoffs, return to the fold. It could all add up to the Tigers having a very good season ahead.
"Yeah, I agree," Tillman said. "We're all kind of experienced now. We lost a few seniors, Isayah (Kloster) was really a big one, but everybody else played a lot and is ready to contribute when we get our games going."
"Just stayed tuned to the Edwardsville Tigers this year," a very confident Tillman said. "We'll win a lot of games."
Again, congrats to Tillman on his recognition as a Johnston Law Firm Male Athlete of the Month for the Tigers.
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