CHAMPAIGN — Taking care not to smudge the photographs, Lorita Bertrand places them side-by-side on a couch cushion in the family's living room.

Over in another corner there are rows of tennis and basketball trophies won by her two sons. On the opposite wall there's a montage of Justin and Joseph with photos from their youth.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was first published in November. We revisit it in light of Bertrand's breakout out game Thursday.

There's a good one of Joseph stunting on his BMX and another from when he was named prom king at Sterling High School. There's one of Justin, just a baby, poking his head through a chair, and another of Justin hiding in a pile of leaves.

"Even though we had very little," Lorita says, "they always had fun with what we had."

But back to the photos on the couch. These are the most fascinating of the stacks and stacks and stacks of photographs that Lorita Bertrand has kept in her apartment in north Champaign. There is one photo of her — and 15 more, one for each of her siblings.

Yes, there were 16 siblings. Eight boys, eight girls.

"All by the same mom and dad," she says with a laugh. "An amazing woman."

"I couldn't even begin to name all of our aunts and uncles," says Justin, 24.

"I don't want to forget anyone," adds Joseph, 20, rattling off names. "There's Uncle Randy, Aunt Myra, Aunt Janelle, Tojo, Addy, Missy, Fuzzy, Leonard, Craig ... "

Justin and Joseph have 61 cousins, by Mom's count.

"One time we heard something about my uncle David," Joseph says. "And I was like, 'We have an uncle David?' "

Most of the photographs picture Justin and Joseph together, or sometimes Justin or Joseph by himself. There are very few of Mom and her two sons together, mainly because Lorita usually was behind the camera. But Mom was always there to take a photo.

Or to bring Joseph clean socks and a Gatorade before every practice in high school. Or to drive Joseph two hours for practice with his club team, Illinois Wolves, in the Chicago suburbs. Or to braid Joseph's hair, or to put Justin's hair in kinky twists. Or that one time when Joseph drove to a volleyball match, and Mom walked to the gym to get the car. She didn't want the 16-year-old to drive home in the dark.

Or when she attended Justin's graduation from Augustana College in the morning — then spun around to attend Joseph's graduation from Sterling High School in the afternoon.

"She's been there, literally, for everything," Justin says. "Any time we had a basketball game or a tennis match, she was always there. And I had recitals for the saxophone. Anything we put our minds to, she put her mind to behind us."

*****

Joseph Bertrand is halfway through a chicken burrito in the upstairs dining room at Chipotle in Campustown.

He looks down on Green Street to see if there is anyone he knows. As a third-year sophomore with a ready smile, he knows plenty. Jessica Howard, the wife of assistant coach Jerrance Howard, says hello as he waits in line. Two football players say, "What's up, Joe," as he climbs the stairs. Several students nod their greetings.

Yet the college basketball world barely knows anything about Bertrand. In that way, the 6-foot-5 guard is the personification of the 2011-12 Illinois basketball team: blessed with potential but decidedly unproven, athletically gifted but as unpredictable as a first-year driver.

It's why Illinois has been projected to finish anywhere from fourth to ninth in the Big Ten. No one — not the pundits, not their Big Ten rivals, not even the Illinois coaches — is certain what to expect from a singular player, like Bertrand, or the Illini roster as a whole.

"There are just so many questions, I think people aren't sure," coach Bruce Weber says. "We have some talent, some athleticism. I think the biggest thing is you don't have to get them to play hard. As a coach that's a great thing every day in practice."

And it is a refreshing and, yes, slightly goofy team. Refreshing because coaches haven't been forced to coach effort in practice, goofy because they're too nave to know this college basketball thing is supposed to be, you know, serious business.

"Joe was sitting on the hood of his car after class today," junior D.J. Richardson says. "And Brandon (Paul) was like, 'Joe, what are you doing?' And Joe's like, 'I've still got time left in the (parking) meter.

"He didn't want to waste his money. He wasn't going to leave until the meter was out."

In more ways than just basketball, Joseph Bertrand is these Illini. If they are going to win big this season, it will have to be a group effort. If Bertrand was going to achieve his dreams and play college basketball, he needed a support system behind him.

The support extends from his closest aunts, Myra and Janelle, who were there again for the Illini's first exhibition game, to his uncle Craig, who got the brothers into tennis, to Joseph's former coaches, Peter Goff (Sterling) and Mike Mullins (Illinois Wolves), to countless others in Sterling who helped the boys along.

"Coach Goff and Coach Mullins, they were like father figures to Joseph," Lorita says.

Namely there was his mom, a woman so devoted to her sons that she moved from Sterling, where she lived most of her life since she was 7, to Champaign-Urbana, where Joseph is about to begin his first season as a regular contributor in the playing rotation at Illinois.

"I used to ask her what she was going to do when Joseph was gone off to school," Goff says. "I guess we know the answer."

Mom and Dad separated when Joseph was 2. His father lives in Iowa and reaches out from time to time, but there is no relationship, and Joseph says he's OK with that.

"Joseph's got some calls from him," Lorita says. "But he hasn't talked to him yet."

"I mean, it would be good to say hi," Joseph says. "But we don't have anything to talk about."

Lorita pops a tape into a VHS set. The grainy film shows Joseph on his fourth-grade team, the Hornets, wearing a No. 2 jersey, same as he wears at Illinois. He is all skinny legs and arms and between-the-legs dribbling. Even then he preferred the flashy over the easy, throwing a behind-the-back pass to a 9-year-old teammate who has no idea it's coming.

"Next time Joseph comes over he's going to watch this with me," Lorita says with a laugh.

There's one commonality in all of these photos and videos: The boys are smiling huge smiles and playing and being boys. Their single mom made sure of it.

"It was tough sometimes. But me and my brother could never really tell if we were having any real problems with money or anything," Joseph says. "My mom was really good at being crafty with how she raised us. Everything was always there for us. She kept all of that away from us and let us be kids. We never had chores. She always wanted us to have fun growing up with each other."

And there were always three of them: Lorita, Justin and Joseph.

"I'm really happy I had two (boys). They had each other to turn to. That kind of eased the burden off of me," Mom says. "Of course it was hard. And I don't think they ever really realized how little they did have. They didn't see things that way.

"To them, they had everything."

*****

This is a tough one, identifying Joseph's best dunk.

There was the tip-dunk in a 3-on-3 game in Sterling, where he cocked it "way back" and slammed it down. His friends Alec and Jase ran out of the gym after that one. There was the windmill in a dunk-off between Richardson and Bertrand at the UI practice facility.

"We were watching YouTube videos of (NBA guard) J.R. Smith and Joe said he wanted to try to (top) that one," Richardson says. "I think Joe's might have been better."

His favorite part of the game?

"I would say dunking or crossing over someone real bad," Bertrand says.

This, too, summarizes the 2011-12 Illini — oodles of athleticism and a penchant for flashy plays. The fun stuff. To win — or, in Bertrand's case, to earn playing time — they will have to master the basics: shooting, passing, dribbling.

Since he committed as a high school junior and has been on campus for two-plus years, it is easy to forget Bertrand has three seasons of eligibility remaining.

He didn't play as a true freshman. A knee injury — and later a calf injury — forced him to take a medical redshirt. Last season he was unable to crack the veteran rotation. He played just 16 minutes in 18 Big Ten games.

"Last year I got a little frustrated. Not really my first year because I was hurt," says Bertrand, whose grandfather was one of the first two black basketball players at Notre Dame. "But last year I started playing really good toward the middle of the season. But by that time the lineup (rotation) was pretty much set. By that time you can't really break in, especially when you have four guys that have been in the program for so long."

If Bertrand can make an impact early this season he won't have to worry about earning the coaches' trust later on. Sophomore Crandall Head, who shares his position on the wing, is suspended for the next three games for a violation of team rules. Freshman Myke Henry is a gifted scorer but has been hobbled by a quadriceps injury.

"This is the year when Joe has to make a move," associate head coach Wayne McClain says. "He's in his third year. He knows what we do. I told him, 'This is your time.' "

Bertrand clearly was limited by a hip injury in practice sessions last week. Still, he twice led Illinois in scoring on its tour of Italy and earned a starting spot in the first exhibition game. His challenge is making the easy play instead of the fancy one.

Coaches have told the players, "If you don't produce we're going to give someone else a chance and they're going to get minutes," Weber says.

"With the up-tempo kind of game we're trying to play — and the defense we're trying to play — I feel like we'll have to play a lot of guys," Bertrand says.

Really, his path at Illinois mirrors his high school career. As a prep freshman Bertrand was promising enough that several schools in Chicago attempted to recruit him away from Sterling, his mom says. He was always an athlete, as the dozens of tennis trophies can attest. But before he could become Sterling's all-time leading scorer in basketball he had to refine the basics.

"When he made the jump from Sterling to national competition (with Illinois Wolves), it was quite a jump for him. I think it's the same thing (at Illinois)," Mullins says. "We knew that the (college program) that got him, they would have to be patient with him.

"And part of that was his body. Demetri (McCamey) or Evan (Turner) or Sam (Maniscalco) or Carlton (Fay), those guys had college-ready bodies when they got to college. Joseph wasn't one of those guys. We knew it was going to take some time for him to develop."

As Joseph finishes the oversized burrito, he says, "I'm about 190 or 195 (pounds). I'd say 195 on a good day. Or after two burritos."

*****

Last but not least entertaining, these Illini certainly are a team of personalities. That, too, is similar to Bertrand. "Goofiest dude on the team," Paul says.

He's always been up for a good prank. Chloe Goff is the daughter of his high school coach. Chloe was 5 when Joseph would stop by their house and take her pink scooter for a spin around the block.

"She'd be chasing him," Goff says, "And Joe just kept riding the pink scooter."

On Senior Night at Sterling, Bertrand organized one of his better premeditated pranks. After the other four starters were introduced he ran over to the student section. When his name was called, all of his peers clapped their hands together, sending chalk into the air.

"It was like LeBron (James) does at the scorer's table," Goff says. "And I immediately knew Joseph was behind it. Later I found out the assistant principal knew, the AD knew. I was the only that didn't know. He didn't tell me because he knew I wouldn't allow it."

Joseph's brother was his favorite target. Justin, who played basketball at Augustana, often had trouble falling asleep. Joseph didn't help matters when he would run into his brother's dark room, flip on the lights, punch his brother in the arm and race out.

"Oh, it would make me so mad," Justin says. "It would take me an hour to fall asleep again."

Teammates definitely aren't safe. The Illini had a film session last week at Ubben Basketball Complex. Joseph parked so close to the door of Meyers Leonard's car — it couldn't have been more than 4 inches — his 7-foot teammate couldn't get in the car.

"Haha!" Bertrand says at the memory.

"You've got to be careful around Joe," says Richardson, his roommate. "He remembers everything. If you get him on something, he says, 'I'll remember that,' and he'll get you back later."

He's quirky, all right. Paul asked Bertrand why he doesn't have a Twitter account. "I get nervous when people follow me," Bertrand explained.

His mom holds up another photo. It shows Joseph, around 8 years old, walking across their living room — on his hands. "He was always doing something silly," she says. And she reads a poem Joseph wrote in the fourth grade.

"I am a hyper tennis and basketball player.

I wonder if I will ever be famous ....

I pretend to dunk on fast breaks.

I feel the fans pain when we loose a game ...

I am a hyper tennis and basketball player."

Wherever this season takes him, Joseph can be assured of one constant: His mom will be seated in the top row of the bleachers at the Assembly Hall. She never missed a game in high school. She never missed a game when Joseph was redshirting at Illinois.

"People asked me, 'Why are you going if Joseph isn't going to play?' " she says. "But when they're hurt, isn't that when they need you the most?"

She has missed only one of his games since he arrived at Illinois. She had a proper alibi.

"That snowstorm we had. There were snowdrifts all the way up my garage and I couldn't get there," she says, almost embarrassed. "I called a cab, but the cabs weren't running!"

Klee for Three
Beat writer Paul Klee offers three things he learned about the Illini basketball team this week:

Progress in the paint
When Meyers Leonard is locked in — and that isn’t always a given — no one on the roster can handle him. That was never more evident than in Friday’s practice. The 7-footer ended three consecutive 3-on-3 drills with backboard-shaking dunks. He added a Tarzan scream after each one for emphasis. But we know he can dunk. The next challenge is developing a dependable move in the post. Leonard doesn’t entirely trust his right-handed hook shot, but the 7-footer is almost shooting down at the rim, and he’s using it more often. Coaches also are focused on cutting his fouls. In one drill Leonard made like a pulling guard in football, powering through a pair of defenders to set screens. Both were obvious fouls. “I appreciate you getting a body on people. That’s great,” Bruce Weber told the big man. “But you can’t be moving when you set a screen.” Like the Illini in general, Leonard is a work in progress. And both have made real progress in the past two weeks.

Point progress
The best thing to come out of the first exhibition game? Tracy Abrams’ progression as a lead guard. Probable starter Sam Maniscalco (ankle) didn’t play, and Abrams stepped in with five assists and no turnovers in the first half. The 19-year-old has been just as capable in practice. And this is a learning process for Abrams. As a senior in high school he had to play forward as often as he ran the point. Here’s the rub: Both lead guards are battling injury and have been limited in practice. Maniscalco had the walking boot removed Thursday, and he didn’t practice Friday. Abrams then re-aggravated a toe injury after hitting a jump shot. Roughly two weeks ago coaches finally made the decision to shut down Maniscalco and let him heal. They don’t have that luxury with Abrams, a freshman who needs practice time more than a senior. If the injuries continue to linger, Brandon Paul could be forced out of his natural position on the wing to provide stability at the point.

House of pain
At the annual Covington Classic on Wednesday, Bruce Weber made the point that a team’s athletic trainer often knows the players “better than anyone, even the coaches.” That certainly has been true this preseason. Al Martindale is getting too familiar with his guys. In a span of five minutes in Friday’s practice, Myke Henry (knee) was seen hobbling, Joseph Bertrand (hip) lacked his usual explosion, Abrams (toe) was aggravating an injury, Leonard was leaning against a wall after a gnarly hip check, and Devin Langford was doing one-handed dribbling drills with his left ring finger in a splint. Coaches are ecstatic with the hard-working approach of these Illini. There’s a downside, however. Physical practices have led to more bruises than usual. “We had a collision where Nnanna (Egwu) ran in there and tried to take a charge and was a little late,” Weber said. “It was like dominoes. Three or four guys ended up getting involved in it.”