Academics: It turned out to be a good thing that Will Wagner got into Saturday’s game, because he won’t be playing again for a while. Academic suspension. That 1.81 GPA didn’t do anyone any favors. He’s gone for at least four weeks. That’s something we’ll have to emphasize over time, as most of our guys are in the low to mid-2’s, with only three players above a 3.0.
This and Scott’s injury screw up coach Mills’s rotation somewhat — Correa’s become the primary backup at the point, which means Adam Fields will have to log more minutes at SF than PF. The winner could be freshman PF Vidal Muhammad, who may see time at C as well as getting Fields’s PF minutes.
Polls: Florida’s still on top of both. Arizona was No. 6, but got bounced after losses to Nebraska (WHAT) and then No. 20 (and now No. 11) Mississippi in overtime. North Carolina fell from 9 to 24 after a 77-66 home loss to Xavier. And under “Others Receiving Votes” you can find a familiar and surprisingly big metropolitan school in a small conference near the end of the list. Yep, the 4-0 Flames got three votes from the writers this week, and four votes in the .400 Sports poll, which consists of writers, coaches and fans. (Probably because we did win three straight on the road.)
Recruiting: We’re going hard (but moderately so) after Winkfield this week, as Xavier has also made an offer. Swift’s mulling over an offer from Bowling Green as well. We called Conrad again just to keep in touch.
Two more visits this week:
SF Jerry Blevins (6’7”, 199, Penny Meridian HS, Indianapolis)
SF Antonio Morrison (6’4”, 180, Bay Springs, MI)
Neither guy is really a standout. Blevins has a scholarship offer from Ball State. Remember that we’re losing two SFs (Jones and Correa) to graduation, thus the emphasis on that position. Fields looks like the front-runner to take over the spot next year, but that may change depending on who we get.
My RV guys could end up being teammates again — St. Peter’s has shown some interest in both of them.
Only two consensus top-20 players have chosen schools so far.
Awards:
Horizon League Player of the Week: PG - #21 Dante Caskill, 6’1” senior, Loyola-Chicago (23 ppg)
Horizon League Freshman of the Week: PF - #24 Damian Jackson, 6’5” freshman, Wisconsin-Milwaukee (22 ppg, 5.5 rpg)
National Player of the Week: PG Max Cambridge, 6’ junior, Texas A&M (28.5 ppg, 8 apg)
National Freshman of the Week: SF Rashad Millford, 6’6” freshman, Alabama-Birmingham (24.5 ppg, 8 rpg)
Other Stuff: There are two Martin Sanchezes in the Horizon League. One is a 6’10” senior who goes to Detroit; the other is a 6’8” senior who goes to Youngstown State. Both went to St. Catharine’s High School in the Ontario town of the same name. Both are fine rebounders. Martin Detroit wears #31; Martin Youngstown wears #32.
Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Greg Morrill — the blind guy — has played in one game so far. Four minutes, one turnover.
Game 5 Report
Albany (1-3) at Illinois-Chicago
Monday, December 2, 2002
We returned home unbeaten (I’d say we’re “avoiding embarrassment” rather nicely), but down two bodies. I’m a little concerned that we’ve given up more points in each game than the last.
The early minutes were nothing to write home about, then Miller started heating up. Two quick threes and some more quality board work by White helped Clyde get 10 early points. The Danes’ Brett Abel had something of an answer with six straight points of his own, but we were up 16-11 when we went to the bench with 13 minutes left in the first half. Correa stayed on the bench for a couple more minutes because we didn’t want to risk wearing him out, too.
He came in with 11:32 left, along with Jefferson. We switched to a perimeter zone offense to show off our shooters, but we were still having problems stopping Abel down low, and Jefferson was cold for the first time all season. He couldn’t make anything, and Abel and Albany’s leading scorer, D.A. Martin, led a mini-run that ended when Martin drained a 3 to tie the game at 22. Time out! Back to the isolation. Miller and Cooper came back in, and Miller scored again, but Danes PG Ron Walls started getting his guys better looks, and they took a five-point lead.
This was new and different and, while not altogether unexpected, troubling. We hadn’t been down by this much at any point until now, and we were worried about how the guys would respond. Williams picked up his second foul with 3:49 left in the half, and Muhammad already had two. Miller needed a breather, so Jefferson came back in, most likely only for a minute or so. Nothing. Our savior up to this point turned out to be Danny Jones. Jones scored five points during this stretch, capping it off with a three that got us the lead back, 37-36 with two minutes left in the half. Gotta love seniors.
But the lead was short-lived as Marque Bell came off of a screen and hit another three to give the Danes the advantage again. Some good acting on their part got them to the line twice in the last minute, but they whiffed on the back ends of both one-and-ones. Miller got a bucket to give him 16 for the first half, but for the first time all season, we trailed at halftime, 42-41. We were perfect at the free-throw line, but they’d made 4 of 8 threes and were beating us on the boards. What to do?
Switch to a 2-1-2 zone, that’s what.
But that didn’t have anything to do with us blowing two early fast break opportunities in the second half. Meanwhile, Albany had apparently decided to shoot nothing BUT threes for the rest of the game, as they took five in the first five minutes of the half. So we switched again to a 3-2 to make them stop. Didn’t work. They hit two more, and with less than ten minutes to play, we were down 62-57. Fields can’t guard Dunn. Jefferson can’t guard Martin. NOBODY can seem to guard Abel. Back to man-to-man.
White and Jones came back in, and the ACTING~! continued as White drew his fourth foul on a phantom charge (the home crowd exploded with boos after that one.) Martin hit YET ANOTHER THREE-POINTER to make the score 70-63 with less than seven minutes left. But Jones, as he’d done all game, hit a big basket immediately after coming in, and Correa’s two free throws (we’re still perfect from the line) cut the lead to three. We got a stop, and Jones made a three on our next trip down to tie the game. We traded baskets for the next three minutes until Jones came up with a steal, and Muhammad (who’d had a nice game with White in foul trouble) hit a three of his own! 77-74 with 2:44 to go! And neither team was in the bonus yet.
An actual close game at the end — how would the team react? A short jumper by Williams and two White free throws extended the lead to seven points before Martin got Nos. 19 and 20 at the line. They started fouling, and we kept making them. Martin drained a three to cut the lead to 83-79, but we were still perfection from the stripe. White finally missed one for us (after 18 straight!), but we were already in the double bonus and there were 47 seconds left. Time to start defending against those threes, so we went back into the 3-2. Despite Albany’s poor free throw shooting night, Mills instructed his men NOT to foul so as not to risk any four-point plays, since everyone in the building knew they’d be jacking up threes from here on in. White came up with a big steal with 10 seconds left, and of course, hit his two free throws to seal it. Then two more at the very end. 92-81. What a game.
Miller again led the Flames with 20 points. White had another double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds. Cooper had 10 and seven assists again, but the hero was Danny Jones with 16 points, at least seven of which were absolutely clutch. Correa had 10 points and six assists off the bench, while Muhammad took advantage of White’s foul situation by scoring seven points in 16 minutes, including the three that gave the Flames the lead for good. Albany’s D.A. Martin led everybody with 23 (6-for-9 on three-pointers). Abel added 14, and Dunn had 13. Ron Walls has 15 assists before fouling out.
Three-point comparison: Albany 10 of 21, UIC 5 of 10.
Free throw comparison: Albany 15 of 25, UIC 25 of 26.
“We needed a game like this,” Mills told reporters afterwards, “just to see how we’d react. I’m glad we won because we had to learn how to win a game like this. Now we know.”
Game 6 Report:
Florida International (2-2) at Illinois-Chicago
Saturday, December 7, 2002
Hopefully we’d come down enough after the Albany game so that we wouldn’t get ambushed today. I’m still worried about the defense.
Not right away, though, as we went on a 9-2 run to start the festivities. The Panthers called time and decided they needed to move the ball around more, so they switched to a motion offense and made up some ground, but they still couldn’t catch us.
The “Correa as backup point guard” experiment got an extended test when Cooper went to the bench with two fouls seven minutes into the game. A shame; he’d been playing well. Jefferson hit a three coming off the bench, and Correa added two more to force the Panthers to call another TO and temporarily halt another 9-2 run. At this point we’d only missed four shots. Jefferson gave us two more threes while Vidal Muhammad blocked a shot. With 6:11 left in the first half, we were up 37-25. The Panthers cut the lead to eight late in the half before Correa hit a three to beat the halftime buzzer and send us into the locker room with a 50-39 lead.
Jefferson’s struggles against Albany seem to have been a one-time thing, as he had three 3-pointers in the first half and led us with nine. Panthers freshman Tarik Walker, who’s averaging 18.8 a game for them, led everyone with 10.
The first four minutes of the second half, we couldn’t buy a shot. We also turned the ball over three times and allowed them to get within 54-49. We went to the bench, and Jefferson came in and hit a jumper, but Walker nailed back-to-back threes. Fortunately, we managed to finish off a couple of fast breaks for once, and the score was 60-55 with 12:48 to go. Cooper and White both took breathers with three fouls at this point, and we switched back to a help man because the Panthers were just shooting over our 3-2 zone.
With 11:02 to play, Nick Turner hit a three-pointer to tie the game at 62. That started a run of nine straight points for him, and the Panthers led 68-63 with 8:49 left when we called time. Jones and Cooper returned, as I would need Jefferson’s shooting to get back in the game. But we couldn’t take care of the ball (FIU had six steals at this point), and Walker picked things up to stretch the lead to 74-63 with 6:32 left. This game had literally gotten away from us.
From here… well, it only got worse. Three more steals for the Panthers and some suddenly hot shooting ended this one 80 seconds early. Because that’s how much time was left when Chris Mardis entered the game. Our first loss, 88-73.
Walker led all scorers with 20. Wayne Dickenman added 18 and Turner 16 for the Panthers. Jefferson led us with 12, and Jones chipped in with 10. But the stat of the game was our 14 turnovers to their eight. We need to find something on defense that’ll work, and we need to find it fast.
Conference Roundup: Indiana killed Cleveland St. DEAD Monday night, 100-48. The next night, #16 Temple beat Wisconsin-Green Bay 82-55. On Thursday, #8 Duke went to Butler and won, 78-43.
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