Polls: Florida is now No. 1 in both polls, getting more votes than Kentucky in the IP poll this week. Stanford and USC went from top 10 to out of the poll with losses to Auburn and UC-Irvine, respectively.
Recruiting: Only four high schoolers declared for the draft, all in the East.
We’ve got a JUCO player on our radar now.
SF Aaron Swift (6’3”, 175, Hammond, IN, Vermillion CC)
Excellent defender who projects to SG. He’ll be visiting campus this week along with…
C Aquil Cooper (6’10”, 223, Lamphier HS, Springfield, IL)
We haven’t made him an offer yet or anything. His GPA is 2.01, which makes now a good time to point out that grades come out next week.
Conrad & Winkfield were at the game Thursday night and were impressed enough that they’re still considering us. Conrad seems to be very interested, and getting a player ranked as highly as he is would be an absolute coup for the Flames.
Largent now has an offer from Maryland-Eastern Shore.
Awards:
Horizon League Player of the Week: C – #35 Ramon Richardson, 6’9” senior, Youngstown St. (2 games, 32 ppg, 9 rpg)
Horizon League Freshman of the Week: SF – #24 Andy Hayes, 6’3”, Wright St. (2 games, 12 ppg)
National Player of the Week: PF - #5 Chris Reece, Weber St. (2 games, 34.5 ppg)
National Freshman of the Week: SG - #4 Jamal Courtney, Georgetown (2 games, 32 ppg, 6 apg)
Game 3 Report:
Illinois-Chicago at Virginia Tech
Monday, Nov. 25, 2002
It may be the dregs of the Big East, but it’s still the Big East.
But that didn’t seem to matter, as we started out with a 10-3 run. It was Miller and White again early on, with Jones chipping in a little later in the first half. We started missing shots; our free-throw shooting was dicey. Fortunately, the Hokies’ was worse, and they only made a slight gain on us.
Looking over our team’s skill ratings before the game, I’d gotten the idea that maybe I could use Correa as another option at the point if the need arose, as he’s a decent ballhandler and 6’4” to boot. Knowing that Cooper had two fouls already, I pulled Correa off the floor and sent Jefferson in in his place, thinking that Scott would tire quickly as always (even though he’s got a high endurance) and I’d rather not see Cooper get three fouls in the first half. So Correa came in at point with 8:30 left in the first half and didn’t embarrass himself, getting two assists. They were fouling us left and right, and we built a 14-point lead mostly at the free throw line. That’s the lead we took into the locker room — 44-30.
Miller had 12 points at the half. White had eight and eight boards. Free throw attempts: 24 for us, eight for the host Hokies. There’ll be no home cooking tonight, it seems.
Or was there? Three fouls in the first three minutes — all on us — made me wonder. The Hokies made a little run, cutting the lead to six at one point. We pulled away with the help of Fields and Jefferson, but Hokies backup center Adam Pettway then decided he was gonna take over, scoring Va Tech’s next six points to get them back within six and forcing me to call time. Williams got a breather, and Miller and Jones went back in. A few possessions later, Tech’s Phil Tiggs hit an NBA three-pointer, but Miller came back with one of his own to get the lead back to 14 with 5:20 to play.
White got his fourth foul with just under four minutes left. We were up 12; I left him on the floor. He’s got 12 rebounds. They’ve got fouls to give and are in the bonus situation. We need to clamp down.
White fouled out with 3:03 left. Eight points, 12 rebounds. Williams replaced him, and I changed our defense from the 3-2 zone we had just switched to from a 2-1-2, to a 2-3, since our front line at that point was 6’7” (Jones), 6’7” (Greer), and 6’6” (Williams). Virginia Tech entered the double bonus with 2:01 left, and it’s 71-62. Cooper picked up his fourth. Tech forward Xavier Jack was also out as I’ve adjusted our scoring emphasis from outside to inside. We’re up nine, so no need to foul. And it was just as well, as the Hokies couldn’t make anything down the stretch, and we won, 75-63. We’re 3-0!
Miller led with 21 points and five assists. Jones added 14. Greer gave us eight points in 16 minutes off the bench. Pettway led Virginia Tech with 13 off the bench. We only turned the ball over seven times.
Coach Mills addressed the team after practice the next day.
“Three games, three wins. I’ll be honest; I’m not quite sure what I’ve got here yet. But I’m seein’ some good things; I’m seein’ the start of a team here. Enjoy your holiday, guys. Remember, Friday noon, be at the Pavilion! No exceptions. We’ll have a short practice, a short meeting, then we got a long bus ride ahead of us.”
Game 4 Report:
Illinois-Chicago at St. Francis (Pa.)
Saturday, November 30, 2002
A nine-hour-plus bus ride, to be exact. Loretto is a small town tucked in the southern part of the Allegheny Mountains, about 10 miles west of Altoona. Jimmy Stewart’s hometown of Indiana also isn’t far from here. This is football country; where the names Montana, Marino and Kelly were first uttered in hallowed tones. But we came for hoops.
It was an inauspicious start. We got four, they got four, and it went from there. The Red Flash started out with a really small backcourt (5’11” and 5’9”) but quickly realized that wouldn’t fly (even though our guards aren’t huge) and brought a 6’6” swingman off the bench in the first minute. We fought back, led by Miller who got nine early, and led 15-12 before White went to the bench with his second foul eight minutes into the half. Correa came in at point guard and worked a beautiful give-and-go with Greer, and we finished off an 11-3 run before St. Francis blew its whistle.
Didn’t matter. Correa scored eight straight points and the run turned into 23-5 before St. Francis called another TO with 8:24 left in the half. It was 29-14. Also at this point, we were dominating them on the boards, 14-4. Correa got another basket to give him a team-high 10 later. Miller got his second foul, and Jones and Williams came back from the bench. With 1:36 left in the half and a 41-23 lead, Chris Mardis was summoned from the bench for some very rare first-half garbage time. It was the first game action of his career for the deep reserve freshman center, and he did… nothing.
43-28 at the half. Correa had his 10 and Miller nine. Cooper had six assists. Our rebounding edge was 20-9. Damian Ress seemed to be the only St. Francis player we’d have to worry about, as he led everyone with 12 at the break.
We missed our first two shots of the second half, but our lead never dropped into single digits. We’re starting to improve on our fast breaks, and we’re playing in control. Except for White, who started the second half but picked up two more fouls and was on the bench with four only seven minutes into the half. At least we hadn’t needed him. Jefferson began to heat up here, too, scoring five points to give him 10 and us another 18-point lead with nine minutes gone.
The lead was extended to 20 with six minutes left as Miller returned and started making his money (so to speak) at the free throw line. The Red Flash had made up some of their rebounding deficit on us, but we were shooting 60 percent at that point. We started pondering when to empty the bench, as Scott hadn’t appeared in this game and Will Wagner had yet to take the floor this season. Cooper played his best ball of the season during this stretch of game time, finishing off another break and continuing to draw contact and fouls.
76-61 with 1:36 left was as good a time as any. St. Francis’s Brett Slane tried to make things interesting, but he really only succeeded at being a pest. Mardis returned to finish the game, as did Wagner (making his debut), and Scott finally got on the floor. They made a couple of late threes and punked out Scott (who had to leave the game afterwards), but we were too much for them. 80-70, and it wasn’t that close.
Rashun Cooper had his best game of the young season, scoring 13 points and passing out seven assists. Jefferson was our high man with 15. Miller finished with 13, and I again got quality minutes out of Correa at the point, as he finished with 12. Ress led all scorers with 20 points, while Slane had a double-double of 13 points and 10 assists. Rebounds ended up evening out.
The next day brought bad news to the Flames’ camp. Noel Scott tore his ACL during the last few minutes of yesterday’s game and is pretty much gone for the season. The decision to try Correa at the point (and its success) just became that much more insightful. “It hurts to lose a kid like Noel,” Coach Mills said, “but at least we now know we have some options.”
Still, 4-0 after a three-game Eastern road trip, and the next three games at home — a good time to build up a head of steam before going to Georgia (currently ranked 14th) two weekends from now.
Conference Roundup: A pair of Turkey Day shitkickings: No. 13 Kansas 113, Wisconsin-Green Bay 46 (55-8 at halftime); No. 19 Temple 101, Wisconsin-Milwaukee 64.
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