Preseason Tournaments:
Kentucky wins Hawaii Classic
UConn wins Preseason ACT
Florida wins Alaska Challenge
You can guess what these are the equivalent of in real life.
Kentucky is the new IP No. 1. Providence rockets into the poll at No. 8 after beating Arizona in the Preseason ACT semifinals. Florida is still No. 1 in the .400 Sports Poll, where Kentucky is No. 3.
Recruiting:
Ah, the joys of auto-recruiting. I'm letting the computer and my assistants do all the work here. We've made three scholarship offers:
C Matt Conrad (6'11", 268, Bishop Kelly HS, Tulsa, OK)
Rated three stars. #89 overall in the .400 Sports Top 200 Recruits (#33 among centers) #162 overall by Cole Scouting.
Oklahoma and Xavier are interested. Oral Roberts has made an offer as well.
SF Idris Winkfield (6'6", 177, Corliss HS, Chicago)
Rated four stars.
Northern Illinois and DePaul are interested.
SF Norman Joyce (6'4", 189, Highland Park, IL)
Rated three stars.
Already has offers from Eastern Illinois, Bradley, Illinois St., and Chicago St.
Conrad & Winkfield will be visiting campus this week.
Villanova has made Largent an offer.
Game 1 Report:
Cornell at Illinois-Chicago
Thursday, Nov. 21, 2002
Clyde Miller scored the first points of my coaching tenure at IUC on a 15-foot jumper. Both he and Rashun Cooper got into early foul trouble, and I have to go to my bench early. Jefferson did what I've asked him to do - shoot jumpers - and scores seven points in 10 minutes. But it's in the frontcourt that I got some unexpected help, as Fields and Greer scored six apiece off the bench in the first half. We lead the Big Red 38-29 at halftime.
The second half began as a symphony in B, as in Brick. Only one shot was made in the first five minutes, and that's on a putback by Williams. He teed off on the glass, though.
Cornell closed to 50-45 with eight minutes left before Jefferson came off a screen and hit a 3. He made another one two possessions later. I like the energy he's giving us.
We played an even game the rest of the way and won 71-57. Jefferson led all scorers with 15 points. Cooper got going late and finished with 10. Williams had nine points and nine rebounds. Sam Green had 12 to lead Cornell.
I've learned some important things already after just one game. Cooper MUST stay out of foul trouble. A lot to ask of a freshman point guard, but Noel Scott, his backup, tired quickly and I'm not yet sure who else I can trust to handle the ball. Foul trouble and Jefferson's hot hand kept me from seeing more of Miller and White. A three-guard lineup (Cooper, Miller, Jefferson) could do wonders if they all weren't so small. Fields and Greer showed ability I hadn't seen from them in practice. Vidal Muhammad did a decent job with his limited minutes.
Game Report:
Illinois-Chicago at Davidson
Saturday, Nov. 23, 2002
After a successful home opener, we head east for three games.
Lots of back-and-forth to start this one. We got their big men into early foul trouble, so they went really small (their tallest player on the court at one point was 6'5"), but they stayed with us, out-quicking our big guys. Brought Jefferson in and he scored seven straight points after missing his first two shots. Our guards, especially Cooper, seemed to be playing out of control at times, which flies in the face of my slow-it-down offensive philosophy. We'll have to work on that in practice.
Jefferson's seven sparked a 12-0 run midway through the half, giving us a 22-14 lead with 8:20 to go when Davidson burned a time out. Scott played well off the bench (four assists, two rebounds in seven minutes), but tired quickly again and let us down (and Davidson back into the game) defensively. At 4:20, Williams went to the bench with two fouls after fouling Anthony Pengelly on a three-point attempt. Stupid fouls like that can kill a coach. He made all three free throws, too, and Davidson was within three.
Then another stretch came where seemingly nobody could make a basket. Davidson's Meechy Gates solved that problem by hitting a 3 and forcing us to switch to a 3-2 zone, as they've been shooting over us all afternoon; and an isolation set offense, as we didn't have the shooters on the floor to play a strictly perimeter game. Miller hits a jumper with eight seconds left in the half, and we're up 37-34 at halftime.
We're a little calmer as the second half starts. I'd considered putting Jefferson in to start the second half, but stuck with Miller, and he thanked me by making his first shot. Davidson's in serious foul trouble, and less than four minutes into the half, Gates took his 16 points and went to the bench with four fouls. Smelling blood, I told my guys to pick up the tempo, thinking this is our best chance to put them away. Instead, they ended up throwing the ball away a lot. White came through for us here, getting an important three-point play after a foul while rebounding a Miller miss at the free throw line, and controlling the glass at the offensive end. But he needed a rest, and I went back to my bench and slowed things down.
And Davidson went cold. Their jumpers weren't falling. When we weren't throwing the ball out of bounds, we weren't doing too badly for ourselves. We extended the lead to 61-50 with eight minutes left, and Cooper and Miller came back in. It seemed like Davidson was shooting nothing but threes at this point, but a look at the stats said they only had two more attempts than we did, and we'd only MADE two of ours. We reached the five-minute mark and I wondered why Gates wasn't back on the floor yet, four fouls be damned - PG Dan Smith tried to keep them in it, but his shooting was erratic, like his team's.
Gates returned with 2:59 left. We're up by 15. White had just scored his 17th point - he and Miller had been trading the team scoring lead in the second half. Gates missed his first shot. He made his second, but it didn't matter. The Flames won, 75-61, to improve to 2-0.
White had a double-double with 19 points and 13 rebounds. Miller added 15 points. Cooper had five points and seven assists. Jefferson and senior Mark Correa gave us nine apiece off the bench. Gates led Davidson with 19, and Smith had 13. We were 3 of 18 from behind the arc, which is bad. I've got to impress upon these guys that if you can't make them, don't take them. We head north to take on Virginia Tech next.
Conference Roundup: Tenth-ranked Tennessee put a boot in Wisconsin-Green Bay's ass Friday night, to the tune of 101-66. On Sunday, No. 21 Indiana beat Butler, 97-46.
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