Polls: No changes.
Recruiting: We got our first commitment!
Liam Paisley (SG, 6’5”, 160, Zurich, Switzerland; Proviso East HS, Maywood, IL)
He chose us over Loyola-Chicago (Coach Stanley will be disappointed — he was very high on him), and Marquette missed out on him because they were slow to make an offer. About the name: his parents are transplanted Scotsmen and work for an export company that has a lot of dealings with the chocolate makers, hence the Zurich hometown. He talked his parents into letting him come to the U.S. as an exchange student, and he picked up the game here. Interesting kid. He wears No. 22 for his high school team, and likely also will with us.
Eric Braddick signed with Creighton, while Matt Conrad — oh, this one hurts — committed to conference foe Youngstown State. Ouch. Norman Joyce was at the Alabama State game and promptly signed with Western Illinois. Nebraska and DePaul have entered the Winkfield chase now, and with only three weeks left in the recruiting period, we’ve only got one player signed and our chances of landing the big man we need appear nonexistent.
We aggressively went after Winkfield, made Antonio Morrison an offer, placed a call to Aquil Cooper (no relation to Rashun), and opened talks with another JUCO guy:
PF Jared Street (6’8”, 188, Chicago; Sheridan, Wyo., JC)
A check-in with my RV guys shows that Largent’s gotten an offer from George Washington.
Awards
Horizon League Player of the Week: SG #51 — DeLawn Mydra, 6’5” junior, Butler (22 ppg, 6 apg, 4 rpg)
Horizon League Freshman of the Week: SF #24 — Andy Hayes, 6’5” freshman, Wright State (16.5 ppg; third week in a row; fourth time overall; I’m looking forward to seeing him in person and yet at the same time I’m not.)
National Player of the Week: SG Kendall Fife, 6’2” senior, Eastern Washington (28.5 ppg, 5 apg, 8.5 rpg)
National Freshman of the Week: PG Lavar Camara, 6’4” freshman, Oklahoma State (20.5 ppg, 10 apg)
Game 11 Report
Florida State (3-6) at Illinois-Chicago (6-4)
Thursday, December 26, 2002
We wanted to slow things down at the start, and the Seminoles were only too happy to play along. Some questionable shot selection by Jones early on had us puzzled, but with a 6-3 lead after four and a half minutes, we weren’t quite ready to complain. Especially since Florida State couldn’t make anything or, really, do anything right — backup point Morgan Marshall fouled Williams going for a rebound and got posterized on top of it. We grabbed a 13-5 lead about eight and a half minutes in before the ’Noles, who’d only made one shot from the floor to that point, called time.
Out of the timeout, Stephan Brown made a couple of threes for them, but we kept our cool and kept the lead. Williams, in particular, played big for us during this stretch as we actually got second shots. In fact, we owned the glass in the first half, which is rare for us. With four minutes to play in the half, we had a 28-19 lead and a 19-9 rebounding advantage. FSU made a little rally to get within three, but we were getting to the line and were able to push the lead back to eight, and it was nine (36-27) at halftime.
Brown had 11 at the half to lead all scorers. Jones and Miller had eight apiece for us, while Williams had seven points, three rebounds (all offensive) and three blocks. We don’t block shots, either, as our two primary centers are 6’6” and 6’7”. Quite a surprise there.
The second half started with Florida State actually making shots. Brown led them, hitting back-to-back three-pointers followed by a Marques Phillips layup. Our lead was cut to 41-37 before we got a steal and called time to get our act together. Fortunately, Correa came off the bench and led the charge like a good senior should, getting a key steal and hitting a three that helped us stretch the lead back to 47-40. He followed that up with another three-pointer and a beautiful alley-oop pass to Greer. With 9:22 left, we led 57-47, and after a couple minutes of basket trading, Correa returned to the bench with 14 points and a nice ovation for a good night’s work. The 63-56 lead didn’t hurt, either.
FSU’s Brown tried, but he couldn’t bring his team back by himself. Marshall was having a decent outing with starter Phillips in foul trouble, but Williams and Cooper got some easy baskets, and White was crashing the boards like a beast. We were up 11 with four minutes to go, and it looked like our losing streak was soon to end.
And it did, but Miller went down with an injury after being blocked (though the official called it a charge) with 59 seconds left in the game. The final was 78-66, but it was hard to enjoy the needed victory with the possibility of losing another member of our already thin backcourt. Correa led us with 15 points, and Jones added 14. Miller had 10 before he went out, and White scored eight points and pulled down 14 rebounds. FSU’s Brown was the high man with 23 points.
The next day we got the news on Miller, and it’s not great. He’s got a groin injury, possibly a partial tear, and our trainer isn’t sure how long he’ll be out. He’ll definitely miss our game at Pitt on Saturday and the following week of action at least. Time to scramble. Jefferson would obviously move into the starting lineup, but that means even more minutes for Correa in the backcourt.
Game 12 Report
Illinois-Chicago (7-4) at Pittsburgh (3-6)
Saturday, December 28, 2003
Despite the records, we were a little wary going into this one. The thinking was this: a road game against a Big East team playing a tough schedule (Pitt has the 25th toughest schedule in the country, with losses to UCLA and a surprising 10-2 Baylor team) could lead to problems. Kiwane Jefferson knew he’d have to change his approach offensively now that he was starting. Still, I don’t think even he expected his first points to come on a putback. Early on, just about everybody got involved for the Flames as we built a 13-8 lead before both teams went to their benches. Once this started, we made substitutions about every two minutes, since we’re down to two healthy true guards right now. The Panthers rallied to tie the score at 16, but Jefferson came back in soon thereafter and hit a three to break the tie about halfway through the first half.
It stayed close for a few more minutes until the Panthers took their first lead at 24-23 with about 7:30 left in the half. More subbing led to Correa coming into the game, and he hit a jumper with 5:16 left to put us back up, 25-24. The back-and-forth continued until Correa tied the game at 28 with a three-pointer, giving him 10 at that point. Pitt mounted a small run at the end of the half, however, and took a 35-30 lead into the locker room.
Pitt center Darrin Reese had been giving us problems down low in the first half — while only 6’7”, we didn’t have anyone who could stop him down there. We were reluctant to switch White onto him, as he was (as usual) in foul trouble. So Reese kept going down into the post and hurting us, scoring the first four points of the second half as Pitt ran its lead to 42-34. They would expand it to 50-40 at the 12-minute mark. Five more Panther points (highlighted by a rare 3 from Timmy Hester — Pitt doesn’t shoot threes often or well) and Mills had seen enough. Time out!
Did it help? Well, two minutes later we had a four-on-one and the shot got blocked, so I’d have to say no based on that alone. The lead swelled to 65-48 with 5:34 left when White returned to the floor with four fouls. We made a little run before a flagrant foul on Correa took what little wind there was left out of our sails. Final was 81-60.
Pitt point guard Mekeli Scott led all scorers with 19 points. Reese had 18, while Hester and Anthony Anderson had 14 apiece. Correa and Jefferson each had 15 for the Flames. Cooper had nine assists, which was surprising since he’s running out of guys to pass to. With conference play starting next week, we’re 7-5 and hurting.
Literally.
Conference Roundup: It was a big Saturday for the Horizon League. Not in results, however. Loyola-Chicago went to Texas and lost, 98-77. Wisconsin-Milwaukee visited No. 10 Syracuse and suffered a 75-60 defeat. Fifth-ranked Michigan State went to Youngstown State (actually, for our purposes and because this would never actually happen in real life, the game was played at a neutral site — Gund Arena in Cleveland) and won 78-68.
No comments:
Post a Comment