Illinois-Chicago Diary (Week 12)

Polls: Tennessee is still No. 1, but 20-0 Oklahoma has moved up to No. 2.

Academics: Yay! Kiwane Jefferson got his GPA up to 2.26 and was reinstated. Just in time, too — his shooting, and really, just his person, are badly needed.

Awards:
Horizon League Player of the Week: C #11 Gabriel Ichaki, 6’6” senior, Butler (24 ppg, 23 rpg) 22 and 28 in an 82-43 shellacking of Wright State on Saturday.
Horizon League Freshman of the Week: PG #12 Chris Merton, 6’3” freshman, Wisconsin-Green Bay (17 ppg, 7 apg) Second week in a row and third in the last four.
National Player of the Week: Jon Finley, 6’2” junior, New Hampshire (34.5 ppg)
National Freshman of the Week: Jeff Reese, 6’8” freshman, Rhode Island (30 ppg, 21 rpg, 4 bpg)

Game 20 Report
Illinois-Chicago (10-9, 3-4) at Cleveland State (11-8, 3-4)
Wednesday, January 29, 2003

Why, yes, we DID just play and beat the Vikings last week. Why do you ask?

This time around, the first points of the game came at the free throw line. Williams got our first three in the early going, and White had four rebounds as we trailed 9-7 after five minutes, only for Jones to give us the lead with a three. Cooper got two quick fouls, so Jefferson made his return a little earlier in the game than we’d planned, and the rust on him showed as he missed his first two shots. But he did get an assist on a nifty baseball pass to Correa. He recovered to sink his next two shots to help us to a four-point lead, and scored seven in his stint off the bench.

We hit a shooting slump late in the first half, but the Vikings had spent the entire game in a shooting slump, stuck around 35 percent. White and Jones were helping us out on the boards, but we didn’t make a shot in the last four minutes. Still, we led, 33-32 at halftime. Jefferson and Jones had seven apiece for the Flames. Marc Minton led Cleveland State with 10 at the half.

After losing the lead briefly, dunks by Jones and Williams started a 10-2 run to push the lead to 45-36. Cooper got two more fouls and hit the bench with four early — someone should tell him that Kiwane coming back doesn’t mean he can just play recklessly. It was 50-40 before another mini-slump hit us and the Vikings closed to within seven before we were able to pull away again. Jones and Jefferson pushed us at the offensive end, but we’d been giving up the odd three, so we switched to a zone late to make sure they didn’t come back on us. They didn’t. Apparently, home court advantage equals seven points, as this was our margin of victory this time. 72-63 this time around.

An up-and-down effort. Jefferson had a triumphant return, leading us with 16 points off the bench. Jones added 15 and eight rebounds, while White had 12 boards. Cooper and Correa combined for 13 assists. Minton and Terrence Keith had 15 apiece for the Vikings.

Game 21 Report
Wisconsin-Milwaukee (7-13, 3-5) at Illinois-Chicago (11-9, 4-4)
Saturday, February 1, 2003

REVENGE THE TIME IS NOW

But this isn’t good: after beating us the first time, the Panthers have won three of four (including a 112-64 thrashing of Youngstown State, a game in which Greg Morrill scored his first points) and are coming off a 20-point upset win at Detroit where they had five players score in double figures.

It was almost five minutes before we made a shot. That’s all you really need to know about how this game started. Down 8-0, we switched up our offensive sets and scored seven straight points after that before a Damian Jackson jumper ended the run. As usual, White got into foul trouble again, and Muhammad came in and did some good things (four points in the post) and bad things (why is a 6-10 player fouling guys on the perimeter?) We made another little run to get to 17-13, but couldn’t find a way to overtake them early on.

Jones picked up his second foul, giving us three guys already with two: him, White, and Fields. The shooting’s been pretty abysmal in the first half, with neither team breaking 35 percent. That’s the only thing keeping us in it, as we’re committing stupid fouls and can’t get to the line. We then start getting to the line, but we can’t make those shots, either. The Panthers lead by 11 at one point, and are up 31-22 at halftime.

Seven of 21 from the floor. Thirteen turnovers in the first half. Against a good team we’d be down 25. We’re doing irreparable harm to the game of basketball with this farce. Jones has eight at the break to lead all scorers. Muhammad has six off the bench for us.

Coach Mills must have used that “irreparable harm to the game of basketball” line in the locker room at halftime, because they came out in the second half and tried to fix it. It started at the free throw line, where we got out first six points of the second half. That and a White jumper closed the gap to 33-30. Cooper got whistled for a flagrant foul that gave him four, and he’s really regressed in the last week and a half. Fortunately, the Panthers missed both technical free throws and turned over the ball on the possession.

Correa hit a three to get us to 34-33, but Keaton Grady responded with a three of his own. We stayed within three or four points of them for a while, but Correa went to the bench for a breather, and with Cooper still there, the Panthers pulled away slightly, taking a 53-45 lead with 6:36 to play.

With 3:45 left, Jones got fouled on a three-point attempt, but missed the last two shots. However, White got the rebound and put it back to close the gap to 58-52. Jackson fouled out for the Panthers soon after, and Williams hit two free throws to make it 60-54 with 2:52 left. We got within four before a John Burch jumper and a three from Grady pushed the lead to 65-56 with 51 seconds left. And with both teams in the bonus, the odds were against us catching them, and we didn’t. 68-60 loss.

Jones led all scorers with 17. Jefferson and Williams had 10 apiece. For the Panthers, Ian Okotie led with 12, Grady had 11, and Ross Shivers added 10 and eight rebounds. It seemed like every basket Shivers made stopped any thoughts of making a run we might have had — they always came after we’d hit a couple in a row and were getting some momentum. Cooper never did get back in the game after the flagrant foul, leading reporters to ask coach Mills after the game if his starting spot was in jeopardy. Mills said he wasn’t sure. He also said off the record that he thinks the Panthers and coach Courtney Fuhs were sandbagging the conference all along.