Polls: Tennessee’s still on top. Kansas moved up from 6 to 3.
Awards:
Horizon League Player of the Week: C #11 Gabriel Ichaki, 6’6” senior, Butler (22 ppg, 15.5 rpg)
Horizon League Freshman of the Week: PG #11 Rashun Cooper, 6’1” freshman, Illinois-Chicago (13.5 ppg, 7.5 apg) That second-half benching against UWM two weeks ago must have woken him up.
National Player of the Week: PF Bernard Harris, 6’10” senior, Ohio State (29.5 ppg, 17.5 rpg)
National Freshman of the Week: PG Brett Slane, 5’11” freshman, St. Francis, Pa. (23.5 pgg, 4.5 apg)
Game 24 Report
Illinois-Chicago (13-10, 5-5) at Youngstown State (8-14, 4-6)
Thursday, February 13, 2003
These aren’t the same Penguins we beat in the opener or the same Penguins we thought would be a sleeper team in the Horizon. This team’s pretty ordinary now, especially with point guard Otis Moran having academic issues.
An undistinguished start. Nothing really to speak of in the early going. But back-to-back Penguin threes in the sixth minute brought a switch to the zone on our part. This was part of a 9-0 run that gave them a 16-10 advantage. We responded with a little spurt of our own and get to 20-19 halfway through the first half. Both teams are shooting very poorly from the free throw stripe; 40 and 33 percent respectively.
A dunk by Jones over Ramon Richardson tied it at 23 with seven minutes to go in the half. Cooper, Correa, White and Muhammad already have two fouls each, which is both annoying and puzzling. Jones hit a three to give the Flames a 30-29 lead with 4:30 left, but one minute later, Cooper picked up his third foul. The Penguins started to pull away slightly after that, but Will Wagner, seeing his first real action in about a month, hit a halfcourt buzzer-beater to make the score 40-39 Penguins at halftime.
We were whistled for 14 fouls to their five. Four of our players have three fouls already. Ah, gotta love homecourt advantage. Jones leads all scorers at halftime with 11. Pat King has a team-high eight for the Penguins.
Correa began the second half with back-to-back jumpers, but White picked up foul No. 4 less than two minutes in. Correa actually scored the first eight UIC points of the second half, giving him 10 at the first timeout. He got HIS fourth foul called five and a half minutes into the second half, creating a massive problem. We were still ahead, but playing with two starters chained to the bench with four fouls for probably the next eight or nine minutes wasn’t going to be pleasant to deal with.
Or was it? Muhammad’s become known for his threes, as unlikely a development as any, but he’s also got some nice inside moves, getting a layup after faking Martin Sanchez out of his Nikes. But Fields picked up HIS fourth foul, and the Penguins regained the lead, 62-61, on a Jovan Yilmaz putback with 8:40 left. Our calculations at this point told us that we could maybe last three more minutes before Correa and White absolutely had to go back in.
Up three with 6:09 left, we brought Fields back in because Jones needed a breather and Adam’s expendable. After Williams made the second of two free throws, Sean Miller responded with a three-point play that got the Penguins within one at 68-67 and also gave Cooper four fouls. But they were unable to take the lead in the next minute, and with 4:49 left, Jones, Correa and White came back in. Jones rebounded a Correa miss and found Jefferson for two. Correa made a smooth over-the-shoulder pass to Jefferson that led to another deuce. A steal by Jones led to a sloppy-looking leaner by Correa that fell. But Richardson came back with another three to cut the lead to 74-72 with 2:40 to go. Miller tied it with a jumper, and Sanchez hit an 8-footer to give the Penguins a 76-74 lead with 1:14 left.
White got the ball at the top of the key as we reached the one-minute mark. Rod Larson fouled him. He MISSED the first free throw. Now he’s hurting us when he actually plays. He hit the second one, but the Penguins came down and got a quick score from Larson, then fouled Jones, who made his first free throw… but missed the second. Sanchez made two at the other end with seven seconds left, effectively ending a good game. 80-76 final.
Free throws killed us again. We were 10 of 18 from the stripe; they were 20 of 27. Bobby Coursey, playing out of position at point guard, led the Penguins with 15 points and seven assists. King had 14, and Miller added 13. For the Flames, Correa had a game-high 16, while Jones added 13. White only played 14 minutes because of foul trouble and is in real danger of losing his starting spot, as his inability to stay in games effectively reduces him to a bench player anyway.
Game 25 Report
Butler (15-9, 9-3) at Illinois-Chicago (13-11, 5-6)
Saturday, February 15, 2003
Here’s how twisted the schedule was this year: We’re already done with Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Detroit, Cleveland State AND Youngstown State, but this is our first meeting with Butler and there are only two and a half weeks left in the regular season. Who set this up? Not me — I only changed the Virginia Tech game from a trip out to Pacific or someplace since we were already in the South and heading north.
The reigning conference Player of the Week is probably the best player in the conference:
C #11 Gabriel Ichaki (6’6”, 200, senior; Resurrection HS, Kitchener, Ontario, Canada)
12.7 ppg, 15.5 rpg (leads NATION), 2.5 bpg (2nd in conference)
After much speculation, White did indeed start for the Flames in this game. Jones scored five early points for us, but, as expected, we weren’t able to keep Ichaki off the boards. Jones ended up with seven in the first seven minutes to stake us to an 11-8 lead before he went to the bench for a rest.
Ichaki’s first block of the game came after Jefferson grabbed an offensive rebound and tried to lay it up inside instead of passing out. Not smart. Also, this just in: White is NOT in foul trouble. Cooper was, picking up his third with 7:30 left in the first half in the middle of a 13-2 Butler run that gave the Bulldogs a 30-22 lead with 3:18 to go in the half. Things went downhill from there, and it was 40-26 at halftime.
Gerald Williams, who’s the Bulldogs’ leading scorer despite not starting, had 13 at the break. Jones led us with seven. Yes, STILL. Butler’s shooting 56 percent to our 31, which also isn’t helping matters.
Jones and Cooper started right out with back-to-back threes to open the second half, but the Bulldogs were relentless, deciding that nothing we did was going to stop them. And it didn’t, as they took over in the second half and blew the lead out to 25 points with 11 minutes left. They’d lead by as much as 34 en route to a 93-60 demolition job. They’re better than us, and I acknowledge that, but 33 points better?
Gerald Williams led all scorers with 24. Ichaki finished with 13 points, 11 rebounds, and five blocks, which is about right. Jerome Betts had 17 points and nine assists. DeLawn Mydra had 11 points and 11 rebounds. Backup PG Marlon Jackson came off the bench to hit for 12. Butler shot 63 percent to our 34 percent. Jones led us with 20, while Jefferson had 13 off the bench and Damon Williams scored 10.
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