December 9, 2006
Chicago/Evanston, Illinois
Illinois 71 UIC 66
Northwestern 77 Central Michigan 75 OT
I got a Big Ten double scoop this Saturday with both the Illini and Wildcats playing in Chicagoland. Here’s my report from the field:
Game I
The Illini have scheduled their sister school in the big city over recent years. Coach Weber was quoted as saying he does not like to play instate schools since a win for the Illini is expected and a loss is considered a serious blemish. Coach Collins, on the other hand, thinks reaching down to your little sister occasionally is a good idea. Gives little sis a chance to put a scare on, maybe sneak one on big brother. A crowd of 16,424 fans showed up at the United Center for this inter-family battle with most of the seats filled with the orange clad Illini nation.
The game was a contrast of halves. The first half belonged to the Illini. UIC could not deal with the tight defense the Illini are capable of playing. The Flames struggled to get off good shots throughout the half with the shot buzzer often erupting as their wild shots were lofted. On the other end of the court, the Flames failed to disrupt the beautiful motion offense that Weber teaches. This offense features good three point shooters- McBride, Smith, Meacham, and Frazier. And on any given night, Carter can also knock down the three. With the perimeter game carrying them, the Illini did not get their “Bigs†involved. This would become a problem in the second half.
The second half was a new ballgame. It was obvious that the active and vocal Jimmie Collins got his Flames ignited during the break. They exploded with 11 straight points, most of them from Othyus Jeffers who is a very athletic scorer/slasher. Once the Flames regained contact, they did not let up. They played much better defense and forced the Illini to find their “Bigs.” The Illini frontline, however, did not go unchallenged. The Flames boast two competent Croatians and an Indiana giant, Scott Vandermeer, all of whom go 6’9†and above. None of the three are great athletes, but they play good fundamental basketball.
The bottom line, Collins had convinced his players that this was a game they could win and they fought hard until the final horn. This was the definition of a quality loss for the Flames. UIC has been up and down so far this year, but they have the elements of a decent team. One of the keys to the second half comeback was some 3-point shooting by Jovan Stefanovich and aggressive play by Danijel Zoric, plus great leadership and play by Jeffers. Jeffers is their best player; he is a high energy basket attacker who forces defenses to expend a lot of energy.
The good news for the Illini is that they avoided an embarrassing loss to their little sister in the Horizon Conference. If you do not know much about the Horizon Conference, it is surprisingly strong with Butler appearing to be the team to beat this year. The other good news for the Illini is that Brian Randle played 16 minutes, possibly double the amount of minutes Weber wanted. But without Randle’s productivity, energy, and aggressive play, the Illini would have gone down this afternoon. The lesson for the Illini is that they will have a long season unless they discipline themselves to play belly to belly defense for forty minutes. I suspect Weber will be making this point. This is not a team that has the same depth of talent as those of the last four years.
Game II
After dinner with friends in the newly developed commercial area adjacent to the UIC campus, I motored north to Evanston to catch the Wildcats matchup with the pride of Kalamazoo, the Broncos of Western Michigan. The Bronc rep the Mid-American Conference, West Division. They were predicted to make some noise in the conference race this year with a young team devoid of seniors. The line-up is comprised of small town guys from Indiana and Michigan. Towns like Elkhart, LaGrange, Goshen, and Fisher, Indiana, and Grand Rapids and Rockford in Michigan. Add a couple of players from Detroit, one each from Chicago and Indianapolis and you have a good mix of players who have been taught the fundamentals- passing, moving without the ball, and some good outside shooting plus just enough athleticism to keep them in games against schools like Northwestern. While their record is not very impressive, Steve Hawkins is a good coach and they will wreak havoc for their foes in the MAC race this year. In another year, they may jell into a NCAA team.
Only 3,203 showed up for the game as the NU students finished their exams on Friday and most have exited Evanston for the holiday break. From the beginning it was clear that the Cats would have trouble escaping this night with a win. The Broncos were very adept at working open for good 3-point shots and almost anyone on the floor could make the shot when it opened up. They hit eleven 3’s (11 of 27). Five Broncos had at least two 3’s.
The Wildcat zone simply could not keep the Broncos from getting good open looks from the perimeter. It was a see-saw game. The Cats extended to a few five point bulges, but the Broncos always answered with timely buckets.
The Broncos were not very big, but they were able to spread their offense for the open shot, and occasionally, their forwards dribbled into the paint and got lay-ups against the very soft Cat interior defense. The NU zone was relatively ineffective, and it probably would have been good to mix in some man-to-man, but I suspect Carmody lacks confidence in his squad’s ability to pay belly-to-belly defense.
After missing a couple of 3 point shots early in the game, Craig Moore found the range and put in 6 of 9 (26 points). Add this performance to his seven 3’s against Miami and you can see what he means to this team. However, he will not be able to sustain this level of performance every game, so other players will have to step up.
And Kevin Coble did just that. He is an eye popping frosh for the Wildcats. At the end of regulation and into overtime, he took over. He finished with his best offensive performance as a Wildcat (25 points) in 43 minutes of play. This kid will get better and his upside is as positive as any freshmen we have seen in Evanston in my 20 plus years of watching NU basketball. Given the performance of Moore and Coble, the Cats did not need any “old man†heroics from Tim Doyle. He had a so so game, but helped steady the young team during the final minutes.
The Broncos played hard and you could see the determination on their faces. They saw a big chance to pick off a Big Ten team on the road. When players get back on defense and get down low with a hand slap to the floor in the overtime, you know they have fully committed to doing anything to get the win.
The Cats were lucky this night and they rode on the skinny shoulders of kid Coble during the overtime to squeak out a W.
