Hoopraker

January 10, Chicago, Ill. - Tonight was a big night for the University of Illinois-Chicago Flames as they upset the 12th ranked Butler Bulldogs 73-67 in OT. The Bulldogs are coached by 6th year man Todd Lickliter (Butler ‘69).  In his time as assistant and head coach at Butler he has marshaled some very impressive wins, including advancing to the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Tournament in only his second season.

Zipper 3, one of a half dozen or more special offensive plays Lickliter uses to spring various outside shooters on this team, was demonstrative of the methodical offensive schemes Butler uses. All of the offensive sets are carefully conceived around crisp passing, good spacing on the floor, and occasional dribble penetration moves to the basket to get good outside shots, most often by A.J. Graves, the junior from Switz, Indiana.  He is not the person one would pick from the team as their impact player since he physically is small, a skinny 6 footer.  But he has a tremendous shooting eye from most any distance, is a very good dribbler and passer, and has unlimited energy and drive.

Graves reminded me of the late Matt Heldman (Illinois ‘98) in size, stature, and  heart.  For those of you who like pure basketball players who play all forty minutes with their hearts on the floor, Graves is a must see.  He was a cross country runner in high school, and he should have great potential as a very successful marathoner given his ability to go full steam for an entire game, including overtime.

On this cold, windy night on Morgan Street Graves and his teammates struggled to get their shots to fall in the first half.  None of the Bulldogs could find the range on their three point attempts.  This is a hazard of a team that is heavily dependent on perimeter shooting.  There are nights when the shots do not fall, particularly when playing on the road. Graves had only 2 points at the half. He and his coach were noticeably frustrated by the performance as they escaped to the dressing room.

Butler does not start a player over 6′7″ so they were at a disadvantage on the rebounding side as VanderMeer, Stefanov, and Zoric of the Flames dominated the paint and out rebounded the Bulldogs by a margin of 51 to 38 for the game.  A major element of the Bulldog well designed play structure is to periodically slash and cut to the basket for short shots, a lay-up, or pass back to an open Graves on the perimeter.  Green and Crone have just adequate athletic skills to be threats in the paint, but against the much taller UIC post men, they were unable to convert many points in the paint. Most of the UIC points in the first half came by easy lay-ups and offensive put backs by VanderMeer and Stefanov. UIC’s outside shooting was not impressive in the first half either.

The Butler team battled back in the second half with Graves catching fire from the outside as well as some effective dribble penetration for easy lay-ups.  He shot from all angles on the perimeter with most of them stroking net.  In addition, he was fouled late in the game and he hit both of these crucial free throws. Through the leadership of his grit and heart, his team mates battled back and tied the game at the end of regulation.  The Flames also found their outside shooting touch in the second half with a barrage of threes coming from Mayo, Gray, and Bush.

In overtime, the Flames pulled away for the upset with some impressive outside shooting including two very long threes by Stefanov.  For the game, Graves made 7 threes and scored 31 points, 29 in the second half.  In addition, Campbell made 4 threes in 7 attempts. The Flames hit 11 of 21 threes.

This game indicates the degree of difficulty a mid-major like Butler has in gaining an invitation to the NCAA.  With an impressive 14-1 record coming into the game and victories over Tennessee and Notre Dame, they had compiled a great pre-conference record that surely would impress the invitation committee.  However, the loss to UIC, a 7-9 team before the upset, has the potential to be a major blemish that the Tournament committee could blow out of proportion in their final selections.  Fact is the UIC Flames are a better team than their record would indicate, including a near upset of their downstate sisters, the Illini, in early December.  You could read these realities on Coach Lickliter’s face as he cajoled his team throughout the second half to play better defense, particularly on the perimeter.

Another major take-away from this game is that there are a lot of small town basketball players who are overlooked by Big Ten teams, particularly current bottom-feeders such as Northwestern and Minnesota.  Graves would be a force in the Princeton offensive schemes that both the Cats and Gophers play. Furthermore, Graves was the salutatorian of his graduating class indicating academic success.  Other small, but dynamite basketball players from Indiana, that we have seen include Adam Gore (Cornell) and Kent Raymond (Wheaton College).  Both Gore and Raymond gave Northwestern fits in early season games.  Either of these players would plug a big hole in the Cats inability to hit wide open outside shots with consistency.

In the Chicago Public league, juniors Mike Dinunno of Von Steuben, and A.J. Rompza of Whitney Young are examples of undersized but great shooting and athletic players who have the potential to become major contributors to the struggling Big Ten teams.  Dinunno just made an oral commitment to Northern Illinois so he and his 4.0 grade point average are now unavailable.

Posted by Jim Elsass on Friday, January 12th, 2007 at 3:29 pm.