A year ago, UIC went into the Midwestern Collegiate Conference tournament trying to play its way into the NCAA tournament.
This year, the Flames probably can only play themselves out.
With a 22-4 record and a rosy No. 22 ranking in the latest RPIs, the Flames appear to have all but wrapped up their first invitation to the Big Dance. Only an early wipeout in the Midwestern Collegiate Conference tournament could spell “NIT” for the pride of the West Side.
Still, head coach Jimmy Collins isn’t taking anything for granted. On Tuesday morning, as he prepared for the weekend’s MCC tournament opener in Green Bay, Collins mused that he might be the only 22-win coach in the nation who’s worrying about whether his team will make the NCAAs.
“I know it would be enough, if we were in the Big Ten or the Big East, to win 22 games against the caliber of competition we’ve played,” Collins said.
No argument there. The Flames beat Michigan State, which has wrapped up at least a share of the Big Ten crown, by 12 points, then lost a nail-biter at Illinois, which could wind up with a piece of the Big Ten title. They also split two games with the other MCC powerhouse, Detroit, which also beat the Spartans and lost a close game at Michigan.
Michigan State and Illinois, of course, are tournament locks, and Michigan is close to one. UIC and Detroit should be, but they aren’t.
Such is life in the mid-major conferences. UIC might be the best basketball team in the Land of Lincoln, but its name doesn’t exactly light up the nation.
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That frustrates Collins, just as it frustrates Perry Watson, coach of 23-4 Detroit.
If both teams advance to the MCC tourney final, they can start making plans for an NCAA subregional. The MCC has placed more than one team in the NCAAs in seven of the last 12 years.
But if either UIC or Detroit stumbles and someone else–Butler, perhaps, or Wisconsin-Green Bay on its home floor–emerges as the champion, things could get sticky when NCAA bids are announced on the evening of March 8.
Collins isn’t ready to look that far ahead. But MCC commissioner Jon LeCrone is. He said he’s virtually certain the league will draw two spots, and he even fantasizes a scenario where three slip in.
LeCrone knows that the conference ultimately will be judged on what it does with its bids. The MCC has lost six straight NCAA tournament games. They were tight losses to major-conference teams, to be sure, but if that streak grows, it will be hard for the MCC to argue that it deserves multiple slots in the future.
“I tell our coaches all the time, `Listen, fellas, we can talk all we want about getting more than one bid, but once we get into the tournament, we’ve got to perform,’ ” LeCrone said. “Our challenge this year isn’t getting to the tournament. Our challenge this year is performing once we get there.”
Now, the rematch: The Duke-North Carolina rematch Saturday lost a little luster when the Tar Heels got whipped by North Carolina State 86-72 in Chapel Hill last weekend and dropped to No. 3, behind top-ranked Duke and Arizona. There have been only three No. 1-vs.-No. 2 rematches in college basketball history, and only one in the regular season (UCLA and Notre Dame swapped victories a week apart in the 1973-74 season).
Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski was less than thrilled at the prospect of carrying the top ranking into the weekend, let alone the postseason. Duke was ranked No. 1 twice this year and lost to Michigan and North Carolina.
“We still haven’t gotten a trophy for the last two times,” he said. “All you do at No. 1 is you eventually get beat. That’s of little consequence right now.”
But Duke has a different look than it did in the blowout loss to the Tar Heels Feb. 5 in the Dean Smith Center. With 6-8 freshman Elton Brand back from a foot injury, the Blue Devils hope to do a better job containing Carolina’s inside game. The Tar Heels’ three big men–Antawn Jamison, Ademola Okulaja and Vince Carter–shot a combined 22 of 37 and outscored Duke’s starting five 54-47.
Fine whine: As if losing at Duke 120-84 Sunday wasn’t bad enough, UCLA made matters worse by griping about the officiating. Some of the Bruins contended that foul calls on star forward J.R. Henderson tilted the game toward the home team. Henderson drew three fouls in the first 7 minutes.
“We knew with the ACC-Pac-10 thing, there might be a couple called against us,” Henderson said. “But to make it that obvious isn’t right. It’s not fair. It definitely determined the outcome. It was already going to be a tough game.”
Fair to say, then, that UCLA’s 26 percent shooting from the floor and Trajan Langdon’s 34 points for Duke didn’t determine the outcome?
Big man on campus: Shawnta Rogers doesn’t let his size (he’s 5-4) stand in his way on the basketball court. The junior point guard averages 15 points, 5 assists and 5 rebounds a game as the floor leader for the George Washington Colonials.
But sometimes Rogers’ height can present problems off the court. Consider what happened when Rogers showed up at the Smith Center before a game the other day.
“I was walking in the door for players, and a (security) guy says, “Hey, you, hold up there,’ ” Rogers said. “I just kept walking. Then I told him who I was.”
Free throws: There were a couple of surprises in the newest RPI Top 10. Connecticut slipped into fourth behind North Carolina, Duke and Arizona and ahead of Kentucky and Kansas. And Maryland, which is only 16-9, rose to No. 7. . . . Princeton can become the first team in the NCAA tournament’s field of 64 as early as Friday night. The Tigers would wrap up the Ivy League bid if they beat Columbia and Pennsylvania loses to Cornell. . . . Big battle in Conference USA Thursday night, with UNC-Charlotte visiting Cincinnati. Winner assumes control of the American Division and will likely wind up with the top seed in the conference tournament. . . . Looking for tournament bubble teams? Look at Conference USA, which has seven teams with 16 or more wins. Only one other conference–the Western Athletic Conference–has as many. . . . With 20 wins going into Tuesday night’s showdown with Syracuse, St. John’s has had its best regular season since 1991, when it wound up 23-9 and advanced to the Midwest Region final. . . .
If it seems that more teams are resorting to zone defenses this year, it’s because few teams have the type of shooters who can exploit the strategy, according to UAB coach Murray Bartow. “There are a lot of guys who think they can shoot, but there aren’t many teams that have a pure shooter,” Bartow said. “For that reason, I think a lot of people have begun to go zone.” . . . It’s hard to believe that Temple can do anything quietly as long as John Chaney is pacing the sidelines. But the Owls (19-6) have made few headlines nationally as they battle UMass for the Atlantic 10 East title. They’re doing it with–surprise–defense. “They have perfected the art of Temple basketball, which is to make it different than anybody else,” George Washington coach Mike Jarvis said. “They are very disciplined in what they do.” . . . Speaking of GW, the Colonials have lost four straight since they rose to No. 17 in the polls, their highest ranking in 42 years.