Not sure where more minutes come from when it comes to value. TBH, Benny isn’t earning any more minutes  The guy gets embarrassed on the defensive end just about every time down. Maybe Keegan or Amir?

UIC Flames

Date: Saturday November 25th, 2023
Time: 7:00 PM ET (thankfully GW won - imagine playing at 1:30 PM the next day after double OT the previous night??)
Venue: Baha Mar Convention Center (Nassau, Bahamas)
TV: FloHoops
Analytic Ranks: 127th (KenPom), 163rd (EvanMiya), 171st (Haslametrics)
2022-23 Record: 12-20, 4-16 (11th in MVC)
2023-24 Projected Record: 19-11, 11-9 (T-6th in MVC)

Head-to-Head: 1-1. GW and UIC first met in 1980 at another MTE, the Eagle Classic in Morehead, Kentucky where the Buff and Blue won 75-71. Morehead State hosted, and I believe Tennessee State was the other team in the field who GW fell to the day before. Of course, UIC topped GW in the most recent meeting back in 2017 in Chicago when the two teams squared off in the CBI. As they had done for a good part of the season, Tyler and Yuta carried the load in that game, scoring 24 and 21 points respectively. TyCav actually fouled out with a minute and a half left in the game, pretty much sealing the deal for the Flames who were up four at the time. Outside of somewhat poor FT shooting (59%), GW actually did shoot the ball well at UIC's place. The two places that showed a clear UIC advantage though was on the glass (45-31 advantage for them) and the Flames handed out 24 assists compared to just 16 for GW. Ultimately the 10 point halftime deficit was too much to overcome.

Offensive Efficiency: 210th (KenPom), 198th (EvanMiya), 239th (Haslametrics)
Defensive Efficiency: 73rd (KenPom), 135th (EvanMiya), 132nd (Haslametrics)
Pace: 191st (KenPom), 136th (EvanMiya), 116th (Haslametrics)
Roster Rank: 147th (EvanMiya)
Offensive Shot Quality Rank: 276th
Defensive Shot Quality Rank: 232nd
Rim & 3 Rate: 84% (117th)

Strengths:
Blocks Per Game - 4.7 BPG (30th)
3-PT Field Goals Attempted Per Game - 24.2 3PA (68th)
Opponent Turnovers Per Game - 13.8 TO/G (T-88th)
Opponent 3-PT Field Goal Attempts Per Game - 19.8 3PA (T-89th)
3-PT Field Goals Made Per Game - 8 3PM (T-110th)
Opponent Personal Fouls Per Game - 17.6 PF/G (T-116th)
Free Throws Attempted Per Game - 19.1 FTA (T-117th)

Weaknesses:
Opponent Field Goal Percentage - 44.7% (247th)
Opponent Offensive Rebounds Per Game - 10.3 ORPG (T-247th)
Opponent Free Throws Made Per Game - 13.5 FTM (249th)
3-PT Field Goal Percentage - 32.9% (250th)
Defensive Rebounds Per Game - 23.9 DRPG (254th)
Field Goals Attempted Per Game - 56.1 FGA (T-271st)
Opponent Assists Per Game - 14.2 APG (T-289th)
Offensive Rebounds Per Game - 8.4 ORPG (T-297th)
Points Per Game - 67.2 PPG (298th)
Rebounds Per Game - 32.3 RPG (306th)
Opponent Blocks Per Game - 3.7 BPG (T-313th)
Field Goal Percentage - 41.6% (317th)
Field Goals Made Per Game - 23.3 FGM (328th)
Free Throw Percentage - 65.5% (341st)
Opponent Rebounds Per Game - 38.3 RPG (351st)
Opponent Defensive Rebounds Per Game - 28 DRPG (357th)

Key Returning Players:
Toby Okani (Senior; Orange, NJ) - 11 ppg, 7.1 rpg, 2.3 apg, 1.2 bpg; 45% FG, 29% 3-PT, 65% FT per 31.8 mpg
Filip Škobalj (Junior; Belgrade, Serbia) - 7.7 ppg, 2.5 rpg, 1.4 apg; 42% FG, 37% 3-PT, 82% FT per 23.8 mpg
Christian "CJ" Jones (Sophomore; East St. Louis, IL) - 6.2 ppg, 1.9 rpg, 2.1 apg; 34% FG, 34% 3-PT, 68% FT per 26.6 mpg

Key Losses:
Jace Carter (Transferred to Texas A&M; Titusville, FL) - 16.6 ppg, 7 rpg, 1.6 apg, 1.8 spg; 46% FG, 30% 3-PT, 69% FT per 35.1 mpg
Trevante Anderson (Graduated; Tacoma, WA) - 12.9 ppg, 3.2 rpg, 3.6 apg; 36% FG, 33% 3-PT, 66% FT per 32.7 mpg
Jalen Jackson (Transferred to Purdue Fort Wayne; Fort Wayne, IN) - 7.3 ppg, 2 rpg, 1.6 apg, 1.2 spg; 42% FG, 32% 3-PT, 64% FT per 24.8 mpg

Key Transfers:
Drew King (Sophomore transfer from Houston Christian; Phoenix, AZ) - 8.9 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 4.6 apg; 44% FG, 33% 3-PT, 74% FT per 27.6 mpg
Isaiah Rivera (Junior transfer from Colorado State; Geneseo, IL) - 8.6 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 1.9 apg, 1 spg; 47% FG, 38% 3-PT, 75% FT
Marquise Kennedy (Senior transfer from Loyola Chicago; Chicago, IL) - 7.5 ppg, 3.2 rpg, 1.5 apg, 1.1 spg; 45% FG, 35% 3-PT, 67% FT per 24.1 mpg
Yusef Salih (Junior transfer from Idaho; Gainesville, VA) - 6.5 ppg, 1.9 rpg, 1.5 apg; 33% FG, 32% 3-PT, 80% FT per 29.3 mpg

Preview:
When you think of college basketball hotbeds from around the country, a number of obvious metro areas come to mind. The DC area is generally at the top of the list, but New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, and Chicago also come to mind. Of course, not every recruit will choose to stay at home and attend a school nearby. It definitely feels like many prospects from DC choose not to, but HS players in other cities are probably similar. Despite guys wanting to go to school away from home (NIL has/will likely only make that worse), there should theoretically still be enough talent that does choose to stay local. Schools in the aforementioned areas should as a result benefit.

But then you look at the D1 schools in the area, and the success just hasn't been there for quite a while. Now some of this might be due to the head coach not being any good, but it certainly feels like most schools in major areas have somewhat fallen to the bottom in their conferences.

In the DC area, I think enough has been mentioned about Georgetown. Time will tell whether Cooley will be able to right the storm (it will likely take a few years) but for a premier program in the area the Hoyas have definitely fallen below the expected standard for years now. Credit Kevin Willard for attempting to focus more on local recruiting since he arrived at Maryland, but at a place that could be considered a borderline top 10 job in the country (maybe that's a tad rich, but the support is there) the lack of consistent success recently is alarming. I will say GW has done a good job unlike many other schools in big metro areas with regards to focusing on keeping local talent home (probably a bit better than George Mason, although the Patriots do have several local products on the roster every year) but of course success has been limited lately.

Then you take a look at other places around the country. NYC's biggest programs are St. John's and Fordham in terms of level. Neither school has found much success consistently, and much has talked about the location of SJU discouraging recruits from wanting to go to school there. The Pitino effect should be able to change that for whatever number of years he decides to still coach, but is that sustainable long-term? I've praised Urgo for what he did at Fordham last year, especially with regards to energizing a fanbase I didn't previously know existed. The Rams lost their top two guys, but it's clear that a good season here and there is an anomaly rather than the norm. Hofstra and Iona have been successful at the mid-major level, but Pitino's roster last year wasn't particularly local.

Philadelphia has a separate basketball culture from most cities, and Villanova has become a national brand outside of just the area. It looks like in the early going Neptune has made strides from last year even though he's not shown to be the next Jay Wright yet. Can he keep it up? La Salle, St. Joe's, and Temple have been on mentioned here from time-to-time but it's clear none of the three programs have been able to recover in recent years. Temple in particular has severely struggled to raise NIL money, even moreso than the Explorers.

Atlanta really has just Georgia Tech, although mid-majors Georgia State and Kennesaw State are nearby. Maybe GT has the academic hurdle to overcome as well, but the Yellow Jackets have generally found themselves to be towards the bottom of the ACC. GSU has done well in the Sun Belt, but have experienced growing pains of late. I'll say it again, but the job Abdur-Rahim did at KSU was nothing short of fantastic given the Owls were among the worst in D1 not too long ago. He'll have South Florida going in a couple years.

Dallas has mainly SMU and TCU. I'm not sure the Mustangs will have any more success in the ACC than they currently do in the American. In some ways, it might be worse given they will be on an island compared to the rest of their conference peers in the ACC. They've been decent, but have never really broken through consistently. TCU's recent success has to be attributed to Jamie Dixon, one of the more underrated coaches in CBB. Before his arrival, TCU hadn't reached 20 wins in 12 seasons. North Texas has done well in mid-major land, but they usually go the JUCO route to assemble a roster so it's not the same.

H-town notably has Houston and Rice. The Cougars had a rough period in the 90s/2000s but have been pretty consistently decent, an exception to the norm. Kelvin Sampson has really elevated the team recently though. Given he's approaching 70, it will be interesting to see if UH can maintain that same ceiling with his successor though down the line. Scott Pera is not a particularly good coach, especially when it comes to coaching defense but Rice hasn't really had consistent success. One good year and another opportunity elsewhere and a coach will bolt.

LA is probably the city that's an exception rather than the norm when it comes to having both UCLA and USC around. The Bruins in particular are recognized as a blue blood given they have the most NCAA championships of any program. The Trojans have had success, but probably not as much as you would expect. Enfield has done a decent job raising the floor since taking over. Loyola Marymount has actually taken off a bit under Stan Johnson, but has otherwise been a program in the shadow of the city's two flagships.

Finally, there's Chicago headlined by DePaul, Northwestern, and Loyola Chicago. I think anyone that follows the Big East in even a small capacity understands just how bad the Blue Demons have been the past 20 years or so. There are challenges for sure, like the arena they play in being far from campus which results in quite a few empty seats but the support hasn't been there for success. Northwestern made the tournament last year, but how will the team look after Boo Buie graduates? Chris Collins may be the Chris Mooney of the Big Ten, but again academic standards make it tough to establish consistent success, even with their conference affiliation. LUC have struggled in their transition to the A10, but people are quick to forget that the program was somewhat middling before Moser even though they made the final four once before his arrival. The support/resources may be more than they used to, and perhaps Valentine is just not the right guy (even with the BC win the other day), but this team was not a mid-major power by any means for a good portion of the 2000s and 2010s.

The final school in the Chicago area not mentioned above that has also fallen into the category of many D1 schools in major metro areas struggling is Illinois Chicago, also known as UIC. I had mentioned a couple weeks back that the CAA's additions during the era of conference realignment felt like additions made for the sake of adding schools to ensure conference stability, but the Missouri Valley somewhat did that by adding UIC following Loyola's departure for the A10. It was clear that the MVC wanted to still have a Chicago school, but they were taking a huge leap of faith taking on a program that has had just one 20 win season since 2004. I mean we are talking about a school that won a combined 23 games and finished under .500 in the last two years in the Horizon league before making the jump to the MVC.

Head coach Luke Yaklich made some strides in year 2 prior to exiting the Horizon but it was inevitable that the school was going to fall back a bit in a better conference. The consistent disappointment through three years under Yaklich has been UIC's subpar defense, the side of the ball he was known for as an assistant at Michigan and Texas. The Wolverines and Longhorns finished top 25 in defensive efficiency in all three years he served as an assistant coach between the two schools, per KenPom. In most mid-major conferences, it's clear that the "top dogs" separate themselves by playing good defense, and the UIC admin was hoping the Flames would torch their competition by locking down on that side of the ball.

As you can tell in the "weaknesses" section, the issue UIC faced on the defensive end was their inability to finish a possession with a rebound. Teams had little trouble moving the ball and converting on shots from the field, but even if they missed they had second and sometimes third opportunities to do make a shot conceding over 10 offensive boards a contest. Overall, UIC allowed opponents to rebound at an alarming rate which ranked bottom 15 in the country.

The season is young, but it does appear that Yaklich has convinced the team to play lockdown defense, as the Flames currently sit 73rd in defensive efficiency, per KenPom. They are doing this without their top two scorers from last year, including the team's best defender Jace Carter, who was contacted by damn near every school in the country when he entered his name in the transfer portal this offseason (he's now at Texas A&M). Their other impact defender, Jalen Jackson, also opted to return closer to home and play for the Mastadons.

While it's true that an in-state product may opt to go elsewhere out of HS, there's always the chance of landing them the second time around. We saw GW was able to do that with Darren and Garrett. UIC was able to do that this past offseason with Isaiah Rivera, a consistent role player for a very good Colorado State program. Rivera returns to Illinois and will get the chance to show that he can be the #1 option. While not a high-volume three point shooter, Rivera has shot 42% from deep in his career and is very adept at creating his own shot. He doesn't do as much by ways of rebounding/playmaking so it will be interesting to see whether he has to take on additional responsibilities apart from just scoring moving forward. CSU hasn't been bad defensively under Medved, but they are definitely offense-first.

Yaklich was also able to persuade another player to stay in the Windy City this offseason as Marquise Kennedy made the short 12 mile drive down to UIC's campus from Loyola. While Kennedy may not have been the best fit for the A10 - he only finished in double figures just three times during conference play - he is a proven commodity in the Valley and should be comfortable in a league he's played in for a while. His scoring numbers may be modest, but GW should not overlook the 23 he put up against them at Loyola last year, the second best output in his career (previously put up 26 against DePaul). Kennedy is a savvy three-level scorer offensively who also applies quite a bit of pressure defensively.

The third notable Chi-town product on the roster is a returner from last season - Christian "CJ" Jones. With our Christian Jones unfortunately redshirting this year, we won't get the CJ vs CJ matchup that I was personally looking forward to, but expect UIC's Jones to make an impact. He wasn't particularly efficient in his freshman year from the field - especially when run off the three point line but Yaklich is hopeful for somewhat of a sophomore leap in year 2. Jones is also pretty decent as a passer and will likely be asked to lead the team in that department with Trevante Anderson out of the fold.

Like Kennedy, UIC's returning scorer from last year is another familiar face who has faced GW a number of times. Toby Okani previously spent two years at Duquesne before arriving in Chicago. You'll remember during that weird COVID season that certain games were played back-to-back against the same opponent. We split against the Dukes at home that weekend, with GW coming out on top in game 2 (JB may or may not have gotten away with a push off). In game 1, Okani went a perfect 6-6 from the field and finished with 14 points, but otherwise put up a combined 9 points in the other three meetings on a combined 4/16 shooting. Still, his mobility at 6'8" will cause mismatches on switches and he's shooting nearly 39% from 3 on the year which would be a career best. His stat line for the year has been very impressive - 15.2 ppg, 8.6 rpg, 2.2 apg, 1.6 spg, 2.6 bpg. He leads the team in points, rebounds, and blocks currently.

Serbian stretch forward Filip Škobalj also returns after he was one of the best shooters on the team last year. Škobalj easily shot a team best 82% from the FT line last year, and over 80% of his attempts came from 3 so hopefully GW is ready for that when he's in the game. He provided a bit of passing but is otherwise on the floor for spacing/shooting.

The rest of the returners from last year include a trio of sophomores - Jaden Brownell (no relation to Clemson HC), Steven Clay, big man Cameron Fens - and the coach's son Griffin Yaklich, a walk-on junior. Brownell, a Utah native, is another stretch forward who took over half his attempts from 3 and has even more height compared to Škobalj. Like Jones, Clay could be primed for a second year breakout. He was a constant in their rotation last year and had 17 against Antoine's Evansville squad late in the year. Fens is the lone guy over 6'9" on the roster who rebounded at a decent rate when he played but was a subpar finisher near the hoop. (Griffin) Yaklich saw more minutes than average walk-on would get (for obvious reasons) but struggled as a shooter last year.

Finally, other newcomers include JUCO junior Ethan Pickett, true freshman Nathan Ojukwu, Houston Christian transfer Drew King, and Idaho transfer Yusef Salih.

Pickett played on a 22-7 Triton College team and stuffed the stat sheet, averaging 9.8 ppg, 4.8 rpg, 3 apg, and 1.9 spg. Specifically, his passing and steal numbers will need to translate given the impact players UIC lost last year.

Ojukwu, who hails from Idaho, likely won't see a ton of minutes in his first year, but he's a guy who can do a bit of everything/give Yaklich a switchable piece defensively.

King is another guy on the roster who can take on some ball-handling responsibilities but will need to show something defensively in order to get playing time at UIC. His previous school, Houston Christian, doesn't exactly preach playing a lot of defense as the Huskies were the worst defensive team in the country last year.

Finally, Yaklich added Salih to the roster for guard depth, the second straight season they landed a transfer from Idaho (after the aforementioned Anderson). Salih, who hasn't yet played on the year, actually hails from the DC metro area (played at Highland School), so it's interesting that he ended up at Idaho of all places. If there was any doubt that the DC area produced the most talent, even random schools out west are getting players from there.

This will be an interesting test, given it's the first time that GW is facing a defense-first team as opposed to one that is score first and play defense second. KenPom has rated GW as a slightly below average unit on the offensive end, but a good part of that has been the team's inability to hold onto the ball for stretches rather than poor shooting numbers. I honestly don't think Ohio played that well against GW yesterday {they have some nice guards), but they really torched GW in transition when the Buff and Blue made a mistake on the offensive end. The primary objective for the UIC game will be to simply hold onto the ball. UIC only averages 6.4 steals on the year, so if GW turns the ball over a lot it will likely be unforced (or due to that awful slippery floor).

Otherwise, attacking the rim should continue to be the focus (and moving the ball instead of having it stick - GW played better in the overtime by simply settling down a bit and working within the flow of the offense). The Flames have actually averaged nearly 5 blocks per game on the year. They are good at closing out/contesting shots, but it's not that they have a dominant interior presence. Okani is a big guard who functions as a forward at times, but UIC has officially listed just four frontcourt players on the roster - Fens, Škobalj, Brownell, and Ojukwu. Škobalj and Brownell are more stretch forwards than true interior guys, and Ojukwu is a true freshman. GW should be able to take advantage of that and winning the rebounding battle will be key. After Akingbola fouled out, there was a bit of trouble securing the defensive board so it will need to be a team effort.

Finally, this is a great game for CC to play more guys, especially early on. UIC loves to get to the FT line, but they have been pretty consistently awful when it comes to converting. Playing more guys will not only keep guys as fresh as possible after the double OT game, but allow GW to foul more as a hack-a-Shaq strategy to make the Flames earn their points from the line. UIC has improved at the FT line from last year, but are still under 70% for the season.

Projected Score: UIC 74, GW 72. 56% chance to win (KenPom). ESPN gives us a 39.7% to move to 6-0 on the season (no surprise at this point, they may pick us as the underdog the rest of the year - I guess like other analytics sites they are slow to adjust, but this should be another toss-up).

Alum1, I know that you are a solid observer of the game and are appreciated by me for your thoughts, but I am in the camp of AT Hiker. As I said pre-season in response to a pile of negative post on the site, I basically every wimps for whining. I may have the advantage over you having watched all of Germany's games in Europe this summer along with the England games.

In that post I added much of this season will hinge on how long it some our young players take to find out what they can get away with at this level. I mentioned Schroder, first on that. After one bad game for Germany, their coach had Benny play pont-forward and he pretty much ran what offense his team could muster, One of Schroder's TOs was a past that Jacoi would admit to dropped that should have been a simple layup. Schroder blocked a lot of shots to go with rebounds. Neither of us know what Benny is showing in practice.

Jacoi had a below par game and we won. Every time that happens, we get better down the line. The ability to go short is a testimony to the training progress. . I prefer 5-0 and seeing 8 players this season at this point and 3-2 and seeing 11 players. CC will salt the floor with subs in the first half when we go up by 10 - 12 in the first half. As they say, CC is coaching to the "gamescape." Otherwise, you have to be in it to win it.

Your wish may come true today as our team may not have any legs for tonight's game. I may have to buy a new bottle of Rum for the 7 pm tipoff. I am hoping to see UIC perform like the game that W&M after they played us. My guess is that we will see a lot of Trey in this one. They may leave him open after what they did in their first game--they seemed to sag defenders into the paint to stop drivers. My wild guess we will see Keegan or Zam early in the first half, just to get our starters minutes of rest and get them into the second half ready to win the game.
 

russianthistle wrote:

Alum1, I know that you are a solid observer of the game and are appreciated by me for your thoughts, but I am in the camp of AT Hiker. As I said pre-season in response to a pile of negative post on the site, I basically every wimps for whining. I may have the advantage over you having watched all of Germany's games in Europe this summer along with the England games.

In that post I added much of this season will hinge on how long it some our young players take to find out what they can get away with at this level. I mentioned Schroder, first on that. After one bad game for Germany, their coach had Benny play pont-forward and he pretty much ran what offense his team could muster, One of Schroder's TOs was a past that Jacoi would admit to dropped that should have been a simple layup. Schroder blocked a lot of shots to go with rebounds. Neither of us know what Benny is showing in practice.

Jacoi had a below par game and we won. Every time that happens, we get better down the line. The ability to go short is a testimony to the training progress. . I prefer 5-0 and seeing 8 players this season at this point and 3-2 and seeing 11 players. CC will salt the floor with subs in the first half when we go up by 10 - 12 in the first half. As they say, CC is coaching to the "gamescape." Otherwise, you have to be in it to win it.

Your wish may come true today as our team may not have any legs for tonight's game. I may have to buy a new bottle of Rum for the 7 pm tipoff. I am hoping to see UIC perform like the game that W&M after they played us. My guess is that we will see a lot of Trey in this one. They may leave him open afterb what they did in their first game--they seemed to sag defenders into the paint to stop drivers. My wild guess we will see Keegan or Zam early in the first half, just to get our starters minutes of rest and get them into the second half ready to win the game.
 

 

Appreciate your views, but you seem to confuse  analyzing the game and a player’s performance in that game with an overall assessment of the team and player. What  would be the point of this board in not for that?  I think CC gave us his own answer with playing time. In a 2OT game in which we lost our starting center to fouls, and where our main starters had to play virtually the entire game on the first day of a three day tournament he gave Benny all of 7 minutes.  That should tell you all you need to  know.  I think CC also got a look at Bobcats beating Benny off the dribble like they were  Road Runner  blowing by Wile E. Coyote and decided “um, not tonight.”

Does that mean I think he stinks? Or that I didn’t see enough of him play in Germany?  Obviously not. It just means that he was bad on defense last night in my view. So bad, our coach left him on the pine when the other six guys could have clearly used a  blow. No one will be happier than me if he ups his game and proves that last night was a one off. I’’m certainly a glass half full guy with this team. I mean, I took them on the money line last night and considering the same for tonight. I don’t think fatigue will be a factor until tomorrow.  Raise High brother!

Game Notes vs. UIC

https://gwsports.com/documents/2023/11/25/2324GM06-UIC.pdf

FredD wrote:

This may be a stupid question but has anyone found a bracket with scores for this tournament?

First round:
UNC Greensboro 76 UMkC 64
Delaware 67 Brown 59
UIC 70 Middle Tennessee 40
GW 99 Ohio 94 (2OT)

Semifinals:
UNCG 88 Delaware 77
GW vs UIC

Finals:
UNCG vs GW or UIC


Losers bracket:
Brown 93  UMKC 83
Ohio 80 Middle Tenn 68


3rd place game:
Delaware vs GW or UIC

5th place game:
Brown vs Ohio

7th place game:
UMKC vs Middle Tennessee.

Another packed house

They are better than we are.  

Two good defensive plays underneath, both called fouls.  That’ll make it tough to come back if we can’t contest shots.