Northwestern basketball suffered a very bad loss at home to Illinois State, but they rebounded nicely (both metaphorically and literally) by absolutely putting a whipping stick on the UIC Flames. NU Coach, and local product Chris Collins is in his first year at the helm having served as an assistant at Duke. Illinois-Chicago leader Howard Moore is in his fourth season, having been an assistant at Wisconsin.
Neither Northwestern basketball, nor the UIC Flames basketball program will be serious contenders for the NCAA Tournament this year, but Northwestern basketball seems to be light years ahead of the Flames in reaching respectability. NU beat Eastern Illinois 72-55, and UIC lost to EIU 86-66, so by transitive property of inequality….yes, the a>b and b>c, therefore a is MUCH GREATER than c. Northwestern basketball won 93-58, proving the theorem, in a game that was over before the singing of “God Bless America.”
“We got to get this turned around and we got to fix it,” Moore said.
“We missed 10 layups at the beginning of the game, so we missed 20 points in the paint.”
UIC competed in the NCAA tournament in 1998, 2002, and 2004, and appeared in the NIT in 2003, but have not advanced past the first round in either tournament. So both programs have the same amount of NCAA Tourney wins: 0.
However, Northwestern basketball had their biggest victory in a road game since 1944 tonight.
“For 40 minutes to win both halves that was something. They came through with everything I asked of them,” Collins said. Last year, UIC won at NU 50-44 in a very ugly game. So this was a measure of revenge.
“We had a good energy to us, we were locked in defensively,” said Collins.
Good news Illini fans, I don’t foresee another UIC upset (a la 2010, when the Flames scored the biggest win in school history, upsetting the #12 rated Illini. UIC finished 2-16 in the Horizon League) happening at the United Center this season. Dec 28th at the Madhouse on Madison looks like a W. And it looks like a very rough season for “UIC: Chicago’s Horizon League Team.” or “Illinois Medical Center’s Big Ten Team.”
Obviously, both NU and UIC have a long ways to go. But UIC has much further.
Paul M. Banks is the owner of The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. He’s also an analyst for multiple news talk radio stations across the country; with regular weekly segments on NBC and Fox Sports Radio. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks) and RSS Catch him Tuesdays talking Illini and Northwestern for KOZN 1620 The Zone, Fridays talking Chicago Bears for WAOR 95.7 The Fan