For the first 27 minutes, it looked like Illini basketball would repeat a horrid day in their history as the lowly UIC Flames (5-8) led the Illini until Rayvonte Rice tied the game at 53, with 13:18 left. The Flames, and their estimated crowd of 150-250 fans were looking for a repeat victory against the Illini (10-2) at the United Center. The Flames defeated Illini basketball in their most recent gathering on Dec. 18, 2010, by a final score of 57-54 in a game that was also played at the UC, home of the Chicago Bulls. Illini basketball was ranked #12 at the time, and the upset marked the biggest win in the history of UIC basketball.
It was a tremendous upset as that UIC team went just 7-24 that year. They were really really bad, and Illinois avoided disaster by winning 74-60. Illini basketball still went on to the NCAA Tournament after the UIC upset, and won their first round game over UNLV. A non-conference win over Harrison Barnes and the North Carolina Tar Heels in the Big Ten/ACC Challenge carried them into March Madness as it cancelled out that ugly UIC loss.
Illinois was down 44-34 at the half, but outscored UIC 40-16 in the second twenty minutes. Rayvonte Rice had 28 points. Basically saying with his game “gentlemen, good night. ladies, good morning.” (h/t Justin Timberlake) The UC is pretty much literally across the street from the UIC campus. Champaign-Urbana is of course about 2 hours and some change away by car. But there were about 11,12,000 Illini basketball fans in attendance today.
Here are some Illini basketball players statistics in games played at the United Center. And then what they did today versus UIC.
Tracy Abrams (4 G): 12.3 ppg (49), 4.3 rpg (17), 2.5 apg (10), 1.5 apg (6)
UC Highlights: Set career highs with 27 points and eight rebounds last year vs. Auburn, to go along with five assists and four steals … Team-high 16 points last year vs. Indiana in Big Ten Tournament quarterfinal.
16 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists, 5-11 shooting.
Joseph Bertrand (4 G): 4.8 ppg (19), 1.8 rpg (7)
UC Highlight: Scored 10 points off bench last year vs. Indiana in Big Ten Tournament quarterfinal.
14 points, 5 rebounds, 4-7 shooting.
Nnanna Egwu (4 G): 3.5 ppg (14), 3.3 rpg (13), 1.5 bpg (6)
UC Highlight: Had six points, rebounds and two blocked shots last year vs. Minnesota in Big Ten Tournament opening round.
6 pts, 7 boards.
I’ll be back with any interesting quotes from Illini basketball players and Illini basketball coaches.
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