Bill Self knows Illinois-Chicago will not be a push-over Friday night at Kemper Arena.
Kansas University’s coach has watched coach Jimmy Collins’ Flames from near – Self’s Illinois team beat UIC in Self’s first year in Champaign, Ill. – and from afar.
Self followed the Flames’ fortunes in the Chicago media during his tenure at IU.
“I know enough to know they will guard you and make it very difficult to score. They take care of the ball and play as tough as anybody we’ve played all year,” Self said.
“Jimmy is a tough guy and a really good coach. He has a really good staff. Cedric Banks … our guys will find out all about him. He is a great player, and he’s not the only one on their team.”
The Flames are on fire heading into Kemper Arena.
UIC clinched a spot in the tourney by beating top-seeded Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 65-62, in the Horizon League tournament championship game Tuesday in Milwaukee.
That win was the Flames’ 12th in a row.
Banks, a 6-foot-3 senior guard and an All-Horizon League pick, has averaged 18.5 points a game this season. Armond Williams adds 11.8 points per game and Aaron Carr 10.1.
Illinois-Chicago (24-7) is a senior-dominated squad making its second NCAA appearance in three seasons.
As a No. 15 seed, the Flames lost to Oklahoma in the first round of the 2002 tourney in Dallas by a closer-than-anticipated 71-63 score.
Many of this season’s UIC impact players have already been exposed to the NCAA Tournament.
“We’ve got experience now,” Collins said. “I think this time we’ll go into the game a little more confident.”
After a 21-9 season and an NIT bid last year, the Flames struggled during a 12-game stretch in midseason this year. They slipped to 12-7 with a one-point loss to Wright State way back on Jan. 21.
They haven’t lost since.
As far as big-name opponents, UIC has a 1-1 mark against Big Ten schools — beating Northwestern, 90-71, Dec. 20, and losing to Illinois, 75-60, Dec. 30.
The Flames also have beaten Texas-San Antonio and East-ern Washington, two of the 65 teams invited to the NCAA Tournament.
“I know about them from being at Illinois and following them and Jimmy Collins,” Self said. “I know a lot of players on their team from recruiting in Chicago and getting a chance to get to know those guys. I know they can play, and they are tough. All their teams are tough to guard.”
Collins also uttered plenty of kind words about the Jayhawks.
“We are going to be facing a talented team in Kansas,” Collins said. “A squad with both great quickness and great size. Those are two great qualities to have, but they are two extremely tough qualities to go up against.
“We are looking forward to the challenge.”
Kansas fans may not know much about Cal State Northridge, Kansas’ first-round foe in the NCAA Tournament.
But Jayhawk enthusiasts do know a lot about Adonis Jordan, the former KU point guard who played for current Matadors’ coach Bobby Braswell at Cleveland High in Reseda, Calif.
Back in 1988, KU coach Roy Williams was wooing Jordan, then a senior at Los Angeles Cleveland High. Though the specter of an NCAA probation loomed over the Jayhawks, Jordan committed to KU and Williams with Braswell’s blessing.
“It ultimately was Adonis’ decision,” said Braswell, whose Matadors take a 22-9 record into their meeting with KU.
“I remember Kansas was going on probation, but coach Williams did a great job coming into his home and convincing Adonis and his mother that Kansas would survive that and that Adonis would get a chance to compete for the national championship.
“The thing that encouraged us the most was his honesty, his approach to things, how he did things. He made a statement that I still remember. He said he’d commit to Adonis for life if Adonis made a commitment to him. That was important to me.
“Adonis was like a son to me, and I was an important male figure in Adonis’ life. He asked me, and I said I felt comfortable with him going to Kansas.”
Curiously, Jordan called Braswell last Saturday night to congratulate his old coach on making the NCAAs. Jordan, who is playing basketball in Germany, works out over the summer in the Matadors’ gym and scrimmages with CSN point guard Markus Carr, the Matadors’ all-time assists leader.
“It is kind of strange that we just talked last night,” Braswell said. “We had no idea this would be the matchup. We talked about old ties and he asked about Markus. It was just a pleasant surprise that he called.”
The ties between KU and Cal State Northridge don’t end with Adonis Jordan. Braswell coached under Williams disciple Jerry Green for four years at the University of Oregon.
The Big Sky champions in fact, resemble the Jayhawks.
“We run that system,” Braswell said. “We don’t know everything about it, and I’m sure coach Williams doesn’t know everything about ours. We do variations on it. But, yes, it does having worked with coach Green.
“How similar are we? I really haven’t had too much opportunity to see them play, but I’ve watched them on television. They run the secondary break; we run the secondary break. We mix up defenses the same way. We try to get up the floor and score as quickly as possible. We’re two teams that like to push the ball up and run. I think fans that come out will see two teams running a lot of the same things.”
Just don’t expect Northridge (22-9), which will join the Big West Conference next season, to be intimidated by its first-ever trip to the NCAAs. Braswell guarded against that by scheduling a tough nonconference schedule that included UCLA, UNLV and USC.
The Matadors beat UCLA at Pauley Pavilion, no less by four, lost to UNLV by one and lost to USC by nine.
“I’d be worried about it if we hadn’t played the kind of preseason that we played,” Braswell said. “But we’ve got a team with seven seniors on it. Last year, we were fortunate to go into Oregon and beat them at Oregon. We went to Fresno. We played in front of 10,000-plus when most of these guys were juniors. This year, we beat UCLA at Pauley Pavilion. We beat Kent there. We’ve always tried to play a competitive preseason schedule if and when it happened that we made it into the NCAA Tournament.
“I know the NCAA is different than the preseason, but our guys thought all along they could go into Pauley Pavilion and win. They’ve shown a lot of character throughout the year. We were predicted to win the conference championship, regular season and postseason. There’s a lot of pressure that goes along with that, and they’ve shown a lot of character.”
