Scott McClurg/Journal-World PhotoKansas City, Mo ? As the higher seed, Kansas University will don its home white uniforms for tonight’s first-round NCAA Tournament game against Illinois-Chicago.
UIC coach Jimmy Collins knows that, but Collins still thinks one of the Jayhawks will be wearing blue, trailing a cape and displaying a red “S” on his chest.
“(Jeff) Graves is a heck of a player, and David Padgett will be a top draft choice someday,” Collins said prior to the Flames’ Thursday night practice session. “Then you’ve got Superman … Simien, rather.”
Wayne Simien, the Jayhawks’ leading scorer (17.8 ppg.) and rebounder (9.1 rpg.), figures to be a handful for the Flames, who don’t have anyone on their roster who matches the 6-foot-9, 250-pound KU junior’s build.
Collins can’t go to the waiver wire, he can’t pull off a late trade, and he can’t borrow Chicago native Kevin Garnett from the Minnesota Timberwolves, so he’ll do what he has to do.
“The first thing to do is not to change a whole lot of what got us here,” Collins said. “We’ve been outmanned all year as far as height and weight.”
So what’s a coach to do?
“We’ve got to try to keep the ball away from those guys in the paint,” Collins said, meaning Simien, the 6-11 Padgett and the 6-9 Graves.
Big 12 Conference foes threw a steady dose of zone defenses at Kansas. Collins didn’t sound like he planned to mimic that strategy, however.
“Once you get to this point,” he said, “there’s not a whole lot you can change. We play man-to-man. Occasionally, we’ll play a little zone. What we’ve got to do is guard a man and a half.”
Illinois-Chicago (24-7) heavily relies on senior guard Cedrick Banks for points. The 6-3 native Chicagoan — most of the Flames are from the Windy City area — averages 18.5 points a game. Only two other teammates have scoring averages in double figures.
KU coach Bill Self, who coached at
Illinois but arrived in Champaign after Banks had signed with UIC, is a big Banks booster.
“Whenever he quits basketball, he needs to be a long-distance runner,” Self said. “He won’t tire, at least from the film I’ve watched.”
Most of the pregame buzz about the Kansas-UIC game has centered, not surprisingly, on the Flames being forced to play the Jayhawks in their home away from home, yet UIC doesn’t appear to have hitched its horses to the no-respect wagon.
“We don’t have a chip on our shoulder,” said forward Armond Williams, the Flames’ second-leading scorer (11.8). “We just try to go out and play UIC ball. At this time, any team should feel it can play with anybody on a given night, and that’s how we feel.”
Kemper Arena won’t be as loud as Allen Fieldhouse tonight, but the crowd clearly will be pro-Kansas. Every team has to play some of its games on the road, and the Flames compiled a 10-3 record in hostile arenas this season.
“As long as our guards don’t let them (the fans) run the court, then we’re just playing the five on the court,” Collins said.
Now in his eighth year at UIC, Collins has built a program that stands on the brink of embedding its name on the national consciousness. But the Flames haven’t done it yet. All they’ve done is make strides.
“When we came on board, when you’d knock on the door and say you were UIC,” Collins said, “they’d say, ‘We’re not home.’ Once we got it rolling, it really started snow-balling.”
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