If you haven't noticed, the Flames have had a tough year. Remember when a UW-Milwaukee blogger erroneously leaked that UIC was going to be added to the MVC, and not Loyola? I was concerned about what it would mean for Loyola, but I was not freaked out. After checking some sources, I was convinced that the reports were not true. Eventually, the MVC decided to add us and not UIC-- who was very strenuously campaigning for it.
Good thing. In February 2013, UIC Athletic Director Jim Schmidt was looking to get out of UIC, and was publicly angling for the Athletic Director job at UW-Milwaukee. He was one of the three finalists for the job at UWM before he withdrew his name from consideration about the time it became obvious the MVC would be looking for another school. Days after Loyola was announced as the new member of the MVC, a state investigator found that UIC's former associate athletic director was in violation of state ethics rules.
The UIC men's basketball team has gone 5-22 on the year (with two of their wins coming against non-DI Roosevelt University and Purdue-Calumet), and have an RPI of 313 out of 351 teams in DI. They've lost 16 in a row (including tonight's 65-59 loss at home against 6th place Detroit), and stand at 0-13 in conference. To make matters worse, UIC professors are on strike, and they decided to picket in front of the game at the Pavilion tonight.
UIC has three remaining games (home vs. 8th place Oakland and 4th place Wright State, and on the road against 5th place UWM) to avoid being only the second winless team in conference play in MCC/HL history.
