UIC Preview and Game Thread -- 11/14/2023

[goramblers2011]

Braden was 2-9 from 3. And quite a few of those were wide open. I think we were all hoping / expecting his three point shot to find its 2021 form with Dolan/JQ taking over some of the ballhandling duties. That doesn't seem to be the case thus far, albeit in a limited sample size.

Mwamba also needs to have his green light revoked. There's a reason he wasn't a big offensive threat at low-major Oral Roberts. If we are relying on him to get us buckets, we are in bigger trouble than we thought.

[sudikoff]

ICYMI: RSN post-game interview with Drew after UIC game https://on.soundcloud.com/2mgVg

[ahunte1]

Mwamba also needs to have his green light revoked. There's a reason he wasn't a big offensive threat at low-major Oral Roberts. If we are relying on him to get us buckets, we are in bigger trouble than we thought.

Interestingly, I just looked at his stats. Last year was his best offensively, and it was the only year of his career that he had more two point attempts than three. And on top of it, he shot 39% from three.

Different usage? More selective? Dunno, but I thought he had chances to drive it and instead shot the three.

[natetheskate]

Coach mentioned in the post game interview that he thought Mwamba took a couple bad shots...I will say in the pre-season team scrimmage Mwamba was hitting the 3. He has the ability to be a top inside/out guy, that is a fairly rare thing for a guy his size and adds a lot to an offense. Now whether he can do it under pressure of games is another question. Up to the coaching staff to have him maximize his talents.

[RamblinMan]

Watson has to be seriously considering whether or not this is going to work with Drew. There are too many positives surrounding this university and program for this program not to be consistently good.

Drew’s eye for talent appears to be seriously lacking and whether fair or not, his youth as a coach shows itself frequently. The transfers we’ve brought in are unimpressive and we run perhaps the worst offense of any D1 college team I’ve watched this year.

This program built up so much national momentum from 2018-2022. It appears that momentum is at risk of being wasted if things don’t improve relatively quickly.

Hopeful, but not confident, that can still happen.

[ahunte1]

I rewatched the game yesterday. I'm still not sure how we allowed a 14-0 run or whatever it was. Then another one in crunch time, which included the meltdown-feeling airballs.

Bottom line in most games is you just have to make shots, and we didn't. Missed some good ones, took some bad ones, didn't generate good chances when we weren't setting screens for each other. There were definitely stretches when we did play well, so hopefully we can build on those.

I'm assuming that Alston and Dawson are out. I'd like to see Norris play 32 minutes max. Give Sheldon 4-5 minutes in the first half and see what happens. And I'd like to see more balance in minutes for Schweiger and Mwamba.

[goramblers2011]

UIC beat Middle Tennessee St. today in an MTE by 30 points. 70-40. MTSU is a solid mid major and was actually favored by a few points over the Flames. Tomorrow, UIC will play George Washington, who is undefeated. Will he an interesting game to watch and better assess our loss to UIC.

[ahunte1]

UIC beat Middle Tennessee St. today in an MTE by 30 points. 70-40. MTSU is a solid mid major and was actually favored by a few points over the Flames. Tomorrow, UIC will play George Washington, who is undefeated. Will he an interesting game to watch and better assess our loss to UIC.

UIC went from 178th to 127th in Kenpom in one day!

[JCT]

UIC beat Middle Tennessee St. today in an MTE by 30 points. 70-40. MTSU is a solid mid major and was actually favored by a few points over the Flames. Tomorrow, UIC will play George Washington, who is undefeated. Will he an interesting game to watch and better assess our loss to UIC.

UIC went from 178th to 127th in Kenpom in one day!

We moved up 6 spots (from 135 to 129) on a day we didn't play because that UIC loss isn't as bad as when they were in the 200s.

[ahunte1]

UIC wins by 10.