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Post by soccer fan on Dec 16, 2007 0:11:43 GMT -6
This was an impressive win on any level, and I am thrilled to be 180 degrees wrong about both the way the game played out AND the final score.
Our shots were not falling. We won. The calls were not going our way. We won. The majority of the crowd was not on our side. We won.
Stack the deck any way you want, our guys won this thing and the most impressive part is that every time DePaul looked like were going to make a run, our guys, calmed down and made DePaul beat us rather than rolling over.
There is ABSOLUTELY NO QUESTION that the better team won tonight.
But I'm still wondering what exact role my lucky chekered flag had in all this. That flag was given to me by Captain of the Ultras during the Horizon League soccer finals, and so far it has witnessed the defeat of Green Bay for the Horizon title, Northwestern in the tournament, and now DePaul in the basketball season.
I'm thinking I should save it for the Horizon Basketball Tournament, unless somebody's got a better idea.
Hey, and nice to meet everyboy. (JPFury, UICJohn, Spike, Stomper (I was the fan who joined the cheering section after the secon half). I'm still a little horse from cheering, hope you guys are, too.
Remember: ITS MORE FUN IF YOU JOIN IN!!!!!
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Post by EzE on Dec 16, 2007 0:20:24 GMT -6
www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=96740&src=289"DePaul might lead the nation in the following categories: highlight-reel plays, alley-oop attempts and in-game substitutions. But when it comes to victories, the Blue Demons are woefully deficient. It takes more than superior size and athleticism to win, a fact Illinois-Chicago proved Saturday night. The Flames used backcourt synergy and heady play to subdue DePaul 85-80 before 8,513 at Allstate Arena." 8,513...not a bad crowd on hand tonight considering the weather.
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Post by bluesman on Dec 16, 2007 0:51:03 GMT -6
EzE...thanks for the tip to the newspaper link. Very telling comments and good win for you guys. The mention of heady, solid team play, and unselfishness, are all good indicators this team is sounding like what most everyone has been talking about for several weeks now. A quote from Jimmy C about positive chemistry is also very telling. TEAM is a concept that apparently has been lacking for the past few seasons. My hat is off to the guys for taking a stand and trying to turn this thing around. I'll try and catch a few of the games down the road on HLN, TV, or any other way I can. Continued good luck!
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Post by jake27 on Dec 16, 2007 4:31:24 GMT -6
The weather was terrible so I decided not to go out to the game but I'm so glad we won. DePaul doesn't seem like a good team this year but its still a Big East team on their court. 6-4 so far with wins vs. Bradley and Depaul, things are looking up
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Post by Jason T on Dec 16, 2007 10:35:23 GMT -6
DePaul shouldn't be a scary team just because they're in the Big East. They oughta be scared of Marquette....a REAL Big East team I'd be scared of if they were on UIC's non-conf. schedule.
DePaul is a lot like NW. Both teams are in major conferences. And both of them play well against in-state teams. But both of them are not the elite teams of their respective conferences. It's a nice win for the Flames against a team that's more like the Cubs of the Big East. But if the Flames ever want to see some real competition from this conference, I guess they need to win the HL Tourney first.
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TSIC
New Recruit
Posts: 18
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Post by TSIC on Dec 16, 2007 15:06:38 GMT -6
Congrats on another victory. Don't sell UIC short. DePaul has a ton of talent. If you look at the DePaul starting line up closely, four out of five starters were ranked in the top 100 nationally coming out of high school and all of them ranked in the top forty at their respective positions. Their big guy Koshwal, was the fourth best player in the nation at his position and ranked number 18 over all out of the class of 2007. I would not discount this win. They (Depaul) have issues and are not playing up to their ability but it has nothing to do with a lack of talent. Depaul's coach has lost his team. The difference is the power of we is greater than me and UIC players are beginning to buy into it. Sorry to hear about Torre Johnson from UWM. Players not only represent their individual team but they also represent the Horizon. The Horizon continues to attract some talented players but that will be a huge loss for both if he is guilty.
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Post by goflames31 on Dec 17, 2007 1:10:28 GMT -6
DePaul shouldn't be a scary team just because they're in the Big East. They oughta be scared of Marquette....a REAL Big East team I'd be scared of if they were on UIC's non-conf. schedule. DePaul is a lot like NW. Both teams are in major conferences. And both of them play well against in-state teams. But both of them are not the elite teams of their respective conferences. It's a nice win for the Flames against a team that's more like the Cubs of the Big East. But if the Flames ever want to see some real competition from this conference, I guess they need to win the HL Tourney first. I didn't know DePaul won the Big East last year ? See Cubs reference in quoted paragraph, since my Cubbies are the defending NL Central Champs. Huge win for the Flames, lets keep the ball rolling!
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Post by rambler63 on Dec 17, 2007 1:10:38 GMT -6
Just let me add another note of congratulations on a great victory for the league. DePaul is having a down year, but it's never easy to go into the home court of a Big East team and come out with a win. Together with your win over Bradley, CSU's wins, and Butler's wins, the league has put together a pretty good argument for being a multi-bid league. Now if we could just get the conference tournament format to reflect that, we'd be doing alright....
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Post by Jason T on Dec 17, 2007 13:51:05 GMT -6
At least the Blue Demons can say they've been to the Final Four once in the last 63 years.
These '07-'08 Blue Demons are a basketball version of Chicago's Lovable Losers.
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Post by PantherLou on Dec 17, 2007 14:22:28 GMT -6
Nice game by you guys. Congrats. (As a UIC booster, I could say "us", but then I would have to go throw up a little )
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Post by UICJohn on Dec 17, 2007 16:31:14 GMT -6
I honestly just can't stand DePaul! I am so glad that we won. DePaul acts like they're constantly in the running for the national championship (at least the ones that I know and know of). They think that UIC is a joke and that they're amazing. On their website they are saying "I can't believe we are losing to teams like UIC". Get over it. Who has been to the NCAAs more recently?
The UIC fans at the game were by far more vocal then the DePaul fans. And I never pull out this card, ever, but if the refs weren't wearing DePaul shirts under their uniform, than the margin of victory would have been greater.
And one more note. If you added up all of the fans, the ushers, the vendors, the players, coaches, and anybody else, there were MAYBE 3,500 people at the arena. There was NOWHERE near 8500. THat was a joke!
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Post by Whoosh! on Dec 17, 2007 19:22:56 GMT -6
This was an impressive win on any level, and I am thrilled to be 180 degrees wrong about both the way the game played out AND the final score. Our shots were not falling. We won. The calls were not going our way. We won. The majority of the crowd was not on our side. We won. Stack the deck any way you want, our guys won this thing and the most impressive part is that every time DePaul looked like were going to make a run, our guys, calmed down and made DePaul beat us rather than rolling over. There is ABSOLUTELY NO QUESTION that the better team won tonight. I agree with soccer fan's assessment for the most part. Pretty well stated. A few more observations: I just love the three-guard alignment of Mayo, Stewart and Kreps when they are on the floor. I started noticing how well they were gelling in the Milwaukee game and Coach Collins noticed too, thus he's been going with it more and more each game. VanderMeer seems to be improving his offense and just his presence deters the opponent from driving straight at him. Even though Scotty's blocks have down the last few games, I can tell the opponent's post men are looking to be more creative and alter shots on their own just to avoid the block. Guys like Dailey, Bush, Buttell, White and Iggy are all playing their roles well. No one of those guys are looking to force anything right now, and that's good. Even though Bush isn't scoring much, he did have a clutch offensive rebound and stickback late in the game on Saturday. Even when DePaul went on their run in the second half, our guys regrouped very well and that's a testament to their character. The only guy I've been disappointed in lately is Boyd. He seems to be a turnover machine lately. The good thing is: he's a freshman and he will be a lot better, and he did show some flashes early in the season. Some of the media there was commenting on how much smarter and better coached UIC looked than DePaul and they was consensus among the throng that covered the game. This could be the start of something good, but Spike mentioned it in the Toledo thread, we better be careful with Toledo. They are not as bad as their 2-8 record. They've had one of the toughest schedules in the country. They are a somewhat young team though, so it is imperative that we have a good start on Wednesday and keep them at bay. Onward and upward! Go Flames!
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Post by bluesman on Dec 17, 2007 21:01:13 GMT -6
I don't want to put a damper on a good sounding thing, but I didn't realize that the three guards play extended minutes together. If that is the case, just be aware that there are real liability issues defensively and especially rebounding. Stew will have to guard a few guys in the 6-5 to 6-7 range occasionally, plus rebound against guys that size. A little 2-3 zone might be in order every few trips down the floor just to keep the opposition off balance. Remember what happened last year when Mayo and Gray were playing together? Not good! The improved ball handling and ball movement on offense will definitely help with those three playing together, but better be careful down on the other end!
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Post by Whoosh! on Dec 17, 2007 21:15:03 GMT -6
I don't want to put a damper on a good sounding thing, but I didn't realize that the three guards play extended minutes together. If that is the case, just be aware that there are real liability issues defensively and especially rebounding. Stew will have to guard a few guys in the 6-5 to 6-7 range occasionally, plus rebound against guys that size. A little 2-3 zone might be in order every few trips down the floor just to keep the opposition off balance. Remember what happened last year when Mayo and Gray were playing together? Not good! The improved ball handling and ball movement on offense will definitely help with those three playing together, but better be careful down on the other end! That's a good point, bluesman, and Collins did address that a bit in the postgame press conference. There will be times that the opponent will outsize us. But Kreps is actually a decent rebounder for his size and Stewart will have to guard bigger players and get a few more rebounds too. It's one of those situations where the shots have to fall for the most part when we have the three guards out there.
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Post by soccer fan on Dec 17, 2007 21:54:12 GMT -6
I have one more thing to say about this game:
Conventional wisdom says you don't try to outscore a team that is more athletic than you are. You pack it in, play defensively, and try to keep the score down. DePaul's defense is notoriously weak, but it still took a HELL OF A LOT OF BALLS to play a wide open attacking game against a team with that much horsepower on their home court!
I don't think DePaul expected UIC to play them that way, didn't prepare for it, and for that reason, this game rightfully belongs to Collins and Coomes, every bit as much as to the players.
DePaul bet the ranch that shutting own Mayo was the key to beating UIC. They didn't expect to encounter a three-headed monster in Mayo, Stewart, and Kreps, and they couldn't adjust. Game over.
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