2018-19 #HLMBB Preview: UIC
UIC
Last season: 20-16 overall, 12-6 Horizon League
Head coach: Steve McClain (4th year
By Joey Yashinsky, Horizon League Contributor. Follow on Twitter @OneSeatOver
If you are on the lookout for gifted and experienced guards in the Horizon League, you will find almost a whole starting lineup full of them residing on the campus of UIC. Steve McClain’s backcourt is deep, seasoned, and ready for a breakout campaign in 2018-19.
The bouncy 6-foot-2 Marcus Ottey earned a place on the Preseason All-Horizon League first team. Point guard Tarkus Ferguson nabbed a place on the second team. They are joined by Godwin Boahen and Dominique Matthews, the top two 3-point shooters for the Flames last year.
It’s a top-flight set of guards. The only issue is, how does McClain find enough playing time and shot attempts to go around?
“Minutes are going to be at a premium,” said the fourth-year leader of the Flames. “That will really be the test for all of our guys; to be as productive as you can be in the minutes you get.”
Ottey led UIC in scoring last season at just under 14 points a night, but the truly impressive statistic could be found in his shooting percentage: 51.8 percent. Nowadays, it’s usually just the skyscraper centers that convert at such a high clip by making mostly dunks and layups. For Ottey at 6-foot-2 to do it is remarkable. His 84 percent from the free-throw line is nothing to sneeze at, either.
Ferguson racked up 136 assists, good for second in the Horizon League, and all the more impressive considering he missed nine games due to a foot injury. At 6-foot-4, Ferguson has tremendous size for a lead guard, which he uses to great effect by seeing over defenses and finding open teammates.
“If you look at Tarkus’ career, he’s never had a lot of honors or awards,” McClain said. “And I think that’s because he is such an unselfish player, he makes the right plays all the time, and he is the ultimate point guard. And he has continued to make great strides in his game this off-season.”
The Flames will lean heavily on Jordan Blount to police the area under the rim. The 6-foot-8 junior and Ireland native had an excellent year in 2017-18, starting all 36 contests and finishing as a top-10 rebounder in the conference. He ended the year in the top 20 for assists too, the only frontcourt player able to make such a boast.
“Jordan had a great first year,” McClain said. “He grew and he got better. There’s no question, especially early as our young players are still learning and developing, that Jordan’s gonna be a big key in the middle for us.”
Over the last four years, that area had been the domain of Tai Odiase, a UIC great and one of the best interior defenders in the history of the Horizon League.
Junior college transfer Rob Howard (6-8, 230) is a well-built forward who can comfortably step out and drill shots from 22 feet. Freshman Abraham Makumator will take some time to figure out the college game, but at 7-0 and 235 pounds, McClain hopes to find some opportunities for the rookie to come in and swat a few shots into the second deck.
Swingman Michael Diggins won’t wow you with the numbers he put up during his freshman campaign (3.1 PPG), but by the end of the year, he had become one of UIC’s most important pieces.
“Mike really came on when we made the run in the CIT,” McClain said. “He took a big jump.”
That postseason run saw UIC take out St. Francis, Austin Peay, and Liberty before bowing out in the title game to Northern Colorado. With a host of guards that were then sophomores, the extension to the season helped speed up the growth process.
““I thought at times, with the youth of our guards, certain games got away from us last year when they shouldn’t have,” McClain said. “I think the run we made in the CIT helped us with that maturity. We played all but one game on the road and beat some very good teams. Our guards needed to take over those games and they started learning how to do that.”
In Steve McClain’s first year at UIC, the Flames went just 3-15 in the Horizon League. The following season, that record improved to 7-11. Last year, McClain and Co. bumped it all the way to 12-6, the first time in 14 years that the program finished better than .500 in conference play.
Of course, you need not remind fans in Chicago that the Flames haven’t won a regular season championship since the 1997-98 season.
But with Ottey and Ferguson leading the way, and a deep pool of talent throughout the lineup, perhaps this is the year they make that last little surge up the standings and plant a giant-sized UIC flag at the Horizon League summit.