ST. THOMAS, Virgin Islands – Trailing by 12 points with 6:57 remaining in the second half on Monday night, the Flames were down – but not out.
UIC rallied to an 86-81 come-from-behind victory over perennial mid-major darling Iona, securing fourth place in the Paradise Jam Tournament and improving to 3-1 on the young season.
The win, unexpected as it may have been, could serve as an early indicator of things to come from third-year head coach Howard Moore’s team.
The Flames were picked to finish in eighth place in the Horizon League in the preseason poll, but they are quickly changing opinions and turning into a dark-horse contender with their hot start. The anonymity provided by their seventh-place selection could play to their favor.
“It’s good to be an unknown to begin with,” Moore said at the Horizon League media day in early October, “but we know who we are. We understand that, from our perspective, we want to be known as a team that’s hard-nosed, that puts a lot of emphasis on our defense. That’s our identity. That’s where it all starts and ends with us.”
That hard-nosed style of play was on display late in the second half on Monday night, helping the Flames go on a 12-0 run at the six-minute mark and eventually take their first lead of the half with under two minutes remaining. UIC sealed the win with three made free throws in the game’s final six seconds.
According to advanced metrics, being down 12 with 6:57 remaining gave UIC a three percent chance of winning.
The importance of beating Iona – a 2012 NCAA Tournament team – cannot be overlooked, but it’s hardly the only note-worthy win thus far for the Flames. In their season-opener at the Pavilion, UIC beat UC-Riverside 59-52 and got 29 combined points from transfer senior center Josh Crittle and transfer sophomore guard Joey Miller. The Flames had six blocks (five by Crittle) and five steals (four by senior guard Gary Talton) in the win.
Defense was also on display in UIC’s 62-36 win over Mercer in the Virgin Islands. Four different Flames players had a pair of steals as UIC totaled nine in that game. Even in their one loss, when the Flames couldn’t complete a comeback against eventual tournament champion New Mexico in the first round of the Paradise Jam, UIC held the Lobos to just five field goals in the second half and gathered eight steals.
The three wins come as no surprise to Moore, who said his team could shrug off their preseason ranking.
“When other people put you in a ranking or a hierarchy, it can either drive you one way or another,” Moore said. “I think, for us, we know where we want to be. Our program has nowhere to go but up.”
For those inside the Pavilion for practice and workouts, the intensity is palpable, and it’s rubbing off on UIC’s large incoming contingent of freshmen and transfers.
“We do a lot of extra [work] on our own, with or without the coaches. I think the way we talk, on and off the court, we talk about our goal, and that’s to be on top of the Horizon League,” Talton said, emphasizing the role of the team’s four seniors. “We have some new players, so we try to share some leadership and some experience with them to try to show them where we want to be, where we can be.”
Moore knows that the hard work his team put in during the preseason is going to pay dividends – and according to the comeback win over Iona, it is already.
“They understand what we’re trying to build and they’re driven. They’re hungry. They want to be successful,” Moore said. “With all of that put together, they put a lot of pressure on each other as peers to do the right things. Like Gary said, if you’re not doing extra, you’re not holding up your end of the bargain. These guys are in the gym putting up extra shots, staying in the weight room an hour longer, doing all of the things that it takes to be successful.”
Buying into a team-first mentality seems to have come naturally for this UIC squad. Talton said his teammates are constantly talking about team goals and bonding with one another, on and off the court. Moore sees that, too, and credits the leadership that Talton and his fellow seniors have provided.
“When that accountability comes from your leaders, it trickles down and everyone is expected to do that,” Moore said. “When you mention preseason polls and that sort of thing, we can laugh at those things because our expectations are much higher. We know what we’re doing on a daily basis.”
In the grand scheme of things, Talton realizes this is his last chance to make an impact at UIC. Even with that in mind, he wants his legacy to be about the team, not about him.
“We’re just trying to get UIC going back in the right direction, where we know it can go,” Talton said. “We have a lot of talent, it’s just on us to buy into Coach’s program and I think if we do that, we’ll succeed.”
With that common goal in mind, the Flames are working hard in the early season to shatter expectations while still getting better. In all, it makes Moore’s job easier.
“The exciting thing as coach is that I see them really buying in and really comprehending what we are doing,” Moore said. “We’re not spending unnecessary minutes teaching the same thing four or five possessions in a row. If we can continue on that trend, then I’ll know we’ll be excited about the results when we get to March.”
