By Bryan Bloodworth
NORMAL – With final examinations under their belt, the Illinois State men’s and women’s basketball teams now face nonconference road tests Wednesday.
The men’s team, fresh off a 63-61 victory over Murray State in its last outing, heads to the Windy City to take on Illinois-Chicago at the UIC Pavilion in an 8 p.m. contest. The Redbirds have a 4-6 record while UIC is 1-6 following an 83-79 loss to the University of Illinois.
‘’ They played terrific against Illinois,” said ISU coach Dan Muller. “They shot it extremely well. Clearly, they executed better. They changed their offense a little bit, but what they did was they showed the potential of those young kids. Not just the young kids, but their team. They play a ton of guys. They sure did look good.”
ISU has had its fair share of success in Chicago in recent years, posting a 3-1 record in Muller’s three-year reign with victories over Northwestern, Loyola and DePaul.
“We love getting up there,” said Muller of the fact Chicago is home to nearly 30 percent of ISU alumni and 40 percent of its student body. “The main reason why we’re doing the series with UIC is to try to continue to play in Chicago when we can.”
The game is the first of a six-year home-and-home agreement between the schools.
UIC is led by veteran coach Steve McClain, who is in his first year after spending the last five years as an assistant coach at Indiana. He also spent nine years as the head coach at Wyoming.
The Flames return two starters from last year’s 10-24 team and were picked to finish eighth in the 12-team Horizon League in the preseason.
Meanwhile, the ISU women’s team is in New Haven, Conn., to face Ivy League opponent Yale in a 6 p.m. game. The Redbirds (1-7) are looking to stop a six-game skid.
“Going to Yale is just giving us another opportunity to get better,” said ISU coach Barb Smith. “If I look at the last game, we’re doing things better. We’re just not putting things together. This is an opportunity for us to play better on the road. We’re working on our slow starts. There are a lot of things we’re working on. Right now, the opponent is us.”
Yale has a 7-5 record and Smith is impressed with the Bulldogs.
“They’re a very good basketball team and they are very balanced actually,” she said. “They have good inside-outside combinations and they have a lot of depth. They push the ball and they use each other. They share the ball well, but they do have a couple of players who are doing most of their scoring. We’re going to see mostly man-to-man.”
Bryan Bloodworth can be reached at [email protected]
