Sept. 15, 2003
2003-04 SCHEDULE in PDF Format
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Chicago, Ill. - The UIC men's basketball team unveiled its 2003-04 schedule on Monday afternoon, laying out a challenging road for head coach Jimmy Collins and his five returning senior starters.
A showdown with Illinois at the United Center on December 30th, a battle with Northwestern at the UIC Pavilion on Dec. 20th on Fox Sports Chicago, and a home game in front of a possible national television audience for ESPN Bracket Buster Saturday on February 21st, highlight the aggressive slate, which includes dates with as many as five NCAA Tournament teams from a season ago.
"Our goal has been to continually put in place a challenging and competitive schedule," Collins said. "This year is no different.
"I think this year's team, and a lot of people have said this, on paper can go a long way," Collins continued. "What has to be done is for this team to understand that TEAM is the avenue to winning."
The Flames will get a chance to make a statement early on this year as they take part in the 2003 Black Coaches Association (BCA) Classic in Cincinnati, Ohio, from November 15th-17th. UIC joins tournament host Xavier and San Diego as teams that earned postseason bids last season in the field, while UC-Irvine, Ohio, Oakland, Mercer and Coppin State round out the eight teams involved in the three-day event.
UIC has then put an interesting scheduling twist to the first month of the season, playing a back-to-back, home-and-home series versus Evansville. The Flames will travel to meet the Purple Aces on November 21st, before meeting Evansville, again, just four days later in Chicago for a contest at the UIC Pavilion.
The Flames, who went 7-0 against schools from Illinois last season, will take on plenty of their in-state rivals this year with dates versus Eastern Illinois and Northern Illinois on the road and Illinois State at home, as well as the previously mentioned contests with the Illini and Wildcats on the non-conference slate. UIC will also have its annual home-and-home, double-dip with city-foe, Loyola in Horizon League action.
The road to the league title will be as tight as ever as 2003 NCAA Tournament teams, UW-Milwaukee and Butler, along with Detroit and the rest of the usual conference suspects, join in the hunt for the crown.
The Flames will get plenty of exposure in late January and February as they are featured four times as the Horizon League's Game of the Week on Fox Sports. UIC's home dates with Detroit (1/3), Loyola (1/8) and Butler (2/28), along with their trip to Hinkle Fieldhouse to take on the Bulldogs on Jan. 31st will all be televised.
The Horizon League Tournament will take place between March 2nd-9th, 2004. The second round, semifinals and championship games are scheduled to take place at Butler's Hinkle Fieldhouse, but the venue could change should the Bulldogs be eliminated in the early rounds.
UIC will tackle this slate with three returning All-Horizon League performers from a season ago in Cedrick Banks (Chicago, Ill./Westinghouse), Martell Bailey (Chicago, Ill./Westinghouse) and Armond Williams (Hillside, Ill./Austin), to go along with senior starters Aaron Carr (Chicago, Ill./Lincoln Park) and Joe Scott (Palos Hills, Ill./Stagg). That starting rotation accounted for 68.7 points and 23.5 rebounds per game last year while shooting 49% from the field as a group.
