CHICAGO -- UIC ushers in a new era of Flames basketball on Wednesday, Nov. 25, as the Flames open the 2020-21 season on the road at Northern Illinois. Tipoff is slated for 6 p.m. inside the Convocation Center in DeKalb. Wednesday's contest will be the head coaching debut of new Flames head coach Luke Yaklich. Yaklich, a native of Joliet, Illinois, returns to the Chicago area after successful stints at Illinois State, Michigan and most recently, Texas. Yaklich becomes the 11th head coach in UIC history. The 2020-21 campaign marks the 40th year of Division I basketball for UIC. The Flames began competing in 1947 and made the transition to Division I status prior to the start of the 1981-82 campaign.

NEW MAN IN CHARGE
•    It was announced on March 26 that Luke Yaklich had been named the 11th head coach in UIC program history.
•    The Joliet, Illinois native spent the 2019-20 season as the associate head coach at Texas and helped lead the Longhorns to a 19-12 record and a presumptive bid to the NCAA Tournament before the season was cut short due to COVID-19.
•    Yaklich joined the staff at Texas following an incredible two-year run as an assistant coach at Michigan. Widely known as the defensive mastermind of the Wolverines, Michigan finished as the National Runner-Up in 2018 before backing up the performance with a Sweet Sixteen berth in 2019.
•    The Wolverines ranked eighth nationally in scoring defense (63.3 ppg) in his first season on the bench (2017-18), marking the first time a Michigan team led the Big Ten in scoring defense since 1963-64. It also ranked third nationally that year in Defensive Efficiency by the KenPom ratings (90.5).
•    During Yaklich's second season in Ann Arbor, Michigan led the Big Ten once again and ranked second in the NCAA in scoring defense (57.7 ppg) and second in KenPom's Defensive Efficiency (86.2). The team posted 30 wins, earned a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament and advanced to the Sweet 16 before bowing out against Texas Tech, the eventual national runner-up.
•    Yaklich began his collegiate coaching career at his alma mater, Illinois State, on the staff of head coach Dan Muller. From 2013-17, he helped the Redbirds win 86 games and earn three postseason bids (2 NIT; 1 CBI). Yaklich was elevated to Associate Head Coach prior to the 2016-17 campaign, and that year ISU posted a 28-7 overall mark, including a 17-1 record in the Missouri Valley Conference.

FRESH FACES
•    Coach Yaklich quickly went to work reloading the UIC roster, bringing in nine new faces to join the seven returners from a season ago.
•    The Flames welcome six transfers: Maurice Commander, Zion Griffin, Jalen Johnson, Teyvion Kirk, Treavon Martin and RayQuawndis Mitchell.
•    Additionally, UIC is the home to three new freshmen in Brad Bowditch, Demetrius Calip II, and Griffin Yaklich, the son of head coach Luke Yaklich. 
•    The Flames also welcome two new coaches to the bench this year in Brock Erickson and Will Veasley. Erickson spent the previous two seasons at Bryant University as the associate head coach while Veasley, a the all-time winningest player in Butler history and member of the Bulldogs' 2010 national runner-up team, spent the last four years on staff at North Dakota State.
•    The duo joins Dee Brown, who returns for his fourth season on the bench for the Flames.

LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON
•    Father and son will be on the bench for the Flames this season as head coach Luke Yaklich welcomes his son, Griffin Yaklich, to the team.
•    The Yaklich combo is 1-of-17 father-son duos in the Division I ranks and 1-of-2 programs to feature a father-son combo in the Horizon League. Wright State head coach Scott Nagy has his sophomore son, TJ, on the team.

HORIZON LEAGUE NEWCOMERS
•    UIC and the Horizon League welcomes a pair of new members to the league this year in Purdue Fort Wayne and Robert Morris.
•    The Flames have familiarity with both schools, having hosted both the Mastodons and Colonials a season ago inside Credit Union 1 Arena.
•    The Flames defeated Robert Morris, 72-62, on Nov. 21 before taking down Purdue Fort Wayne, 62-49, on Dec. 7. The 49 points scored by the Mastodons were the second-fewest points allowed by the Flames during the 2019-20 season.

FAN ATTENDANCE
•    At this time, UIC will not host fans for home games at Credit Union 1 Arena due to current public health regulations. Flames fans can watch all men's basketball games on the ESPN family of networks, as in past years.