OPENING TIP: Coomes has made Flames believers

COMMENTARY (as published in Whoosh! magazine Jan. 22, 2007)

Photo: Steve Woltmann/UIC Athletics Mark Coomes (left) has filled in while Jimmy Collins has been on leave.

I can’t help thinking of Hulk Hogan’s old theme song, Real American, when I muse about the current state of the UIC Flames men’s basketball team.

One part of the song composed by Rick Derringer strikes me in particular: “When it comes crashing down, and it hurts inside, ya’ gotta take a stand, it don’t help to hide.”

Well, when things started to crash down around the Flames in late December, it could have been disastrous.

With head coach Jimmy Collins on personal leave (and his subsequent surgery) and three scholarship players being subtracted from the roster, things could have gotten ugly – really fast.

But under the guidance of associate head coach Mark Coomes, the Flames suddenly clicked. UIC started playing better basketball and it got two huge Horizon League victories, an overtime conquest of then-No. 12 Butler and then a solid victory over preseason favorite Loyola.

During Collins’ time away from the team, Coomes’ approach has rubbed off on the players. It’s a forward-thinking mentality that has the Flames not dwelling on the past, but looking to the future one day at a time.

Just by seeing the body language of the players and talking to some of them, they have seemed to find a focus that often flickered during the non-conference portion of the schedule. Part of it is finally finding chemistry within the team.

“We what we have right now is the inner circle,” Coomes said after UIC’s win over Butler on Jan. 10.

I have to give Coomes credit for being a total professional in getting the players prepared despite the circumstances surrounding them, and for keeping them focused. Sure the team hasn’t always been perfect, but it’s a whole better than it could have been.

It’s been a true yeoman effort by Coomes, assistant coach Dave Donnelly and director of basketball operations Bryant Lowe. It’s also a credit to players that Collins and his staff have recruited in the last couple of seasons.

Meanwhile, with Collins resting at home, the UIC is in the thick of the Horizon League race. Maybe the Flames’ get-well present to Collins will be a Horizon League championship trophy.

On a personal level, I’ve known “Coach C” since the day that he was introduced as the Flames’ coach in March of 1996. He has shown me nothing but class in his 11 years at the University.

He’s always had time for me, and he’s always answered the tough questions (as well as the “softballs”).

When I was in Dayton, Ohio for the 1997 MCC tournament, I found out my father had passed away. Jimmy was one of the first ones to offer me condolences. Even for a few years after my dad’s passing, Coach asked how my mother was doing. That’s a sign of a loving, caring coach, and more importantly, a loving and caring human being.

Get well, “Coach C.”