Flames get disappointing draw

GEORGIA SOUTHERN COMES TO UIC

(1/31/05)

The 2004-05 season has been bit of an underachieving one thus far – and that showed even more when the Bracket Buster pairings were released Monday afternoon.

UIC’s opponent for the Feb. 19 Bracket Buster is Georgia Southern from the Southern Conference. The Flames, whose RPI was 98, according to Ken Pomeroy at kenpom.com, should have expected an opponent close to them in the ratings.

Instead, the Eagles, who are a solid 12-8 on the season, have a current RPI of 174, which will do the Flames no favors when and if it comes down an NCAA tournament seed or a NIT berth. It may also hurt the Flames’ non-conference strength of schedule rating which stands at No. 3 in the country.

The game will be at the UIC Pavilion with the game tentatively scheduled for 3 p.m.

The Eagles are tied for second in the Southern Conference South Division with Charleston at 6-3, three games behind Davidson. They were 21-8 last season, losing in the Southern tournament semifinals, snapping a 13-game winning streak.

While the RPI matchup is disappointing, the game still has some intrigue as Georgia Southern likes an up-tempo style, averaging 78.8 points per game. The Eagles allow 74.3 points per contest.

The Eagles’ best victory was a 90-72 home defeat of Charleston, a perennial mid-major power in the South. Georgia Southern has also played and lost to Florida, Utah State and Washington State. The Eagles have won six of their last seven games.

GSU has three players average in double figures, including 5-foot-8 junior guard Elton Nesbitt, who leads the team at 18.9 points per game and shoots 89 percent from the free-throw line. Nesbitt is an energetic player and one of the team’s better three-point shooters.

The Eagles’ toughest player might be Jean Francois, a 6-foot-6 forward, who averages 12.7 points, 8.2 rebounds and shoots at 48 percent clip. He is similar to UIC’s Armond Williams in that he can play the power forward and small forward positions.

Six-foot-three point guard Terry Williams averages 12.8 points and 3.6 assists per game

The Flames lead the all-time series 2-0 as the Flames swept a rare non-conference home-and-home series during the 1994-95 season when Sherell Ford was a senior at UIC.

The biggest benefit to this game is that it could make for an interesting two-game Georgia swing next season as the Flames are already slated to go to Atlanta for a rematch with Georgia Tech. UIC will return to Statesboro, Ga. for a rematch of this game.

Some would have expected a possible Bradley-UIC matchup, but the Braves, whose RPI is 94, got matched up at Western Kentucky. Arkansas-Little Rock was 101st in the ratings, but received a TV spot at Bowling Green.

The Horizon League received two television slots as Wisconsin-Milwaukee was slated to travel to Hawaii and Wisconsin-Green Bay will host Illinois State. The TV slots and times will be announced on Feb. 8 by ESPN.