Flames notebook: Banks nets preseason honor; Flames pegged for third

(as published in Whoosh! magazine Nov. 5, 2002)

Junior forward Cedrick Banks was named to the Preseason All-Horizon League First Team and UIC was picked to finish in third place, conference officials announced Oct. 24.

Banks, a Second Team pick last season, led the Flames to the Horizon League tournament title and the NCAA Tournament. Banks scored 13.9 points per game while shooting 45 percent from the field.

The Flames were tabbed third behind Wisconsin-Milwaukee and defending regular season champion Butler.

“We’ve got guys on our team that played their whole lives with expectations,” Flames coach Jimmy Collins said. “Our team now expects to go out and win.”

Wisconsin-Milwaukee, which finished tied for second in the league, brings back all of its starters from arguably its best team in the school's Division I history.

“Usually as a coach the last thing you want are high expectations,” UWM coach Bruce Pearl said in a press statement. “You would rather have them lower and exceed them. But in the growth and development of this program, these expectations have been a long time coming. We welcome them.”

The Panthers are led by Clay Tucker, another player on the league's Preseason First Team. The Lima, Ohio, native scored 17.6 points per game and is a dynamite three-point threat.

The rest of the Horizon League poll had Detroit in fourth, followed by Loyola, Wright State, Wisconsin-Green Bay, Cleveland State and Youngstown State.

Loyola's David Bailey was named Preseason Player of the Year. Bailey led the Horizon in scoring last year and helped to end a 13-year run of nonwinning seasons at Loyola. Butler guard Brandon Miller and Wright State forward Seth Doliboa round out the league's first team.

Second-Team players included UWM guard Ronnie Jones, Wisconsin-Green Bay center Greg Babcock, Butler center Joel Cornette, Detroit guard Willie Green and Detroit forward Terrell Riggs.

CROSS DEFECTION: Gene Cross, a loyal assistant to Collins, departed over the summer to become new DePaul coach Dave Leitao's top assistant.

Cross spent six years at UIC and was instrumental in the Flames landing Public League talent like Cedrick Banks, Martell Bailey and Elliott Poole.

"I am extremely excited to have Gene as the first member of our new family at DePaul," Leitao said. "I've known Gene for some time and I believe that he will be someone who will represent DePaul University and the basketball program in a first-class manner.

“Gene has a tremendous knowledge of the game. His Chicago roots will enhance our program locally while his talent will benefit our national recruiting efforts as well."

Before coaching at UIC, Cross was a freshman coach and assistant varsity coach at Marion-Franklin High School in Columbus, Ohio, for a year. He played collegiately as a walk-on under Collins and coach Lou Henson at the University of Illinois from 1990 to 1994. Cross prepped at Rich Central High School.

Cross will be Leitao's chief recruiter, replacing former UIC player and assistant coach Tracy Dildy, who held that role under Pat Kennedy.

With Cross' departure, Collins promoted Dave Donnelly, who started out as a team manager but finished last season as the team's assistant director of basketball operations.

HALLBERG UPDATE: The winningest coach in Flames history is still going strong. Bob Hallberg returned three years ago to St. Xavier, where he coached the men's basketball team in the 1970s. He now is the women's basketball coach and athletics director at the South Side Catholic university.

Hallberg will return Nov. 7 to the UIC Pavilion for the first time since 1996 as the Cougars play an exhibition game with the women Flames, preceding the men’s game with the Illinois All-Stars.

Hallberg was let go after the 1995-96 season, when the university chose to restructure its athletics program. He coached nine years and put the Flames on the brink of making the NCAA Tournament on four occasions.

His best season came in 1993-94, when UIC went 20-9 but lost to Dick Bennett's Wisconsin-Green Bay team 61-56 in the Mid-Continent Conference championship game.

Hallberg and his staff were responsible for recruiting Flame greats Sherell Ford, Kenny Williams and Mark Miller. Ex-UIC assistant and former St. Laurence High School coach Barry Shaw and former Flames manager Mike Dineen, now a police officer, are assistants under Hallberg.

Hallberg's former top assistant, Denny Wills, still is at UIC working as an assistant athletics director.

FORMER FLAME NOW NBA COACH: Jeff Bzdelik, who played at UIC in the mid-70s, now is coach of the NBA’s Denver Nuggets.

Bzdelik was a guard at UIC from 1972-76 and is fifth all-time on the school’s free-throw percentage list at 80 percent. His 88 percent clip in the 1975-76 season is the single-season best.

Bzdelik was Pat Riley’s top assistant coach with the Miami Heat the past few seasons.

FLAMES ON TV AND RADIO: At least eight Flame games will be televised this season, with ESPN2 showing the UIC-Detroit game on Jan. 18 and the ESPN network broadcasting UIC’s Bracket Buster game Feb. 22.

Six games will appear on Fox Sports Net, including dates with Eastern Illinois (Nov. 24), Southern Illinois (Dec. 14), Loyola (Jan. 22), Wisconsin-Green Bay (Feb. 1), Butler (Feb. 8) and Youngstown State (March 1).

ESPN’s WMVP-AM 1000 will carry 19 of the Flames’ 27 regular-season games. Dave Wills and former UIC assistant Dick Nagy return for their second year together at courtside on the announcing team.