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Jeffers excited about season HARD WORK, CONDITIONING KEYS (10/3/06)
The Flames junior swingman wants to bring a summer full of hard work and training to the court this season. Jeffers was excited to work with several teammates, who he thinks we will have an impact. “Me, Karl [White], K.B. [Kevin Bond] and T.J. [Gray] were putting in a lot of time,” Jeffers said. “Days and nights, two-a-days … That’s how good we want to be. Karl made a tremendous effort to be a better player.” Jeffers also worked with his cousin and former Flames star Mark Miller almost daily during the summer months. He expects to be an “inside-out” player with opponents having to respect his much-improved perimeter jump shot. Jeffers feels that the entire team has improved on fundamentals and conditioning. “We have some new things in our offense and we worked hard on our defense,” he said. “This year, we feel like we can play the whole game tirelessly. We have a new strength and conditioning coach, Ann [Crosby]. She’s been great; she worked with all of us individually. Our big men are running ‘guard times’ in sprints and our guards are exceeding their times.” The reigning Horizon League Newcomer of the Year saw things coming together late last year when UIC won an overtime game at Wisconsin-Milwaukee. “What made that game special is that was at their house,” Jeffers said. “They had a great defense and had almost all of the stars back. We tied shorts up tight, put on our hard hats and went to war.” Whoosh! will have a special in-depth feature on Jeffers in its season-preview print edition, which will be published in the Nov. 13 edition of the Chicago Flame. SPIRITED SCRIMMAGE: Most of the current Flames got together Monday at the Flames Athletic Center for about an hour’s worth of scrimmage games without coaching. It was an opportunity for the new players to mold with the veterans. At times the games were physical and heated, but the players were very vocal and supportive of each other. For a photo gallery from the scrimmage, click here. FLAMES FLICKERS: Flames assistant coaches Mark Coomes and Dave Donnelly confirmed that the team current has just one scholarship available for next season. … Speaking of next season, UIC will play in the eight-team Paradise Jam in the U.S. Virgin Islands on Nov. 15-20, 2007. The other teams in the solid field are Baylor, Charlotte, Georgia Tech, Monmouth (N.J.), Notre Dame, Wichita State and Winthrop. There will be three games in the bracketed tournament with consolation games. … The contract with Akron is for four years. The series begins this season at the UIC Pavilion on Dec. 16. Then the next two games will be in Akron with the last game back at UIC in the 2009-10 season. … USA Today Sports Weekly has released a special “College Basketball Preview” edition, which is now on newsstands. The tabloid, which usually covers baseball, football and NASCAR, has a complete conference-by-conference preview. They picked UIC to finish fourth in the Horizon League behind Loyola, Wisconsin-Green Bay and Detroit. Jeffers was selected to the First-Team All-Conference. The article also mentions the Flames’ incoming recruits as a “top class.” … Following Danijel Zoric’s lead, sophomore center Scott VanderMeer has elected to change his number from 45 to 41. Zoric was No. 50 last season and now is No. 43. … According to sports information director Mike Cassidy, all Flames home games will now be video streamed even non-conference tilts. … As for national TV, the Horizon League will have three regular-season conference games on the ESPN networks, but surprisingly none will feature the Flames. The games: Wisconsin-Green Bay at Wisconsin-Milwaukee (ESPN2, Jan. 27), Wright State at Detroit (ESPN, Feb. 3) and Loyola at Butler (ESPNU, Feb. 22). UIC’s television schedule should be available soon. |
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