MACOMB, Ill. -Â The Western Illinois men's basketball squad travels across the state to face the UIC Flames Monday evening (Nov. 17) in Chicago. The game is slated to tipoff at 7 p.m. inside the UIC Pavilion. Fans in the Chicago area can watch the game live on CSN Chicago, and fans outside of the Chicago area can tune into ESPN3. Fans can also listen live on WRMSfm.com.
WELCOME DELO: Western Illinois head men's basketball coach Billy Wright announced the addition of De'Angelo Bruster to the Fighting Leatherneck family Saturday (Nov. 15). Bruster, who goes by Delo and is a native of Overland Park, Kan., signed a National Letter of Intent to play basketball at WIU beginning next season and is in the midst of his senior season at Quality Education Academy (Winston-Salem, N.C.).
COACH WRIGHT ON DELO: "De'Angelo is a true point guard who had led both his high school and AAU programs to championships. He has a great feel for the game and understands how to make others better. "De'Angelo has a sincere passion to win and has a great work ethic to go along with that passion. We are really excited to add him to our basketball family."
@WIUMENSHOOPS LAST TIME OUT: Western Illinois struggled from the free throw line in its 73-71 season-opening, overtime loss to Pacific last Friday night (Nov. 14) in Macomb. The game was head coach Billy Wright's first as head coach of the Fighting Leathernecks. Western Illinois made only 17 of its 31 (54.8%) attempts from the charity stripe compared to Pacific connecting on 17-of-24 (70.8%) of its attempts. Garret Covington led four Leathernecks in double figures with 15. Mike Miklusak (11), Jamie Batish (10) and Dalan Ancrum (10) also finished with double digits in the scoring column. To go along with his 15 points, Covington also tallied six rebounds and two assists. Tate Stensgaard led the team in rebounds, with seven, and assists with four. He also recorded four points, a block and a steal.
Â
A LOOK AT UIC: Like the Leathernecks, the Flames, members of the Horizon League, lost their season-opening contest by a close margin... UIC rallied back from a 21-point deficit to take its first lead of the game with under a minute to play, but fell to DePaul, 72-71... The Flames trailed 46-30 before outscoring DePaul 41-26 in the second frame... UIC was led by senior Marc Brown who tallied a game-best 19 points...Junior Jake Wiegand notched a double-double with 15 points and a career-best 12 boards... Last season the Flames finished 6-25 overall and finished ninth in the Horizon League with a 1-15 league mark... The Flames are coached by Howard Moore (Wisconsin '95) who is in his fifth season at the helm and owns a career record of 39-88.
Â
LEATHERNECKS VS. FLAMES SERIES HISTORY: Western Illinois and UIC have faced one another 35 times... WIU trails the all-time series 16-19... The two teams were both charter members of the The Summit League (formally known as Mid-Continent Conference)... The first meeting between the two teams occurred on Dec. 9, 1978 with the Flames edging the Leathernecks 82-81... The most recent meeting happened on Dec. 18, 2012 with UIC downing the Leathernecks 70-54.
EXHIBITION VICTORY:Â The Western Illinois men's basketball squad earned an 82-48 victory in its lone exhibition of the year over Cornell College (Iowa) last Saturday (Nov. 8) under first-year head coach Billy Wright. The Leathernecks never trailed as they used a 32-6 run to open the contest, and went into the midway point with a 47-20 advantage. The second half was much of the same with the Leathernecks out scoring the Rams 35-28. All of the players that dressed played, and 11 players scored. Mike Miklusak led WIU with 14 points, while both Garret Covington (12) and J.C. Fuller (10) both finished in double figures. Seven different players also made up the team's 19 assists, and the same 11 players that scored all recorded at least one rebound. Besides leading the team in scoring, Miklusak also grabbed eight rebounds, which tied for the team lead. Tyson Reynold also pulled down eight boards while Tate Stensgaard finished with seven rebounds.
Â
PRESEASON RECOGNITION:Â Western Illinois men's basketball sophomore guard Garret Covington, the league's reigning 'Newcomer of the Year', was tabbed preseason All-Summit League First Team on Oct. 8 as announced by the league office. As a team, the Fighting Leathernecks were picked to finish seventh in the league with 151 votes. The preseason poll and all-league teams were voted on by the league's head coaches, sports information directors and select media members.
Â
THE RETURNERS:Â Western returns only six players from a season ago. Remy Roberts-Burnett enters his fourth season at WIU and is one of two seniors on the team. Roberts-Burnett battled injuries again last season, only allowing him to play in 15 of the team's 30 games. The rest of the five returners are each entering their second season. Senior Mohamed Conde played in 24 games, averaging 3.6 points and 2.9 rebounds per game. Like Remy, junior Tate Stensgaard battled injuries but played in 27 games and averaged 6.2 points and 3.6 rebounds per game. The other returners are sophomore Garret Covington, Jabari Sandifer and Mike Miklusak. Covington returns as the league's 'Newcomer of the Year' after leading the team in points per game (14.3) and grabbing 4.7 rebounds per game. Sandifer played in all 30 games and led the team in assists per game (3.1), while Miklusak only missed the season opener and averaged 5.2 points and 2.9 rebounds per game.
Â
THE NEWCOMERS:Â The Leathernecks have nine new players for the 2014-15 team. Five freshman, two of which are walk-ons, and four JUCO transfers. The five freshman are: Kam Rowan (Champaign, Ill./Champaign Central), Kendall Rollins (Indianapolis, Ind./Pike), DeVante Mayes (Peoria, Ill./Peoria Central), Dalan Ancrum (Round Rock, Texas/Westwood), and Jalen Morgan (Indianapolis, Ind./Pike). The four transfers are: Jamie Batish (Melbourne, Australia/Sandringham College), Tyson Reynold (Queens, N.Y./South Florida Prep), J.C. Fuller (Sioux City, Iowa/East), and Jalen Chapman (Bronx, N.Y./Eagle Academy).
Â
THE 2014-15 SCHEDULE:Â Western's schedule features a total of 27 games, 14 at home and 13 on the road... The Leathernecks open the regular season at home Nov. 14 versus Pacific... Head Coach Billy Wright on the team's schedule: "We have put together a schedule that I believe not only challenges our team but also offers a good competitive balance. I was looking for opponents who had been to the postseason, because if we want to get back to that level, we have to test ourselves against opponents who have recently competed in the postseason. I also wanted to get as many home games as possible for our fans and our students. With 14 regular season home games, plus one home exhibition game, our fans and our students will have plenty of opportunities to show their support."
Â
UNDER NEW LEADERSHIP:Â Billy Wright returned to the Fighting Leathernecks men's basketball program as Western Illinois Director of Athletics Tommy Bell announced the hiring of Wright as the Leathernecks' head coach. Wright was introduced at a press conference on April 15 in the University Union. Wright spent five years (2009-13) at WIU as an assistant then associate head coach. After working at Ball State last season, he will take over as the 20th overall head coach in Western men's basketball history, and fifth in the program's Division I era. It marks Wright first collegiate head coaching job.
Â
WHAT IS A LEATHERNECK?:Â Western Illinois holds the distinction of being the only non-military institution to officially have its nickname derived from a branch of the military service. The school began use of the Marine Corps' official nickname, "The Fighting Leathernecks", in 1927 when then-athletic director and head baseball, basketball and football coach Ray "Rock" Hanson was granted permission by the U.S. Navy, based on his status as a Marine hero, to use the Marine's official seal, bulldog mascot and nickname.
 |
