Beginning Monday, June 21st, 2004 CHN began unveiling 144 Team previews in 144 Days. CHN ranked the nations top 144 teams, and is unveiling one per day leading up until the opening day of the 2004-05 Season.

Bookmark the 144 Teams in 144 Days home page, and check back each day to see which team is previewed next.

The Flames have a huge list of people leaving. But that list won’t include head coach Jimmy Collins for a while. Collins recently signed a three year extension that puts him under contract through the 2008-2009 season. He will put out a quality team year in and year out. And despite losing all five starters, this year will be no different.

Who’s Out: Martell Bailey, Armond Williams, Aaron Carr, Cedrick Banks and Joe Scott sound like a list of all-conference players. Unfortunately for the Flames it is their starting five that have all graduated. Banks is the cream of that crop, scoring over 18 points per game last year. Bailey might be the hardest to replace. The point guard dished out nearly eight assists per game. Bench players Richard Lesko, Rickey Dominguez, Jabari Harris and Kevin Mitchem are also leaving.

Who’s In: Junior college transfer Luther Boyd should compete for a job in the starting five. The 6-8, 245 pound Chicago native played his junior college ball at Iowa Western. Boyd is a good post player and can step out and shoot the short jumper as well. Incoming freshman guard Karl White should see some decent minutes off the bench this year.

Who to Watch: Elliot Poole will be asked to fill the void in the frontcourt. He averaged just over five points per game last year as a sophomore, but will see a dramatic increase in minutes for his junior campaign. The 6-7, 255 pounder isn’t really a scoring threat though. He gets his work done on the glass. He is quick and dedicated to getting to the boards and that leaves him high percentage shots available under the basket. Poole can get in foul trouble quite quickly and will have to learn how to avoid that if he wants to stay on the floor very long. If he can stay on the floor, Poole will become a huge presence in the Horizon.

Projected Conference Rank: Competing for the Horizon title is always the goal of UIC. That might be asking a little too much for a team that has many unproven players that will see significant playing time. If Jimmy Collins can pull things together, this team can be tough. A 3rd place finish in the conference is still a great year after losing all five starters.

Projected Post-season Tournament: none

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Email Joel Welser: jwelser_chn@ameritech.net

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