The UW men’s basketball team will look to defend its 1-0 record and No. 14 ranking when it hosts the Eastern Illinois Panthers in the Kohl Center tonight.
The Badgers, who have won each of the past two Big Ten titles and are expected to challenge for a third straight, will enter their matchup with the Panthers riding a 13-game home winning streak.
To extend the streak, UW will need to avoid an early-season letdown against Eastern Illinois, which returns just one starter from last year’s team.
Although the Badgers are heavily favored in tonight’s non-conference showdown, UW head coach Bo Ryan is not looking past the Huskies.
“Well, they’ve got a team of guys that want to be successful,” said Ryan during UW’s weekly press conference Monday afternoon. “They’ve practiced hard, they’re a basketball team that tries to compete. So that’s what they’ll bring in here and put up there against us.”
Among other things this season, EIU head coach Rick Samuels will be presented with the tall task of filling the scoring void left by the graduation of Henry Domercant.
Domercant, who is now playing professionally in Turkey, was the nation’s second leading scorer last year (27.9 ppg) and is the Ohio Valley conference’s all-time leading scorer with 2,602 career points. He finished his career as the NCAA’s 26th all-time scoring leader, and is one of only 11 players to finish among the nation’s top five scorers for three straight years.
Although Coach Samuels has said Domercant’s scoring load will likely be picked up by committee, Panther guard Derik Hollyfield has emerged as EIU’s go-to guy on the offensive end thus far.
Hollyfield, a junior-college transfer from Lincoln Community College, paced the Panthers in their loss Saturday night with 27 points, connecting on 10 of his 19 shot attempts, and has proven himself to be a formidable scoring threat from the perimeter.
When asked about the addition of Hollyfield to the Panther lineup prior to the season, Coach Samuels was nothing but complimentary.
“I really like Derik,” Samuels said. “He’s tough, makes big plays and is a good defender.”
Rounding out the Panthers’ starting lineup are seniors Jesse Mackinson and David Roos and sophomores Josh Gomes and Jake Sinclair.
Mackinson, the team’s lone returning starter, was EIU’s No. 3 scorer (9.8 ppg) and No. 2 rebounder (5.0 rpg) last year. He represents the Panthers’ most formidable scoring threat in the post and is an effective frontcourt compliment to Domercant on the perimeter — which provides Coach Samuels with a balanced attack on the offensive end.
Gomes and Sinclair are solid contributors in EIU’s remaining guard slots and Roos is a dependable big man, but beyond the Panthers’ starting lineup EIU runs pretty thin.
In Eastern Illinois’ matchup with instate-rival Northern Illinois, Coach Samuels brought just three players off the bench and the trio contributed only 22 of the Panthers’ 76 points and connected on just five of their 23 shot attempts.
Their lack of depth aside, EIU still garners the respect of opposing teams and coaches, if for no other reason, because of its experienced head coach.
This season marks Coach Samuels’ 24th at the helm of Eastern Illinois’ men’s basketball program, and those continuous years at one school place him No. 2 nationally on the list of Division 1 coaches who have remained at the same institution.
Over the course of his tenure at EIU, Samuels has developed three NBA draft picks, including former All-Star center Kevin Duckworth, and was chosen as the Daily Eastern News’ “Person of the Year” in 2001.
“It’s a team that has a coach that’s been around and a coach that’s been in some tough situations with where he’s taken his team,” UW head coach Bo Ryan said. “So we expect to get every bit of the same kind of competitive level that we’ve learned to get from everybody else. They’re going to give us their best.”
Following tonight’s matchup, the Badgers will play host to Rutgers Friday before traveling to Maryland Dec. 2 to participate in the annual ACC-Big Ten Challenge.
