Western Illinois' Sweet 16 run in Year 15, continued
Welcome back to Western Illinois’ quest for greatness in College Hoops 2K8. You can find a full explanation of exactly what we’re doing here + spoiler-free links to previous seasons on the About page of this website. Share it with a friend!
We pick up with our Leathernecks in the Sweet 16 of the 2022 NCAA tournament, aka Year 15 of head coach Ricky Charisma’s tenure at WIU. Here’s everything that has happened so far this season:
We set out to avenge a heartbreaking loss to Indiana in the opening round of the NCAA tournament in Year 14, when we blew an 18-point halftime lead. This year’s team returned two starters and would begin the season rated as a 97 overall.
We stumbled out of the gates to a 1-3 start, and would ultimately end non-conference play at 5-4 before sweeping the Summit League once again. For those wondering: our last Summit League loss came in Year 9 to Oral Roberts in the conference tournament; our last regular season conference loss came in Year 6.
We earned a No. 6 seed to the NCAA tournament at 26-4 overall, with a first round matchup against No. 11 seed Syracuse. We defeated the Orange, 122-96, behind 29 points from senior power forward Orien Newton. That set up a round of 32 matchup against No. 3 seed UCLA. We defeated the Bruins, 105-84, with center Roberto ‘Jorts’ Djordjevic leading the way with 24 points and 13 rebounds. This is the fourth time in program history we’ve reached the Sweet 16
We recruited for two open scholarships. We signed four-star small forward Wilky Henry (No. 80 overall, No. 11 at his position) at the early signing deadline and will have one available scholarship in the offseason.
Read Year 15: This is everything that’s happened this season so far
Here’s a look at our roster as we enter the Sweet 16:
It’s been a joy to watch new stars develop on this team. Redshirt junior Austen Kleinzweig has emerged as our best player. The 6’10 small forward put on a show against UCLA in the round of 32 — just watch these three consecutive highlight-reel plays — and enters the Sweet 16 averaging 18 points per game through our first two tournament victories. Borislav Grimes is his co-star. Affectionately nicknamed ‘Comrade Grimes’ by the fanbase, the junior shooting guard is rated a 98 in speed and is one of the team’s most reliable shooters.
There’s a solid supporting cast around them. Djordjevic has grown into a skilled offensive big man who led the team in scoring during the regular season. Newton is a tank down low and is rated as an 80 in three-point shooting. Diondre Haynes, a 6’3 senior, is everything a coach wants out of his point guard: steady as a shooter and passer with an advanced ability to force turnovers. We also have a deep bench, led by junior wing Garik Frye (90 overall) and sophomore shooting guard Kim Kone (84 overall) out of France, who has improved six points on his overall rating during the season.
Our opponent in the Sweet 16 is No. 10 seed Texas. Here’s how we matchup with the Longhorns:
As you can see in the graphic above, the Longhorns enter at 25-10 overall under head coach Beatty, who has taken over for Rick Barnes. Texas does not have a player on its roster rated in the 90s, but has a solid foundation of players in the mid-80s. The winner of No. 1 seed Duke vs. No. 5 seed Memphis awaits in the Elite Eight.
We streamed this game on Twitch, as we always do once we make the Sweet 16. As a reminder: I’m not playing this game or any game in this series. We are watching a simulated game. I only do the recruiting and set the coaching tactics.
Here’s the full video of last night’s Twitch stream. The game will begin when you click the video, which happens at the 16:31 mark of the stream.
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Loss, 91-81. I can’t believe it. And just like that, the dream of hanging banner No. 3 in 2022 fades away.
Man, we started out so good. Jorts with the nasty facial dunk on the first possession. Grimes with the corner three to put us up 11 not even four minutes into the game. I really thought this was going to turn out like the Sweet 16 game against Memphis a few years back when we took a 30-point lead into halftime. It was trending that way. Somehow, Texas was able to hit enough shots to keep it close, including a three-pointer at the halftime buzzer that cut our lead to seven going into the break.
Still, we got this. Right? At least I thought so.
The second half was one of the greatest cold stretches in Leathernecks history. What happened to our SECOND HALF TEAM? We could not buy a bucket. The team stats say we shot 6-of-32 (25 percent) from deep on the night, and it felt even worse than that. The entire second half was basically Grimes bricking open threes — he finished the night 2-of-15 from behind the arc. No one else was able to pick up the slack. While I was again frustrated with the substitution patterns — we are supposed to have a 10-man rotation, remember — I can’t blame it for this loss. We just got run off the floor in the final 20 minutes. When that happens, you don’t deserve to keep dancing.
Even in defeat, it was still a fun stream. Thank you to Abby for cutting up some clips. A Sweet 16 berth is still something to celebrate.
There was a question hanging over this season from the very start that I barely acknowledged but had in the back of my head the entire time: would anyone leave early? Kleinzweig and Grimes were each projected lottery picks as juniors. We had only lost one player early to the NBA in program history — Phil Powell way back in Year 10. Recently, Billy Assel chose to return for his senior year as a projected lottery pick after we won the national title in Year 13.
If Grimes and AK both came back, we were going to be absolutely loaded for next season. If one of them came back, we should still have a solid chance at making a deep tournament run. If both of them left? Well, we might just be in for a rebuilding year.
Offseason
We played through the offseason on the Twitch stream. You can watch it in full here.
UConn wins the national championship as a No. 1 seed. They had eight players rated in the 90s on that roster. Sheesh.
Djordjevic wins Summit League Player of the Year as a junior after averaging 18.7 points and 5.4 rebounds per game.
Here’s the moment of truth: Kleinzweig and Grimes both turn pro. Haynes and Newton are also drafted. We are happy for our boys. Next year is going to be really interesting as we look to build from the ground up. Haven’t had to do that in a while.
Oregon, Washington, Minnesota all offer me their head coaching jobs, but I turn them down. We aren’t going out like that.
I replace my assistant coach O’Sullivan with new assistant coach Warner, who offers me an upgrade from A- to A+ in the teaching department. We now have two assistants who are A+ in teaching, which means our guys should see a boost in internal improvement next year.
Recruiting
We have one more scholarship to fill after already signing four-star small forward Wilky Henry during the season. We’ve been chasing five-star JUCO center Timon Suotamo for the last few months. Colorado leads for Suotamo, but we are his only offer.
After two weeks of recruiting, Colorado drops out and Suotamo signs with the Leathernecks.
Suotamo doesn’t have AAU stats listed as a JUCO player, but our scouting (which isn’t always accurate) lists him with A potential. We envision him and Fulton forming a dominant front line of the future.
This should be another really solid recruiting haul. Excited to see what these guys look like once next season starts. But first, we have to set the non-conference schedule for next year.
We decide to play @ Duke, @ Illinois, @ Indiana, @ Texas, @ Vanderbilt, @ UConn, @ Kentucky, and @ North Carolina, with the "Golden Bear Classic" tucked in there as a mid-season tournament. As I wrote during the season, we’ll stream the season opener against Duke and senior point guard Fats Geiger for the first time ever. More on that later.
Year 16
Here’s a first look at the roster:
We’ll have some decisions to make with the rotation. Right now, I’m leaning towards starting the redshirt freshman Fulton (B+ potential) at power forward and bringing Dupre and Medina off the bench.
You can get a first look at the ‘Necks in 2022-2023 season this Tuesday (June 30) at 8:30 p.m. ET when we stream the season opener against Duke. I’m hoping to have the rest of the season played out and in your inbox later in the week.
I’m also going to schedule a schedule a stream for our Seattle SuperSonics + Deke Van dynasty for Thursday (July 2).
Here’s the stream information:
Western Illinois vs. Duke, season opener, Year 16 stream
When: Tuesday, June 30 at 8:30 p.m. ET
Where: My Twitch stream
Seattle SuperSonics + Deke Van stream in NBA 2K20
When: Thursday, July 2 at 8:30 p.m. ET
Where: My Twitch stream
One more thing: Build Your Leathernecks Squad for $15
Shout-out to reader Evan for putting this together before the Sweet 16 stream. It is undeniably awesome.
Here’s the team I put together. Check out some other teams from Cam, Drew, Abby, Beau, Ben, Bailey, and Kyle. Of course Deke also put together his own team.
I love Leatherneck Nation a lot. Add your team in the comments. I hope to see y’all on Twitch later this week for the season opener stream against Duke on Tuesday and the Sonics stream on Thursday.
Not sure about starting Fulton. Moving Dupre to PF for now and letting Fulton come off the bench until is offensive awareness comes up might be a good idea.
Or, start him, but don't give him the 30+ minutes a game like the other starters? Maybe give him around 20-25 minutes?
Haynes, Lubos, Draughan, Richards, Jorts