Western Illinois, Year 15, 2021-2022

Welcome back to Western Illinois’ chase for greatness in College Hoops 2K8. You can find a full explanation of this series + spoiler-free links to previous seasons on the About page of this website. Also be sure to check out the debut of our new spin-off series on Deke Van and the rebooted Seattle SuperSonics.

Here’s a recap of everything that happened last season:

• We set out to defend our second national championship after losing four senior starters. We had an up-and-down regular season that included a victory over No. 1 UConn, which earned us a coaching point. After sweeping the Summit League once again, we entered the NCAA tournament at 28-4 overall.

• We were criminally under-seeded by the committee, getting a No. 10 seed and a first round tournament matchup with No. 7 seed Indiana. We had an 18-point lead over the Hoosiers at halftime, but collapsed in the second half. We were eliminated in the first round with an 80-77 loss.

• We recruited for two open scholarships and added four-star power forward Vernard Fulton and four-star point guard Angel Keita.

---

Here’s a look at the roster for Year 15:

We return two starters from last year. Let’s run through the lineup real quick:

• PG Diondre Haynes, redshirt senior: Moves back to his natural position after starting at the two last season and averaging 8.7 points per game. Rated as a B+ in ball handling and passing, and a B in three-point shooting. Rated as an A+ in mid-range shooting, A- speed and quickness, and A in shooting off the dribble. Former five-star JUCO recruit. Projected lottery pick.

• SG Borislav Grimes, redshirt junior: Moves into the starting lineup after being our sixth man last year. Affectionately nicknamed “Comrade Grimes” by the fanbase. Rated an A in close range finishing and a B in three-point shooting. Fastest player in program history with a 98 rating in speed! Former No. 77 overall recruit. Projected lottery pick.

• SF Austen Kleinzweig, redshirt junior: Has grown another inch over the offseason to 6’10. Scored a team-high 21 points in our NCAA tournament loss to Indiana last season and threw down one of the great alley-oops in program history off a feed from Haynes. Monster defensively and on the glass while only a C+ in three-point shooting. I’m giving him the Andrei Kirilenko comp. Former No. 71 overall recruit. Projected lottery pick.

• PF Orien Newton, redshirt senior: Big, strong forward moves into the starting lineup for the first time as a senior. Rated an A- in speed, ball handling, and three-point shooting. Only a B- in close range finishing. Affectionately nicknamed “Figs” by the fanbase. Former five-star JUCO recruit.

• C Robert Djordjevic, redshirt junior: Averaged 14.1 points per game last year as a first-time starter. Rated as an A or A- in three-point shooting, ball handling, passing, steals, and speed. Mediocre on the glass and as a shot blocker. Nicknamed ‘Jorts’ by friend of the program Michael Levin. Josh Harrellson would be so proud. Former No. 171 overall recruit.

All of the starters will play 30 minutes per game, except for Grimes and Kleinzweig, who will play 31 minutes per game.

We also have a deeper bench this season, so we’re going with a 10-man rotation. RS junior small forward Garik Frye (88 overall) will get 14 minutes per game, RS freshman center Sidney Dupre (79 overall) will get 10 minutes per game, RS sophomore shooting guard Kim Kone (78 overall) will get eight minutes per game, RS freshman point guard Brandin Price (78 overall) will get 10 minutes per game, and RS freshman power forward Cam Medina (76 overall) will get six minutes per game. We also have RS freshman small forward Renardo Vaerdejo (72 overall) available off the bench but not in the rotation.

We welcome two new players to the team this year. Here’s a look our incoming freshmen:

• PF Vernard Fulton, 77 overall: Former No. 30 overall recruit, No. 3 at his position. Has B+ potential, which is the best on the team. He’s already leapfrogged Medina in the long-term pecking order. Looks like a future NBA stud. Has grown an inch to 6’8 over the offseason. He’s redshirting this year.

• PG Angel Keita, 75 overall: Former No. 58 overall recruit, No. 19 at his position. C- potential. Has grown an inch to 6’1 over the offseason. He’s redshirting.

Recruiting

We have two scholarships to offer this year. I think we ideally need a small forward and a center. The top guys want nothing to do with us, but I’ve identified a couple of intriguing players at both positions who put up great AAU stats:

• SF Wilky Henry out of Lynchburg, VA, ranked No. 80 overall and No. 11 at his position

• C Clyde Deane out of Warwick, RI, ranked No. 124 overall and No. 7 at his position

I eventually offer both a scholarship.

We’re unranked in the preseason polls but rated as a 97 overall to start the season. I need to get that Indiana loss out of my head. It’s time for players like Kleinzweig and Grimes to carve out their own legacy at this program with another deep tournament run. Let’s do this.

First game: home vs. No. 12 Wisconsin

The Western Illinois redemption tour starts now. Let’s go!

Well damn, 86-84 loss. Some real nice individual performances out of Djordjevic and Haynes in particular, and the team stats are almost identical with one major exception: Wisconsin shot 14-of-22 from three-point range, we shot 3-for-10. We gotta be better at defending the line, that’s just unacceptable. Next game is home vs. St. John’s.

Loss, 88-79. Jeez, Haynes and Grimes combine for four points. Another terrible shooting game for us as well, finishing 5-of-16 from three. Djordjevic (29 points and seven rebounds on 3-of-4 shooting from three!) came to play but no one else did. Our next game: @ Marquette. Can we finally get a W?

Blow out win, 91-61. Djordjevic with 26 points, Kleinzweig with 15 and 10 rebounds, Dupre looking good off the bench as well. Needed that. Now we face No. 14 Oregon on the road as signing week begins. The Ducks are 7-0.

Loss, 86-63. Man, blowout. We’re 1-3. What’s up with Grimes? I thought this was going to be his year. Maybe he’s just saving it for tournament time.

Deane signs with Hartford, so we drop him. We still have a chance at landing Henry this week, but it’s a toss up between us and Wake Forest. We decide to offer Stuart Ma, the No. 90 overall prospect and No. 2 center, out of Youngstown, OH with our newly available scholarship. West Virginia and UConn lead for Ma, but his interest is still relatively low even for his leaders and he doesn’t have any other offers yet. This would be a great pull if I can make it happen.

We have two games this week, both early season conference showdowns against South Dakota State and IUPUI.

We win both in blow out fashion — and then we land Wilky Henry.

Love his AAU numbers, especially the shooting. Those splits are nasty. Hopefully he grows an inch or two upon entering the program. I think he’s going to be really good for us.

We’re @ No. 22 Stanford next.

Dub, 87-78! Jorts with 30 points, eight rebounds, and four stocks. Haynes with 17 points and 7 assists. This week we are @ Georgetown and @ Duke.

Win over Georgetown, 92-66. Jorts keeps killing it (24 and 7) as does Haynes (16-4-4), while my three wings (Grimes, Kleinzweig, Frye) each score 11. Duke time. Fats time.

Ahh, 86-80 loss. We got hot from three and still couldn’t win. Fats is Duke’s sixth man — he’s rated an 88 as a true junior — and he finishes with five points and seven assists in the win. Should we schedule Duke next year as the season opener and stream the game? I think so. The loss drops us to 5-4 on the season with two conference games left. First up: @ UNLV.

Win over the Rebels, 80-75. Grimes finally gets it going with 15 points. It’s worth noting this was another weak-ass shooting performance as a team, as we finish 5-of-17 from deep. We’re going to need to shoot better from deep to win in March.

Ma gets a scholarship offer from West Virginia, so we drop him. Not many decent center options left, so we go with the lone five-star JUCO center on the market, Timon Suotamo out of Albuquerque. Now we’re @ No. 15 Memphis:

Big win! 90-78. Grimes with another strong game (17 points on 6-of-8 shooting). That’s what we’re looking for. We’re 7-4 as conference play starts. Can we sweep the Summit again?

Guess what: we do. We enter the conference tournament at 23-4 overall. We actually made a brief appearance at No. 25 in the polls during the last week of the regular season, but dropped out as the conference tournament starts even after two wins. I think that’s a good sign for our seeding chances, at least. Here’s a look at the statistical leaders this year:

Great year from Jorts. He’s become a really aggressive offensive player who consistent night in and night out. I also think Kleinzweig had a strong year, but we’ll need more from him in the tournament. Same goes for Grimes. Those guys are ultimately judged by their postseason performance. Let’s see if they have what it takes to be compared to the program’s all-time greats.

On the recruiting front, Suotamo looks awesome — my scouting has him as an A potential, though it isn’t always accurate. Unfortunately, “playing at a big program” is his No. 2 priority and Wyoming and Colorado both have a slight lead over us despite our Leathernecks being his only offer. We’ll see. There’s mayyybe one decent backup plan left out there, but I would really love to land him.

Summit League tournament

We open the conference tourney with a game against Oakland.

Win, 98-61. Jorts with 24 points. AK with 18 and four steals. Now we face North Dakota State.

Win, 104-60. Kleinzweig with 23 points and 10 rebounds to lead us to victory. We have Oral Roberts in the title game.

Win, 66-57. Jorts with 25 points and six rebounds. As we sim to the next week, we re-enter the polls at No. 25. Give us a decent seed this time, please!

NCAA tournament

We get a No. 6 seed and draw No. 11 Syracuse in the first round. Oh boy. Do they still run the zone after Boeheim retired? That could give us trouble given that we’ve struggled to shoot the ball from deep throughout the year.

Here’s a look at our roster heading into the tournament:

We’re stacked on the perimeter, and I have a lot of confidence in Jorts and Figs on the inside. Feels like Frye could be a wildcard off the bench. And how about Kim Kone shooting up five points to 83 overall? Welcome to the party, Kim Kone! I’m excited about his next two years.

Here’s how we stack up with the Orange:

As always, we’re watching a simulated game and not playing it. We need redemption after that loss to Indiana last year. I’m not letting that happen again. I hope.

Leathernecks! Let’s go!

***

***

***

***

***

***

***

WIN, 122-96. We’re onto the round of 32.

Syracuse definitively answered the ‘do they still play zone’ question from the opening tip: they deployed a full-court trap after every made bucket. It was super annoying at first, but I’m glad we made it through. The refs were also letting the Orange get to the line whenever they wanted — first half free throw attempts: Syracuse 16, WIU 3 — but we were able to weather the storm and pull away in the second half.

Just a solid all-around team effort. Grimes was great in the first half using his speed to get to the basket and knocking down some open threes when he got the chance. I love watching Kleinzweig play small forward at 6’10 — he’s great defensively and on the glass, and just generally seems to have a nose for the ball. Absolutely elite second half out of Figs as well, scoring 18 points in the final 20 minutes to finish with a monstrous 29-11 line.

I also liked what I saw out of the bench. Verdejo getting some real minutes and going 3-for-3!

That sets up a matchup with No. 3 UCLA in the second round.

No. 6 Western Illinois vs. No. 3 UCLA, round of 32

The Bruins are rated a 98 overall. Here’s how the two teams matchup:

Just please run the Bruins off the three-point line. I feel like we’re going to need a big game from Haynes to limit turnovers and control the tempo. Who’s going to step up and be the hero?

Sweet 16 and Twitch stream on the line. I think long-term fans of the series will enjoy the arena where this game is being played.

Let’s go!

***

***

***

***

***

***

***

Win, 105-84! We’re streaming a Sweet 16 game Sunday on Twitch.

It felt like we were in control for most of the game, but only had a 10-point lead with just over five minutes left. The game was still very much hanging in the balance at that point. I thought Frye gave us a great lift off the bench, and Jorts was really excellent throughout. I believe he’s on his way to becoming one of the best centers in program history.

And how about Kleinzweig? A young king. That trio of plays he made in the first half changed the game: a coast-to-coast dunk, followed by a catch-and-shoot three, followed by a gnarly half-court alley-oop. So sick. Felt like he was playing with ‘em. If this team goes all the way, I’m thinking it has to be on AK33’s back.

Our opponent in the Sweet 16 is … No. 10 seed Texas.

No. 6 Western Illinois vs. No. 10 Texas, Sweet 16

Can we hang banner No. 3? We need to get past Texas first. Here’s how the two teams matchup:

I also noticed that Kleinzweig went up one point to 95 overall. He now stands alone as our highest rated player.

We’re streaming this game Sunday night on Twitch. As always, we’ll stream the Elite Eight game vs. …. the winner of DUKE vs. Memphis as well if we win. Fats!?!?? Here’s how to watch:

Game: Western Illinois vs. Texas, 2022 Sweet 16

How to watch: My Twitch channel

Date: Sunday, June 28

Time: 8:30 p.m. ET // 7:30 p.m. CT

If we win: Elite Eight vs. the winner of Duke-Memphis will happen immediately after.

WE WANT FATS. Come hang out on Sunday night, it will be fun, I promise.

A few other notes:

• New Thanh! His novel on our Leathernecks “Simulating Success” has been really fun so far. Check it out.

• Been enjoying the Extra Points newsletter on college sports from my former SB Nation colleague Matt Brown. Be on the lookout for some Ricky Charisma content there soon.

• A few other newsletters I’ve been digging lately: Good Morning It’s Basketball from Tom Ziller, Midway Minute from Kevin Kaduk on Chicago sports, and the Jason Kirk newsletter on college football.

I’ll see you on Twitch on Sunday night. Let’s go win another natty.