As debuts go, it was a quiet one. No Dick Vitale. No ESPN.
Basketball was born at Illinois-Chicago 44 years ago-in the winter of 1947-48. In those days, UIC was just a pier-the Navy Pier campus of the University of Illinois.
Records reveal that Navy Pier won only one of its 16 games that season, and it wasn`t the opener. Loyola won that one, 58-40.
Yellowed newspaper clippings and carbon dating, however, fail to substantiate the widespread belief that current UIC senior guard/forward Brian Hill suited up for that game.
Then again, you never know.
Hill, it does sometimes seem, has been a UIC Flame forever.
Maybe our memories deceive us. Maybe Hill hasn`t been perfecting his one- part bombardier, one-part thief routine for only the last four seasons.
In that span, the facts say, he has become a fixture in red and indigo, playing in every game since the season opener of his freshman year, scoring 1,336 career points, good for fourth place on UIC`s all-time list, and winning a spot on the Mid-Continent Conference`s All-Decade Team ballot.
In an era of Proposition 48, whining benchwarmers and nomadic ballplayers, with Hill there have been no grade problems, no disciplinary suspensions, no key injuries, no ”Gee, coach, I don`t feel much like playing tonight, I`ve got a runny nose.”
The 6-foot-4-inch, 185-pound Hill just shows up and quietly does his job- very well-every night. When he takes the Pavilion floor Saturday against Akron, Hill will be starting his 75th consecutive game-making him a shoo-in for the perfect-attendance award.
”It does feel like I`m growing old there,” says Hill.
”I tell ya,” says UIC coach Bob Hallberg, ”you get a guy like that, you just get so used to him. It`s almost like he`s become a family member he`s been around so long. It will be very strange to look on that floor next year and not see him. He`s been here almost as long as I have (five years). In a way, he is UIC.”
Yes, he is:
– When Hill, who`s averaging 15 points this season, pop-pops from three-point range-he holds the school record with 672 three-point attempts and 244 three- pointers made-he`s like Wyatt Earp leading his posse. Seemingly always lacking in height, Hallberg`s teams have consistently paced the league in three-point attempts.
When Illinois high schools adopted the three-point shot in his senior year, Hill simply continued doing what came naturally. Averaging 25 points, he was a first-team all-stater for the 31-4 Walther Lutheran team that took third in the state in Class A in 1988.
”I was happy they put the three-point line on floor, but it really didn`t affect me,” he says. ”I was pretty much brought up to be a set shooter. I don`t pay attention to the line now. If I`ve made the shot before, I`ll take it again.”
That if-I-can-make-it-from-here-I-can-make-it-from-anywhere attitude can get him into trouble. In this year`s Michigan State game, he was 2 for 22. But Hallberg says Hill`s teammates don`t mind ”because of the kind of individual Brian Hill is.” More on that later.
– On the other end of the floor, Hill is a one-man how-to book of defense-flat out, all out, no letup. When Hill flips his long arms out for a steal, it resembles a frog`s tongue lapping up a fly. Again, because Flames are by definition little guys, defense often is their only weapon. Hill, who led the league in steals last season, personifies that philosophy.
”Sometimes he`ll get fouled and it`s not even his man,” says Hallberg.
”He`s moved over to help somebody out and ends up taking the charge. I`ve coached some great defensive players over the years, but what separates Brian from the rest is his intensity. Some guys are always taking a coffee break on you. I`ve never seen Brian loaf one minute.”
”He (Hallberg) emphasizes defense so much,” explains Hill. ”Freshman year I couldn`t do much offensively because we had so many scorers. He emphasized that if you wanted to play you better play defense, so I made up my mind to get better `cause I wanted to stay in the game.”
– And, like almost everyone associated with UIC basketball, Hill feels the ache of dreams unfulfilled.
”There`s been a lot of downs, some ups,” he says of his UIC career.
”It`s been a big disappointment to me seeing all the talent we`ve had and not getting close to making the NCAA tournament, but we just haven`t had that chemistry you need.”
If Hill talks now like an old married man, it`s because he is. Brian and wife Jennifer took their vows in August, setting up house in a Forest Park apartment.
Hill, then, is coming to terms with a difficult fact of life: His long UIC career is finally winding down.
Dreams of pro ball still bounce through his head, but he knows the odds are much better he`ll wind up as a basketball coach or a salesman.
Next season, UIC will carry on without its 1991 second-team all-conference pick, just as it did before he ever stepped foot in the
Pavilion.
OK, so maybe he didn`t play in `47-48, but as long as we`re clearing things up, what about that other rumor going around? The one about him baking a chocolate cake two seasons ago for UIC trainer Carol Humble as a way of thanking her for all the ankles she had taped, all the ice she had dispensed. ”I didn`t bake it,” says Hill. ”I bought it in the cafeteria. Carol always watches out for me, takes care of me, and I just felt it was necessary to show my appreciation. It was just a natural thing to do.”
The cake was decorated with a picture of a basketball player dunking the ball. He was wearing No. 20, Hill`s number. The message: Thanks for a good year.
”I`m used to working with athletes who for the most part are very polite,” says Humble, ”and I don`t mean this in a negative way, but they`re also generally pretty self-centered. They have to be to do what they do. But I was amazed when I got that cake. It was so sweet.”
”In addition to being a hard worker and a fine player and good leader, he`s thoughtful, too,” agrees Hallberg. ”He does things you just don`t see the modern player do.”
Sort of a throwback, huh, coach? Sounds like it`s time to sift through those archives again.
