By Calvin Wetzel, Her Hoop Stats
 
It’s not often anymore that a two-win team undergoes a coaching change and still brings back over 85% of its scoring, but that’s exactly the situation UIC finds itself in entering the 2022-23 season. First-year head coach Ashleen Bracey inherits a roster that returns all but one rotation player, including all six players that started at least 13 games last year.
 
The Flames will usher in the Bracey era as they begin life in the Missouri Valley Conference. They’ll do so, Bracey says, with a hustle mentality.
 
“I think you’re gonna see a team that goes out and plays hard – that’s willing to make the gritty plays, dive on the floor for loose balls, take charges,” Bracey says. “I've always been a very defensive-minded coach. I loved defense as a player, so we're gonna get after it on the defensive end and make it hard for teams to score.”
 
The one thing as integral to Bracey’s teams as their work ethic? “The togetherness,” she says.
 
It’s a coaching identity Bracey picked up beginning with her time in the Missouri Valley Conference. Bracey, an Illinois State alum, played and coached under former Redbirds and current Missouri head coach Robin Pingeton, who values playing hard and, above all else, chemistry.
 
“When you watch her teams, there's just a certain level of energy and connectedness that they have when they play together,” Bracey says. “She spends a lot of time building that camaraderie and building that sisterhood amongst her players, and it carries over on the court.”
 
Bracey notes that Pingeton promotes these standards in everything from academics to personal life to basketball.
 
“Winning becomes a byproduct of just the way of life that she instills in her players, and we plan to emulate that here at UIC,” Bracey says.
 
Bracey’s players are already embracing the unified mindset. “We're all on a mission together,” says junior Kristian Young. “In order to reach our goals, we have to move as one.”
 
As a point guard, Young will play a large part in the team reaching those goals. The 5-foot-5 floor general finished second in the Horizon League last season with 4.0 assists per game and led the conference in steals per game at 2.5. She may be in line for an expanded role after being in and out of the starting lineup for most of last season.
 
“Based on our needs and what I look for in a point guard, I think Kristian Young is gonna play some more consistent minutes than she did for the previous staff,” Bracey says. “I'm looking for – at the point guard spot – a vocal leader, somebody that sort of commands their group, an extension of me on the court, and she's really stepped into that role for me.”
 
Young will hardly have to do it alone, however. She is one of seven rotational players returning, including centerpiece Jaida McCloud.
 
McCloud, an All-Freshman Team honoree in the Horizon League in 2020-21, took her game to the next level as a sophomore. Young thinks she can do it again.
 
“She's always been a standout for us, but the way she's worked during preseason, she's gonna be able to do even more than she did last year and in different ways,” Young says.
 
Improvement from McCloud is a scary prospect – she was already a load as a sophomore. The 6-foot-3 post finished as a top-five scorer in the Horizon League last season with 16.3 points per contest, and her 7.4 free-throw attempts per game ranked third in the nation.
 
“[McCloud is] just an incredibly talented young lady with great size, athleticism, and a versatile skill set,” Bracey says. “A lot of people are gonna expect some big things from her.”
 
Another player Bracey expects big things out of is sophomore forward Ky Dempsey-Toney. “She goes about her business the right way, and I can tell she really is passionate about the game,” Bracey says. “This is a kid that I'm expecting to just continue to work hard and improve.”
 
Young believes the 6-foot-2 Dempsey-Toney can give opposing bigs some problems this year.
 
“She's been working really hard in the preseason just to get her stamina [up] for us in transition,” Young says. “Also she's developed her midrange, so she'll be really effective against their post players who aren’t as fast as her.”
 
Rounding out the returning frontcourt rotation is sophomore Leah Yarbrough, who finished second to McCloud in field goal percentage as a freshman.
 
The backcourt brings back three key pieces surrounding Young. Juniors Keona Schenck and Lindsey Rogers and sophomore Bailey Lutes were the top three Flames in made 3-pointers last season.
 
Schenck didn’t rank in the top three in points, rebounds, or assists per game a year ago, but she started all 27 contests and led the team in minutes thanks to her intangibles. Bracey trusts her to continue to quietly produce this year.
 
“She’s one of those kids that you don't really notice, but it's because she's doing everything the right way,” Bracey says. “She's probably my best on ball defender and just has a really high IQ, and she really picks up on things that we implement quickly.”
 
Schenck and company have more depth behind them in the backcourt this season, as Bracey’s first freshman class features a trio of guards: Dylan Van Fleet, Nora Ahram, and Marta Gomez. Bracey anticipates a significant role for Gomez as a backup point guard.
 
“We got Kristian Young, she’s got some experience at the point, but besides that it’s gonna be Marta,” Bracey says. “That’s why I brought her in … so she’s gonna have to get her feet wet quick.”
 
Gomez has experience playing alongside professional players for MOVISTAR Estudiantes in Liga Endesa, Spain’s top professional league. That experience has helped the Madrid native develop in the pick-and-roll game, according to Young.
 
“She brings a great poise about herself, especially when it comes to ball screens,” Young says. “I admire how she uses ball screens, because she's so patient and not only does she create for other people, but she's not afraid to create for herself too.”
 
Bolstering the rotation even further are three transfers, including two former Big East guards in Danyel Middleton from Marquette and Sara Zabrecky from St. John’s.
 
Middleton brings a speed that Bracey hopes to use in transition. “[Middleton is] a tremendous athlete, extremely explosive, my fastest kid on the court,” Bracey says. “She likes to play in the open court. … She is gonna be a difficult matchup for a lot of teams.”
 
Zabrecky should complement Middleton’s athleticism with her skills and spacing, which Bracey hopes will make life easier for McCloud as well.
 
“She’s a shooting specialist,” Bracey says. “That was a big piece for us, because we felt like we have such a talent with Jaida McCloud inside that we needed somebody that sort of stretched the court and that would prevent teams from doubling. Or if they did decide to double Jaida – because they did that a lot last year – we have somebody to kick it to to make some open shots.”
 
Zabrecky, who Bracey notes took 25 charges in a season in high school, has also wasted no time in helping Bracey establish her full throttle culture in year one.
 
“She’s a vocal leader; she’s intense. She’s my loudest voice in the gym,” Bracey says. “She’s setting the standard in practices, so she’s Steady Eddie for me.”
 
Rounding out the transfer class is Josie Filer, a 6-foot-1 grad transfer from University of Nebraska Omaha who Young says will help fill a needed void.
 
“She brings a great post presence, she's very strong, a great offensive rebounder,” Young says. “[That] is something that we lacked last year, so we can definitely use her on the rebounding.”
 
“She has an SEC build,” adds Bracey, who spent the last six seasons as an assistant coach at Missouri. “She takes a ton of pride in the weight room and just training physically to be in shape.”
 
Rome wasn’t built in a day, and after missing the postseason each of the last eight seasons, UIC won’t be either. It will be more about the buy-in than the numbers in Bracey’s inaugural campaign.
 
“We really have not, this first season, talked about many big picture goals,” Bracey says. “I will be satisfied at the end of the season if I put a quality product on the court and then we come together and we play hard and we play together and we have fun while we're doing it.”
 
For a Flames program that’s opening a brand new chapter, that’s an excellent place to start.