Men's Basketball: Season Preview

The UIC men’s basketball team is set to embark on its inaugural season as a member of the Missouri Valley Conference. In his third season at the helm, head coach Luke Yaklich will look to balance returning talent, veteran transfers and talented freshmen as the program navigates a new era of UIC basketball.

Jace Carter and Filip Skobalj return for their sophomore seasons and anchor the returning core for the Flames. Carter, a native of Titusville, Florida, garnered conference All-Freshman Team honors a season ago after averaging 8.1 points per game while ranking second on the team with 5.4 rebounds per game. After missing time at the start of the year due to injury, the guard returned to be a factor in the UIC lineup, starting 17 of the final 18 games of the season.

Skobalj appeared in 29 games during his rookie campaign, making 22 starts. The 6-foot-7 forward out of Serbia averaged 6.2 points per game and 3.4 rebounds per contest, ranking fourth on the team with 43 made 3-pointers on the season. Skobalj collected his first collegiate double-double against Northern Kentucky with a season-high 15 points and a season-best 11 rebounds.

Complementing Carter and Skobalj on the court will be a pair of talented and veteran transfers in Tre Anderson and Toby Okani. Anderson, a graduate student, joins UIC after spending last year at Idaho and his first three seasons at San Francisco. While with the Vandals, Anderson ranked second on the team in scoring (14.4) and led the team in assists (3.5).

Okani joins the Flames as a junior after spending two seasons at Duquesne. During his time in Pittsburgh, Okani made 25 career starts and scored a season-high 13 points against Richmond last year. The 6-foot-8 forward also excels at the rim, ranking third on the team in rebounding as a freshman. UIC’s roster is capped off with five incoming freshmen in Jalen Jackson, Steven Clay, Christian Jones, Bessanty-Aime Saragba and Cameron Fens. Clay and Jones both enter as three-star recruits, with Clay ranked as the No. 6 prospect in Wisconsin, and Jones the No. 8 player in Illinois.

Saragba, a native of Marseille, France, joins the Flames after attending Trinity Collegiate School in South Carolina where he earned Defensive Player of the Year honors in addition to being named All-Region and All-State in three consecutive seasons. Fens, who hails from Dubuque, Iowa, averaged a double- double as a senior with 18.7 points and 11.3 rebounds per game and set the single-season rebounding record with 272.