UIC’s Jonathan Hood

Flames, Bears & WWE

(St. Louis, MO) – Jonathan Hood is the voice of the Illinois Chicago Flames basketball team, but oh so much more. He’s a morning drive time host on Chicago’s ESPN 1000, hosts Sirius Satellite Radio’s ‘Pro Wrestling Nation’ and so many podcasts I can’t keep them all straight. The talented Hood also announces Flames’ baseball contests.

During our wide-ranging interview we talked about the Flames, the Chicago Bears (he believes they’ll win eight or nine games) and World Wrestling Entertainment moving to ESPN.

As head coach Rob Ehsan heads into his second Windy City season, he will be coaching a radically different roster than last season. The only player with significant Missouri Valley Conference experience is junior guard Ahmad Henderson II. He appeared in 31 games, starting sixteen and averaged 11.5 points per game.

Jonathan Hood – Evaluating Rob Ehsan

The Flames enjoyed their best-ever MVC season, winning ten conference games and 17 overall. Huge wins over Drake and Bradley were the exclamation points of Ehsan’s first season. The Flames won just 24 games during their first two combined MVC seasons.

Ehsan enjoyed four winning seasons while coaching at Alabama Birmingham.

Hood says you have to consider Ehsan’s first UIC season a big success.

Despite the winning season, the Flames’ roster doesn’t look anything like the one that finished the season at Arch Madness. While that could be cause for concern for some Flames’ fans, Hood says Ehsan knew he had to build a taller and more physical roster to compete in the Missouri Valley Conference.

Newcomers Mekhi Lowery (Towson), Ante Beljan, Abdul Momoh (Central Connecticut State), Sam Silverstein (Cal Baptist) and Chris Walker (Binghamton) are Division 1 transfers that all stand 6’7 or taller. The 6’10 Beljan was a double digit scorer at Little Rock and Momoh was on the NEC’s all-league and all-defensive teams.

Hood says the Flames were in need of that physicality.

Hood has been very impressed by Ehsan’s wealth of knowledge and his hunger to learn. Ehsan is an offensive-minded coach that is learning from NBA contacts and is fitting those lessons to the players on his roster.

J Hood on Other Subjects

The co-host of ‘Kap & J Hood’ on ESPN 1000 covers all things Chicago and has deep ties to the world of professional wrestling. He is optimistic about the Bears and the opportunity for Caleb Williams to be a solid NFL quarterback. Hood also has a national following in the world of the ‘squared circle’.

He says WWE’s move to ESPN is ground-breaking and puts the company on some of the same footing as the NFL.

We discussed the potential of returning sophomores Carlos Harris and Jayce Nathaniel and the talented incoming freshmen. Three, 3-Star recruits are on the way and BYU transfer Elijah Crawford was once rated one of the top 200 players in America.

UIC’s roster could not only be bigger, but more talented than last season’s.

Head to YouTube to watch our entire conversation or head to Valley Hoops Insider Podcasts for the audio-only version.

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