Interview by Jeff Mayfield

Coach reflects on the past; offers insight

[APRIL 6, 2000]  For years Coach Allen Pickering patrolled the sidelines of Davidson-Sheffler gymnasium as the head coach of the Lincoln College Lynx. During his tenure at the helm he became the most successful coach in the school’s storied history. Even though he’s out of the game now, you can still find him at a Lynx game or a Railer game. In fact, he just got back from Hutchinson, Kan., where he watched former Lynx coach Joe O’Brien lead Burlington, Iowa, Southeastern College to the Junior College National Championship. I met him in his office to get his reflections on hoops, the way things used to be and perhaps to pick his brain a little as to how maybe things ought to be currently.

Q: Coach, I heard you just went out to "Hutch" to see the Junior College National Tournament?

A: Yes, it was exciting. As you know, I took my 1979-80 and my '80-'81 teams out there, so it’s been 18-19 years since I’d been out there. It was like a time warp. Everything was the same except for people that I knew from the past had either gray hair or no hair. It was an exciting time and to add flavor to it, Joe O’Brien and Southeastern did pretty well. I watched them play Kankakee and they won by two in a thrilling game. I watched them win the championship by 15 or 16 in a not-so-exciting game, but if you win, that’s the kind of game that you want. So, the trip brought back a lot of memories.

Q: What years did you coach here at Lincoln College?

A: I coached here from 1971 to 1987.

Q: What do you miss about coaching?

A: Well, one of the things I miss about coaching is winning. I felt when I was getting ready to retire that the only thing that I would really like to do was to find a situation where I would only have to coach home games and win every one of them. That situation never presented itself, so I felt it was time to get out.

Q: You had a lot of success while you were here. What were some of the highlights?

A: The very first team I had here which had the local flavor of including Bill Hoagland and Bobby McElhaney. It was a small team, as my biggest kid was 6'4". That team banded together and won 19 games that first year. We were kinda off and running after that. There have been a lot of players that stick out, such as Bobby Darling, the coach at Peoria Richwoods whose team just finished fourth in the state tournament. I got to see him and talk to him after they beat Quincy in the Super-Sectional. Bobby was certainly one of the top five point guards that I ever had here. It was a classic situation where he came in here at 5'7", which might have been stretching it even. He started out on our freshmen team and he just would not be denied. In the middle of the year, he was starting on the varsity team and continued starting the rest of that year and all of the next year. We had an excellent team when he was here. So, it was nice to see a former player out coaching and winning. They got fourth in the tourney and he’s probably pretty excited. I haven’t talked with him since then.

 


[Former Lincoln College Head Basketball Coach Allen Pickering displays Hall of Fame award.]

 

Another highlight was the early '80s group that went to the National Tournament. When we entered the '79-'80 season we had only one returning player, so we were all brand new. They jelled and played well together and advanced to nationals and got ninth in the country. We returned the following year as an unranked team and upset two undefeated teams. Again we were a very small team by junior college standards, but we were still able to get second place that year. Then we had a slew of pretty good players that attended here. Kevin Gamble who went on to play at Iowa and then in the NBA for the Celtics and the Heat.

Another great shooter that I had was a local kid, Tony Tuttle from Greenview. Tony Tuttle was the same way, as his shooting came from long range.

The last team that I coached was a great team that won 24-25 games and came within three points of going to the nationals again. They were a nice group that were very team-oriented. Phil Styles went on to be the captain at Northwestern. Chris Behrends was another particularly good player from that era who also went on to be a captain. Frank Welch was another great player. In my coaching wisdom, he started on the freshmen team with Darling and holds the school record for most points in a game with 53. I remember that game well. We won it by eight points and we needed every one of Frankie’s points. During a late timeout huddle I was irritated at him because he had passed up two open shots. His reply was that he did not want to appear as a ball hog. He finished 22 out of 30 that night, which is pretty good. That’s always the mark of a record, is when you set it in a game that counts that’s really important. There were a lot of thrilling moments.

Q: Talk about the changes in college basketball and the changes here at Lincoln College.

A: In about 1986 or 1987 they brought in the 3-point shot. I coached one year with that rule in effect. I also coached one year with the shot clock, which is really a totally different kind of ball game. It takes a little bit of the control out of the coach’s hands, as you have to move the ball and get a shot off within 35 seconds. That changed the pace of the game. In the late '80s Division II had come in on our level and it has nothing to do with the size of your school, but in what you offer. For example, we can offer a tuition scholarship at LC that could range to $9000, but at ICC it might be only $900, so there’s still a big disparity. We don’t offer full tuition scholarships unless of course, it’s with the Illinois state grant or the Pell grant, and things like that. So, the division is now a little different. Division I, which would be teams like Kankakee, Olney and a lot of southern schools would offer a full ride. The teams that go to Hutchinson, Kan., are teams that offer full rides or have that possibility. Danville hosts the national tournament for Division II, which we (LC) are now a part of.

Q: How has that change affected LC in terms of the schedule, recruiting, etc.?

A: Our schedule has remained about the same that it has always been. We still play a lot of Division I schools and we play them competitively. We played Burlington (the National Champs) and lost by 15 points. We could play up to the Division I level, but we’ve chosen not to. That was one reason Coach O’Brien left. He wanted a Division I program when we went to a D-II program. This year’s team was outstanding and last year’s team had Marcus Griffin, now playing at Illinois. We’re still able to get competitive players, but we might not have as many as we used to have. One of the reasons for that is that our academic programs are so strong. Our strength over the last 30 years and even before has been our academics. You cannot come to Lincoln College and take anything but transferrables. You can’t pad your schedule here. You still have to take English, science, and math and we're still attractive to that student like Griffin who may not have had the grades he would have liked, but was able to come here and get his academic act in order and is now attending the University of Illinois.

When the Division I coaches come calling they still look at the transcripts. I remember when Phil Styles was going to visit Wyoming, Texas and Northwestern. When he came back from those recruiting visits he told me that none of the academic counselors at any of those universities had ever seen a transcript with so many solid classes on it. All of those schools offered him a full ride and he decided that Northwestern might be the best place for him to go afterwards. He’s now in advertising in Chicago.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Q: Besides Bobby Darling, do you have other former players out coaching somewhere?

A: One is Greg Gomez. Greg played for me in the '70's and is now coaching out in California. I don’t know the name of the school but the twin 6'11" players at Stanford came from his school. Kevin McCaster, who played for me two years and over at LCC for two years, is an assistant coach at Orange Coast College in California. Willie McCray, a former Railer that played for me in the early '80s, is an assistant coach to former Springfield High Coach Clark Barnes over in Decatur. Jim Cuny is coaching up at one of the Glenbards. Bill Hoagland coached with me. There are others, I’m just getting too old to remember where they’re all at.

Q: Let’s turn our attention to the coaches who have followed you. Who are they and what have they meant to the LC program?

A: I think we’ve been fortunate to have good coaches, such as Steve Yount. He and his teams were undefeated in three years at home. He had a terrific won-loss record and then went from here up to Augustana where he took a team to the NCAA D-III championship game. He had a good run up there, but has now retired from coaching. Joe O’Brien came in and his first year was a little bit difficult because we didn’t have many players, but he built the program up and was very competitive in a Division I setting. We had a little dry spell for a couple of years and now B. J. has come in and has had two really outstanding teams and he’s an excellent coach. Next year he returns four starters including Peoria Manual product, Marlon Brooks. Marlon is one of the best point guards we’ve ever had here. I would compare him to the great guard I had in '80-'81 by the name of Julius Ponsette. So, I think we have a great future.

Q: Any other reflections from the nationals at "Hutch" or the state of the junior college game?

A: I saw all the games on Friday and Saturday, so basically, the final eight teams. Vincennes, Ind., obviously, has always been a powerhouse. They had the player of the year--a kid by the name of McGee who is going to Oklahoma. He scored more points in the tournament than had been scored in 36 years. He really put on a show. He’s a 6'7" player who played more inside than out, but was just an outstanding shooter. Kankakee has returned to their old form of the '80s and '90s. During those decades they won more games than 90 percent of the teams in the country. They won 30 games or more four or five times, so that program was always on top. In fact they got second in the nation twice. They are now coached by Dave Holstein who was an assistant under Denny Lehnes.

Shelby State out of Memphis, Tenn., always has good basketball. They beat Kankakee 119-111 in double overtime. Southern Idaho has also always been a power. Although this year they had 16 teams—had Hutch who were not there the year before. Iowa has had a stranglehold on the trophy. Indian Hills won it three years in a row and now Southeastern took it this year. They had 6,000 or 7,000 people at the championship game and the tourney is as strong as ever. It’s been held in Hutchinson since 1948.

They did make some changes to the gym by putting in theater-style seats and it is just a beautiful place to play. Junior college basketball is pretty healthy with lots of great athletes. But one thing I’m seeing is that we’re getting a lot of one-year players. They may be in over their heads at a big university and come back and play one year at the juco level. When I coached you came for two years. You didn’t get as many transfer-backs as they seem to be getting now.

Q: How does that work, take Marcus Griffin for example?

A: First of all, when you go to a junior college you have to graduate. Had Marcus come here to LC and played only one year, but attended school for two years and received his degree, he still would’ve had three years of eligibility remaining. The NCAA gives the student-athlete 10 semesters to complete eight. Generally, it’s worse for a kid to red shirt at any level because it usually doesn’t help the kid as much as the program wants it to. So, now you have to graduate and come out with your AA degree to go on.

Q: I know you attend a lot of junior high and high school games. I’d like to get your impressions.

A: Perhaps the worst single thing that has ever happened to seventh grade basketball is the 3-point shot. It is disappointing to me today when I don’t see kids that can dribble the ball to the basket under control or that can’t make the fundamentally sound passes. It’s all about shooting the 3-pointers. The fundamentals of shooting are not as good today as they have been in the past. I attribute that entirely to the emphasis on the 3-point shot. At least there on the grade school level it’s one of the worst things that I’ve seen.

As I’ve watched games at Lincoln High School over the years, Tyrise Bryson from Decatur, who now plays for Illinois State, was one of the very few players that I’ve seen that could consistently hit shots coming off of screens. Lincoln’s Josh Komnick was another kid who could regularly come off the screen and hit a decent percentage of those shots. I was sad that Josh did not go on in his basketball career because I felt he had a big future in the game. He was one of the best basketball players that had the total package since I’ve been around here.

Obviously, Gregg Alexander is a terrific player. He is also one of the best 3-point shooters that I’ve ever seen from that range. But Gregg is not only a great shooter, he is a terrific all-around player. He probably has the best arm-span, wing-span and eye-hand coordination on defense that you’ll find anywhere. Here’s another thing out of Gregg Alexander that you don’t see in a lot of players—he is the best at moving from offense to defense or from defense to offense. His ability to transition either way quickly is amazing. Not many kids can take a shot and be on defense right away like he can. Although I will say, going back to Duncan Reid through Loren Wallace and up to Coach Alexander today, Lincoln teams have always displayed the ability to be good at making those kinds of transitions. That is really one of the most positive things that I see in the game today.

The biggest complaint that I have about the 3-point shot is this—a basketball player needs to be able to determine what his range is. With that arc out on the floor, I’m not sure many players are equipped to make that determination. The problem with most players is that they think that their range is five feet farther out than what it really is. And the 3-point line is out of range for most high school players—for every grade school player and for most high school players. Now that doesn’t mean that you can’t hoist up a set shot from the arc. Some of them will go in. But to do that in the natural flow of the game, I think, is a difficult thing. I’m not all that excited about bringing in the shot clock, especially from a coaching standpoint. It takes away from the control game that I like to play.

Q: Well, thank you Coach Pick, for taking a trip down nostalgia lane and for giving us your insights on the game. On behalf of the Logan County community let me take this opportunity to thank you for your contributions to the local basketball scene. You have brought honor and prestige to us through the years and you’re still a prominent voice when it comes to the state of the local basketball scene. Thank you for your time.

 

[Jeff Mayfield]

 

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