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 However, IF I’ve heard one name once, I’ve heard it a dozen
times-and it’s Roger Powel, Jr. I believe his dad played for the
Redbirds back in the day. And of course, area fans know him and
remember him as a favorite of their 04-05 Final Four Fighting Illini
who came within a moment of winning the National title. Roger is
currently an assistant coach to Mark Few’s awesome powerhouse, the
Gonzaga Bull Dogs.
They have been ranked No. 1 in the nation a couple of times this
year so I don’t want to be a downer, but I’m not sure this is a done
deal. Yes, I would love it. Why? For lots of reasons-the biggest is
because Powell was so good to the LDN when he played for Illinois-it
would be great for us to have that inside connection. I’m just not
as sure as my area friends are that this is going to happen.
And I’ve heard other names too…like, Rob Judson, a former Illini
player and assistant coach. I’ve even heard Bruce Weber’s name, if
for some reason he stops coaching at Kansas State. But IF we’re
gonna throw names around…why not Neil Alexander? He’s done
everything you can do on a basketball court; it’d be fun to see it
if you gave him the keys to the ISU program. Or why not Randy Kirk,
former Lincoln Christian University coach who was a National title
winner at Kentucky Christian University?
But since several people enjoy tossing names around the water cooler
with no idea who is a serious candidate or not, I thought I’d throw
out a few names of my own. Most of the names I’m going to comment on
here are people most of you have never heard of. However, in their
circles-all they’ve ever done is win-and in our heart of
hearts-that’s what we want for Redbird basketball-we want to win
again.
I’m going to start with a friend and personal favorite, Gary Tuell.
Tuell has coached for decades and has been successful virtually
every place he’s ever been. He’s coached at the highest levels as an
assistant at Louisville, Miami, and Florida State. In fact, he had
tremendous success at Cincinnati Christian, St. Thomas, at Augusta
State, and at Nova Southeastern. While at Nova SE he coached former
Lincoln Railer great, Louie Schonauer and he heavily recruited and
tried to land Leroy State Champion, Matt Chastain [most of you know
Chastain went to Loyola then to ISU]. Gary is a relentless and
tireless recruiter, is well known in the business, is a disciple of
the Rick Majerus way, and would just be a great choice.
Another guy I’m especially high on is, Rusty Osborne. Osborne has
been the long-time coach at the University of Alaska [some of you
fans will remember the U of A because they hosted the Great Alaskan
Shoot-out which for a long time was one of college basketball’s
premiere season opening tip-off tournaments]. The Seawolves [isn’t
that one of the best monikers you’ve ever heard?] regularly knocked
off teams higher ranked than ISU. UAA has one of the most brutal
travel schedules in the country but still they compete and win
regularly.
Even though they are a D-2 school they have been successful against
D-1 competition [and yes I’m a little biased here because they have
even let tiny Lincoln Christian University play them in some games]
and just keep winning. Here’s an excerpt from their current season
media guide:
After leading UAA to 14 winning seasons in
the last 15 campaigns — including five NCAA Tourney appearances —
Rusty Osborne has clearly established himself among the top coaches
in both Division II basketball and school history. Under Osborne’s
leadership, UAA has gone 288-164 (.637) over their past 15 seasons
[actually now well over 300 wins], including victories over 12
Division I teams and 16 nationally ranked D-II teams.
An amazing recruiter, a great family man, and a boatload of
victories=do you see a trend developing here? I’m blessed to have
friends who win a lot [why didn’t they help me win more when I was
coaching? That’s another story for another day]! Anyway, sometimes
mid-majors bring up a D-2 or lower level coach and find out they
know how to get ‘er done! Didn’t Wisconsin have pretty good success
with a D-3 coach named Bo Ryan? I seem to recall they were pretty
good under his command, right?
Roger Idstrom is another name I would place in the hat. Idstrom is
an assistant coach at Lipscomb down in Nashville, TN. Why would I
suggest Idstrom? Because he’s a winner on & off the court, in the
classroom, and out in the community! He’s had stops among other
places at Stetson, at Belmont, and now at Lipscomb where they’ve had
winning seasons 2 of the last 3 campaigns.
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At Belmont here’s what was said of Idstrom:
Prior to joining the staff at Stetson,
Idstrom served on the Belmont staff for 11 seasons pushing the
Bruins to become one of the nation’s highest performing teams in
the classroom. During Idstrom’s tenure at Belmont it was common
place to see Bruins listed among the Academic All-American
teams. The Bruins were also extremely successful on the court
during his tenure winning four Atlantic Sun Conference
championships and making four trips to the NCAA Tournament.
Again, you’re probably seeing a trend unfolding…yes, I’ve been
blessed with great people in my life that I’m lucky enough to
call friends, but they also win a ton of basketball games. And
if we’re going to schedule and play them, we might as well win
them, right? That’s what Roger does-he’s a winner.
And then there’s John Yeh. Yeh is the head coach at Truett
McConnell an NAIA school that is currently in their post-season
tourney and sitting at 19-11 as I write this. Here’s some scoop
on Yeh from the school’s website:
Jon Yeh enters his seventh season as
Head Men’s Basketball Coach in 2019-20 after the Bears
accomplished numerous feats during his first three years on the
bench. In 2014-15, the Bears set a school record with 17 wins
and recorded the program’s first winning season as a four-year
NAIA institution. A tie for second place in the final
Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) regular season standings
that year was the program’s best finish as well. The 2015-16
unit won the program’s first-ever conference tournament game,
posting a 72-71 victory over St. Andrews University in the
opening round of the AAC tournament. The 2016-17 squad recorded
the second most wins and second best record in Truett
McConnell’s NAIA era, including a school record eight victories
in January 2017. Yeh’s teams have also set school records for
points scored in a single game (2015-16), points allowed in a
single game (set twice during the 2014-15 season), and fewest
turnovers in a season (2016-17). Nationally in 2014-15, the
Bears recorded 13 more victories than during the 2013-14
campaign, the fifth best jump in wins for all NAIA Division II
programs.
The Bears also excelled in the classroom and took international
trips where they spoke in schools, did clinics, and helped
communities! The other thing about Yeh-IF he gets the job, maybe
he hires J.D. Hamilton as one of his assistants. That would be
awesome!
These are a just few of the coaches I have been blessed to know
because of my involvement in the world’s greatest game-college
basketball! I’m guessing that none of them will be on ISU’s
radar, but maybe they should be. Sometimes, all you need is a
chance.
What about the handshake line?
Is this really a question? We’ve already let college kids move
around from school to school as if they were professional free
agents, we’ve removed more and more personal accountability and
responsibilities from them, and now we want to take winning
graciously and losing like a man off their plates? I’m going to
have to ask-are you crazy?
Playing and coaching at one of the smaller institutions in the
country meant that we played a majority of our contests against
more well-resourced opponents, oftentimes with many more
athletes, better facilities, and way more competitive
advantages. It meant that there would probably be some losing
along the way. Making that post-game walk to the opponents’
bench was one of the longest walks and hardest walks ever taken,
but it built character. And when we were able to win, many times
in upset fashion, there was no better walk on the planet. Again,
character building, learning to win with poise and grace.
However, the great thing about it was the chance to coach our
players on the appropriate way/s to handle both winning and
losing. Some of those opponents are people you run into years or
decades later shopping in a store, in a faith context, or in a
business deal, and it is great to re-surface and share memories
of those contests long ago.
So no, I’m not in favor of eliminating the handshake line, but I
don’t expect any phone calls asking the LDN to weigh-in on this
topic either!
Have a great week everybody! [By JEFF MAYFIELD]
Respond to the writer at
jeffqmay@gmail.com.
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