MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Jim Matson]

Wheaton is in the midst of a national search to replace soccer coach Joe Bean, who is retiring after the 2006 season.  He has the most wins of any soccer coach in NCAA history.  Thus the program is receiving a lot of good interest - everyone knows that the soccer program at Wheaton is a supported program on campus (read $$) and a well known program nationally.  And so Wheaton will find a good replacement, of that I am confident.

And for all those very same reasons, Illinois Wesleyan will have a lot to choose from in their national search for a basketball coach.  I doubt there is a better D3 basketball position available, considering all the factors.  There is too much on the line for things to be rushed...

[Mr. Ypsi]

I am sure there are personal reasons why Trost made this decision.

I'm also similarly sure they aren't things that should be speculated on here.

Pat, since he is only in his early forties, I don't think it is out of line to speculate that he wants to be a d1 coach.  (Purely speculation.)

IMHO, IWU wants to hire someone who is NOT using it as a stepping stone, yet is the best hire available - someone who views one of the best d3 positions as a pinnacle.  In other words, they want a Jack Horenberger or a Dennie Bridges, if such people still exist (and I am sure they do, though they may be hard to find).

[Gregory Sager]

I see that North Park is down to 3 candidates for the presidential position.  I took a look at the bios and it doesn't really seem as if any of the candidates are extremly positive or extemely negative toward sports.  There does seem to be a large fund-raising component.

Everyone I know who works in higher education has told me that fundraising is the primary responsibility of a college or university president under the current model. It's getting rarer and rarer to find schools that are hiring academics as their new presidents. The financial health of a school is too important to its mission, and the options for alumni to spend their money too vast, for the fundraising job to be left to anyone but the man in charge -- especially when you're talking about big donors who need to feel connnected to the top dog. Fundraising -- and showing the flag by being out on the road to meet constituents, alumni, donors, etc. and taking opportunities to talk up the school in a formal setting -- was a huge part of what took up David Horner's time when he was NPU president, and I have no doubt that it will loom large in the duties of his successor. It's why my money is on the second candidate, Paul Maurer, because he's the one with words such as "institutional advancement", "external relations", and "capital campaign" on his resume. The fact that he's also been an administrative officer at evangelical colleges in the past (Trinity International and Westmont) also works in his favor.

Dennis and Omaha did a very good job of nailing the particulars of NPU's presidential search. The one thing that I would add to Dennis' commentary is that neither of the two remaining candidates from the initial search had Jon Heintzelman's experience as a fundraiser and constituent-relations expert (or Horner's masterful facility at both -- Horner can capture a room better than most TV talk-show hosts), and that this perceived deficiency entered into the decision to start afresh with new candidates.

I wasn't able to get over to campus to meet any of the three new candidates, but I spoke with new NPU head football coach Scott Pethtel after he'd met the first one. He said that the candidate (Dr. Mitchel Livingston) talked at length during the community forum about how he saw athletics at the D3 level as an important component of a student-athlete's education. So take that for what it's worth. I certainly hope that whoever the Covenant hires (because the Covenant gets the final say-so on who the next NPU president will be; the Board of Trustees merely presents the Covenant Annual Meeting with a recommended candidate) will be a strong supporter of NPU athletics. The school certainly had one in David Horner, as Dennis said (and not just because Horner's son Marc was a standout basketball player for the Vikings), and it will certainly need one in his successor. The Park still has an awful lot of work to do to get competitive across the board in the CCIW.

In all respects, NPU would be blessed to find another president as good as David Horner. He was the right man for the school at the right time.

Lastly, I wouldn't overplay the whole Covies vs. locals thing at NPU. There's a bit of cultural disconnect between the Covenant kids (who are largely out-of-staters) and the non-Covenant kids (the vast majority of whom are Chicagolanders), but it's not as though the Sharks and Jets are dancing around the NPU quad waving knives around and singing Leonard Bernstein songs. The two groups mix to the point where they're often indistinguishable. I was a Covie from out of state, and probably half of my closest friends at North Park were non-Covie locals. Heck, my fellow Covie Mark Erickson married a non-Covie local -- and a large proportion of the NPU-based weddings I've attended were similarly mixed. Bosko and Becky Djurickovic are another good example of that.

The much bigger fissure in terms of NPU's unique undergraduate student body is between the residents and the commuters.

[Gregory Sager]

I don't think that Brooke Shields is much of an ideal comparison for hitting a baseball no matter what her age.

Now if you had said Tawny Kitaen, that might have been a different story.

No, he said hitting a baseball; not hitting a baseball player.

I'm glad someone got the reference.  I always wonder just how obscure I can get before I look foolish.  I knew there had to be at least one Indians fan on here who would know what I was talking about.

Being the resident Cleveland fan, I got it too, HF.  I laughed, and I may have given you a karma point as well, but I didn't comment since there was no chance I could improve the joke.   

Same here, although I wracked my brain trying to think of a way to work up a rejoinder that involved crop circles. 

[Gregory Sager]

Well Dennis, my choice (not that it matters) is for the guy from Messiah College.  He isn't a Covie, but he is a strong believer and comes from a school with a winning athletic tradition.

I also like Noth Park's new football coach.  Has North Park ever had a guy with this much experience?

I won't hold it against the candidate, Jim, but the words "Messiah College" leave a sour taste in my mouth, thanks to a certain individual who will not be named who moved on from North Park to that institution (and who, ironically, we inherited from your alma mater).

I don't know if NPU has ever had a coach with Scott Pethtel's experience or not, but I like him. His beliefs and attitudes seem to be a great fit for the Park, and he appears to be a very hard worker. He's also very old school -- he's even going to insist that his players learn the school fight song (I doubt that most of the current students would even recognize "Hail To The Varsity", since NPU hasn't had a pep band in recent years). That's an insignificant matter, of course, but I think it reflects how much he cares about his new school and, more importantly, how much he wants his players to care about NPU.

He's certainly got quite a chore ahead of him in terms of getting North Park's football program within shouting distance of mediocrity. The Vikings failed to win even a single CCIW game in each of the past five seasons, and they haven't had a winning season since LBJ was in the White House and the city of Chicago was still reeling from the post-MLK-assassination West Side and Democratic Convention riots. It's definitely feasible for the Park to become competitive in most CCIW sports (including men's basketball), but so many factors are working against the football program that getting the gridiron Vikings up to a competitive level will be like trying to climb Mount Everest while wearing swim fins. Outside of Macalester and CURF, I doubt that there's another D3 school in the midwest that has as much going against it in football terms than does NPU. As Mark Erickson intimated, the next year or so will be the toughest of Pethtel's coaching career, tougher even that his frustating years as an assistant coach at UB.

Unlike Mark and Dennis, I've never taken all that much of an interest in North Park's football program, since the duration and intensity of the Park's awfulness at the sport has never really left any room for hope. But I like Scott Pethtel, and I sure hope that he succeeds. If anything, though, I hold even fewer illusions that it's possible than does Mark. Scott and I were talking about how he had faced Kansas State when he was an assistant at Ball State, and I told him that if he somehow managed to build a winner at NPU he'd be the Bill Snyder of D3. In retrospect, I wonder if that wasn't the understatement of the year on my part.

[Gregory Sager]

IMHO, IWU wants to hire someone who is NOT using it as a stepping stone, yet is the best hire available - someone who views one of the best d3 positions as a pinnacle.  In other words, they want a Jack Horenberger or a Dennie Bridges, if such people still exist (and I am sure they do, though they may be hard to find).

Chuck, c'mon. No school wants to be a steppingstone. There's nothing unique about Illinois Wesleyan in that regard. Every D3 school out there wants to hire someone who is going to hang around for thirty or forty successful years as the head coach. But you can't conduct a search upon that basis. How are you going to interview applicants: "If we give you this job, will you promise to stick around until you're old and gray?" Heck, you can't even trust an affirmative answer to that question from brides and grooms on their wedding days anymore. 

Bob addressed this same issue last week with devildog29. You simply can't ask coaches to sign an ironclad lifetime contract or extract from them a solemn oath that they'll never leave for another job. That's especially true at this level of college basketball, which young coaches tend to think of as a starting point and not a final destination.

Are there younger coaches out there who could turn into lifers at a particular D3 school? I suppose. But good luck finding them, because my suspicion is that the nature of college basketball has changed enough from yesteryear that there aren't as many Dennis Bridgeses, Glenn Van Wierens, Dick Bihrs, Glenn Robinsons, and Bob Bessoirs as there used to be. I suspect that if Illinois Wesleyan really wants someone whom they think they have a shot at turning into a lifer, they'll hire a coach with close ties to the school and an attachment to the B-N area ... someone like fortyish Bloomington H.S. coach (and mid-80s Titans guard) Ron Rose, f'rinstance, whose name has already come up in this room as a candidate. And the words "national search" don't seem to indicate to me that Bridges is automatically putting Rose or Baines or anyone of that ilk atop his list.

I have to question whether you really do have an understanding of Wesleyan's hiring policy in this regard, Chuck. Just look at Scott Trost. He didn't fit the profile you laid out at all. Yes, he did put in a year as a Bridges assistant early in his coaching career, but he'd also coached at a number of other schools as well, and he lacked both the alumnus tie and the area tie that would indicate someone who was more inclined to stay put at Wesleyan. Just as importantly, he had had experience on the scholarship levels (assistant at D2 Minnesota State - Mankato and at D1 Michigan) ... and that tends to raise red flags as far as the possibility of a good, young, successful coach moving back to the scholie level sooner or later.

I think that you and some of the other Illinois Wesleyan people might have somewhat unrealistic expectations of future Titans coaching tenures, given the Methusaleh-like spans of Horenberger and Bridges. I think that shorter tenures involving good, young coaches such as Trost are much more the rule than was true in the past. Success and youth usually breed ambition, and ambition, I'm sorry to say, involves horizons bigger than D3 more often than not. It's the relatively older hires (Bill Harris and Bosko Djurickovic both come to mind) who might be more likely to push the twenty-year tenure span. Harris has been at Wheaton for fifteen years now, and I would not be at all surprised if, supposing that he sticks it out there for five more years (which is hardly a given), he would become the last twenty-years-at-one-school head coach that we see in our lifetimes in the CCIW. I'll bet all the corn in Manito that Bosko does not reach twenty at Carthage.

I have no insider insight into Wesleyan's hiring policy at all with regard to this position, but my guess is that Bridges & Co. simply want to hire the best head men's basketball coach available that the school can afford.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Just an addendum on the over 4.0 (or over 5.0) question - there are also schools which recognize an A+ grade, assigning 4.3 (or 5.3) points.  (Whether or not any schools use both - so that at a 5.0 school someone could conceivably graduate with a 6.3 GPA! - I do not know.)

This leads me to believe my high school was even more messed up, we had an A+ designation, but it was only 4.0, then you got 3.667 for an A and 3.5 for an A- and 3.333 for a B+.  I feel cheated somehow.

the man in charge

I'm not a huge fan of the gender neutral craze, but it probably would have been best to say "person" or "man or woman" here.  And yes, I am aware that all the final candidates are men, but that doesn't change the general definition of President as fund raiser that was being presented.


Also, thanks for all the props on that Tawny Kitaen joke, I honestly didn't think it was all that good.  I might have a midwest sense of humor after all.

[rpknupp]

I'll bet all the corn in Manito that Bosko does not reach twenty at Carthage.

Greg: Do you understand that we have over 25million bushel of corn in this area?

[carlweathers]

Various NPU subjects:

No way would Molinari go to IWU.  Perhaps he'd replace Monson.

I don't know if Molinari goes to IWU but he definitely isn't replacing Monson.  With only a very few exceptions will an assistant on a fired staff get the head job and Molinar will not be one of those exceptions. 

[iwumichigander]

Scott Trost thank-you.  Great memories, great times and great achievements.  Good luck at Lewis.  Don't be surprised to find us behind your bench a few games!

[robberki]

Heck, my fellow Covie Mark Erickson married a non-Covie local -- and a large proportion of the NPU-based weddings I've attended were similarly mixed. Bosko and Becky Djurickovic are another good example of that.

Hey Greg, count me as another non-covie who married a covie, so there's at least two of us!

Also, there are some innacuracies in this thread regarding the presidential search and some of the candidates but I won't be going in to them in this forum. Let's just say there were some good applicants in the last round that didn't work out and there are some good finalists in this round that will hopefully work out.

[pistol]

If indeed Trost is headed to Lewis (we are all waiting impatiently to find out), I would guess that Denny will look for someone from "The Family".  Not just someone who has coached there or graduated from there, but someone who has played there and has a wealth of successful coaching experience.  If that is true, it surely shrinks the pool of candidates down to a small puddle.  I hear names of possible candidates, but they are all so young and inexperienced, especially for taking on the monstrous task of being the IWU men's basketball coach.  With all respect to the younger coaches, I don't think Duke or North Carolina would hire someone young when Roy Williams or Coach K decide to leave.  I think most would agree that IWU is in the same ballpark or even dugout as Duke or UNC proportionally at the D-III level.  Are there any other names the titan insiders might know about?  I guess I'm looking for some heavy hitters, as I'm quite sure they will pop up if and when the job opens. 

[augiedad]

Would Lawrence coach John Tharp have interest in the IWU job?  That seems to me to be a very good fit.  I have no idea if Tharp is tied to Lawrence though or what his situation is.

What about Aurora's coach?

Pat Cunningham at Trinity (Tx)?


I have to believe IWU will hire a proven head coach.  They have that luxury. 

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

How much money does IWU have to throw around?  I mean in d1, if you want an established coach from a lesser program, you just throw money at him.  In d3, does any school have enough money to pry an established coach out of a top quality program?

I know IWU is one of the premier places to coach basketball, but is the tradition and infrastructure alone enough to get a Tharp or a Cunningham to give up what amount to really good situations?

I'm not so sure.  Then again, I don't know the budget.  For my money, there would have to be a strong IWU tie to get an established coach to give up a good thing.

[augiedad]

Stories on the Trost situation:


http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2006/04/12/sports/doc443bd31e1a6de208284688.txt

http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2006/04/12/sports/111510.txt

http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2006/04/12/sports/doc443d5e06999a7053517236.txt
--------------
The search will be a national one "to see who's out there," according to Bridges. "That doesn't mean I don't have two or three names I want to check out on my own. The Illinois Wesleyan job is a great Division III job, one of the best in the country.

"We'll attract outstanding candidates. I want to see who wants the job. Maybe someone will come to me who wants it. Maybe I'll go to some people to see if they want it."
-----
Bridges said the next Wesleyan coach could be an IWU graduate. And he might not be.

"You don't have to be an Illinois Wesleyan graduate. Scott is a good example of that," said Bridges. "I don't think it would be bad to hire an Illinois Wesleyan graduate, someone who played for me and knows how we do things around here.

"I guess it could help you a little bit, but it's not going to be the deciding factor. It kind of depends on who surfaces, what the credentials of the field are."
-----
Bridges will take over the recruiting effort started by Trost until a new coach comes on board.

"I asked Scott for a number of things that need to be taken care of in the transition. I want to have his recruiting materials so I can pick up and take over for him right now," said Bridges. "It's not as if I don't have experience at doing that. It's not the same as recruiting as the coach, but I can sell Illinois Wesleyan."
-----
Although Illinois Wesleyan athletic director Dennie Bridges isn't tipping his hand as far as who might be considered for the suddenly vacant Titans' basketball coach job, here are a few names, in alphabetical order, who could

conceivably enter into the discussion:

John Baines, former IWU player, current Elmhurst assistant

Pat Cunningham, Trinity (Texas) head coach, former Illinois State assistant

James Lancaster, Aurora head coach

Jim Molinari, former IWU player, former Bradley head coach, current Minnesota assistant

Todd Raridon, North Central head coach

Ron Rose, former IWU player, current Bloomington High School coach

David Steinbrueck, current IWU assistant

John Tharp, Lawrence head coach