Monday, March 10, 2008 11:06 PM CDT
Eastern fans await word on Elgin guard, AD selection
By Brian Nielsen, Sports Editor
bnielsen@jg-tc.com
So far, Eastern has landed the football player from Elgin’s IHSA Class 4A Elite Eight basketball team.
The basketball Panthers are also in the running for Elgin’s point guard.
Jeremy Granger, averaging 17 points, seven rebounds and four assists for a 21-9 Elgin team facing Zion Benton in tonight’s DeKalb Super-Sectional, attended an Eastern home game in a recent visit and has been visited by EIU assistant coach Chad Altadonna more times than that.
“Coach Altadonna has been to the past four games,” Elgin coach Mike Sitter said. “They are really interested.”
One of Granger’s basketball teammates is Kenny Williams, also a running back/linebacker who last month signed to play football at Eastern.
Williams is the power forward for the basketball team and scored the winning basket in a 79-77 sectional semifinal win over Rockton Hononegah.
“He doesn’t score a lot for us but he usually guards the other team’s best scorer,” Sitter said.
Granger is the one with the basketball future.
“He’s a three-year varsity starter who is being asked to score for the first time and is doing it with ease,” Sitter said. “His scoring average would be more but he hyper-extended his elbow and couldn’t shoot for about three games but he still played. He’s very quick, very athletic and always plays in control. He’s usually the best athlete on the court.”
Wisconsin-Parkside, Western Illinois and St. Joseph’s College of Indiana are also in the recruiting picture.
Granger’s first order of business this week is trying to get his team to Peoria for the state semifinals with a win in tonight’s super-sectional.
“We’re definitely the underdog,” Sitter said. “Usually when we step out on the floor we have the best athletes but not against Zion-Benton. Our guys just have no concept of losing right now. They just don’t think they can be beat.”
The coach of the Ohio Valley Conference’s last-place Jacksonville State has been fired.
Mike LaPlante’s contract was not renewed after his Gameocks finished 7-22 overall and 5-15 in the OVC this season, losing twice to Eastern which finished just ahead of them in the league standings..
It is hard to defend the firing of a coach with a 95-137 record but usually a football school that puts basketball on the back burner gets that kind of results.
Eastern is on spring break but administrators, even if out of town, may be offering their top choice the athletics director job.
Vicki Woodard, EIU’s coordinator of public information, said no announcement would be made this week.
That’s probably to be expected with no new AD wanting to have a press conference at an empty campus.
Still, a decision could be made this week.
“The committee actually completed deliberations last Thursday and visited with the president (William Perry) and Vice President (Dan) Nadler,” said Mary Anne Hanner, who headed a 15-person search committee that brought five finalists to campus. “Now the search is in their hands.”
The last of five on-campus interviews was completed last week.
“I felt and the committee felt we saw five strong candidates,” Hanner said. “Overall, I thought they were well received by the campus and I hope we have our next athletic director in that group. It was a good experience, a good committee. The committee really did a good job.”
Hanner said the committee did not make a recommendation as far as No. 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 to the administrators.
If the vibes I get from talking to some on campus are any indication, Barbara Burke, the deputy director of athletics/senior women’s administrator at Wyoming, might be the front runner.
Listening to a 45-minute open session interview, reading a resume and maybe a few Google-searched items does not make this sports editor qualified to make such a decision.
That doesn’t keep me from listing a few thoughts:
n Let’s hope former Iowa State Athletics Director Bruce Van De Velde’s never-put-winning-ahead-of-student-athlete-welfare message was not predicated by feelings that that idea is what would sway more people on campus in his favor.
Of course, winning at all costs is wrong. If nothing else, Eastern’s record should show that overzealousness has never been the problem.
This certainly seems to be a complete opposite climate than when Bob McBee was chosen as AD because many – right or wrong — thought he would walk on campus, fire coaches and cure all ills.
(Just a quick note to some of those bloodthirsty boosters more than a decade later: Looks like that master plan to get rid of Rick Samuels might have needed a few more details to turn Eastern basketball into a Final Four power, doesn’t it?)
Anyway, let’s just hope that the segment that thinks winning sports teams would be a hindrance to academics and other facets of the university is too small of a minority to matter.
n Let’s hope that the fact Vaughn Williams spent longer than anyone else with an opening statement before taking questions during interview sessions did not keep everyone from listening to what he had to say. I thought the Connecticut associate AD had some good ideas.
n Trying not to bring it up for a month or so, I still think it needs said: I’m still baffled that Paul Lueken, who knows Eastern from his time here, wants the Eastern job for more than just a stepping stone or escape venue and has experience at a very similar school, albeit Division II at Slippery Rock, was not a finalist.
Let’s hope that if after further review it is determined Lueken might have be the best applicant after all, administrators do not see it being too late to offer him the job.
Brian Nielsen is sports editor of the Journal Gazette/Times-Courier. Contact Nielsen at bnielsen@jg-tc.com or 238-6856.
Add your comments
Not already registered?
Then click Here.
Comment policy:
JG-TC.com encourages readers to engage in civil conversation with their neighbors. Comments that are submitted are not posted to the site immediately. They go into a queue to be moderated and may take several hours to be reviewed. Comments posted on Saturday may not be reviewed until Sunday afternoon.
In order to keep the page a set width, long lines (mostly long links) will be chopped. Try putting spaces in your links or consider using tinyurl.com to make a smaller link that you can include.
We will never edit or alter your comments, but we do reserve the right to remove comments that violate our code of conduct.
No comment may contain:
* Potentially libelous statements; such as accusing somebody of a crime, defamation of character, or statements that can harm somebody's reputation.
* Obscene, explicit, or racist language.
* Personal attacks, insults, threats, harassment or inciting violence.
* Commercial product promotions.
If you have any questions, please contact our moderator.
|
|
|
|
|
RDCENT wrote on Mar 11, 2008 8:10 AM: