Eastern Illinois coaching job

[Da Coach]

Eastern Illinois is reportedly going to name a new head coach today. They have not revealed yet who their final choice is. There were 5 finalists interviewed this week-
David Cason- assistant coach at Vanderbilt
Doug Novsek- assistant coach at Nevada
Brian Fish- assistant coach at Oregon
Kareem Richardson- assistant coach at Xavier
Jay Spoonhour- head coach at Moberly Area Community College

Interestingly, all 5 of the finalists have ties to the Missouri Valley.

The rumor is that the final decision will be between David Cason (former ISU player) and Kareem Richardson (former Evansville player).

David Cason's first coaching job after playing at ISU was at Eastern Illinois.
He left Eastern in 1999 to become the director of basketball operations at Notre Dame under head coach Matt Doherty. He then went with Doherty to North Carolina.
After Doherty was fired at UNC, Cason became an assistant at TCU from 2003-2005 and then was an assistant at Tulsa. The last year he has been an assistant at Vanderbilt under his coach at ISU, Kevin Stallings.

Kareem Richardson played at Evansville. He is currently an assistant at Xavier, but prior to that was a top assistant at Drake. He has also been an assistant at University of Indianapolis, Indiana State, Wright State, Evansville, and UMKC.

[tornado]

Could ex-Drake asst. Kareem Richardson maybe have enough pull to get Rayvonte Rice to follow him to EIU?

[cpacmel]

Looks like it's Spoonhour: http://jg-tc.com/sports/college/spoo...a4bcf887a.html

[Da Coach]

Looks like it's Spoonhour: http://jg-tc.com/sports/college/spoo...a4bcf887a.html

I am surprised they went with a juco guy. I hope he has success, but Spoonhour does not have many recruiting ties to the Illinois or Chicago area.

[Da Coach]

http://sportingnews.com/ncaa-basketball/story/2012-04-06/jay-spoonhour-lands-eastern-illinois-job?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

[Old Coach]

I am surprised they went with a juco guy. I hope he has success, but Spoonhour does not have many recruiting ties to the Illinois or Chicago area.

I think he was the only candidate with any head coaching experience.

[Chico]

Hope he's as successful as the Junior College coach Bradley hired several years ago.

[tornado]

that topic came up a couple times before as to how many times has a D-I school ever named a junior college coach as their head coach....

other than the time Bradley did it 34 years ago, there are probably fewer than a handful of times it's been done -- extremely rare...

[Old Coach]

that topic came up a couple times before as to how many times has a D-I school ever named a junior college coach as their head coach....

other than the time Bradley did it 34 years ago, there are probably fewer than a handful of times it's been done -- extremely rare...

True. However, he has spent a lot of time as a D-I assistant, unlike most JUCO head coaches.

[tornado]

no wonder hardly anyone wanted the EIU job that was taken by Spoonhaur - it's been revealed that what was offered was only a 3-year deal and the pay is just $160K - almost below minimum wage by D-I head coaching standards..

[Old Coach]

no wonder hardly anyone wanted the EIU job that was taken by Spoonhaur - it's been revealed that what was offered was only a 3-year deal and the pay is just $160K - almost below minimum wage by D-I head coaching standards..

Yep. Believe it or not, its a significant bump from what Mike Miller was making too.

Guys like Jack Owens would have had to take pay cuts.

[tornado]

Jay Spoonhaur makes a really good hire for his first assistant

http://www.eiupanthers.com/news/2012/4/17/MBB_0417123544.aspx

[Da Coach]

Former EIU head coach, and former Kansas State assistant Mike Miller has landed as an assistant to head coach Jim Woolridge at UC-Riverside

http://www.gohighlanders.com/news/2012/5/30/MBB_0530125354.aspx

Miller worked under Jim Woolridge at Kansas State.