New Assistant at Illinois State

[amckillip]

Come on, Both of ya, who cares who ISU hires? We talk about all college teams here, especially MVC teams, so it only seems fitting we talk a little bit more about our rivals, I mean I understand if on RBF they don't talk about BU much I suppose... the way the last several games between us have gone, I wouldn't talk much about BU either...

[tornado]

As a Bradley fan I enjoy reading first about BU, but 2nd about the other Valley schools, and 3rd about D-I college basketball in general.

I think we'd have had a discussion going on any school in the Valley that has personnell changes, and especially about the one Valley school that is BU's most intense rival over the past couple decades.

By the way, the assistant coaching changes at BU are being discussed at other Valley boards:

http://redbirdfan.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7057&sid=cb4b5be2e98687c2935e95521fa3b425

http://redbirdfan.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6912&highlight=assistant&sid=cb4b5be2e98687c2935e95521fa3b425

By the way,
Here is a story on Maryland, Eastern Shore.
They have definitely had some bad years.
The story says they have had only one winning season since 1982, their graduation rates have been bad and they are on the NCAA watch list, and they just fired the head coach that replaced the guy Parham worked under (Parham and the whole staff in 2004 were canned for lousy performance) and hired a very successful high school coach, Meredith Smith.
One of their players is Gary Lee who was kicked out of Northwestern for academic failure, exactly the same time Brandon Lee was booted (no relation) and transferred to UMES.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/college/basketball/bal-sp.signings16may16,0,4371750.story?coll=bal-college-mbasketball

[cpacmel]

Let me get this straight, he finished playing high school ball back at the end of the 1980's,
then from 1991 through three years ago has been in Maryland and Minnesota,
then he has 3 years of coaching at Phillips & Morgan Park, neither exactly a repeat Elite Eight participant.
So what am I missing when I read people saying he has
"extensive experience in Chicago high school circles" and "strong ties to Chicago"?
If there's spin being spun, it's when you call 3 years of coaching extensive,
and try to pretend that his connection to Eldridge isn't the reason.
Please, Redbird fans, allow us to remain a bit skeptical of Jankovich's "spin".

Using this definition, then back in 2005, Jim Les had already accumulated
"extensive experience in Division I college coaching" and the critics should have let up way back then!

http://www.chicagohoops.com/articles1/parhamisu.html

Parham's greatest strength will be his strong connection to the basketball-rich Chicago area where Parham is both well known, and well liked.


Sounds like strong ties to me.

[Phantom]

If there's spin being spun, it's when you call 3 years of coaching extensive,
and try to pretend that his connection to Eldridge isn't the reason.
Please, Redbird fans, allow us to remain a bit skeptical of Jankovich's "spin".

I cant say I blame you or anyone else being skeptical over whether or not retaining OE was the reason for Parham being hired. It's a situation that prompts a natural reaction of skepticism if you ask me. However, as I said in the other thread, none of is will ever truly know 100% for certain what the deal is.

Jankovich stated that all the stuff with OE was sorted out before he even talked to Parham. I'm inclined to believe this because nothing in this mix and certainly nothing Jankovich has done so far leads me to believe otherwise. Does that mean its 100% true? No.

Is Parham here to help retain OE? Possibly, but I doubt Jankovich, Zenger, or Parham himself will come out and say so. So again, we'll never know. This can be speculated, conjectured, argued about and discussed until we are all blue in the face but unless any of us actually is Jankovich, Zenger, or Parham we will never know for sure.

[tornado]

Parham's greatest strength will be his strong connection to the basketball-rich Chicago area

OK...but those Chicago folks and AAU "string-pullers" sure have been hostile to just about every downstate school the past decade or two.

Can't say UIUC, Bradley, ISU, or anyone (except a couple of Mullins' kids who are mostly suburbaners) has been able to tap the talent from Chicago.

I hope for your sake he can get there, but even when we were told that's exactly what Wayne McClain and Tracy Webster were so very good at and were going to do, I have yet to see any evidence of it.

If you know, please tell me why it has been that the Chicago kids seem to look down on playing at instate schools other than DePaul?

[Chico]

As a Bradley fan I could care less who their new asst coach is. I bet they feel the same way about who takes Coach Buescher's place.

[Big Mike]

I hear ya..............WHO CARES!

[amckillip]

As a Bradley fan I could care less who their new asst coach is. I bet they feel the same way about who takes Coach Buescher's place.

Hey, go check out their board some time, you might be surprised.

[Chico]

Why would I want to check out ISU's board?

[Big Mike]

I for one have never been on the isu site........THIS IS IT FOR ME! I don't care if they hire Phil Jackson........it's not my team........I have zero interest in what they do until we play them........and we all know that story!