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Since Derek already sounds like a Coach who knows he will be gone at end of season, why not start our search now instead of later ? I say bring in an upstart Juco Coach from a very strong D-1 program who would bring his top 3 stud players with him. With only 3 Seniors on this year's team, and none signed early or on the horizon, this would work perfectly wouldn't it ? If we select the right Juco coach, we only need to give him 3 Year Contract, because he'll be gone to a bigger and better D-1 job within 3 years won't he ? Or... we could go same old route as the past and bring in retreads or " Top D-1 Asst." ( Sound familiar) and get same old results and 3 more losing seasons. I'm tired of 7, soon to be 8 losing seasons in a row. The few of us who still attend are too. Come on Tim and WIU, step up and make a difference. With that said, I truly believe Derek will land on his feet as at a top D-1 program as the Recruiter. Maybe with some more seasoning, he may succeed as head coach somewhere else. I truly think his down fall at WIU was fact WIU did not have any funds available for him to be able to hire a quality "x" and "o" coach for game management.
B-Ball Fan
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After all the talk on this board and other forums, can not believe no one else feels the way i expressed or has an opinion. I guess everyone is happy with state of WIU Men's basketball after all. My mistake. Sorry I brought topic up. We'll let it drop then.
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I am actually hoping that this may be an exciting season after all. We will know more after our first conference game on Saturday vs IUPUI.
We will need our "home court" advantage (loud crowd) to win this game!
Go Leathernecks !!
Go Westerwinds !!
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| you get loud crowds by winning games against schools your size or bigger not NAIA and D3 schools. At least DT can beat them. I thought he should have been fired long ago, i have no clue why van alstien has kept him so long, its like he enjoys losing.
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I have a suggestion for the next WIU head basketball coach:
JIM MOLINARI.
He spent 11 years at Bradley getting them to the post season 6 times. At NIU he went 42-17 and won the MidCon title in 1991. Resume also includes assistant coach Minnesota/interm head coach. NBA scout, and currently he is an assistant at Ball State.
Jim Molinari is ripe for the picking in my oppinion. He lived for many years in the Peoria area and his kids grew up there. I bet for the right job and right pay he would be happy to come back to Central/Western Illinois.
We clearly have to take a different course of action than what we have been doing. It is time to shake things up.
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I agree about Jim Molinari. That would really energize the WESTERN basketball program.
Dr Van Alstine made a mistake 5 years ago by choosing Derek Thomas over Murry Bartow (they were the 2 finalists).
Now he has a chance to remedy that situation.
Go Leathernecks !!
Go Westerwinds !!
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Retread past his prime. He was ran out of Bradley by "lynch mob mentality" wasn't he ? Minnesota thought so highly of his interim job he did for them last year that they never even really considered him for Head job. I'll say it again. NO MORE RETREADS or D-1 Assts. Bring in the young D-1 Juco Coach who has 3 stud players to bring with him. Shortens the losing streak by 3 years and gets you winning in 2. Next juco coach will continue winning streak after this coach leaves for better job in 3 years.
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Molinari, in fact, was fired as head BB Coach at Bradley after compiling a 9-20 record his last season there. I thought it was really a bum deal for him at the time. He was very highley regarded in the Missouri Valley coaching fraternity. However, I can hardley argue with the success Jimmy Les has brought to the Braves program.
Universities are very fickle about there D-1 basketball programs. Good coaches get fired all the time. After all if a school does not go to the NCAA you can't fire the kids, but you can fire the coach.
Jim Molinari has a good resume. He has shown he is a winner.
You can't blame Molinari for the mess he inherited as interm at Minnesota. Also, it is pretty hard to argue with Minnesota deciding to go with Tubby Smith over Molinari. That is a given. I ask this, are we so dellusional to think that because Jim was passed over at a Big Ten school for Tubby Smith that he is beneath the standards of heading up a team in the mighty Summit League?
I would be interrested to hear more about the strategy of recruiting leadership and talent from the ranks of a top tier JUCO program. I would love to be convinced that that would work. After all, what we all really want is a winning program to bring WESTERN back to the realm of respectability, in WHATEVER manner it is done.
I have significant reservations that the JUCO strategy would bear fruit. Hypothetically speaking, Lets say we use JUCO Illinois Central College as an example (yes I know they are NJCAA D-II not D-I but are very good). So does the coach inform his team that they have been called up to the "big leagues" and board the ICC Cougars on the bus bound for Macomb where camp is set up and the boys don WESTERN jerseys and take the court as our D-1 team?
If the best in JUCO is better than the run of the mill oferings of the D-1 Summit league, then the state of basketball affairs for our league and Western is truley dismal.
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| Finally, some good counter discussion to get this board going. Some good points you bring up for sure. Molinaro would not be a bad choice if we want to go the retread route. Yes, Tubby Smith would have been hard to pass over at Minnesota. I have some relatives who are Bradley fans and they had nothing good to say about Molinaro. Hated his style of play (boring is the main word used). I want Victories, but would WIU win any fans back with boring b-ball even if win some in couple years because let's face facts..... We're not going to win next year either, regardless of who is brought into this mess called WIU Men's B-Ball. Reason I say go Juco route is because a lot of these kids will be very loyal to the Coach who gave them a chance when they either couldn't or weren't pursued by D-1 out of high school. We need the energy and enthusiasm that a young coach could inject into our | | | |