Comments regarding Macomber statements:
Point 1 – I really liked Obi in purple and gold. With him back for year 2 and a healthy Ceola and TP, you have yourself an NCAA qualifier IMO! But TP did get hurt against Cleveland State and Ceola played banged up for ½ that championship year so who knows in the end what the result would have been. Obi committed to WIU in the Fall of his senior year. This was before he helped his team win the Oklahoma State basketball tournament and before he really appeared on Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, or Oral Robert’s radar. He was not that committed to playing in Macomb and in reality really wanted to stay closer to home. But his parents basically said, fulfill your promise for a year probably in the hopes that he might learn to enjoy all that Macomb has to offer! Well at the end of the first basketball season, Obi still wanted to go home and even though the Necks barely lost the championship game in OT and was definitely going to get some type of tournament bid, he headed for home. While the team flew from the Quad Cities to Oregon State via Portland, Obi took off from Omaha, escorted by an assistant coach. I agree Obi would have helped both last year and this year with out a doubt, but how much we will never know. You gotta wonder though if Mo would have stayed with a committed Obi on the team?
Point 2 – I think from watching the Necks play defense that Billy can coach!! They beat Wisconsin because they hit their shots not only at the beginning of the game, but also at clutch time down the stretch. Those players that hit those timely shots that night have not hit them very often since. USD hit their shots and the Necks could not answer. The way to answer a run is to have one of your own. I thought and still think that Mo is a fine coach. His ability to coach teams to defend goes un-matched and that’s why he is sitting on the bench in Lincoln. But his offense wore out it’s welcome at Bradley and I think began to frustrate the folks in Macomb. I have said a number of times during my coaching career that my shooting percentage as a coach was 0/0. Coach Wright was a very good shooter in college, but he is still shooting 0/0 as a coach!
Point 3 – I was disappointed when Coach Wade left WIU. He is a class act and I always enjoyed talking with him. But Coach Wright is a class act too. IMO it was a huge loss when Coach Wright left for Ball State. He was Mo’s number 1 recruiter and from then on, WIU’s recruiting suffered without Billy Wright on the bench.
Point 4 – You talk about D1 coaching experience like it was something magical! A coach’s role on a staff is more important than the level they are coaching at. Basketball is basketball, but recruiting at each level I am sure is different. In this case though, Billy Wright has D1 experience and his coaching staff is gaining that. Developing “big men” was and is a priority for this staff and bringing Vershaw on board made good sense IMO. I get your thoughts about Juco connections but I am not sure Coach Wright wants to rely on that as he was forced to last year.
Point 5 – WIU did catch lightning in a bottle for two years with Parks and Clark. Unfortunately, the Necks fell just short of the “show” for two years. I have always said that the mark of good program is that you stay competitive until the studs walk in and then you make the most of them while you can!
Point 6 – Macomb has been a tough place to win for the past 40 years. It wasn’t so back in the days of the NAIA when a majority of mid majors, D2, and D3 played each year in this wonderful tournament played in Kansas City! The stats you have presented a true and cannot be disputed in most cases! I am not really sure why you would drive on two lane roads to get to the Peoria Airport when you can drive four lane 67 to four lane 136 to interstate 74 to interstate 474? That’s a total of 66 miles! You could also head to the Quad City’s, that’s just 76 miles away. You talked about how close Sioux City is to Vermillion and Brookings, well, it is pretty much all interstate but it is 56 miles from Brookings and 62 miles from Vermillion. I guess having experienced the drive to WIU in the earIy 70’s and then making the drive while my daughter went there has given me the feeling that Macomb really is not that far away from the suburbs. Besides that, Amtrak is still taking students from the Chicago area to Macomb. Both South Dakota schools have been left off the list of AMTRAK stops. I think your point about major state universities is the most important fact at the moment. The University of South Dakota and South Dakota State are the signature schools of South Dakota, similar to University of Illinois! As Ringo Starr stated back when I was going to WIU, “It don’t come easy, you know it don’t come easy!”
Enough said!
jc