Greatest Sycamore Coach

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treefromafar

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While I know this could be open for some sizeable debate, especially those who can go back further in history, I would like to know who people feel is the greates coach in Sycamore history. My vote has to be with Bill Hodges simply because of the 1979 team. I know that team was put together by Bill King, and Hodges did not have much success after that. However, 1979 is the single greatest season in school history.
 

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my list of the greatest men's basketball coaches in indiana state history

greatest isu hoops coaches

john wooden
glenn curtis
bob king
duane klueh
bill hodges
 
My faves (in no particular order):

Bob King - took a floundering, newly-DI program and built a national powerhouse. Of course landing Larry Bird helped. However, King had a keen eye for talent, and knew how to use his players. Had he not had an aneurysm (is that how you spell that?), we would never have fallen the way we did. Of course, we might not have made it to the Final Four, either. He also led a very high quality athletic department. His tenure would have to be the "Golden Age of Sycamore Athletics."

Duane Klueh - Here is a guy who played here, and then coached here. A true, blue Sycamore. His teams were always entertaining (I'm going on stats and what others have told me, I wasn't alive yet...:bigsmile:), and he won consistently for longer than anyone else at ISU. I saw where one of his teams (64-65, I think), scored 100 or more points something like 12 times in 13 games. That's SICK!!!

John Wooden - wonder what would have happened had he stayed here for longer than two years???

Royce Waltman - took a program that hadn't had a winning season in 17 years, and first turned them into winners, then into champions. No matter what happened after, Waltman stirred a resurgence of ISU basketball that we are still hoping to see again. Re-orienting an entire culture isn't easy, yet he did it in his first four years. This is an accomplishment almost unmatched in ISU basketball history.

Just my opinions. Not worth much, but that's them...

:sycamores::sycamores::sycamores:
 
tree....i agree with you.....

i should have put royce on my list. and gordon stauffer did a nice job while he was there too.

from personal experience, i loved bob king. he was a great guy, a very good basketball coach and an outstanding athletic director. as you said, he had a great eye for talent in players and in coaches.

he's already had a basketball arena's court named after him at the university of new mexico, where he was the coach until coming to indiana state. they should do something for him at isu.

when king was the head coach, he sent bill hodges down to french lick as soon as he heard that bird had left iu. he told hodges to camp out down there and win the kid over. and that's exactly what he did. larry wasn't sure if he wanted to go back to school at that time, but hodges and king stayed after him. they both recruited bird's mother, georgia,to help in the cause. and it worked.

when king got sick, hodges was able to step in and direct the team for that 1978-79 season. would isu had made it as far that year with king as the head coach? who knows.

but i do believe that you are right in that the program generally would have been in better shape for a longer period of time if king had been able to return to coaching. as good a job as hodges did in 1978-79, he let the recruiting suffer.

of course, that wasn't all his fault. isu only had one full-time coach on staff that season and that was hodges (terry thimlar was a part-time assistant, mel daniels couldn't recruit off campus since he didn't have a degree and danny king was a g.a.).

There was nobody on staff to go out and recruit as the season was progressing. Hodges was too busy coaching the team. they waited until the season was over to hire another full-time assistant, which turned out to be earl diddle.

had king been healthy when isu got on that run, hodges could have been out recruiting. oh well, water under the bridge now.
 
Royce first

I am a bit torn on that one. His first 5 years here were tremendous. As you and others stated, he completely transformed the culture here. While I do not entirely prescribe to the what have you done for me lately society, what happened his last 3 years here? I heard he was sick some, but what else happened? I think McKenna could be on that journey here also. He is changing the culture and style of play. I for one see great things from him in the future.
 
Wooden

I also wonder how many people simply put him on here for his name alone. Don't mis-understand me. John Wooden, in my humble opinion, is the greatest leader, let alone sports coach, this world has ever known. How long was he here, 2 years? I seem to recall he won a championship of some sort. Not too sure, as my father was the age of my oldest son when Wooden was here. Anyone got the stats?
 

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treefromafar said:
I am a bit torn on that one. His first 5 years here were tremendous. As you and others stated, he completely transformed the culture here. While I do not entirely prescribe to the what have you done for me lately society, what happened his last 3 years here? I heard he was sick some, but what else happened? I think McKenna could be on that journey here also. He is changing the culture and style of play. I for one see great things from him in the future.
Click to expand...

Royce had kidney cancer along about 2002 or so, and that really, IMHO, really hurt recruiting for at least two classses. He obviously couldn't be as involved with it as he was previously. A hole got dug that was very hard to get out of, although I think he was headed in the right direction when he was canned.

I also agree with what you said about McKenna. He's changing perceptions, and the last month of the season really started to get people talking. Case in point: after the last home game against MSU, my family went to the Medicare Lounge for dinner. (That would be MCL Cafeteria - my 13 year old son's favorite restaurant...) We were all decked out in our ISU wear, and were asked at least 4 separate times how the game went. See? Win some games, and people start to pay attention. Hopefully, that translates into more butts in the seats next year!!!

:sycamores::sycamores::sycamores:
 
It's like asking me who is the best player to ever have played against Bird when he was a Sycamore (or a Celtic for that matter). My answer would probably still be the same as the answer to my "who is the best coach of all time at ISU" :sycamores:

What can I say, I'm biased...and proud.
 
Little Eddie said:
It's like asking me who is the best player to ever have played against Bird when he was a Sycamore (or a Celtic for that matter). My answer would probably still be the same as the answer to my "who is the best coach of all time at ISU" :sycamores:

What can I say, I'm biased...and proud.
Click to expand...

As well you should be!!! :cheers:
 

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