TERRE HAUTE — The column I wrote last Monday about the open Indiana State baseball position took a black-and-white stance on an issue that I knew wasn’t a black-and-white issue to those who care about it.
I wrote that ISU Director of Athletics Ron Prettyman should hire the best man for the job. Period. Regardless of connection to the university or lack thereof.
Not everyone sees it quite that simply and I got plenty of feedback. Among other things, some expressed the opinion that Lindsay Meggs only took the ISU job as a stepping stone to a bigger job and ISU needs to avoid that circumstance in its next hire.
I spoke with Meggs on Saturday as he gathered his personal effects from his ISU office five days after he was hired at the University of Washington. He denied that he ever perceived ISU as a stepping stone to bigger and better things.
“I never looked at this as a stepping stone job. I told people that I never would’ve moved my family all the way out here with the plan of just picking up and going. If that was my intent, I wouldn’t have come here,” Meggs said.
Meggs’ denial aside, it brings up an interesting point … does it really matter whether an ISU coaching position (in any sport) is considered a stepping stone? Moreover, why worry about a perception that ISU has no control over?
The reality is this. As long as there are schools that can pay more, that have better facilities, that are better steeped in tradition, and that have easier access to the NCAA Tournament via at-large bids given to their conference, ISU is a stepping stone school whether anyone likes it or not.
And if a coach uses ISU as a stepping stone and succeeds, that means the Sycamores succeeded along with them. Most of the time, it’s a win-win situation.
There is nothing wrong with a coach who wants to succeed here and only here, as many have correctly pointed out, that would be the best-case scenario.
“It’s a double-edged sword. If you can find the right person and he has some success, he might be gone in a short period of time, that’s the life of a mid-major. At the same time, if that person has roots and wants to be here for a long time, then you can have the best of both worlds,” Meggs said.
Generally, though, that’s the exception to the rule at a mid-major school like ISU. It’s a circumstance ISU hopes it can achieve, but until it does, it can’t ignore reality and rule out hiring someone who wants to succeed here and move on.
n Coach search — As for the hunt for Meggs’ replacement, ISU Director of Athletics Ron Prettyman was inundated with candidates despite the fact that most collegiate baseball programs have finalized or are trying to finalize their coaching staffs for fall practice.
“We’ve had nearly 50 applicants for the job and its only been posted since Wednesday, so we’re anticipating even more,” said Prettyman on Saturday.
The two names that have cropped up most often are former Northern Iowa coach Rick Heller (UNI dropped baseball after the recently concluded season) and Lincoln Trail coach and ex-ISU standout Mitch Hannahs, who was a finalist for the job in 2006.
Prettyman confirmed that both have applied for the job. Current ISU assistant Tyler Herbst has also applied.
“I’m in the process of reviewing [the applications] and probably over the course of this week will be getting my short list down to three or five. Hopefully we’ll be able to put two or four in front of a committee and make an offer the following week [starting Aug. 10],” Prettyman said.
If it comes down to Heller and Hannahs, I don’t envy Prettyman. Both are very qualified for the job. In Hannahs’ case, nothing that made him attractive in 2006 has changed in 2009. He has support among ISU’s inner circle and has proven at Lincoln Trail that he can run a winning show.
Heller obviously knows the Missouri Valley Conference and did a great job in less-than-ideal circumstances at UNI. He succeeded in a region where spring weather is far worse than it is here, the recruiting base in thinner, in a Depression-era stadium that was more than 10 miles from the UNI campus in Waterloo, and with the sword of Damocles hanging over the program’s very existence for at least a half-decade before UNI pulled the plug on it in February.
UNI won one MVC tournament (2001) and had three MVC Players of the Year (Ryan Brunner, 2001; Adam Boeve, 2003; Brandon Douglas, 2008) during Heller’s 10 years in Cedar Falls.
Stay tuned.
Todd Golden is sports editor of the Tribune-Star. He can be reached at (812) 231-4272 or todd.golden@tribstar.com.
From the Press Box
TODD GOLDEN: Being a stepping stone is beyond ISU’s control
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FROM THE PRESSBOX: Content McKenna has enjoyed seeing ISU's progress
It all happened so fast in June 2010.
One minute, Kevin McKenna was head coach of the Indiana State men’s basketball program. Then — poof! — he was gone.
McKenna resigned from his head coaching position at ISU on June 13, 2010 to take an assistant coach position on Dana Altman’s then-burgeoning University of Oregon staff. -
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It’s 20 games into Indiana State’s men’s basketball season and I still expect the Sycamores’ offense operate like a well-oiled machine from the opening tip. -
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Quick quiz … what’s the state flower of Hawaii?
Don’t worry. I can’t just rattle state flowers off the top of my head. I had to look it up too, even though I’ve seen them all over the place in Honolulu.
I didn’t even know that Indiana’s state flower is the peony, which replaced the apparently unloved zinnia in the 1950s.
Hawaii’s flower, and they’re ubiquitous in Waikiki tourist shops and in actual flora on Oahu, is the yellow hibiscus.
The yellow hibiscus is big, bold and bright. I’ve never seen one blossom, but I imagine it has to be a beautiful sight.
What I have seen blossom — and it’s the only reason flowers would be brought up in my column — is the Indiana State basketball team at the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic. -
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It started in State College, Pa., and ended in Eugene, Ore. Few Indiana State athletic seasons have spanned the nation in as many sports as 2011-12 did for the Sycamores’ athletic teams. And from coast-to-coast there was glory and heartbreak alike.
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FROM THE PRESS BOX: ISU progresses under Prettyman
He didn’t say a word, but it was as clear as Indiana State Director of Athletics Ron Prettyman sat in the PK Park dugout and watched the Sycamores take batting practice prior to their NCAA Regional at Oregon last Thursday, he beamed with pride.
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TODD GOLDEN: MVC pitching helped prepare Sycamores for regional
Nick Petree, Pierce Johnson, Ty Blach.
These aren’t just elite-level starting pitchers Indiana State’s baseball team faced this season. They comprise three of the last five pitchers the Sycamores faced period. -
FROM THE PRESS BOX: ISU baseball has pluses, minuses for tourney bid
Last Thursday, when Indiana State’s baseball jumped around in a celebratory dogpile after clinching the Missouri Valley Conference regular season championship at Bob Warn Field, no one thought that a little over a week later, the dreaded NCAA Tournament bubble would fly over Terre Haute. -
FROM THE PRESS BOX: Subtle switch has fostered MVC baseball parity
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FROM THE PRESS BOX: ISU has done enough to be in NCAAs
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FROM THE PRESS BOX: TH’s Murans back in the Derby … this time with favorite
When Terre Haute native Paul Murans experienced his first Triple Crown horse racing run as part-owner of Mucho Macho Man in 2011, the experience was — to borrow a phrase from one-time Marquette coach Al McGuire — seashells and balloons.
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TODD GOLDEN: IHSAA debate interrupts more pressing issues
State Senator Mike Delph has sowed a 15-year-old wind and put the emotional class basketball debate back on the public’s mind.
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TODD GOLDEN: ISU eyes prize one game at a time
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TODD GOLDEN: Grass is green enough for Indiana State in Missouri Valley
Take a look around the Missouri Valley Conference landscape and it would be easy to assume that a significant portion of the league membership is searching for perceived greener pastures.
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FROM THE PRESS BOX: Sycamores are Odum’s team now
Soooo … who wants to talk about the 2012 Indiana State men’s basketball season?
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FROM THE PRESS BOX: ISU will face uphill climb in MVC in 2013
The Missouri Valley Conference Tournament semifinals are always scintillating. No more so than Saturday when Illinois State upset 15th-ranked Wichita State 65-64 and when No. 25 Creighton took care of business with a 99-71 victory over Evansville.
Arch Madness indeed. -
FROM THE PRESS BOX: Effort, heart, concentration are fleeting for ISU
Every time Indiana State’s men’s basketball wins a game, you think to yourself, OK, now is when these Sycamores live up to their potential.
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FROM THE PRESS BOX: Peyton’s place belongs to Eli
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If you’re into Youtube — and who isn’t these days? — there’s a vintage television profile of then-Cleveland Browns coach Bill Belichick posted on the popular site.
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TODD GOLDEN: Indiana State men caught between expectation, reality
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