Todd Golden
The Tribune-Star
TERRE HAUTE —
Three years after being a bridesmaid, Greg Lansing is headed to the Indiana State men’s basketball altar.
Several sources close to the Indiana State men’s basketball program have confirmed that Associate Head Coach Greg Lansing has been named head coach. He will succeed Kevin McKenna, who resigned on Monday to take an assistant coach position at Oregon.
No sources wished to speak on the record at this time. Lansing himself declined comment.
Indiana State will hold a news conference at noon today at the Hulman Center Varsity Club, an event that the school is currently characterizing as a news conference on “the future of the men’s basketball program.” The public is invited.
Lansing gets a job that he was a finalist for in 2007 when McKenna was hired. McKenna elected to keep Lansing on staff as associate head coach.
Director of Athletics Ron Prettyman said Monday that ISU’s search for a head coach in the wake of McKenna’s resignation would be brief. It took less than 24 hours from the time McKenna announced his intentions to the Sycamores on Sunday night for news reports to circulate that Lansing would be his successor.
“This will move very quickly. We’re in a crucial recruiting stage right now.
“The timing couldn’t be worse. The month of July is the heaviest recruiting time in college basketball. I am not going to be able to do a methodical search as I’ve done with other searches,” Prettyman said Monday afternoon.
Lansing has the reputation as a good recruiter, and he recruited several of ISU’s current players. Lansing has not been a head coach at the collegiate level but has been a part of the Sycamore program for eight years over two different stints.
Lansing, an assistant at ISU since 2006, was a finalist for the job in 2007 when Royce Waltman was dismissed. McKenna was hired from Creighton’s staff instead.
Lansing has been associate head coach since McKenna was hired in 2007. Lansing was hired by Waltman in 2006 and served under Waltman during his last season at the helm.
Lansing had a previous stint at ISU from 1996 to 1999, serving under Sherman Dillard and Waltman. During that time, Lansing helped recruit Nate Green, who became MVC Player of the Year in 2000.
Lansing left in 1999 to join Steve Alford’s staff at Iowa. He was an assistant coach at Iowa from 1999-2006. Iowa had a 135-92 record with Lansing on staff.
Before Lansing joined the ISU staff, he was head coach at Roosevelt High School in Des Moines. He led the school to its first winning seasons in more than a decade. Greg is the son of Dave Lansing, a 33-year coach in Iowa who is a member of the Iowa High School Athletic Association Coaches Hall of Fame.
Lansing is married to Angie Lansing, who is currently the ISU senior women’s administrator and ISU athletics business manager. Angie Lansing was an Academic All-American as a track and field and cross country runner for the Sycamores when she was known as Angie Menser.
Lansing is the first ISU basketball coach hired from the existing men’s basketball staff since Bill Hodges was hired off of Bob King’s staff in 1978.
