What stuck out in a couple of those conversations we had earlier this week about the Illinois job, was that he understood the job and what he specifically needed to do to reach out and establish the relationships needed. Chew heads into this job with his eyes wide open. He gets it, wants it and was energized to make Chicago a priority while respecting all the people he will be dealing with on the Chicago basketball scene and what the job entails.

Chew will aim high. He's a worker who will get after it. A couple of years ago I sat with Chew at a P.F. Chang's for dinner at an AAU event in Vegas and discussed recruiting. I remember talking with him about the positive aspects of recruiting to Murray State at the time. I noted what an advantage it was being the best team and program in the league, but Chew always talked about how it was imperative, a must, to aim higher than Ohio Valley Conference type recruits. With that, he had a recruiting obstacle of trying to recruit high-level players to a lower-level league, which is never an easy thing to do but had success doing.

Joe Henricksen