I am 71 years old and an Illini Bball and football fan since I was around 9 and hardly ever miss a game on TV. But as a an EIU grad, I BleedEIUBlue, so want to see the Panthers give a good show. I have known EIU Head Coach Marty Simmons since he was born (I played ball in with his uncles at my, and his dad’s, little hometown just south of Lawrenceville), Associate Head Coach Doug Novsek’s bro was married to my cousin and another cousin (who played for U of Toledo) was starting guard on the Lawrenceville teams with Marty and Doug that set the Illinois High School winning streak of 68 in a row. I was back from Seattle for EIU HoCo two weeks ago, went to an Eastern practice with our EIU 6th Man Club and spent time over a few days with Marty and Doug. After finishing their first season with only 7 healthy players for several games, they have a full complement of young, but high quality/high character, players. Three of those have NBA pedigrees, Haffner, Thomas and Carlesimo (also from Seattle, dad PJ coached our Sonics). After practice, every player came up into the stands, looked us in the eyes, introduced themselves and shook our hands. Marty is instilling a disciplined culture. I said to Marty that if we are playing the Illini, I am glad to see the game on Nov 7, not Dec 7 or Jan 7, because with all the new players they have to jell just as the Panthers do. While the result this time will, by all odds, not be the same as the last, I hope we will see glimpses of what Marty is building. BTW, Hamlin was looking pretty good and has buckled down in school (he was ineligible the last half of the last season), so will be interesting to see how he plays against his former team.
