Published: May 23, 2008 12:24 am            

New father becomes new assistant coach at Indiana State

TERRE HAUTE — Even though it’s the pinnacle of his coaching career to date, pardon Deryl Cunningham if being named a men’s basketball assistant coach at Indiana State takes a backseat on Thursday.

He had other things on his mind ... like holding his newborn daughter.

Cunningham was announced as ISU’s new assistant coach today. It came just hours after his fiance Maria gave birth to Ciara Marie Cunningham in South Dakota.

Ciara Marie is 6 pounds, 15 ounces, and apparently, you can put the dad in the coach, but you can’t take the coach out of the dad.

“She’s already got long arms and long legs,” said Cunningham, perhaps projecting his daughter to be the rebounder he was as a collegian at Kansas State.

Cunningham was hired from Scott Nagy’s staff at South Dakota State, where he spent two years as assistant coach. Cunningham replaces Stan Gouard, who is now head coach at the University of Indianapolis.

“I’m very excited about the staff and the players and to meet people at ISU,” said the affable Cunningham, who played at K-State for Dana Altman, and who met McKenna through Altman while McKenna was an assistant at Creighton. “I think ISU has a lot of upside. I have a lot of respect for Kevin as a coach and I look forward to working with him.”

McKenna, who said Cunningham’s personality is very similar to that of the popular Gouard, sought out Cunningham to join ISU’s staff. He contacted Nagy about Cunningham and there was mutual interest.

“From knowing him and having a good comfort level with him, he’s got a tremendous work ethic. He brings all types of things to the table,” said McKenna, who also worked with Cunningham at basketball camps in Illinois. Both McKenna and Cunningham hail from the Chicago area.

Cunningham recruited and worked with the post players at South Dakota State. He’ll have similar responsibilities with the Sycamores. SDSU’s best player in Cunningham’s two seasons was forward Kai Williams, an underclassmen during Cunningham’s time in Brookings, S.D. He averaged 12.1 and 14 points per game, leading the Jackrabbits during both seasons. He also averaged a team-high 6.5 and 7.8 rebounds.

“Coaching the post players will be huge, and I’ll obviously be recruiting and also doing some academic work,” Cunningham said. “It will be different than SDSU, because SDSU was making the move to Division I and we had to take on a lot of challenges. I took it all as a learning experience. In some senses it will be easier at ISU because it’s more established, but in another sense it will be harder, because the recruiting wars in the Missouri Valley [Conference] can get pretty rough.”

Cunningham isn’t fazed by that. Cunningham began his coaching career at St. Joseph High School in suburban Chicago, his alma mater, where he stayed for two years as an assistant.

He is far better known as a player at St. Joseph’s in the late 1980s where he was a McDonald’s and Parade All-American in 1989. He was inducted to the Illinois Basketball Hall of Fame in 2003 and is one of three St. Joseph’s players to have his number retired. Isiah Thomas and former Indiana star Daryl Thomas are the others.

“I played and coached at St. Joe’s, it’s a big program in Chicago, and I know anyone and everyone in Chicago. I also played overseas, so I run into somebody from everywhere. I’ve been able to get kids from Maryland, from the West Coast, everywhere,” Cunningham said.

The 6-foot-7 Cunningham played for a year at DePaul before transferring to Kansas State. He was an honorable mention Big 8 selection in 1993 and 1994, leading the conference in offensive rebounding two consecutive seasons.

Cunningham and McKenna never overlapped during their times with Altman, so there’s common ground, but each has their own perspective on what that common ground entails.

“I think the biggest thing he learned there was work ethic. Coach Altman used to talk about how he’d win every sprint, he’d just run like a deer. That type of work ethic, and hopefully some of the tricks of the trade he’s picked over time, will help us,” McKenna said.

Cunningham isn’t sure what the similar backgrounds might mean, but he thinks McKenna has done enough in his coaching career to stand on his own merits.

“I honestly can’t answer what would be similar, it’s been a while since I sat in one of coach Altman’s practices. I do know coach Altman is a very good coach, and I know what Kevin is capable of. Kevin’s been around too. He’s easy-going, but he knows how to get the job done,” Cunningham said.

After his K-State career concluded, Cunningham’s playing career took him to the CBA’s Sioux Falls Skyforce, where he played for Detroit Pistons coach Flip Saunders. He played in the CBA until 2002 and also played in international leagues. He averaged double-digit points in leagues in Switzerland, Belgium, France, Dominican Republic, Mexico and the Phillipines.

Cunningham becomes the second assistant coach McKenna has hired at ISU. Last year, McKenna hired Lou Gudino.

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.