Published: March 24, 2008 11:01 pm            

Ramblin' Reck: Around goes Indiana high school coaching carousel

TERRE HAUTE — New coaches will be on the sidelines for several schools in Southern Indiana when the high school basketball season commences in October.

Earlier, of course, Mitch Lancaster of Northview and Jim Jones of Terre Haute North announced this year was to be their last.

Last week, two more coaches resigned as boys coaches, one of them under some pressure.

Steve Combs is resigning after 10 seasons as the coach at Vincennes Lincoln, compiling a 146-86 record. He will remain in the system as an administrator.

Steve Brett resigned after six years at Loogootee, his alma mater, where he succeeded Jack Butcher, the winningest coach in Indiana.

According to The Loogootee Tribune, Brett submitted his resignation prior to a meeting of the school board at which time his position was to be discussed. Several patrons were on hand and were allowed to make comments — pro and con — before the board voted to accept his resignation.

After playing for Butcher at Loogootee and Duane Klueh at Indiana State, Brett served as an assistant under two top-notch coaches, Gunner Wyman at Vincennes and Guy Glover Jr. at Bloomfield.

He succeeded Glover as coach and had great success at Bloomfield. He then was at Seymour before returning to Loogootee.

Brett had a 92-52 mark at Loogootee and guided the Lions to a Class A state-finals runner-up finish in 2005. His team was 4-18 this season.

His record for 30 years of coaching is 394-290.

In other coaching developments, Andrean has hired former Purdue player Carson Cunningham as boys basketball coach while Sonny Lents has resigned as Jasper’s girls basketball coach. He was a longtime assistant before being named coach.

• • •

• Here we go — My pick to win it all — Kansas — still is alive in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championships but my bracket is not in such good shape.

We had Drake and Butler both winning twice, for example, and picked Pitt to get to the Elite Eight. Bobby Knight picked Pitt to win it all.

Anywhere, here are our picks for the rest of the tournament:



Regionals

At Charlotte — North Carolina over Washington State, Tennessee over Louisville, NC wins.

At Detroit — Kansas over Villanova, Wisconsin over Davidson, Kansas wins.

At Houston — Michigan State over Memphis, Texas over Stanford, Texas wins.

At Phoenix — UCLA over Western Kentucky, Xavier over West Virginia, Xavier wins

Finals

At San Antonio — Texas over Xavier, Kansas over North Carolina, Kansas wins.



There you go.

While Missouri Valley teams played well but lost in the first round of the NCAA tournaments, several Valley teams still were playing Monday night.

Illinois State battled Dayton in the NIT for the likely right to play Ohio State. Bradley took on Ohio in the CBI quarterfinals.

In the WNIT, Drake, Creighton and Evansville all won their first games and were in action Monday in road games.

• • •

• Tom-Cattin’ It — Clay City’s 8th grade girls teams have completed a 15-1 season according to word from Tom Roeschlein.

The Eels won the SWIAC and Clay County tournaments. Their only loss was to a fine Honey Creek team.

Since beginning play in the 5th grade, this group has gone 50-3. Thanks, Tom, for the info on this group of winners.

• Chad Collins tied for 61st in the Puerto Rico Open concluded Sunday and earned $7,350 with rounds of 71-70-75-73.

The Cloverdale pro has finished in the money in two of five events in his first full year on the PGA Tour.

Tiger Woods finally did NOT win a tournament. Meaning, he will be fired up for sure for the Masters next week.

• Since it rained — or snowed — on Sunday, there is a chance for more precipitation the next six Sundays.

The old tale says if it rains on Easter Sunday, it will rain the next six Sundays, even if it is just a little bit. So they say.

• Former ISU baseball player Mitch Stetter was optioned to Nashville by Milwaukee after a good spring in the bullpen for the Brewers.

Clint Barmes, meanwhile, has seen action at four positions with Colorado and had not been reassigned as of Sunday unless we missed it.

• Vincennes University recently won its 15th national junior college championship in bowling and earned a spot in the national intercollegiate championships by placing high in a qualifier.

• Tyler Zeller of Washington is the Indiana Gatorade boys prep basketball player of the year and should be a cinch to be Mr. Basketball with his stats in the tourney, capped by a record in the 3A finals.

By the way, a committee is studying the possibility of going to three classes in the IHSAA except for football but the proposal may not have much of a chance of going far.



Tom Reck may be contacted by telephone at (812) 232-3231, by e-mail at treck@ma.rr.com or by mail at 4276 South 5th Street, Terre Haute, IN 47802.

        

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