Published: April 29, 2007 12:17 am         

From the Press Box: Prettyman not concerned about McKenna’s contract

TERRE HAUTE — Indiana State Director of Athletics Ron Prettyman’s men basketball coach hiring saga has gone from the palatable local buzz of Kevin McKenna’s introductory news conference on March 29, to sitting in his office doing the anonymously soul-crushing drone work of going through endless contract legalities.

“There’s just a lot of legalese to sort through,” Prettyman said Friday.

Soul-crushing might be pushing the metaphorical envelope a bit as far as Prettyman is concerned, but the fact remains that McKenna’s contract is not yet a done deal one month after he was hired, which is a concern to some Sycamores fans.

Prettyman said ISU fans shouldn’t fret. The lag time between McKenna accepting the job and negotiating the final details of the contract are not unusual in high-profile collegiate jobs.

“I think that whenever you are in the process of hiring a coach and you need to move quickly, you come to terms with general agreements,” Prettyman said. “The details come later and that’s where we’re at.”

Prettyman has declined to release salary details of the contract until it is done, though McKenna is believed to have a standard five-year deal.

Prettyman expects McKenna’s contract to be completed soon, negotiation continues between legal represents of McKenna and the ISU athletics department.

“There’s no concern this won’t get done,” Prettyman emphatically stated. “Kevin and I meet nearly everyday and there’s a great working relationship.”

McKenna hasn’t let the contract get in the way of progress. His assistant coaching staff is completed, and McKenna has been on the road recruiting to replace Clayton Vette’s scholarship in the April recruiting period that ends on Monday.

Prettyman has been impressed.

“He works hard he battles for his program, he’s very involved, everytime I walk by the office, the players are in the office talking to him or one of the assistants. He’s very visible, cares about the young men on the team,” Prettyman said.

• Saint Louis to MVC? — St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Bernie Miklasz reported last week that one of the requests new Saint Louis Rick Majerus had if he accepted the Billikens job was that SLU should rejoin the Missouri Valley Conference. The Billikens were in the MVC from 1937-1943 and from 1944-1974 and are currently geographic outcasts in the Atlantic 10.

Majerus will be introduced as the Billikens coach on Monday. None of the affected parties are commenting on the Valley, but it’s an intriguing possibility.

I think SLU is a slam dunk for the Valley. Geographically it is perfect. SLU is similar to other Valley private schools and it is building a new on-campus arena

It would solidify St. Louis as a Valley city. The MVC tournament has grabbed St. Louis’ attention without SLU, but there’s no guarantee the local interest remains if the Valley suffers a downturn, which could happen sooner than later with massive roster conference-wide change over next year, not to mention five new coaches.

There would be logistical problems with 11 teams, particularly with the amount of conference games. The Valley would either have a 20-game conference schedule, or have to abandon its cherished round-robin format, something it did from 1994-1996 when it had 11 teams before Tulsa left.

Twenty games, which the Big Ten is doing next year, is ideal. But the Valley would have to cram them into one week less than the Big Ten has because the MVC tournament starts a week earlier. As it is, the Valley basketball schedule is too packed. Twenty games would have to make pre-exam conference games a reality.

It’s a minor hiccup in the grand scheme of the advantages SLU would bring to the Valley.