By Tom Wheeler
Rich Herrin took the 85-86 SIU basketball program when it was at an all-time low. The year before Coach Allen Van Winkle had five starters back while Herrin started his era with only FOUR letterman back: Doug Novsek, Steve Middleton, Dan Weiss and Brian Welch. These four played .o8 percent of SIU’s game minutes and contributed 108 of 2,044 points (.05 percent) in the 84-85 season. Somehow Rich’s first team won 8 games (4-12 in the conference) including a big win at St. Louis University. Remember also, this team was put on probation by the Missouri Valley and was not allowed to play in the post-season tournament.
Coach Herrin has always said that this team laid the groundwork for the Saluki’s later success. Checking closer I found that that is not the only groundwork that five of these players laid.
Let me explain about five of these special players!
Thad Matta is now head coach at Ohio State University. He is one of only two coaches who have posted 20 wins in their first 13 years. He has won five Big Ten titles, was runner –up in the NCAA tournament in 2007 and made the final four again in 2012. The Hoopston-East Lynn High School star played at SIU and Butler where he also coached. He moved on to Xavier before Ohio State and has a great resume of his assistants moving up the coach’s ladder, Illinois Coach John Groce being an example.
Steve Middleton is in his fifth year as an associate head coach at Oklahoma State. The Brooklyn New York native ended up in Carbondale and after a great career at SIU he became a very prosperous coach at St. Mary’s High School in Paducah, Kentucky where he was 81-35 his last four years. Ex-University of Kentucky standout Travis Ford was so impressed with Coach Middleton that he convinced him to enter the college scene. Middleton has become one of the top recruiters in the nation and he has joined Coach Ford at Eastern Kentucky, then Massachusetts University and now at Oklahoma State.
Doug Novsek came to SIU from the famed Ron Felling Lawrenceville High School period. He was runner-up for the prestigious Illinois’ Mr. Basketball award after leading the Indians to an undefeated record which included an Illinois State Championship. Doug was the basketball captain his last two years at SIU before entering the college coaching ranks. He has been an assistant for five years at Southwest Texas, three years at Illinois State, four years at the University of Nebraska and is in his seventh year as the associate head coach at the University of Nevada.
Randy House was a four year starter at SIU where he scored over 1,000 points and he has taken these “Rambo” type qualities he learned under Coach Herrin at Benton High School and then at SIU to become a top Junior College coach at Rend Lake College. Last season Coach House got his Warriors to the National tournament for the first time in the school’s history and topped that journey this year by winning the NJCAA D-II Tournament in Danville. Their 87-69 Championship win over Morraine Valley of Chicago was a fitting way to prove to fans they were truly the number one team at Danville. More impressive during their 30-3 season record is the fact they won the GRAC Conference being the “only” school in the conference that was not a Division I school.
Wayne Harre was a Nashville high School All –State player who first played at Kaskaskia College in Centralia (where he was later inducted into the schools Hall of Fame) before moving to SIU to be a Saluki. Wayne returned home to coach the boys JV team before he decided to become the Nashville girls’ coach. In 13 years at the helm of the Lady Hornets his team has won 362 games while losing only 64. His worse season in these 13 years was in 07-08 when he “only” won 22 games and lost 8 (that was his worst). His team’s success at the IHSA state tournament includes finishing fourth twice, finishing third twice and this year they were the IHSA Class 2A state champs finishing 33-2.
SIU Salukis – 1985-86
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