The Morning Dish – Tuesday, April 12th
Miller Named Head Coach at Eastern Illinois: Mike Miller, who served as an assistant
coach at Kansas State for the past five seasons, will replace Rick Samuels as head coach at
Eastern Illinois, school officials announced Monday. Samuels was fired after a 12-16 record this
season, his 25th at Eastern Illinois. Miller is a Monmouth, Ill., native, which should
help his ability to recruit within the region.
Rose Blooms at BYU: Brigham Young assistant coach Dave Rose was promoted to head coach
Monday after Steve Cleveland resigned to take the helm at Fresno State last week. Rose had
been named interim head coach upon Cleveland’s departure and athletic director Tom Holmoe
decided to make his promotion final with the NCAA signing period beginning tomorrow. Rose
was the head coach at Dixie State College in Utah for seven years, going 167-57 during that
span. He played at Dixie State before transferring to Houston, where he was a guard on the
Cougars’ “Phi Slamma Jamma” team that lost to N.C. State in the 1983 NCAA championship
game.
Colonels Tab Neubauer: West Virginia assistant coach Jeff Neubauer was hired as head coach
at Eastern Kentucky Monday, filling the vacancy created by Travis Ford, who took the head
coaching job at Massachusetts. The Colonels will return four senior starters next season.
Neubauer, who received a four-year contract with an annual salary of $150,000, spent the
past three seasons with the Mountaineers and has also served as an assistant at the Citadel
for three seasons and Richmond for five seasons.
GW’s Lucas to Transfer: George Washington sophomore shooting guard Ricky Lucas will
transfer according to head coach Karl Hobbs. Lucas averaged 4.2 points and 1.4 rebounds per
game in his career with the Colonials.
Stony Brook Hires Pikiell: George Washington assistant Steve Pikiell will be formerly
introduced as Stony Brook’s new head coach during a news conference to be held tomorrow.
Pikiell played for Jim Calhoun at Connecticut and later coached at UConn and Central
Connecticut State before joining Karl Hobbs’ staff.
Hernandez to Test the Waters: Stanford junior point guard Chris Hernandez will
declare for the NBA draft but not hire an agent head coach Trent Johnson told ESPN.com’s
Andy Katz yesterday. Hernandez, who averaged 15.2 points this season, wants to see if he
will receive an invitation to the pre-draft camp in Chicago.
Robinson to Enter Draft: Washington junior guard Nate Robinson, who led the Huskies
with 16.4 points per game this season, announced yesterday that he plans to enter the NBA
draft and forgo his senior season. Robinson thought about going pro at the end of last
season, after he turned in a strong showing at the Chicago pre-draft camp, but returned to
Seattle and helped the Huskies to a school-record 29 victories.
Rankin Named Assistant at Dayton: Reggie Rankin was named an assistant coach at
Dayton, filling the vacancy left by Dave Wojcik, who recently joined his brother Doug’s staff
at Tulsa. Rankin served on Barry Collier’s staff at Nebraska for the past five years and
also was an assistant at Georgia.
