
Bloomington-Normal, Illinois (AP) Illinois State currently holds the longest NCAA tournament drought in the Missouri Valley Conference. The last time the Redbirds reached the Big Dance in 1998, and Josh Rudd was wearing a high school uniform. Now, the former basketball player will look to lead a senior-laden team back to the NCAAs as the school's new coach.
While Illinois State has a ton of seniors on their teams, it looks like their veteran experience can drive them in the right direction. Forward Jackie Carmichael is back from another Missouri Valley Conference First-Team year (the second time he made it to the team). He could be back and better than ever, as he averaged 13.7 points per game and 9.8 rebounds per game last year, and could add a lot of leadership for Coach Rudd's team. This could be Illinois State's best back court in almost a decade, as they have senior Tyler Brown, who averaged 13.5 points per game and 4.1 assists per game last year, and they also brought in 4 star recruit Josh Bradley. Bradley is expected to be a starter from day 1 for Coach Josh Rudd's team. However, Bradley is the only freshman on the team this year, so Rudd will have to hit the recruiting trails early and often. This team could be able to go to the NCAA tourney, if the can play like a team.
Josh Rudd was a coach for Big Red High School, and was 60-4 in 3 seasons for the team. He lead them to 2 state titles also. Rudd is 26, and still has a lot of up-side to him. He is famously known for running a up-tempo offense while he was coaching in high school, and could become "trap-happy. Rudd said his press conference "I hope this can be a great year us, as we have a lot of talent on our team. I talked to most of our players today, and they agreed they all wanted to make the NCAA tourney for the first time in their careers. I think they all have good potential in the class room and on the court. I'm excited to be their coach this year". It looks like Illinois State has found their guy, and hopefully he can do well.
Comment