After dismissing head coach Porter Moser last month, the Illinois State basketball program has nowhere to go but up—and new head coach Tim Jankovich is looking forward to the challenge.
"I have to pinch myself on the hour every hour to believe this is really happening right now," Jankovich said after being named the 18th head coach in Illinois State history.
Jankovich hopes to bring a winning attitude to ISU, a program that's been mired in mediocrity since Kevin Stallings left for Vanderbilt in 1999.
The Redbirds have gone 107-131 since Stallings' departure, finishing in the top half of the Missouri Valley Conference only twice. In four seasons under Moser, Illinois State failed to make the NCAA tournament and limped to a 22-50 record in the MVC, ultimately forcing the hand of ISU athletic director Sheahon Zenger.
"This isn't about wins and losses from a particular season," Zenger said in a statement. "This is about a program, and the management of that program."
Illinois State believes that Jankovich can bring its struggling program back to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1998. One look at his resume says ISU might be right.
As a four-year starter at Kansas State in the early 80s, Jankovich set a school record for career free-throw percentage (91.7) and guided the Wildcats to the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight in his final two seasons.
His first foray into head coaching came at North Texas in 1993. Jankovich inherited a 5-22 team and recorded the second-biggest turnaround in the nation that year, guiding the Mean Green to the championship game of the Southland Conference Tournament.
In 1999, Jankovich hooked up with Stallings at Vanderbilt and helped build a team that reached the Sweet 16 in 2004.
Jankovich wasn't around to enjoy that tournament run, however, as he joined Bill Self at Illinois in 2003 before accompanying him to Kansas that summer. The Jayhawks averaged over 25 wins a season and made two Elite Eight appearances during Jankovich's four-year tenure as assistant coach.
With his wealth of experience, the 47-year-old Jankovich looks to bring ISU back to the top of an increasingly competitive Missouri Valley Conference. The league boasts several burgeoning programs, a fact that has the coach genuinely excited.
"This is such a tremendous time in Missouri Valley Conference history," Jankovich said. "It is easily one of the best coaching conferences in the country."
One area in which Jankovich figures to excel at ISU is recruiting—and his task begins with reestablishing the pipeline to Chicago. Before the arrival of reigning MVC Freshman of the Year Osiris Eldrige (Phillips Academy), former coach Moser had managed to land only one player from the talent-rich Windy City: senior Ronnie Carlwell, who averaged just over four minutes a game last season.
The ISU campus in Normal is a mere two-hour drive from Chicago, where Jankovich already has recruiting connections. In the last two years, he helped Self lure McDonald's All-Americans Julian Wright and Sherron Collins to Kansas, and also coached Chicago-area product and former Big 10 Player of the Year Dee Brown at Illinois.
"He is a very good recruiter and one of the best talent evaluators I've been around," says Self of the Redbirds' new leader. "He is without question one of the brightest coaches in the game."
That's good news for anyone hoping to see respectability return to Normal. If Jankovich can attract top-tier talent, Illinois State figures to be a factor in both the MVC and the NCAA tournament in years to come.
