He is Number One!

In August 2004, basketball tickets went on sale for Southern Illinois University. My father, a lifelong Saluki fan, had not been to the SIU Arena in far too many years. I was going to surprise him for Christmas with a road trip to Carbondale. I also decided to take my oldest son to his first real game since he was two years old and he was pretty sure that Grey Dog was going to eat him. I scanned the schedule and saw that the Salukis played Wichita State on Senior Day for Darren Brooks. This was the only choice! My father got to see his favorite player play in his last home game. Little did I know at the time just how big that game would be. 

We packed up the  SUV and headed south. The game, as we now know, was for the Missouri Valley Conference Championship. This would be the Salukis fourth straight title if they could win this game. After a quick lunch at The Mississippi Flyway, we excitedly headed off to the Arena. When we entered the building an hour before tip-off, we immediately heard the crowd. We walked in to our seats and the building is already 3/4th full. Again, it is an hour before tip-off. The Shockers are shooting around in the pre-game. Every time Jamar Howard touched the ball a chant of Howard rolled through the Arena. The electricity in the building was unmatched. The roar from 9,628 fans when #1 was announced for the final time was ear-ringing!

Darren Brooks then did what Darren Brooks always did. He won a Missouri Valley title for the fourth straight time. At one point, Brooks would pop his jersey and slap the floor to fire up the sold-out building. The loudest SIU chant these ears have ever heard soon followed. The Salukis pulled away and the starters were pulled out of the game. The deafening roar when Brooks was removed was aided when LaMar Owen took off his Saluki jersey and ran into the student section to start the party. I looked over and saw the tear in the corner of my father’s eye. The court storm began as the horn sounded. His favorite Saluki going out a champion! 

Darren Brooks was a lightly recruited player out of Jennings High School in St. Louis. He did not play a lot of AAU ball and was not known well. He had offers from some MVC schools, Arkansas-Pine Bluff and an offer to come work out for SLU. He did, however, have a Division II offer for football from Culver Stockton. Also, he had an offer to walk on at Iowa and Wisconsin to play football. Additionally, Brooks had offers from the Atlanta Braves and the Arizona Diamondbacks to play baseball.  He was recruited by Matt Painter to come to Southern Illinois. Already friends with Josh Warren and Stetson Hairston, and after meeting Jermain Dearman, Kent Williams and Sylvester Willis, Darren knew he could win at SIU and win big. 

After redshirting his first year at SIU Darren would finally get his chance. His freshman year he would average nine points coming off the SIU bench. He scored 16 points in an NCAA tournament upset of Bobby Knight and Texas Tech.

Brooks fully arrived during his sophomore year. Darren would lead the MVC in steals and earn his first of three all-defense team awards. Darren also earned the league’s most improved player in his second year.  Brooks led the team in minutes played, assists and steals. His 62 steals were the second most in SIU history. He finished second on the team in rebounding and blocked shots. In a game against Drake he recorded a school-record eight steals.

As a junior, he was the best player in the Missouri Valley Conference. He would win the MVC Larry Bird Player of the Year, the MVC defensive player of the year, and was an AP Honorable Mention All-American. 

He completed his final season at SIU as the only player ever to win the Larry Bird Player of the Year and the defensive player of the year twice. Darren never finished worse than 1st in the Missouri Valley Conference. He was on four straight championship teams. Darren played in the NCAA tournament four times and played in an NCAA Sweeet  16. He holds the school record for steals and is in the top-ten in scoring. In his final season he led the team in scoring, rebounding, assists and steals and broke the program’s single season records for steals with 70 and assists with 150.

Longtime SIU play-by-play announcer, Mike Reis, said that Darren was the best all-around player he had ever seen at Southern Illinois.  Brooks shares an elite podium with another Valley elite, Bradley’s Hersey Hawkins, as the only two players in Valley history to compile at least 1,500 points, 600 rebounds, 400 assists and 250 steals.

Darren’s career ended in the second round of the NCAA tournament when the seventh-seeded Salukis lost to second-seeded Oklahoma State. Brooks ended a storybook career playing in more games in a Saluki uniform than any other player in school history. Additionally, he is one of the most decorated men’s basketball players in Missouri Valley Conference history.

I admit that I was a bit nervous going in to my conversation with Darren. I’m no Bobber and this was a big one! Five seconds in to the conversation my worries were gone. Darren is a Saluki and we talked like we had done it many times. His first words were thanking all the Saluki fans for all the support throughout the years. From his heart, he said, “thank you to you all!”  Once a Saluki, always a Saluki.

I asked Darren, why SIU when you had all of these options? 

Darren told me the other offers were great. He did not want to walk on. He wanted a degree and he wanted to graduate college debt-free. He knew he could win at SIU . He said his plans at SIU were to play basketball and baseball. Actually, baseball was his favorite sport. In Darren’s words he was, “bamboozled by Saluki Head Coach Bruce Weber”. Bruce put a stop to the baseball dream in year one.

About Bruce Weber

“He came to talk to the girls’ high school team I coach at University City High School,” he said. Bruce is the best person you will ever meet. Well prepared and a great coach.” 

In true Darren Brooks fashion the team had their best season in 16 years. 

I add a question from Saluki-Insider. What made you so good at defense? What was your thought process?

“I just wanted to win more than everybody else. I wanted my team to win. I wanted to make life hard for whomever I was guarding,” said Brooks.

He credited his middle school PE teacher for unlocking the gym and letting him work. He watched film and saw things happen before they did. It was effort, study and determination. 

A Sports Illustrated cover pictured Brooks as one the guys who could stop Illinois’ Brown.

“It was just cool to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated,” Brooks humbly stated.

“Not many people can say that. I was always the underdog and was never given much of a chance. I worked hard and want to thank God for everything. It was an honor to be there.” 

What are you feelings on the current transfer portal situation?

“I have mixed feelings as it’s good and bad,” said Brooks. “I like that the kids can make money. I feel it really hurts the kids in development and it hurts them when they can just run away from adversity. I agree with the one free transfer but that’s it unless there is a coaching change.”

It’s time for the question. Pags or Quatro’s?

“I like them both but I’m a deep dish guy. It’s Quatro’s,” mused Brooks.

Who was your biggest rival?

“Creighton,  and then Creighton,” said Brooks without hesitation.

What is Darren Brooks doing now?

“I am just spending time with my family, my wife and four daughters. Church and coaching. Life is good!”

I wanted to close with his thoughts on the fans the SIU Arena and all the success at home. 

“Amazing. The 6th man. We felt invincible at home and he crowd gave us the extra fight. There’s no place else like it,” Brooks said proudly. “Saluki fans are the best. And I do remember that senior day game. It was unbelievable and so humbling.   I loved my time at SIU and I thank God for it.” 

The drive home from Carbondale was one of high spirits. What a game, what a career! Darren Brooks is in the SIU Hall of Fame and the Missouri Valley Conference Hall of Fame. His career at SIU stands out among a long tradition of great players. The Salukis would lose in the second-round of the NCAA Tournament to Oklahoma State to end Darren’s college career. 

It is time to retire #1 at the Banterra Center. Darren Brooks deserves that honor. I do not know what the criteria is for the process but Darren meets it. One of, if not the greatest Salukis of all time.  Darren was a standout on and off the court for four years. This should be a no-brainer decision and is long past due. 

Join us over in the Saluki Insider forum to discuss your favorite Darren Brooks moments with other Saluki fans!

Darren Brooks photo is courtesy of Mike Kern and the Missouri Valley Conference

Purple Skittles, The Bobber and Jerrance Howard

The phone rang late at night just as I began my banana split. This better be good, I said.

“You’re not going to believe this,” a friend told me.

“What?” I said, watching my ice cream melt.

“Jerrance Howard is coming,” he said.

There was a pause, and then I laughed out loud.

“Sure he is,” I said.  “And I heard Reese Witherspoon has left her husband.  Maybe she is coming to see me too.”

I hung up, and went back to the important task of my banana split.

__________________

He was a hoops junkie at a young age, learning how to do his ABC’s while dribbling a basketball.  There was no rim to be found, but on West Third Street in front of the Howard house, there was a telephone pole.  And on that pole there was a nail that served as the basket.  And when future NBA star Frank Williams would ride his bike over to Howard’s house, the two would go at it, kid to kid, grade schoolers battling in the street.  They never kept score.  When darkness hit, Williams rode his bike home.

“Man, it was all hoop,” Howard laughed. 

It is a long way from the Pierson Hills neighborhood in Peoria to the sights that Howard has seen.  High school star at Peoria Central, then onto a career at Illinois.  At Champaign, incredibly, Howard played under Lon Kruger, Bill Self and Bruce Weber.  He was the fifth guard in the Illini rotation.  The other four were Frank Williams, Deron Williams, Dee Brown and Luther Head.  Even more incredibly, they all had something in common.

They were first round draft picks in the NBA.

When the real world called, it came in the form of Billy Gillespie.

“Coach Gillespie was on the Illini staff, and he gets the job at Texas A&M,” Howard said.  “I graduate, and he calls me and says if I can get to College Station in two days, he has something for me.  I never even asked what it was, or what it paid. Now, I had never even been out of Illinois.  The night before I leave, somebody breaks into my car and steals my radio.  Car has no air conditioning.  It breaks down somewhere in Oklahoma.  But the ’98 Monte Carlo made it to Texas on time.”  

Howard’s coaching career spans from Texas A&M to Kentucky to Illinois to SMU to Kansas to Texas.  That would be Billy Gillespie to Bruce Weber to Larry Brown to Bill Self to Chris  Beard.

He has recruited in 48 states.  

“It’s cold in the Dakota’s in the winter,” he laughed.

But Jerrance Howard is more than a recruiter.  He is a basketball coach.  And now he is in Carbondale.

“How does this happen?” I asked.  “You could have gone anywhere.  Did they offer you the keys to the city?  Free Quatro’s for life?”

“Everybody has been asking me that,” Howard said.  “I took a year off to spend time with my family.  My son Jerrance Junior is a teenager now.  He might be a baller like the old man.  I hope he can shoot better.  I had agency opportunities that I looked at.  It was nice sitting out and having time for family activities.  But……..”

And I knew it was coming.  We all suffer from it every March.

“Once March Madness came around, I knew it was time. I was born to coach.”

“Sure,” I pushed.  “But why Southern?”

“There were a lot of reasons.  My brother graduated from here. This is my home state.  My wife is from Chicago.  But it was more than that.  It was the Mullins family.  I never saw Bryan play in high school.  But at Illinois, coach Weber raved about him, about how hard he played.  I heard a lot of stories about him, and that was attractive to me.  And then there were his parents, Mike and Gail.  I am a big fan of theirs.  I signed three kids that Mike coached at the Illini Wolves.  The entire Mullins family is just good, incredible people. And you know who I called for advice when Bryan offered me the job?  I called his father.”

I told Howard I wanted to talk about his specialty, recruiting.  After all, we have a few openings.

“As soon as word got out that I was coming to Southern, coaches began reaching out to me.  They want us to be successful. They know we have a great tradition here.  They know what Bryan brings to the table.”

“Chicago?” I asked.  “Can you get us into Chicago?”

“I will always recruit Chicago,” Howard said with emphasis.  “To me, it is the mecca of basketball.  It is a priority for me.  I still have relationships there.  We need to get those kids down here.”

Of course, I had to pause.

“Let’s get serious for a second,” I said.  “Giordano’s, Gino’s or Lou’s?”

Another laugh from Howard.  “I am a Giordano’s man.”

“So how do you get those kids down here?” I asked.  “And how do you sell the high school star on coming to a place that specializes in defense?  And then, how do you keep them?”

“First, you have to have a personal relationship with the kids,” Howard said.  “The defense is not a hard sell. If you want to play at the next level you have to be able to guard. But you have to understand it is a different world now with the portal.  I was at the bigger schools taking kids from the mid majors.  Now I am on the side of trying to keep them.  I haven’t dealt with this.  For the high school kids, you have to recruit them and then develop them.  You have to treat them well.  But you can’t worry about it.  It is what it is.”

I asked Howard if Southern would be more focused on high school players or the portal going forward.

“We are definitely going to need a balance, especially at the mid major. level.  All things being equal, coaches are going to take a fifth-year senior over a high school guy because he is older and more mature.  And we are already cooking.  We have had an overwhelming response from people.  They know what this program is about.  We had a player on campus this past weekend.  We expect a decision on him soon. (just read Saluki Insider to see who this was).  We have more visits the next two weekends.  I am going on the road tomorrow.  First stop will be a NIKE tourney in Atlanta.  I will also hit up the Juco’s there.  Then it’s off to my old stomping grounds in Kansas City.”

We had another pause in the conversation, so I brought out the heavy material.

“Skittles or Lemonheads?”

And that brought a roar from Howard.

“Come on, man!  How did you know!”

“Well, I am the Bobber!”

The man who is called “Snacks” knew he had to come clean, and fast.

“It’s skittles, man.  It’s got to be skittles.”

“And if you had to pick one, which color?”

Howard was not quite prepared for such a hard hitting interview, but eventually he confessed.

“Give me the purple one.”

“Okay,” I said.  “Back to the easy stuff.  What are you looking for when you are recruiting a high school player?”

“I’m looking for how a kid treats his parents,” Howard said.  “Because that is how he will treat his coach.  And then there is social media.  I have stopped recruiting kids because of their social media.  If there are two kids of equal talent, I am taking the one that isn’t looking stupid.”

And Howard has learned that he is not just recruiting the player, but the family.

“There have been good players who I stopped recruiting because of how their parents act in the stands.  We don’t have time for that.  We can’t deal with that.  Unless you are Lebron, nobody is dealing with that these days with 2,000 other kids in the portal.”

I told Howard that coaches are in the portal every year too, always have been.  And I wondered why someone with his resume hadn’t landed a head coaching job yet.

“I applied for the Bradley job that went to Brian Wardle. It would have been a good fit with me being from Peoria.  Someday, that opportunity might come, and I will be prepared.  Coach Weber told me he applied for 20 jobs before he got hired here at Southern. “

It was time to go. Howard had recruiting calls to make, and I sure wasn’t going to mess that up.  But before I said goodbye, there was one last question that I desperately needed answered.

“I need to ask you about a recruit you signed back in the day,” I asked.

“Who was that?” Howard asked.

“Joseph Bertand,” I said.  “We had a source here on the message board that told us Bertand coming to Southern was a done deal.  And then you signed him.  What happened?”

Howard laughed again.

“Oh yeah.  Southern was really in on Bertrand.  Coach Lowery knew his high school coach at Sterling.  And he was an Illini Wolves player with Mr. Mullins.  We knew Southern was close.  So whoever your message board guy was, he was close.  Let’s just say he got that one wrong.”

And then I laughed.  And laughed some more.

_____________________

So now it begins.  I celebrated when the news about Howard was announced yesterday, news that had been plastered on Saluki Insider for the past week.  Gave myself an extra scoop of ice cream on my banana split.

Bobber vs. Leonard

I looked through the list of questions everyone submitted.  I needed a good one. I looked and looked and looked.

“You’re gonna get me in serious trouble here,” Saluki Athletic Director Tim Leonard winced when I asked him the question.

“Look,” I told him, “this is not some softball interview.  I need an answer, and I need it now.”

There was a long pause, and then Leonard came clean.

“Okay, okay” he said.  “I had Quatros last night.  But I eat at Pags all the time.  Damn, I eat too much pizza.”

I laughed.

“You could be a politician if the Athletic Director thing doesn’t work out.”

For Leonard, still new on the job after being hired in July, it has worked out well so far. He came to Southern after an eight-year run at Towson.  Stability would be a nice change for the Salukis, who are now on their fifth Athletic Director in those same eight years.

“It is the nature of the beast,” Leonard said. “Higher education in general is going through a correction.  The state of Illinois has been hit especially hard, and the worst is yet to come.  Student enrollment is down at all Illinois schools.  That means revenues are down, and sometimes that affects expectations.  Southern has also gone through a number of chancellors in recent years.  We have been in a flux for a number of years. We are stable now.  We are building a staff.  We need to go from survival mode into attack mode.  I am hoping I will be here for a while.”  

I told Leonard I had a few questions from Saluki Insider members.  That would normally send a chill down any man’s spine.

“Let’s go,” he said. “Bring it on!”

I looked through the list of questions everyone submitted.  I needed a good one. I looked and looked and looked.

“Give me a minute,” I said. “Okay, I finally found one.  Where are we competitively on the NIL?”

“I see your members know their stuff,” Leonard laughed.  “We have started an NIL for both men’s basketball and football.”

“Is that men’s football?” I asked.

“Are you really a professional journalist?” Leonard wondered.

“Not anymore!” I gleefully added.  “But I am an AARP member.  Free jello squares at any restaurant in America.  Now what about the NIL?”

“There is some money in there,” Leonard said.  “But not a ton.  We are going to have to get creative.  There is only so much we can do as an institution.  I think we will be competitive within the Valley.  I just don’t know how much that will affect recruiting, as basically everybody is going to be bumping up a level.”

“Just make sure we are as competitive as Bradley,” I said.  “I have to report back to Barkeep.”

“Barkeep?” Leonard asked.  “What is a Barkeep?”

“Trust me,” I said.  “You don’t want to know.  Let me find another good member question.”

This took a while.

“I need to go to bed before midnight,” Leonard joked.

“Here, I have one,” I said.  “What about conference realignment?  Anything happening there down the road for Southern?”

“I don’t really have a feel for that yet,” Leonard said.  “But I love the Valley.  I love the style.  Every game is a freaking battle.  I mean a battle.  I love the regionality of the league.  I don’t know where else that Southern would go that would make more sense than the Valley.  I don’t know why we would want to play a league game on the east or west coast.  Look at the programs that have left the Valley.  I am not sure it has worked out for them.  But predicting the future is always hard to tell.”

I then reminded Leonard that the Bobber, alone, when things looked their darkest, predicted that his Salukis would go to Northwestern and take care of business.  I could provide stock tips if necessary……

“Pass,” said Leonard.

“Let’s talk about coaches,” I said.  “After we win a few national championships, how do we keep Nick and Brian around?  Quatros gift cards?”

“You have to be careful there,” Leonard said.  “You don’t want to be coach rich and cash poor, or worse, coach poor and cash rich.  You have to let your coaches know that you are committed to them.  Then you have to figure out how you can reward them.  We are always trying to figure that out.”

“So,” I said.  “After we win those national titles, and Nick leaves for Notre Dame, or Bryan leaves for Duke, are you one of those athletic directors who walks around with an index card with names on it in your pocket?”

“Absolutely, I am,” Leonard said.  “I do that every year.  You have to, because if that time comes, you have to move quickly.  It is really no different than any other job search.  There is a small window when that market opens up, and you have to get your guy.”

I reminded Leonard that after Chris Lowery was fired, Southern conducted a nationwide search committee for its next basketball coach.  Many people from Southern were involved.  Airplanes were in the air.  Coaches around the country were contacted.  That brought us Barry Hinson.  Is that how Leonard would do business?

“I don’t know what the university policy is,” Leonard said.  “But ideally, I would like it to be me with a smaller group.  Me, the Chancellor, and a couple of others.  Because at the end of the day if that coach doesn’t work out, the Athletic Director is going to take the fall, not some search committee.”  

I asked Leonard if he ever remembered watching Mullins play for the Salukis.

“I was always a big fan of the Valley,” he said.  “I was always watching them on tv.”

“While you were eating pizza?” I asked.

“Probably.  But yes, I remember him a bit.  And let me tell you, I have never seen anybody who has his style.  He is a different type of coach than I have ever been around. There is never any bad body language with him. He is so analytical, and his kids have all bought in.  Brian is really doing an excellent job.”

I wanted to turn the subject to football.

“One of our Saluki Insiders actually had a good question,” I told him.

“Really?” he said.  

“Yes.  They asked about a possible indoor practice facility.”

“Well, tell them that we are working with a consultant on that right now.  It is the same architect who helped design Saluki Way.  We have a master plan.  We have met with coaches for their input.  We need that facility really bad.  We have teams that are now using the Rec Center, and that is not ideal.  All of our teams need this.  It is hard to say when it might get done.  It will move up to our top priority.  We need to get a price range, and then we need to go to donors, because it will need to be donor driven.  So maybe you can get out your checkbook, Bob?”

“Yeah, about that……”

“Let’s talk some football,” I said, desperately trying to change the subject.  “Any thoughts after your first fall on how we can improve attendance?”

“It’s funny and frustrating,” Leonard said.  “We basically have a three-game schedule.  Opening day,  family weekend, and homecoming.  And then it plummets.  I was not prepared for how dramatic a drop off that was.”

“Deer season,” I said.

“Well, we have to build tradition.  We have to get to the playoffs consistently.  People need to understand that we are an FCS power.”

“Yeah, but Carterville also plays on Saturday,” I reminded him. “How can we possibly compete with that?”

“I would like to change some seating options in the horseshoe,” Leonard said.  “Maybe some table tops, beer gardens. that kind of thing.  Our home side attendance is okay, but this is not high school, where the other side of the stadium is empty.  We need to make it a destination too. We need to ask ourselves what things will draw people to buy season tickets, and then sit over there.  We need some sort of special areas over there.”

“I agree,” I told him.  “But Hungarian Partridge season begins in early November….”

“We need to try to simulate what we are doing with basketball, and be more aggressive on single game promotions.  We need to make it fun.  We have to do more stuff, like the 7-up can opener.  For some fans, it’s not just the game.  We don’t have the fan base sitting right here.  It is a series of small towns throughout the area that we have to bring in.  If someone has an idea, please contact us.  I would love to hear them.”

The Bobber loves those FBS road trips.  I asked Leonard what I could plan on going forward.

“It’s funny,” he said. “It’s all about finding schedules that match.  There is literally one guy in the country that helps schools match up with their scheduling needs.  We will always be open and looking.  I never want to play more than one per year, and I would rather play a team with a wide-open offense as opposed to a power game.  We have to stay healthy for the season.  Have you timed your drive yet to BYU Bob?”

“I am too afraid to look,” I said.

“20 hours!”

“Okay, well there is that,” I said.  “And when we make the playoffs next year, are we bidding to host?”

“Yes, we will bid,” Leonard said.  “We would have bid this year.  But I am not in the mindset that we can buy our way in every year.  In fact, I am not sure I want to host on that first round.  It’s Thanksgiving, and the stadium will be empty.”

“You have rabbits, foxes, squirrels and crows still out there……..”

“I would almost rather be on the road if it is an empty stadium everywhere that weekend,” Leonard said.  “Let the home team be depressed.”

Finally, it was time to go.  But I had one last question for Leonard.

“Do you ever read Saluki Insider?”

There was a long laugh.

“No, I never read message boards.  It’s not that I don’t think there is good discussion.  But you get on there, and you can get obsessed.  I would be on there at work and then at home.  I think they are fun, and there are certainly some good ideas.  But I can’t let myself make decisions on those comments.  I have to make decisions based on facts.”

“Yeah, I said, ” but what about Mr. Woodcock, and Fraydog, Skinny Uncle and Frog…….”

“Exactly,” Leonard said.

We at Saluki Insider are immensely grateful for Tim Leonard’s time and willingness to grant this interview request. We also appreciate The Bobber taking time from his busy schedule to brighten our day with his unique and entertaining style.

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