(Sports) Editor's Note

Keady Q&A

Posted by: Jim Rossow

Friday, January 11, 2008 10:22 PM

Gene Keady still loves talking college basketball - but not coaching. He said he had no plans of pulling an Eddie Sutton and returning to the bench at 71 years old. Here's a portion of his conversation that runs Saturday:

JR: You're still tight with Bruce Weber. How's he handling this season?
GK: We talk once a week. He knows he has to go back to the drawing board and get his guys some confidence. He knows what he has to do. I just try to keep him pumped up because it's easy to get down when you're coaching. As a coach, sometimes it's not your fault. Sometimes it's the players' fault.

JR: We've heard boos at home games this season. Is that fair?
GK: No, it's not fair. But it's part of the job and we've all been through it. Bruce broke Al McGuire's rule: you never want to win big first. You want to work your way into it. It used to be you could start your job and maybe go to the NIT the first year. The second year you would have a shot at the NCAA tournament and the third year you'd make it. The fourth year you want to win the league. It's not like that anymore. Everyone wants a team right now. Nobody wants to wait. That's universal.

JR: Illinois finally plays Eric Gordon on Sunday. What's your take on his decommitment?
GK: I don't like verbal commitments – I'd make them illegal or make kids sign a (letter of intent) earlier. I had a lot of kids who committed here and we didn't get them. Kids 18 or 19 years old don't understand the importance of integrity.

JR: What about Kelvin Sampson?
GK: Again, integrity is involved. You try to get coaches to be honest with everything. Now, I'm not an NCAA investigator. It doesn't look good but that doesn't necessarily mean it's something he did. Maybe an assistant got involved? Who knows?

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