....besides Keady and Tubby being assistants together with Rudy T, iirc, Tubby was Keady's assistant or helped out at the try out camp for the World University Games' USA 19 and Under team.
But first...thanks to the moderator for approving me. I truly enjoy banter with opposing fans, but not the kind that the other boards have devolved into...smack talk, etc.,....
Also, I 've always considered Minnesota to be a sleeping giant in the BigTen....should they ever be able to seal the borders recruiting wise and get kids to stay in MN, look out. IMO, they should be between Wiscy and OSU in football long term and up in the top 4 consistently in hoops.
Some other factoids about Geno:
-He grew up in Larned, KS, the son of a florist / flower wholesaler and producer.
-Went to JuCo for a year or two, and due to this fact, always had an welcoming attitude to Juco's even back when they were looked at with a scornful eye when D-! coaches would take them in, a bias he always hated and championed against until it was more accepted.
-After JuCo, iirc, at Hutchinson, KS JuCo, he played baseball and football at Kansas State, attaining honorable mention All-Big Six (the precursor to the Big 8) in both.
-Before the NFL draft came along, he was invited to training camp with the Pittsburgh Steelers, but was part of the final cut the week before the season started.
-He needed work, and he found it as a teacher at Beloit, KS H.S. They needed a basketball coach, so they gave the job to him.
-Met Eddie Sutton, at the time the Arkansas head coach, at the national JUCO tournament in Hutchinson, KS. A few years later, Eddie hired him as an assistant when he had a position open up.
-Keady was the lead recruiter for Sutton's and Arkansas' best team- the 1978 (iirc) 'Triplets' of Marvin Delph, Ron Brewer and Sidney Moncrief, all Arkansas natives. Moncrief went on to an 11 year NBA career, and iirc, Brewer had an NBA career also.
-Got the HC job at Western Kentucky, where one of his assistants was Clem Haskins.
-After two years, was hired by Purdue at the age of 42, despite the counseling against it by Al Maguire of Marquette, who'd told him...you have to go against Bobby Knight to the south, and Digger Phelps at Notre Dame....it's career suicide. Keady was invigorated by the challenge and took the job at his wife's urging.
-Most don't realize it, but iirc, amongst coaches who faced Bobby Knight at least ten times over the course of their career, while Knight was at Indiana, Keady is the only one to have a winning record versus Knight, at 21-20. Not bad coaching for always having second pick after IU for all the instate talent.
-Former Iowa forward Jess Settles, a tough cookie himself back in the day, once said of Keady, "I'm firmly convinced that guy could take 5 guys off main street and compete for the Big Ten title every year- THAT'S how good a coach he is."
-Gene met his bride Pat, who was a divorced (?) single mother of a young girl while at Western Ky. He married her and adopted her daughter, Lisa.
Actually, here is a good article from Sports Illustrated, that details one of the worst weeks in his life, back in 1996. I think it tells you what kind of man he is....in spite of ESPN's always portraying him as the square jawed, eternally pi$$ed off challenger to Bobby Knight, he is one of the most kind hearted people I've ever met....I organized and ran one of his 'Basketball Barbeques' for the Indianapolis Purdue Alumni club back in 1998. We had it out of necessity in a cleared out seed warehouse in Westfield, Indiana one year back in the 1980's, with it catered by a local caterer...that was their biggest event of the year. Pulled pork, fried biscuits....just good old Indiana country food. We tried to move it from there every year, and he'd veto it every year adamantly...apparently his wife Pat always said she loved the fried biscuits and he never forgot that and so insisted on having that caterer at that location every year...completely unpretentious....would always ask to make sure we weren't spending too much time on his behalf, but in his gruff way......."....now you aren't spending too much time on this now, are you? I don't want your job to suffer because of this barbeque....make sure you're keeping up on everything...." So humble, and also through the gruffness, you just KNEW he really cared for you.
Anyway, as an adendum to the SI article, a year or so later after the fall she suffered in the article, his daughter Lisa eventually did recover but then died from her injuries. I cannot imagine the horror of being a parent and having to bury your own child. No worse life experience imo.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1007701/index.htm
