Wayne McClain Gets A Promotion

Wayne McClain, Illinois assistant basketball coach and the one with the gray hair in the above photo, was promoted to Associate Head Coach (or is Associate to the Head Coach?) today by Bruce Weber. Though his duties will remain more or less the same, McClain will likely now pocket a bit more caysh to spend in and around exotic Champaign-Urbana.

I remember watching Coach McClain's Peoria Manual teams of the 1990s and rooting as they won four straight IHSA AA titles, three while Wayne was the head coach. Those teams were probably the best in all of high school basketball around the country at the time, led by Frank Williams, Sergio McClain, Marcus Griffin and other beasts (Griffin and Williams were both McDonald's All Americans).

Incidentally, check out this sweet article making the very obvious point that Peoria, not Chicago, has the best high school hoops in the State of Illinois. It's really an incidental point, however, given that Illinois itself has the best high school hoops in the United States.

But I digress.

The bottom line is that Wayne deserves this promotion and I'm excited to know he is getting his due with the Illini. As long as he is around I know the Illini practices will be disciplined, fast paced and, for lack of a more universally known description, P-town style. But I'm sure you get what I mean.

Congrats, Wayne.

Frank Williams Is In Trouble

Frank,

I was disappointed to hear the news today that you were arrested on drug charges and sent to the Peoria County Jail. Word is the 5-0 executed a search warrant and found 78 grams of marijuana, a digital scale and a .48 caliber handgun. You've been charged with unlawful possession of marijuana and unlawful possession of marijuana with intent to deliver.

First off, as a Peoria native myself, I've spent a night or two in the Peoria County Jail and didn't find it all that rough. Hopefully you just signed a few autographs for the other inmates and then waltzed out of there after making bail.

But on a broader level, this is sad. You were one of the top players ever to come out of Peoria, you dominated in Champaign and weren't too shabby in the NBA at times. Unfortunately that dickhead Isaiah traded for Stephon Marbury, gave him your playing time and then shipped you over to the Bulls where you eventually washed out in part because of lack of effort.

It's too bad because you had NBA starting point guard talent. Maybe better than Deron, dare I say it.

Good luck, man. I hope you get out of this clean.

Best,
Bevormo