Then & Now: Lynn Mitchem

Then & Now: Lynn Mitchem

Compiled By Dave Brandon

(Photo Courtesy UIC Media Relations)

Lynn

Mitchem was an assistant coach at Nebraska from

1987-1992, and helped coach the Huskers to a 106-82

record, along with two NCAA tournaments and two NIT's.

Mitchem

was instrumental in the 1991 recruiting class that was

considered one of the nation's ten best, and played

a large roll in helping the Huskers land Rick King

and Eric Piatkowski.

Mitchem,

who played his college ball at Butler and finished his

career third all-time on the Bulldog-scoring list, came

to Nebraska when Danny Nee did (1986-1987), and is now

an assistant coach at Illinois-Chicago.

He is

our latest guest in this Sunday's edition of "Then &

Now". 

HHC: Thanks

for joining us. How did the season go for UIC this year?

LM: We were

16-15, and we finished tied for 3^rd in our

conference, and we got beat by Wisconsin-Green Bay in

the second round.

HHC: Not bad, sounds like you’ll be real

good next year from what I hear.

LM:

Definitely, we’ll get things going here.

HHC: You

finished your playing career as the third all-time

leading scorer at Butler, and besides that, have been

coaching in the Horizon League the last five seasons.

With all those Horizon League and Butler connections, do

you know Barry Collier at all?

LM: Oh yeah, I

know Barry. I was also in the Horizon League at Loyola

of Chicago, and so we coached against him then. And the

funny thing was that Barry first started off as a

graduate assistant at Idaho, in like 1979 when I

graduated from high school, and I remember him calling

my house when he was an assistant at Idaho.

HHC: Small world, huh? Hey, prior to

coming to Lincoln with Danny Nee in 1986-1987, you

served one season as an assistant coach to Gene Keady at

Purdue. What was that experience like, and what did you

learn from him?

LM: Coach Keady is obviously a legend, and

I learned a lot from him. He taught me how to handle

people, players, and how hard we had to work to get

results. Just basically, things like that.

HHC: Talk about your background with Coach Nee,

and what sold you on coming to Lincoln with him in

1986-1987?

LM: I remember Coach Nee being an

assistant coach at Notre Dame, so he was recruiting one

of my teammates, and he recruited me just a little bit,

although not much. So I knew him prior to that, and when

the opportunity came, I took it, because I liked his

personality and how he did things, so it was a no

brainer to go to Nebraska.

HHC: Do you

still stay in touch with him?

LM: I saw him

this summer, but haven’t talked to him since he resigned

at Duquesne.

HHC: 1986-1987

was an exciting year at Nebraska, as in your first year,

you guys went 21-12 and finished third place in the NIT.

What stands out about that team and year?

LM: You know what, I remember we had good

guards in guys like Brian Carr. Him and Bill Jackman

provided great leadership, we had a great player in

Bernard Day, and Derrick Vick and Henry T. Buchanan came

off of the bench and gave us a spark. So the first year

there, that was a great, great experience, just going

that far with those guys, and was very enjoyable.

HHC: Right around that time, the coaching

staff really started to jump start recruiting, as you

got guys like Rich King, Beau Reid, and Clifford Scales.

How were you able to sell the program so well?

LM: Rich King was from Omaha, so we sold

him on the fact that we wanted him to be another Dave

Hoppen and break all of his records. And his parents

could see him play, and he could be the next big guy

coming from Nebraska, so that was a good sale. He was a

hard one, though, because we beat out Arizona and

Kansas, but to me, he was a very good player.

HHC: Speaking

of recruits, who were some of the guys that you

especially helped in bringing to Nebraska, and which was

your biggest?

LM: Dapreis Owens from Mansfield, Ohio was

big. Lewis Geter was good, but he left after his

sophomore year. Rich King, Pete Manning, all those guys.

Basically, all the good players we brought in I think I

had a little hand in helping to bring. Carl Hayes was

another one who was very good and very smooth. 

HHC: 1987-1988 was a tough year, as you

guys finished just 13-18. However, 1988-1989 was a solid

year, and saw a 17-16 record and NIT appearance. What

memories do you have of the second NIT and that season?

LM: It was good to see Eric Johnson have a

great senior year. He played really well, and then

Clifford Scales and Dapreis played a little and got

better.

So, I

definitely remember the younger guys growing. But Eric

Johnson having a real good senior year is what stood out

most. 

HHC: 1989-1990 was an injury plagued season and

a 10-18 finish. Did you honestly have any idea of how

special the following year would be at that time?

LM: No, I didn’t. I knew we struggled and

wanted to get better, and so we did, but those guys

worked really hard in the off-season, and they decided

that we needed to turn it around and get things done,

and that’s obviously what we did.

HHC: The 1990-1991 team is the best team

in Nebraska history, and finished 26-8 with the schools

second NCAA Tournament appearance and a #9 ranking to

end the year. At what point in that season did you know

it was going to be a magic carpet ride?

LM: I think we went like 16-1 in the

beginning of the year. Actually, when we first started,

we played in Puerto Rico and we beat Saint Louis and

Illinois by 20, and then lost to Murray State in the

championship. But we had a lot of guys returning and a

lot of guys coming in, and it just clicked, and we had

such a good year.

HHC: What made that team so successful,

and were you ever around a better team?

LM: I’ve been coaching over twenty years,

and it was the most wins that I’ve ever been around, I

think. The guys got along real well and we had good

leadership. We had inside, outside, and it was just a

special team overall. Guys played well together, and we

found ways to win.

HHC: Talk about some of your favorite

memories of that team?

LM: Keith Moody hitting the shot against

Oklahoma in the Big 8 tournament when we were down like

11 with three minutes to go, and we came back and won

that. Puerto Rico was very rewarding, and then playing

in the Big 8 championship game and losing to Missouri,

but just winning those two games before that were great.

HHC: How disappointing was it to have

things end on such a sour note against Xavier in the

NCAA Tournament?

LM: It was real disappointing because…

Well, I don’t want to make any excuses, but we played a

late game, and it just wasn’t meant to be, I guess.

But they

(Xavier) did play well, so we had to tip our hats, but

that was a disappointing loss, no question about that,

because I thought we could have gone pretty far in the

tournament. 

HHC: Your last season at Nebraska was

1991-1992, and you guys finished 19-10 with another

appearance in the NCAA Tournament against Connecticut.

The team lost, and to this day, many feel that it was

because of a combination of lack of focus and

concentration. Do you agree with that, or did Nebraska

simply get beat on those days?

LM: We just got beat both years, and UConn

was a better team. Donyell Marshall was there, and they

had real good players, so it wasn’t like it was a lack

of concentration. They were a great, talented team.

HHC: What made you choose to leave

Nebraska following 1992?

LM: I was

there six years, and I liked Lincoln, but it was just

unfortunately time to leave. A lot of things happened,

good and bad, but it was just time to break ship, I

guess.

HHC: What are your favorite memories of

being in Lincoln?

LM: I was a young man who was twenty-five

years old when I got there, and being a full-time

assistant at that age at a place like Nebraska with that

magnitude was great.

We had a

great football program and were working on a great

basketball program, so it was just a great, great

experience being at Nebraska, and is something that I’ll

always cherish. Lincoln was a nice city, and we had

great fan support. It was a first class institution and

still is.

So I

have a lot of fond memories about the University of

Nebraska, and that was really my start as a full-time

assistant, and you can’t beat that.

HHC: Do you keep in touch with anybody you

knew from Lincoln and make it back at all?

LM: I haven’t

been back. I talk to Ellen (Shutts) the secretary a bit,

and I have a real good friend Patrick Campbell, who is

almost a judge there. I talk to Gary Bargen a lot, as he

and I are still pretty close, and I know they had the

reunion and you guys helped with that, and it would have

been nice to come back for that but besides those three,

not really anyone else.

HHC: Finally, update us on your life since

1992, and tell us what you are up to today at UIC?

LM: I’m an assistant here and have been

for five years under Jimmy Collins. After Nebraska, I

was at Washington State for five years under Kelvin

Sampson. I went to Ball State as an Associate Head Coach

under Dick Hunsaker, and then Loyola in Chicago for four

years under Ken Burmeister, and then took a year off

from coaching before getting back into it at Southern

Illinois under Bruce Weber for two years.

And I’ve

been here at UIC since 2001.

HHC: Right on. Are you cool with taking

some e-mails at

[email protected] if we set you up an

account and tell you how to check it?

LM: Oh yeah,

no question.

HHC: Awesome. Thanks a lot for your time,

and anything else you'd like to add?

LM: I’d just like to say that I really did

enjoy Nebraska, and at that point in my life, it was

really good for me. And I have a lot of fond memories

about Nebraska, and I just wish everyone there well.<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">