February 7, 2001

By Chuck Mistovich

Statham soaring to top in coaching circles

Psst. Let's hold this to a whisper...don't tell anyone but I just wanted to let you know that Coach Harry Statham of NAIA I McKendree (Ill.) has joined some of the greatest coaches in college basketball in total career wins. But, he's doesn't like to make big deals about such personal accolades, so let's be hush-hush about this.

Statham has passed Ed Diddle, Bob Knight and Henry Iba in total career, college coaching wins this season. His 776 wins places him sixth on the all-time list, as he approaches the 781 wins of fifth-place Jerry Johnson, who is still coaching at LeMoyne-Owen (Tenn.).

Coach Harry says he doesn't get into the hype of his career victories, saying, "I really don't count those things (wins and years). The fans and other people do it."

But he does admit that the success is somewhat of a surprise. He said, "Actually, 30 years ago, I thought I would stay (at McKendree) a few more years and then get a big high school job." Man, talk about blowing a plan! The next targets of Statham's winning ways over the next three or four years are active coach Jim Phelan of Mount St. Mary's (Md.) with 815 wins, Clarence "Big House" Gaines with 828, Adolph Rupp with 876 and number-one all-time winner Dean Smith with 879 wins. Statham owns a 20-7 mark this year as he eyes another 30-win season, and maintains a top-15 ranking in the NAIA I poll. He has enjoyed 26 seasons with 20 or more wins, including three 30-win seasons. An immediate goal is the NAIA I national tournament in March.

In his 35th year as head coach and athletic director at his alma mater, the 63-year-old coach has racked up a 776-313 record for a 71 per cent winning percentage. He has been an amazing mark of consistency, having only one losing season at McKendree with an 18-19 finish in 1983-84. His other "really bad" seasons were the 13-10 record in his first year at the school (1966-67) and the 17-15 record in 1988-89. The coach makes success sound simple, as he describes what has made his Bearcats so successful: "Getting good players, good people is the key. When I talked about going back to McKendree for this job, Dr. Collie (the former coach who counseled him) said to recruit good people who stay eligible. I want young men who are a role model on campus, work hard and who graduate, get a degree."

He's been doing that as the victories and the graduated players add up each year. He said, "I really enjoy my job and the kids. We always manage to get good people. The key is to style our game with the kids we have...can't live in the past....must know your personnel and put them in a position to succeed. "The difference might be we do not get the premier player, so we won't win the national championship or have the player who goes into the NBA after a year. The McKendree image isn't for everybody. There are some talented kids we don't recruit because they won't fit...we need good players who will be team players. We need the chemistry."

One of the most impressive facts on the Statham vita sheet is that he has changed with the times, or with the talent on hand. He said, "We had been stereotyped for a number of years, that we were good offensively but did not have much quickness and were not adept at defense. We ran through that cycle. Then, we couldn't recruit big players who could shot, so we went through a period of smaller kids with big hearts who could play defense, run the floor and shoot the threes.

"Now, we have mixed the two styles. Matt Laur is 6-11 and young, and has come a long way. We are not really quick but not really slow; not really big, not really small. We do have a 6-11 center, but a small 6-4 power forward and a 5-9 point guard."

Actually, Statham loves this team just fine. Laur is only a sophomore and he should win All-America honors for a second year, thanks to major per-game averages of 20.7 points, 9.4 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 3.3 blocked shots. The young star has plenty of support from junior Darrell Flake (18.1 ppg, 9.1 rpg), Nic Stotler (15.4 ppg), Dan Moore (10.7 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 4.6 apg) and Dion Flippins (7.6 ppg, 4.6 apg). The 'Cats make 54 per cent of their field shots as they average 86.1 ppg and allow 77.8. Laur shoots 65 per cent from the floor and Flake a sensational 68 per cent on action shots. There are only three seniors on the team.