What does a guy have to do?
Rick Samuels has been the coach at Eastern Illinois for 21 years, and he is leading the Panthers into the NCAA tournament for the second time after winning the Ohio Valley Conference tournament championship.
But it keeps happening.
“I still get phone calls from coaches in the state and in the course of a conversation I’ll ask them about a player and they’ll say he’s a great prospect for Division II,” Samuels said. “They have no idea we’re Division I.”
If they didn’t know before, they’ll find out Friday, when Eastern Illinois faces Arizona at Kansas City, Mo., in the first round of the NCAA tournament’s Midwest Regional.
“We have kids who will walk across this campus and don’t know,” Samuels said. “They assume we’re not at the same competitive level as other schools in the state.”
The lack of recognition has been frustrating for Samuels, but he has tried to turn it into a positive.
“It’s fun to educate people about our school and our program,” he said. “The biggest key for us has been to get kids here. Once they get here, they are surprised at the kind of campus they find.”
Samuels has been getting kids to come to this east-central Illinois town from all parts of the state. He identifies his recruiting zone as a triangle with points in Chicago, St. Louis and Indianapolis.
The Chicago area has been especially fertile ground for Samuels. He has six players on his roster from the suburbs. His two leading scorers are Kyle Hill from Argo High School and Henry Domercant from Naperville North.
“We’ve always done well in the Chicagoland area,” he said. “Right now we’re doing particularly well in the west and southwest suburbs.”
Domercant acknowledged not knowing much about Charleston and Eastern until Samuels started recruiting him. The only thing he knew was that the campus was near Champaign–the schools are less than an hour apart on Interstate 57.
“It’s been a great learning experience for me,” Domercant said. “I didn’t know much about Charleston at all. I think [the NCAAs] will help. Recruits will see that we’re a solid team and exciting to watch.”
Samuels hopes the exposure the school gets this week will help him attract additional players.
“That’s where we can make the biggest thrust as far as them seeing this kind of excitement,” he said.
The Panthers haven’t experienced this kind of excitement in nine years, the last time they earned an NCAA invitation. Eastern assistant coach Troy Collier was the point guard on that team, which lost in the first round to Indiana. “There were similarities in expectations,” Collier said. “We felt we were good enough to make a run at the conference championship and get a bid, and this year was the same way.”
The ’92 team started 5-0, was hit by injuries, won the Mid-Continent tournament and wound up 17-14.
This season’s team finished tied for second in the Ohio Valley and advanced to the tournament championship game against Austin Peay. It appeared its NCAA hopes were gone when Eastern trailed by 21 with nine minutes remaining, but the Panthers staged a memorable comeback.
That victory endeared Eastern to the Charleston community, which is smitten with the Panthers.
Eastern had plenty of support at its conference tournament in Nashville. Samuels expects a lot of support Friday. He was hoping the Panthers would be sent to Kansas City, which he regards as being within driving distance.
“The community has bonded around us. It makes you feel good when the stands are packed and people are out there with blue-painted faces,” Hill said.
Having an undefeated record at home this season hasn’t hurt either. The Panthers are 21-9 overall, playing an up-tempo style that showcases Hill and Domercant.
“We’re an exciting team,” Collier said. “We do what people like to see–dunks, three-pointers. And we score a lot of points.”
Hill averages 23.5 points per game and Domercant 22.9. “Anybody we play is going to be surprised at how good Henry and Kyle are,” Samuels said before finding out that “anybody” was Arizona. “They really know how to use screens and people have a tough time guarding them.”
Collier said he doesn’t see the pecking order in the state changing anytime soon, but people are likely to start paying attention to Charleston if Eastern can continue to build on this season’s success.
“We’re not as far away from high-major as we used to be, and the gap is closing,” he said. “By us getting to the tournament and being on national television, people can see we have some talent here.”
