In his professional life, Steve Christiansen hasn’t strayed far from home.
But after being named the men’s basketball coach at Aurora University, the former Northern Illinois assistant — who had a long, successful stint leading Triton in River Grove — feels as if he has come full circle.
This local kid has done good.
“I remember going to games at NIU and camps at AU,” said Christiansen, who grew up in Hinckley.
That’s where his late father, Al, introduced him to the sport.
“He coached me in summer and recreational leagues,” Christiansen said of his first major influence in the game. “He was huge in my development and understanding, especially the importance of not turning the ball over and taking good shots.
“He’d pick up a bunch of my friends and drive us to an old school gym in Maple Park so we could practice or play.”
And before making the Hinckley-Big Rock varsity, the youngster’s dad dropped him off at Sunday open gyms to play pickup games with older, former players at H-BR. Christiansen graduated in 1995, playing for Bob Barnett.
“It was a hard game,” Christiansen said. “I was a really thin kid at that point and that was a good indoctrination for me.”
A shooting guard, Christiansen then played for 2 1/2 seasons at North Central College. He then assisted his high school coach three seasons before landing his first full-time job as director of basketball operations under Rob Judson at NIU.
The three-year stint in DeKalb from 2001 to 2004 preceded the Triton job.
“I was a young head coach in junior college, but I’d been around some pretty good people,” Christiansen said. “It’s like any business. You get better at it over time.
“In later years, I’d look at a picture on the wall at Triton of a player from that first year and all I could think was, ‘You poor kid.'”
But could Christiansen coach?
Let the record show, the answer was yes, which is probably why Rashon Burno lured Christiansen from Triton this past year after taking the NIU job.
“I will definitely take things from Rashon too,” Christiansen said. “I thought I made kids work hard. NIU was great to me and Burno is going to do well there.”
In 17 seasons at Triton, Christiansen also did well, going 443-111 for an .800 winning percentage. His lone losing season — 14-18 in 2006-07 — was followed by 14 straight winning seasons, none with more than nine losses.
The highlight, of course, was winning the 2018 NJCAA Division II national championship after taking second in 2016 and third in 2011.
“Junior college gets such a bad rap sometimes, but it’s such a cool level of basketball,” Christiansen said. “You can totally impact the lives of some of these guys who are teetering on the edge when they come to you.”
One of Christiansen’s players from his 2018 champs is graduate student Alondes Williams, a 6-foot-5 guard at Wake Forest who’s from Milwaukee.
This season, Williams was named the Atlantic Coast Conference’s player of the year. He led the league in scoring and assists, averaging 17.8 and 5.7, respectively.
“The really cool part of coaching is you can put your stamp on a program,” Christiansen said.
He takes over the AU program from Matt Airy, who stepped down late this season, his third at the school.
Airy came halfway across the country from Washington and then had to deal with the coronavirus pandemic that hit at the end of his first full season.
“It is evident he has the characteristics needed to lead young men and create a winning program that excels in all areas of higher education,” Jim Hamad, AU’s vice President for athletics, said in a statement announcing Christiansen’s hire.
Former coach James Lancaster, for whom the court at AU’s Thornton Gymnasium was named in 2016, thinks Christiansen is a good choice.
“I hope it leads to a Fox Valley flavor down the road for the team,” Lancaster said. “When I took the job, I didn’t have to go far to find players. Steve has a great relationship with high school coaches in the Chicago area.
“He’s a coach I would often reach out to and ask about kids I was recruiting because I knew he was well connected. I think the people of Aurora are going to love him.”
It’s a move that should pay dividends for AU.
