Kevin McKenna is
in his fourth season at Indiana State as head coach of the basketball program.
Over the past three seasons the Sycamores have showed the ability to display a
fighting spirit which has shown on several occasions.
In
2009-10 the Sycamores overcame a ton of adversity to still put together
its best season in nearly a decade under the professional leadership of
coach McKenna and his staff. Despite only having its full compliment of
student-athletes for just 28 minutes of the rough and tumble Missouri
Valley Conference slate, the Sycamores still recorded its first winning
season since 2001 as they finished 17-15. ISU also finished the year
with a 9-9 record in league play, bolstering the Sycamores out of the
MVC Opening Round at the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference
Tournament by securing the league's No. 6 seed after finishing in a tie
for fifth in the standings.
Starting
guard Jake Kelly suffered a season ending knee injury with 12 minutes
left in the conference opener at Southern Illinois and subsequently
also lost Dwayne Lathan and Harry Marshall for extended periods over
the course of the year. The Sycamores' success despite losing over 50
percent of their scoring punch for the greater portion of the MVC
slate, led coach McKenna to being tabbed as the MVC Coach of the Year
by CollegeInsider.com.
Marshall,
who was the heart and sole of the team, led the MVC in scoring in
league contests with a 16.0 ppg average. Marshall was tabbed Second
Team All-MVC and was named to the MVC's All-Defensive Team after
turning in shutdown performances against most of the league's
all-conference opposition. Running a well-rounded program, the
Sycamores also two representatives on the MVC's Scholar Athlete Team as
both Jordan Printy and Aaron Carter took those plaudits.
The
payoff for the Sycamores continued as ISU reached postseason play for
the first since 2001 when they accepted a bid to the 2010 College
Basketball Invitational, appearing in a road contest at Saint Louis.
With
a keen attention to details that most coaches think of as an
afterthough, the Sycamores concentrated on extreme efficiency on the
court, finishing the year as the nation's second leading free throw
shooting team. ISU's 76.9 percent mark at the line finished just behind
NCAA qualifier BYU on the NCAA Division I list for the best free throw
shooting teams in the country.
Additionally,
the Sycamores overcame a 24-point deficit in the second half at
Missouri State before falling in overtime. The 24-point comeback in
front of a national television audience was the largest in the history
of the MVC by a team that at least forced overtime.
Evidence
of coach McKenna's strong leadership and ability to achieve the
seemingly impossible appeared in earlier seasons. One of the more
memorable came at Illinois State in 2008-09 when the Sycamores overcame
an 11-point deficit in the
final three minutes to down the Redbirds on their home court behind
career high
scoring totals from Jay Tunnell and Harry Marshall. Marshall’s clutch
buzzer
beating shot silenced what had been a roaring flock of Redbird fans for
much of
the final three minutes of regulation as well as overtime and gave the
Sycamores a 75-73 victory and put Marshall in the national spotlight as
his
shot was named the No. 5 best buzzer beater in the four-year history of
ESPNU.
That victory over
Illinois State catapulted the Sycamores to five consecutive victories (three of
which came on the road in league play) as ISU won six of their seven final
regular season games heading into the conference tournament. ISU downed Drake
in the opening round and then pushed league champion Northern Iowa to the limit
in the quarterfinals before eventually falling 73-69.
The Sycamores
wound up with an 11-21 overall record against one of the toughest schedules
faced by a member of the Missouri Valley Conference. ISU finished 7-11 in
league play, which was tied for eighth with Drake. Marshall and Tunnell
garnered All-MVC Honorable Mention honors while Tunnell was named to the MVC’s
Most Improved Team. Aaron Carter was tabbed on the Valley’s All-Scholar Athlete
squad.
McKenna made an
immediate impact on the program in his first year at the helm, as he led the
team to a 3-0 record to start Missouri Valley Conference play, including a
62-54 win over Creighton. Fans at the Hulman Center also got their money’s
worth from McKenna and the Sycamores at home, as the team won its first nine
straight at home before falling to nationally-ranked Drake on Jan.
9. Overall, the team finished with a 12-2 record at home, its best since the
2000-01 season.
Indiana State’s
successful run at home was highlighted by a 21-point comeback (third-largest in the history of the MVC) against Wichita
State during McKenna’s first season. The Sycamores trailed the Shockers 48-27
with 13:43 left in the game before ISU chalked up the game’s next 21 points to
knot the score at 48 in just over six minutes of game action. The Shockers
retook control of the game to lead 62-52 with 2:32 left in the game, but the
Sycamores came back once again to tie the score at 67 with four seconds left.
ISU controlled overtime and took an 83-73 overtime victory.
In the summer of
2009, McKenna was selected as the head coach of the Athletes In Action college
basketball team during a tour of Poland and Germany. The summer tour lasted
from May 18-27 as he led the team in contests in Katowice, Poland as well as
Berlin, Germany. The AIA team was comprised on NCAA Division I basketball
players from American, including Sycamores Dwayne Lathan and Koang Doluony.
Before accepting the
head coaching position at Indiana State, McKenna completed his ninth season at
Creighton as an assistant coach, helping the Bluejays to a 22-11 record and the
NCAA tournament this past season. In nine years the Bluejays went to four NCAA
Tournaments as well as two National Invitation Tournaments. McKenna made the
first of two stops on the Bluejays’ bench from 1994 through 2001, and then
returned in 2005.
Before McKenna
returned to Creighton, he spent four highly successful years across town as
head coach of NCAA Division II Nebraska-Omaha, where he guided the Mavericks to
four consecutive 20-win seasons, two North Central Conference titles and three
appearances in the NCAA Division II Tournament.
McKenna was named
the NCC Coach of the Year in both 2004 and 2005 as well as North Central
Regional Coach of the Year by the National Association of Basketball Coaches
(NABC) in 2005. He finished with an 89-33 mark in his tenure at UNO.
In his first
campaign with the Mavericks, UNO set a school record with 24 wins as they made
their first visit to the NCAA Division II Tournament in 17 seasons. The 24-9
record was a 15-win improvement from the 9-17 team he inherited and ranked as
one of the nation’s top turnarounds. Prior to his arrival at UNO, the Mavs had
not won a league title since 1984 and had not won more than 20 games in a
season since 1990.
As a player at
Creighton from 1977-1981, McKenna led the Bluejays to a Missouri Valley
Conference regular-season championship, two MVC Tournament titles and a pair of
NCAA Tournaments. He was an All-MVC pick and team MVP in each of his final two
seasons.
McKenna ended his
collegiate career with exactly 1,500 points and was drafted in the fourth round
of the 1981 draft by the Los Angeles Lakers. He was a member of the Lakers’
1982 NBA championship team and also played for Indiana, New Jersey and
Washington during a six-year NBA career.
He remains the
only person in league history to win an MVC regular-season title, MVC
Tournament title, NBA championship and CBA crown.
Following his NBA
career, McKenna helped lead the La Crosse Catbirds to the 1989-90 CBA
Championship as a player and assistant coach. He then served as the head coach
and director of basketball operations for the CBA’s Sioux Falls Skyforce from
1990-93. He spent time as a regional scout for the Washington Bullets in
1993-94 before returning to Creighton as an assistant to Dana Altman in 1994.
He earned his
bachelor’s degree in organizational communications from Creighton in 1993 and
added a master’s degree in counseling education from his alma mater in 1997.
McKenna and his charming wife, Nancy, have a daughter Megan and a son, Bobby.
Megan works in the ISU Athletic Media Relations Office as the Director of
New Media while Bobby recently graduated from Terre Haute South Vigo High School and is a freshman at Purdue.
