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Big step, short trip SIU's Weber headed north to take over at IllinoisPosted: Wednesday April 30, 2003 12:22 AMUpdated: Thursday May 01, 2003 1:22 PM
CARBONDALE, Ill. (AP) -- Southern Illinois University has named assistant men's basketball coach Matt Painter, a former Purdue player, to the head coaching job, the school announced Thursday. Painter, 32, will replace Bruce Weber, who was named head coach Wednesday at the University of Illinois. Painter will be introduced as the new coach at a Thursday afternoon news conference Thursday, said Tom Weber, spokesman for SIU Athletic Director Paul Kowalczyk. Painter was widely reported to be the top choice of the departing Weber, who was named the successor to Illinois Coach Bill Self after he took the top job at Kansas. The two men share a Boilermaker past. Bruce Weber was one of Purdue Coach Gene Keady's assistants when Painter was an All-Big-Ten forward for the team, from 1989 to 1993. Painter played at Delta High School near Muncie, Ind., and then helped lead the Boilermakers to three NCAA and one NIT tournament bids during his time there. He coached for one year each at Washington & Jefferson and Barton colleges before joining the coaching staff at Eastern Illinois in 1995. Weber hired him at SIU three years later. Painter helped Weber turn around a team that had posted three straight losing seasons. In 2002, the Salukis finished 28-8 and made it to the Sweet Sixteen in the NCAA Tournament. Last season, Southern Illinois went 24-7, winning the regular-season Missouri Valley Conference championship but losing to Missouri in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Painter will be the second-youngest men's basketball coach in
Saluki history, said Tom Weber, the school spokesman. Former head
coach Harry Gallatin was 31 when he was hired to head the team in
1958, Tom Weber said.
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