Two assistants that have been involved in 16 NCAA Tournament teams, two Final Four appearances and have coached five NBA players have applied for the men’s basketball head coaching vacancy at Eastern Illinois.

Marquette assistant Jeff Strohm and Creighton associate head coach Greg Grensing have confirmed their interest in becoming the 14th head coach in Eastern history.

Grensing has been a Division I assistant since 1983 under Lon Kruger at Texas-Pan America and Kansas State. When Kruger left the program to take the head job at Florida, Grensing stayed with KSU when the Wildcats signed Dana Altman. Grensing proceeded to follow Altman, and the two have created the most dominant program in the Missouri Valley Conference.

“I have been to 11 NCAA Tournaments and been the primary recruiter for all of those teams, so I have been able to prepare myself for that type of step up,” Grensing said. “The timing is right.”

As a recruiter for the Bluejays, his major signing success was former MVC player of the year Kyle Korver, who is currently playing for the Philadelphia 76ers.

“I think my recruiting base is fruitful after having been doing this for so many years,” Grensing said.

Grensing also mentioned his secret to the perceived crapshoot that is college recruiting.

“I try to recruit to the system that we play. If the pieces to our puzzle don’t fit, that’s my fault for trying to stick a round hole in a square peg,” Grensing said. “Kyle wasn’t a great athlete, but he could run all day and fit the Creighton mold to a tee.”

Grensing, who is called Creighton’s Xs and Os guy, stated that he would be concentrated on putting his mark on how the Panthers play which would include changes.

“My opinion has always been to develop an identity to your program that is completely unusual,” Grensing said. “What we do at Creighton is difficult to guard and difficult to game-plan for.”

The Bluejays have qualified for the NCAA Tournament six of the last seven years, and Grensing is 6-10 in NCAA Tournament games, all as an assistant coach. He was 4-5 at Kansas State as an assistant and 2-5 at Creighton. He was also an assistant on the Wildcat’s 1987-88 Regional Finalist under Kruger.

Jeff Strohm is certainly a candidate that will not mind moving to the East Central Illinois area, having been born and raised around 30 miles from Charleston. Originally from Marshall, Strohm has spent almost a decade in the Coles County area as a coach. After being an assistant coach at two local high schools (Casey-Westfield and Sullivan), he moved to Lake Land College in Mattoon as an assistant.

“I think coming back to an area where I am originally from is exciting for me,” Strohm said.

After his time at Lakeland, Strohm received his first Division I opportunity when Rick Majerus hired him as an assistant at Utah.

“I recruited Andre Miller and Michael Doleac while at Utah, and they were not solid athletes, but they were players we developed and were committed academically,” Strohm said.

Strohm was with the Utes when they made it to the National Championship game in 1997. Strohm moved back to the Midwest when Tom Crean was hired at Marquette and is the lead recruiter for the Golden Eagles.

“At Marquette I recruited Dwayne Wade out of Chicago, who is probably the best player to play at MU in many years,” Strohm said.

Strohm was on the bench when Marquette reached the Final Four nearly three years ago.

The Golden Eagles assistant has been busy recruiting another Top 150 prospect out of the Illinois in Chicago shooting guard Jerel McNeal.

“Jerel is arguably one of the best guards coming out of Chicago, and he’s coming to Marquette because of the contacts I have down there,” Strohm said.

Strohm stressed his ties to the university as a major reason he jumped at the chance to apply for the position.

Strohm has a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree from Eastern along with his six brothers that also graduated from Eastern.

“I think I know how to make the community care; students care, and I love that finding true student-athletes are important here,” Strohm said.

Eastern’s director of athletics Rich McDuffie has stated he would like to have the list of applicants narrowed down by the 2005 Final Four and name a new coach by mid-April.