Oregon assistant coach Brian Fish appeared on campus Tuesday, stating his case to be the next Eastern head men’s basketball coach.

Fish wants to come to Eastern and build a program, bringing an up-tempo style of play to the Panthers.

“I want to play up-tempo style basketball. I want to press and I want to shoot a lot of threes,” he said.

Fish said the game of basketball as a whole has become a much more up-tempo paced style.

“The game of basketball, whether you like it or not, has became a pick and roll game,” he said. “We’ve gotta play that way to attract recruits and fans. You see that and it gets people excited.”

Fish said he hopes to build a program where he doesn’t have to be here in ten years, leaving a well-developed team for a future coach.

“I’m not going to be here 10 years from now,” he said. “I want Barbara (Burke) to promote someone on my staff if I move to bigger schools.”

Fish said now is the time for fans and the community to get excited about Eastern athletics.

“It’s time to get excited about EIU basketball and EIU sports in general,” he said.

Fish just finished his second season as assistant coach at Oregon, having previously coached at Creighton, San Diego, TCU, Kansas State and Marshall.

With those coaching ties in the Midwest, the East, West and southern parts of the country, Fish has recruiting connections all over the nation. Fish also said he wants to recruit Chicago, St. Louis, Louisville and Indianapolis.

Fish said he did have an interest in recruiting junior college players, but he wanted to focus on four-year players.

“If you recruit the right programs it can help you, but at the end of the day our program has to have a core of four-year guys,” Fish said.

Fish wants to build Eastern the same way the program was built at Creighton, with an emphasis on schoolwork.

“We built up Creighton with good quality kids and taught them schoolwork is as important as athletics,” he said.

Fish also stressed the importance of establishing a bond with the community.

“Basketball means a lot to the people in this area, and I think we have to exploit that,” he said.

Fish, who grew up in Seymour, Ind., said he knows what it’s like to be from a smaller town like Charleston, and understood the importance of connecting with the community.

Red-shirt junior James Hollowell was again impressed with the candidate.

“I thought he was another good candidate, another good guy,” he said. “Everybody that comes in, I think if they don’t leave with us liking them and enjoying them being here, I think they wouldn’t be a good fit, but I think the last two guys have been great.”

The next finalist, Kareem Richardson, is slated to appear at 4 p.m. Friday in the Lantz Club Room.

Jordan Pottorff, Anthony Catezone and Erik Jensen contributed to this article.

Dominic Renzetti can be reached at 581-7942 or [email protected].