Derek Thomas

Many of your PCRT veterans may not know that speaker Derek Thomas is also a college basketball coach. Indeed, he will not be in Philadelphia this year due to recruiting, which evidently he needs to improve. Here is a portion of an interview I found on the internet.

The overwhelming question surrounding the Western Illinois men's basketball team is whether Derek Thomas will return as Leathernecks coach. After sitting down and talking to the four-year coach, it was clear Thomas felt he would return for a fifth year at the helm.

Jason Nevel: Do you feel like your job is safe and you'll be back after consecutive seven-win seasons?

Derek Thomas: I don't worry about that. You can call it self-confidence or whatever. I speak to people who know a lot about basketball, and they tell me the things that happened to (the team) - there's not a whole lot you can do about it. I go to sleep at night knowing that I'm doing my very best and that I put everything into it. There's a lot of factors that go into rebuilding a program that has been down for so long. You have to have some luck and be healthy. John Wooden's not going to come in here and fix things. If somebody would tell me I'm not doing a good job, then that's their opinion. I don't value a whole lot of opinions from people who don't have basketball minds. Criticism comes with the territory, and it's something you have to deal with.

JN: You only won seven games this year; do you feel like this year was disappointing?

DT: It's very frustrating, especially when you think about all the close games you had. We were picked to finish sixth and we got the seven seed. When you have all those guys out, only slipping one spot from where you were projected to be … (it) means we held together.

JN: Do you have any predictions for next year?

DT: I know we're going to win more than seven games - I can tell you that.

I think Derek may want to keep his job at First Presbyterian for a while longer.