Central Michigan AD Dave Heeke: Basketball program is getting closer, but still not there
Central Michigan Athletics Director Dave Heeke said this week he is committed to men’s basketball coach Ernie Zeigler despite a disappointing 10-21 season.
Zeigler signed a four-year contract extension prior to the season. He also successfully recruited his son Trey, the most highly-coveted recruit CMU has ever brought in, prior to the season.
But that didn’t equate to any extra wins in the 2010-11 season.
“It’s important that we have significant improvement next year,” said Heeke, who would not point to a specific number of wins he expects.
And it’s not as if Zeigler doesn’t realize the task at hand, especially after coming five wins shy of matching the team’s 2009-10 total.
“The (goal) is to turn this program into a winning program that sustains some continuity with winning,” said Zeigler, who is 64-90 in five years in Mount Pleasant. “Quite obviously, that hasn’t happened yet.”
Heeke said he understands where the program was at five years ago. He said Rose Arena was “worse than most high school gyms in the southern part of this state” prior to its renovation to what is now McGuirk Arena.
“There were a lot of loose ends and a lot of loose pieces to this program,” he said.
With leniency, however, the head of athletics also acknowledged that there is a bottom line.
“Ultimately, there’s a scoreboard, and there’s standings,” Heeke said. “And we want be on the right side of the scoreboard more than not, and we want to be high in the standings.”
Youth was a factor in the Chippewas’ struggles. CMU had just four seniors to start the season, and senior point guard Amir Rashid left the team after an incident surrounding the Eastern Michigan game on Jan. 23.
“Unfortunately, some things occurred prior to the game and after the game that definitely affected his mindset,” Zeigler said, “to the point where he said ‘coach, I just want to focus on graduating.’”
Zeigler said he has not talked to Rashid since his departure.
Heeke and Zeigler both pointed to a difficult schedule to begin the season as well. CMU played seven of its first eight games on the road, grabbing a 2-6 record that Heeke said “snowballed” into more losses.
But Heeke said he sees progress in the program, despite a feeling of disappointment after a lot of preseason hype was not fulfilled.
“I would like to see more wins, more things that we weren’t able to do this year — finishing games, taking that program to compete for the West Division title,” Heeke said.
“I think that’s important. We’re still making steps toward being an elite team in the entire league. But I think we’re closer.”
