Cornell picks ex-Shocker coach for hoops job

Thompson gured agtert "nation-wide" search yield 100 applications Seven weeks after Al Walker resigned the position, Cornell named its new head men's basketball coach at a press conference on June 14. Scott Thompson, formerly the top man at several Midwestern universities, was the choice after a national search that yielded over 100 applications and seven finalists. "We're delighted to have Scott Thompson join our athletic staff," Cornell Athletic Director Charles Moore said in a statement. "We conducted a national search and he is the right fit for our program. Scott has an impressive background as both a student-athlete and a coach, and we look forward to his immediate leadership of our men's team." All of Thompson's head coaching jobs have involved major reconstructions, and Cornell is no exception. After winning their first, and only, Ivy League championship in the 1987-88 season, the Big Red have experienced just one winning season in the last eight years. In fact, the program is in much the same condition that Walker found it when he took the reins three years ago. In those three campaigns, Walker had a record of 27-51 and averaged just four league wins per season. For the previous four years, Thompson, 42, had been the head coach at Wichita State. During his tenure, the Shockers never reached .500, falling one game short during the 1994-95 season. Last year, however, the gains were reversed as the team's record fell to 8-21, and the Shockers found themselves at the bottom of the conference standings. For unspecified reasons, Thompson resigned from his position immediately after Oral Roberts ended the Wichita State's year on February 27. Prior to his stay at Wichita State, Thompson coached at Rice for five seasons. The Owls enjoyed a successful run during the period. In just four years, Thompson built the the school's first winning team in 20 years and made his only post-season coaching appearance at the 1991 National Invitation Tournament. Despite myriad jobs in basketball, including stints as an advisor to the 1988 Olympic Team, an assistant to Lute Olson at Iowa and Arizona and as an assistant to Digger Phelps at Notre Dame, Thompson has never worked in a non-scholarship environment like the Ivy League. The ability to bring in top athletes who are also top students figures highly in Ivy coaching. "It's only a disadvantage if you think it is and if you don't believe in your ability to deal with the situation," said Penn coach Fran Dunphy, who will face the fourth different Cornell coach of his eight-year career this winter. Dr. Dianne Murphy, Cornell's Associate Athletic Director, who headed the coaching search believes Thompson is well-prepared for the Ivy League. Murphy points to his two appearances on the Big 10 all-academic team as a student as proof that Thompson can balance athletics and academics. "He's got a tremendous record," Murphy said. "If you look at his credentials, he was a standout student-athlete at the University of Iowa and then was an assistant -- or head coach -- at very fine institutions, Notre Dame and Rice." Perhaps the most difficult task facing Thompson is creating enthusiasm for the Big Red squad at a school where hoops tradition is scant and hockey, not basketball, is often the primary winter attraction. "Cornell and the Ivy League family are known for quality and excellence. Our goal is to improve the basketball program to a point where good basketball is a tradition," Thompson said in the statement. Until Thompson took the job last week, Cornell's basketball office was being run by the one holdover of the Walker regime. Tyrone Pitts, who starred at forward for Penn from 1984-1988, was himself a finalist for the head position. According to Murphy, the new coach will make the decision whether to keep Pitts on as assistant.