ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, March 28, 1997 TAG: 9703280071
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RAY COX THE ROANOKE TIMES
Ron Bradley, a finalist for the coaching job at Indiana State, withdraws his name from consideration.
For the third time in four years, Radford University men's basketball coach Ron Bradley was a finalist for another head coaching job. Once again, he'll be staying at Radford.
After two interviews with Indiana State University this week, Bradley said Thursday night: "It just wasn't right for me.''
Bradley spoke by telephone from Indianapolis, where he is attending the the NCAA convention and Final Four.
Indiana State, whose last basketball glory came when Larry Bird was a player, has called a 1 p.m. press conference today, presumably to introduce Royce Waltman as its next coach. Waltman, the coach of Division II Indianapolis University, was believed to have been interviewed Thursday morning and subsequently offered the job.
Developments came swiftly between Bradley and ISU.
"They called me last week and asked me to fly out and talk to them,'' he said.
"I met with the president, John Moore, and athletic director, Larry Gallo, and with members of a search committee. They called me back Tuesday and asked me to fly back out that day.''
Bradley met with athletic department staff and members of the team Wednesday. Bradley said he and Waltman were the only two of four apparent finalists who met with the team.
Waltman coached Indianapolis to the top of the D-II poll at one point this season before the team finished 23-5. Waltman also coached DePauw University to the Division III championship game in 1990 and was on Bobby Knight's staff at Indiana University when the Hoosiers won the national championship in 1987.
The Indiana State vacancy was created when Bassett native Sherman Dillard left to take over the program at James Madison. Both Bradley and Dillard were former assistant coaches at Maryland.
The history of Indiana State hoops since Bird left after the team went 33-1 and lost to Michigan State in the 1979 national championship his senior year is not a distinguished one. The Sycamores have not had a winning season since 1979-80, when they were 16-11.
Indiana State went 14-14 in 1983-84 and again in 1990-91.
When Dillard took over four years ago, the team was coming off a 4-22 campaign. Under his administration, the Sycamores went 7-19, 10-16, and 12-16.
Bradley also has been involved with the coaching vacancy at Richmond. He said he spoke to athletic director Chuck Boone about that job last week and again by telephone on Thursday.
"It is my impression that he is down to two finalists and I am not one of them,'' Bradley said.
Bradley was a finalist at Old Dominion three years ago, losing out to Jeff Capel. Bradley withdrew from consideration for the job at Maine this past year.
"The Indiana State job was a significant raise financially, but where our program at Radford is now, I didn't want to leave it for Indiana State,'' Bradley said.
Bradley has two years left on his contract at Radford. Indiana State was offering a five-year pact, he said.
"They called me,'' he said. "I did not make one phone call to them. To be fair to my family, I had to listen to what they had to say.''
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