'Don't Blink': Walker promises up-tempo, successful style at MCC

By Jamie Wachter / Sports Editor
The Meridian Star


(MERIDIAN) - Jeff Walker has a directive for Meridian Community College basketball fans: Don't blink.

In his introductory press conference Monday afternoon at Ivy Hall on the MCC campus, the coaching veteran of 20-plus years promised a style of basketball that would not only be exciting, but also successful.

"Don't blink because it's going to be fast," Walker said. "We're going to play extremely fast. Every league I've coached in, we've led the league in scoring.

"If there was a motto, and this is what I told coach (Hillary Allen) during the interview, our motto would be 'Defend, rebound and run.' We're going to get easy basket off of transition, we're going to press half court and full court, we're going to press zone and man-to-man, the whole thing. But we're also going to get in the habit of get it and go. My philosophy has always been with a 35-second clock, why wait 30 seconds to get a shot if you can get that same shot within five seconds, if it's a good shot.

"It should be fun to watch. It's fun for players to play, fun for fans to watch, and most importantly, it wins games."

That frantic pace doesn't just describe Walker's game plan on the court, but also his courtship with the Eagles. His hiring, which was first announced Friday, comes just 10 days after George Brooks left to join Rick Stansbury's staff at Mississippi State, his alma mater. Brooks' late departure didn't leave MCC much time to find a replacement, as athletic director and women's basketball coach Hillary Allen was also serving as caretaker of the men's program.

"My directive from President (Dr. Scott Elliott) was to get it done as quickly as possible," Allen said. "So, it was a priority of mine to get it done quickly. It was very tough, in just a 10-day process, to go through resumes from several applicants, talk to hundreds of coaches as recommendations for those applying for the job.

"I was in charge of that (overseeing the men's program), and I knew the names but didn't know the faces to go along with the names. It has been a challenge and it just feels good to have someone onboard now."

The Eagles, who made it to the NJCAA national tournament in 1998, have fallen on hard times in recent years, towards the end of Brooks' 13-year tenure at the helm of MCC.

That doesn't change Walker's expectations at all. The noted expert at turning programs around expects his Eagles to contend, not just for Miss-Lou Conference championships, but the big hardware at Hutchinson, Kan.

"One of the things I pride myself on is turning programs around and doing that fairly quickly," he said. "That is the objective here. We're going to be about championships. We're going to be about conference championships, like coach (Hillary) Allen mentioned, but also the goal in junior college is getting to Hutchinson, Kan., and being able to compete for a national championship on a yearly basis. That's what we hope to do and plan to do."

Prior to coming to MCC, Walker has served as the athletic director at Indiana Tech since 2009. It was before that, during his 160-86 career college coaching mark, that he made his mark at turning programs around.

After Hiawassee College in Tennessee went 4-23 in 1997-98, Walker went 24-5 and 22-9, winning the conference title in 1999-2000. He then took over a Grayson County College team in Texas coming off a 1-29 mark, instantly going 17-13 in 2000-01 before improving to 20-10 and earning a No. 13 ranking in the country. After a stint as an assistant at Middle Tennessee State, Walker coached Crichton College in Memphis, winning the TranSouth Conference title in 2006-07 before becoming the No. 2 team in the NAIA the following season.

That past was definitely an attraction to MCC according to Allen.

"I think the main thing is that he has shown he can take a program that has been a little bit down and at times in the past, turned into a contender," Allen noted. "We've been struggling with our men's program now for awhile, and we were looking for someone to come in and put us at a competitive level.

"Coach Walker's stood out above everyone that was on the list, has been coaching at a wide variety of places from junior colleges to NAIA schools to the professional level. We just couldn't find that experience anywhere else with our candidates"

To get the Eagles to join that list of turnaround successes, Walker knows what is key — not only getting to know the current Eagles, who he was first meeting Monday evening, but also hitting the recruiting trail. That aspect could be aided by the roots the Nashville, Tenn., native has developed in the south.

"In the next week or so, I'm looking forward to getting out in the area and meeting the high school coaches here in Meridian and Lauderdale County and know them, know their program and their teams," he said. "Getting familiar with them and then moving ahead with this thing here at MCC.

"Being a Southern guy. I've coached all over the country and there's no place I'd rather be than in the South, and my family's in the South. And just from a recruiting base, the two places I've always done well in through the years have been Memphis and Atlanta, and both are within just about four hours from here. And then throughout Alabama and Mississippi. It's right there and the network of coaches and recruiting base are already there.

"I just think this is an opportunity where you can compete for a national championship every year, and that's the goal and that's why I wanted to do it."