De Paul assistant Ken Burmeister and St. Mary’s of California head coach Ernie Kent are the two finalists for succeeding Will Rey as head men’s basketball coach at Loyola, which is expected to announce its decision this week.
Burmeister, 45, a De Paul assistant since 1990, was ranked in a 1992 poll as one of the six best recruiters in college coaching. He previously served as an assistant on Lute Olson’s staffs at Iowa and Arizona.
Burmeister served four years as head coach at Texas-San Antonio, which in the 1987-88 season had a 22-9 record and went to the NCAA tournament.
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Kent, 39, is a native of Rockford and a graduate of Oregon. He has coached St. Mary’s for three years, taking over a rock-bottom program and improving it to 13-14 this past season.
Rey resigned five weeks ago.
Mike Billish, Kelly Ward and Julie Keller warmed up for this weekend’s Kansas Relays by winning track events in the Chicago State Invitational. Billish won the men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase in 9 minutes 19 seconds. Ward won the women’s 1,500 in 4:54. Keller won the women’s 3,000 meters in 10:28.04.
Debbie Brown went 3 for 3 with two singles and a double as the softball team (19-13, 3-1 Midwestern Collegiate Conference) beat Evansville 8-2.