It’s just days after he was introduced as the new head men’s basketball coach at UIC, and already, Rob Ehsan is in the gym working with his new players. Between that, recruiting new players, putting together his staff, and trying to find a place for his family to live, there’s not much time for anything else.
“Building the roster and finding a place to live at some point, that’s it,” Ehsan said with a laugh. “There’s no time for anything else. We’ll vacation in August or something like that, but just a busy time, but really an amazing time.
The Flames new sideline boss wants to revive the program he’s inheriting. He’s hoping Chicago and its surrounding suburbs will help him do that, but he knows nothing will be more important than recruiting great players, from across Chicagoland and beyond.
“This is a program we want to revive, that we want to get the city of Chicago fired up about,” Ehsan said. “It’s going to take work, it’s going to take effort. We want kids with a chip on their shoulder, and we want to sell, ‘Hey guys – you’re coming here to do something that hasn’t been done in awhile’.”
It’s been a long time since UIC was nationally relevant. The program hasn’t been to the NCAA Tournament since 2004. Like every head coach, Ehsan is targeting the Big Dance, but his goals for the program don’t end there. The 41 year-old believes playing in the Missouri Valley Conference should give the Flames the chance to play the role of Cinderella.
“If you are one of the best teams in the Valley, you should have a chance to compete, really, for a Final Four, as Loyola did a few years ago,” Ehsan said. “That’s the goal. We’re going to try and go big, and put our best foot forward.”
Over Ehsan’s two decades in college coaching, he’s built an impressive resume that includes a four-year stint as head coach at Alabama-Birmingham, plus jobs as an assistant at Maryland, Virginia Tech, and most recently, Stanford. During Ehsan’s time at UAB, he led the Blazers to a pair of 20-win seasons. Replicating that at UIC won’t be easy, but the California-native is ready and excited for the challenge.
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“I just feel like it’s a great time with everything that’s going around the area, within the program, to really take a step that hasn’t happened in a long time,” he said.
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