Asmussen | Former Illini star Anderson leads Panthers to new heights

Jun. 2—Think the Eastern Illinois baseball team is scared about Friday night's NCAA tournament game at Vanderbilt?

Not a chance.

Led by former Danville standout, former Illinois star and former Major League Baseball pitcher Jason Anderson, the Panthers can't wait to see the fourth-ranked Commodores.

"They crave the obstacle," Anderson told me earlier this week. "We're licking our chops to get at Vanderbilt. We're not saying we're better than them or anything, but we want to have the opportunity to see what we can do.

"They feel really good about themselves, and that's my ultimate goal as a coach."

Anderson is in his eighth, and most successful, season in charge of the Panthers down in Charleston. The team enters the NCAA tournament opener with its best-ever record, 38-19, as a Division I program.

What was Anderson thinking as he waited for the pairings to come out on Monday?

"I wanted to face the No. 1 team in the country," Anderson said.

That would be Wake Forest. Maybe next year or later in the tournament.

Depending on the outcome Friday night, the Panthers will play either Oregon or Xavier on Saturday in the four-team, double-elimination regional.

It has been a long haul for Anderson to get to this point. After taking over for 21-year coach Jim Schmitz in 2016, Anderson won 13 games his first year and only 15 his second.

"We had to start off with development and take one step at a time," Anderson said. "Early on, people looked at this place differently than they do now."

The Panthers lost at least 30 games his first five seasons and didn't have a winning record in any of them.

The program started to turn in 2022, when the team went 33-20 and finished fourth in the Ohio Valley Conference. Followed by this year's success that peaked this past Saturday when the Panthers beat Morehead State 6-5 to win the OVC tournament.

The program is now on a roll.

"We have played 18 home games over the last two years and we've won over 70 games," Anderson said. "You're not going to find another program in history that does something like that."

One of the wins this year was a 1-0, 12-inning decision against his alma mater, with the Panthers beating Illinois on April 18 in Champaign.

Eastern Illinois also had a blowout win at fifth-ranked Arkansas in late February.

"There's no pressure when you play games like that," Anderson said. "You know you don't have as much talent as them, but we played the type of baseball that I want them to play. To see it work in that type of setting is pretty cool."

Been there, done thatEastern Illinois is making just its third all-time appearance in the NCAA tournament. The 1999 team went 1-2, eliminated by Minnesota at Waco, Texas. The 2008 team went 0-2 at Lincoln, Neb.

If his current players ask, Anderson can tell them all about his NCAA tournament experiences. He made it as both a freshman and junior at Illinois.

The 1998 Illinois team was oh-so-close to reaching the College World Series for the first time in program history.

"We were a ground ball away," Anderson said, recalling the 7-6 loss to host Florida in the regional final.

Anderson was a star, earning All-American honors and being named Big Ten Pitcher of the Year in 2000, his final season.

Anderson was drafted by the New York Yankees his junior year and signed with the team. He worked his way up the system and made his MLB debut in 2003.

The pride of Danville also played for the New York Mets and in Cleveland, appearing in 32 games during parts of three seasons.

His personal history is a selling point for recruits.

"I tell them I don't think that makes me a better coach than anybody else," he said. "What I tell them is, 'I've been everywhere that they want to be. I've been on the mound at Yankee Stadium and Wrigley Field and I know what the bus rides are like in Double-A. I know the ups and downs. I know what the failure is like. I know what the highs are like.' That's what makes me a little more unique than anybody else."

What does Anderson rank as his carer highlight? It's a multi-part answer.

"What I've done my whole life is try to find accomplishments that some people think are unreachable," Anderson said. "Like being the first person in my family to to go the University of Illinois or be an All-American or making the big leagues. Coming here and taking over the program and going from 13 wins to setting the school record and being in a regional definitely fits into that."

Getting to the regional was a chore.

The Panthers won five games in the OVC tournament, including the one-run victory against top-seeded Morehead State in the final.

"It was harder to get us to an OVC championship than it was to play in the Major Leagues," Anderson said.

MLB teams apparently like what is going on in Charleston, drafting recent Panthers in the first (Trey Sweeney to the Yankees in 2021), fifth (Will Klein to the Royals in 2020) and sixth (Hayden Birdson to the Rangers in 2022) rounds in recent years. With more likely on the way.

Already on siteThe NCAA tournament schedule couldn't have worked out better for EIU athletic director Tom Michael. He was already scheduled to be in Nashville, Tenn., this week for the OVC meetings anyway.

"The last five or six days have been a pretty good ride for the baseball team," Michael said.

If the Panthers had been sent far away, Michael would have left the OVC meetings early. He wants to be there to support Anderson and the Panthers.

Anderson was an assistant coach on the Eastern Illinois staff when Michael promoted him. Good call.

"He's been able to find a niche in the recruitng piece," Michael said."He's found a way to get some guys that fit well into our program, his coaching style. They've bought in."

Michael and Anderson have known each other for more than two decades. Michael was an academic advisor at Illinois during Anderson's time as an Illini player. When Anderson was a volunteer coach at the school, Michael was an associate athletic director.

"He's a big reason I wanted to be here (at Eastern Illinois)," Anderson said. "I knew him and I knew the type of person that he was and I could trust him."

The facilities at Eastern Illinois for baseball have improved. With the help of donors, the program has new locker rooms, a redone field and a new scoreboard at Coaches Stadium. There is also a new weightroom for all the sports.

"We don't have as much as lot of schools do and that's OK with us," Anderson said. "It's my personality. I grew up fighting and scratching. I don't need the biggest and the best. What I need is the right people and the stuff to truly develop guys. We have that at Eastern."

Michael hopes the success of the current team generates more interest and leads to move improvements.

The AD is happy with his coach, who turns 44 on June 9. Anderson appreciates where he is and what he is doing.

"I've got a great family, a great life, great team," Anderson said. "A lot of success on things I have put my mind to."