Warren’s Paul likes Western Michigan’s vibe
Aspiring basketball coaches were always clamoring to hang around John Wooden.
Even established coaches were known to call up the “Wizard of Westwood” every once in awhile to seek his advice.
It’s been more than a year since Wooden died at the age of 99, yet people are still trying to soak up his basketball knowledge.
Darius Paul is one of them.
The 6-foot-8 forward from Warren wants to be a basketball coach someday. And he figured that if he couldn’t learn about the game from Wooden directly, his next best bet would be to learn about the game from someone who was taught directly by Wooden.
That’s a big reason Paul, one of the best returning basketball players in Lake County heading into the upcoming season, decided to commit to Western Michigan late last month.
He wanted the Wooden touch, and Western Michigan has it.
Western Michigan assistant coach Larry Farmer is a former Gurnee resident and a longtime friend of the Paul family. He also played basketball at UCLA from 1970 to 1973.
Farmer teamed up with Bill Walton to help the Bruins win three of the seven straight NCAA titles they rolled up under Wooden, one of the winningest coaches of all time.
Farmer recruited Paul hard, and made Western Michigan a contender from the beginning.
“It’s cool that he played at UCLA for Coach Wooden,” Paul said of Farmer, who was the head coach at Loyola Chicago from 1996 to 2004. “I know I can learn a lot from him. I really want to be a coach. I used to make my own plays and draw them up when I was younger.
“I think I can learn a lot from all the coaches (at Western Michigan). They’re all really good about teaching the game and all the fundamentals.”
Paul, the younger brother of University of Illinois standout Brandon Paul, says that he was also seriously considering Northwestern, Detroit, Iowa, Penn State and Bradley.
Another plus for Western Michigan is that Paul will be one of seven freshmen to join the program next fall. Playing time and the rotation should be wide open.
“The one thing (Brandon) told me was to look for a place where I would have a chance to play right away like he did,” Paul said. “He said, ‘You don’t want to go somewhere and sit the bench.’ Western Michigan is losing a lot of seniors this year and I knew that there would be a lot of playing time up for grabs.
“It’s also good to know that you won’t be alone. There will be six other freshmen going through the same thing as me.”
One of those freshmen will be Charles Harris, a 6-foot-4 forward out of Lake Forest Academy. Harris and Paul are good friends.
“We are AAU teammates,” Paul said. “It’s really cool that we’re going there together.”
Paul, who averaged about 12 points and 8 rebounds in leading Warren to the Class 4A state title game last season, said that he got a great vibe about Western Michigan when he went on his visit.
“My visit went really good,” Paul said. “The coaches and players are cool people. And once I saw the campus, I got really serious about the school.”