Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News
By Tom Archdeacon
Except for that big, dark beard grown during these isolation times of COVID, Wright State’s Tim Finke is starting to look like his old self again:
- Like the high school player who once was the No. 2 overall recruit in Illinois, was heavily recruited by several Power 5 schools and had narrowed his choices down to five schools: Notre Dame, Ohio State, Illinois, Oregon and Vanderbilt.
- Like the 6-foot-6 senior who averaged 21 points, 9.2 rebounds and 3.2 assists a game, led Champaign Central High School to its third straight regional crown and finished his high school career with 2,015 points.
- Like the kid his dad, Jeff, himself a two-sport athlete at the University of Illinois and now the head basketball coach at Champaign Central, said was the “most skilled” of his three basketball playing sons. That’s no small feat considering 6-foot-10 Michael was a 1,000 point scorer in college and now is playing professionally in Europe and Nick is a 6-foot-7 senior at Army.
- Like the guy who once “had fun” playing basketball.
Although he was getting vigorously recruited already as a high school freshman, Finke’s star dimmed when he suffered a back injury and then struggled physically and mentally leading to a “terrible summer” (his words) after his junior season. As a result, several of his biggest suitors backed away and signed other top players.
Finally, he took several weeks off to heal and in that time Grand Canyon University in Arizona — coached by former NBA standout Dan Majerle — put on the full-court press and ended up signing him.
