McMillan gets his man
in UH’s Burke

It's been quite a while since Bob Burke helped put Nate McMillan on the path to the NBA as head coach at Chowan College in North Carolina.

Now McMillan is returning the favor.

After 37 years in coaching, the last three as an assistant at Hawaii, Burke is looking forward to his first shot to coach in the pros as McMillan hired his former college coach to join the Portland Trail Blazers staff.

"It's the ultimate compliment a coach would want from a player," Burke said. "Without a doubt, it's the ultimate."

Burke and the Trail Blazers finalized the hiring process on Friday and spent yesterday looking for a place in Portland.

After spending most of his lengthy coaching career in North Carolina, including 22 years as head coach at Chowan, Burke has been on the move in recent years. He joined the UH staff in 2002 and has coached at almost every level -- ranging from junior varsity high school ball to college and now to the pros.

"Four years ago I'm sitting in Murfreesboro, N.C.., and (UH coach Riley Wallace) asks me to come to Hawaii," Burke said. "Now I've got an opportunity to go to the NBA. I'd say I've been pretty fortunate. Excited isn't the word to describe it.

"It's been a wild ride. I never imagined I'd go to Hawaii and end up in the NBA. ... (Coaching is Hawaii) was a unique experience. It's going to be a memory I'll always cherish."

McMillan was interested in hiring Burke when he was hired by the Seattle SuperSonics in 2001, but it didn't work out at the time.

Burke worked as a consultant with the Sonics in the offseason last year and when McMillan landed at Portland this year, he again pursued Burke and sought Wallace's opinion over the summer.

"Nate was very interested in him, so he interviewed me about Bob," Wallace said.

Although he'll be dealing with professional players, Burke's experience with college-aged athletes could come in handy on a team with an average age under 24.

"I've kind of gone the whole gamut in terms of dealing with kids psychologically and trying to help them get through various stages of their game mentally," Burke said. "Hopefully my experience over the years will be to my advantage in just dealing with people.

"I don't know any coach that doesn't want intensity, enthusiasm and togetherness. And if we get those three things going, eventually we'll be pretty good."

Burke is the latest UH coach to use the third assistant position as a springboard. Scott Rigot, the coach Burke replaced, is now an assistant at Kentucky. Jamie Dixon (Pittsburgh), Jeff Law (UH-Hilo) and David Spencer (UC Riverside) went on to become head coaches.

Burke's move leaves a vacancy on the UH coaching staff that Wallace hopes to fill before the start of practice on Oct. 15.

"That's the goal," he said. "If we get all the paperwork done, everybody gets their applications in and we come up with good candidates, the ideal would be to have it before we get to practice."

The work of preparing for the upcoming season is already under way. A new NCAA rule allows coaches to work with the entire team for 2 hours per week prior to the start of practice. The players also have 6 hours per week of supervised conditioning.