Former Boilermaker coach Gene Keady is expected to be in attendance at the Assembly Hall for tonight's basketball matchup between Illnois and Vanderbilt.  He will have a chance to watch as 3 of his former assistants at Purdue will be battling each other for an important early season victory in the 2009-2010 season.

See if you can follow the script:

Two of  those former assistants will be on the same sideline tonight.  Illini Head Coach Bruce Weber and  Assistant Coach Jay Price worked together in West Lafayette for several years under Gene Keady. Of course ....when Bruce Weber came to Champaign from Carbondale....he brought Jay Price in from Purdue to be one of his assistants at Illinois.

The other former Purdue assistant is working the visiting sideline tonight at the Assembly Hall.

Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings..... who played his high school ball in Collinisville before moving on to play basketball for the Boilermakers.  His head coach in college at Purdue was Gene Keady...and one of the assistant coaches working under Keady during Stalling's career  was.... Bruce Weber. 

Once his playing days were over......Stallings eventually became an assistant coach at Purdue himself and worked alongside Bruce Weber...under Gene Keady.     While at Purdue...Stallings and Weber became close friends and spent a lot of time together.

Eventually...  Stallings became an assistant coach at Kansas and worked for new Kansas coach  Roy Williams. One of the managers for that Jayhawk team was a young man named Jay Price...who was looking to break into the coaching profession. 

After his days in Lawrence....Price eventually took a job working at the University of Oklahoma as an assistant coach to Billy Tubbs..... while Stallings went on to become a head coach at Illinois State in Normal. 

Shortly after getting the Redbird job....Stallings got a call from Price asking about an assistant coaching position at Illinois State.  While Stallings did not hire Price for that position...he knew of an assistant coach opening in West Lafayette....with Gene Keady.  He promptly placed a call to Keady recommending Price for that job.  So Price went off to Purdue as a new assistant ...... under Gene Keady.... and went to work for Keady alongside fellow assistant Bruce Weber.  

When Bruce Weber got his first head coaching job in Carbondale at Southern Illinois....Jay Price stayed with Gene Keady at Purdue.  When Bill Self left Illinois in the spring of 2003 to go to Kansas to replace Roy Williams........Bruce Weber got the Illini job and promptly hired Price. The rest is history.

Tonight....Weber and Stallings are head coaches of two solid basketball programs at Illinois and Vanderbilt.   Meanwhile.... Price has the scouting report for the Illini as he and Weber prepare to face ....and beat .....a fellow coach...who also happens to be a good friend of both men.

The Illini and Vanderbilt play tonight at 7:30...Talk to you then.