Four candidates were chosen to interview this week for the position of women’s basketball head coach.

Ardie McInelly, former head coach for the Air Force Academy, interviewed during an open session on campus Wednesday in the Club Room in Lantz Arena..

“I know what you guys are thinking. We’re getting a new coach, and I don’t like it,” McInelly said.

She was the second candidate to be interviewed.

The two remaining candidates are Brian Osterman, associate head coach for Texas Christian, and Keila Whittington, assistant coach for Oregon.

Osterman will interview on campus Thursday from 11:30 a.m. to noon, and Whittington will interview on Friday also from 11:30 a.m. to noon.

Current associate head coach Lee Buchanan interviewed Tuesday. McInelly said talent is the key to winning games.

“I think that the key to any successful program is recruiting talented athletes,” McInelly said.

She said having more talented players on the team will help the other players be better players.

Other than that, she said she is going to devise plans to capitalize on the players’ strengths.

“I’m going to look at the team,” she said. “I’m going to evaluate their strengths and design an offense and a defense that will showcase their strengths.”

According to the JG-TC article on Wednesday, Buchanan said what Eastern needs is more substitutes and more zone defense.

He said he thinks the team already has a winning recipe, and he does not wish to change it.

Buchanan said he welcomes the opportunity to earn the job rather than have it handed to him because he is the next in line. McInelly said player development is also going to be part of her plan.

“We will have a pressure basketball team in the four major phases of the game: defense, offense, transition and rebound,” McInelly said.

McInelly said she is excited about the prospect of coaching for Eastern.

She said Eastern is in a good conference and is poised to win the conference.

When asked what she has been doing since her time coaching at the Air Force Academy, she said she tried to take some time off.

“I was paid through March 2012,” McInelly said. “ So, that gave me an opportunity to say, ‘Artie, you need to chill out, take a break, you know kind of get reenergized.’”

McInelly said that was short lived.

“So, I did that for like two weeks,” she said. “Then, I applied for a job.” She has also gone out and learned from other coaches by going to their practices, she said.

McInelly’s previous coaching experiences also include: assistant coach at Montana State from 1988-1991, assistant coach at Pacific State 1991-1992, assistant coach at Weber State 1992-1996 and head coach at Idaho State 1996- 2001.

Marcus Smith can be reached at masmith6@eiu.edu or 581-2812.