Marlon London is currently the assistant coach for the Eastern men’s basketball team.
London is from Broadview and played high school basketball at St. Joseph High School in Westchester.
At St. Joseph, London was coached by Gene Pingatore, the winningest high school basketball coach in the state of Illinois. Pingatore also coached NBA champion Isiah Thomas, national champion Daryl Thomas and Kansas State alum Deryl Cunningham.
After high school, London took his talents to the University of Kansas, where he was coached by legendary college coach Roy Williams, who London says is an all-around legendary person that he still keeps in touch with to this day.
London played two years at Kansas, and then he took his talents back home to play in front of friends and family at DePaul University. London spent his last college years at DePaul then entered his name in the 2003 NBA draft.
London was selected in the ninth round in the 2007 annual NBA G League Draft by the Idaho Stampede. After spending time with the Stampede, London kept playing basketball overseas in Mexico.
After playing overseas, Marlon went back home and went to a barbeque on the west side of Chicago, running into his high school coach, Pingatore. Pingatore was there recruiting a player and then asked London what his plan was. Pingatore wanted London to coach with him, but London denied it at first. After multiple conversations, London went to a practice.
“I didn’t think I had the personality. As a player I was fiery, so I didn’t think that younger players would follow me,” London
While watching practice, London knew he could give coaching a try, but Pingatore made London coach the freshman level first to teach him the patience aspect of coaching because Pingatore knew London’s personality possibly would not work at the varsity level that fast.
“Coaching freshmen was an eye-opening experience,” London said.
Marlon went on to coach at the University of Illinois Chicago, North Park University and Lewis University.
“As an assistant, you want the head coach to do the least amount of work as possible,” London said. “So, you check classes, put players through individual workouts through the day, set up practice plans with coaches, on the road recruiting and be an extension of the philosophy that coach Marty [Simmons] has and follow that so the players can follow the philosophy as well.”
In London’s first season, Eastern is 10-12 and 4-5 in the Ohio Valley Conference.
“It has been amazing here at EIU. We are on track to have the most wins this program has seen in a while, so we just have to keep stacking and building together.”
Cameron Thomas can be reached at 581-2812 or at densportsdesk@gmail.com.
