Basketball fans, today marks the fifth week of the HoriZone PC series, which is a tribute to every current Horizon League coach in the style of video games.
This week, we are featuring IU Indy assistant men’s basketball coach Mike Burris, who played his first two seasons on the JUCO level and his final two seasons on the NCAA Division I level.
For those of you that know about Burris, he first atrended a junior college in Olney, Illinois called Olney Central College and played basketball under head coach Jim Glash. As a freshman in the 1997-98 season, Burris averaged 9 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists per game. As a sophomore in the 1998-99 season, he averaged 17 points, 4 boards and 4 dimes per contest.
Following a productive JUCO campaign, Burris transferred his credits over to California Polytechnic State University aka Cal Poly, which is in San Luis Obispo, CA. That’s where we kick things off in NCAA Final Four 2000 on PlayStation. As a junior in the 1999-2000 season with the Mustangs, Burris was under head coach Jeff Schneider. Playing in 15 of the team’s 28 games, Burris averaged 1.3 points, 0.7 rebounds, and 0.6 assists per contest. He made only 22.2 percent of his shots (4-of-18) and missed all 5 of his 3-point attempts, but he had a solid free-throw percentage of 78.6 percent (11-of-14).
Cal Poly finished the 1999-2000 campaign with an overall record of 10-18 and 5-11 in conference play, ending in 5th place in the Big West Conference’s West Division.
Burris’ ratings in NCAA Final Four 2000
• Shoot: 72
• Over: 58
• Leap: 80
• Steal: 79
• FT (free throw): 83
• Quick: 73
• Strength: 56
• Block: 61
• Pass: 61
• Speed: 81
• Ball handle: 51
• Range: 85
• Clutch: 68
• Stam (stamina): 66
• Off Reb (offensive rebounds): 68
• Def Reb (defensive rebounds): 61
NCAA Final Four 2000
Now we go onto Burris’ final collegiate season with NCAA Final Four 2001 (PlayStation and PlayStation 2). One thing to note is that during the Mustangs’ 2000-01 campaign, Coach Schneider resigned after a 5-7 start and an active five-game losing streak, with Kevin Bromley taking over as the interim head coach for the remainder of the season. In Burris’ crazy senior season, he played in 24 of the team’s 28 games, averaging 2.5 points, 1.1 rebounds, 1.2 assists, 0.6 steals and 7.3 minutes per game. His shooting improved as well as he made 44.2 percent of his shots (19-of-43) 33.3 percent of his 3-point tries (3-of-9) while also making a respectable 73.1 percent of his free-throws (19-of-26).
That exact same season, Cal Poly finished with a 9-19 overall record and went 3-13 in conference play, finishing in a three-way tie for 7th place with Idaho and Cal State Fullerton in the Big West standings.
Burris’ ratings in NCAA Final Four 2001
• Shoot: 50
• Over: 56
• Leap: 51
• Steal: 58
• FT (free throw): 59
• Quick: 58
• Strength: 64
• Block: 67
• Pass: 78
• Speed: 68
• Ball handle: 59
• Range: 81
• Clutch: 59
• Stam (stamina): 70
• Off Reb (offensive rebounds): 59
• Def Reb (defensive rebounds): 45
NCAA Final Four 2001, PlayStation
NCAA Final Four 2001, PlayStation 2
Coaching career: Burris has been very productive and successful in the coaching ranks. He started out at his alma mater of Olney Central College as an assistant in 2001 before becoming the youngest and winningest head coach in that school’s history. Burris took over the head coaching job for the Blue Knights at the age of 26 and won 252 games in his 15 seasons over there (2005-20). He was voted the 2012 Great Rivers Athletic Conference Coach of the Year, was named the 2013 NJCAA Region 24 Coach of the Year, and led his squad to a #14 national rank in 2018-19.
After his successful work with Olney Central College, Burris left for one of his hometown schools called U-Indy, where he was an assistant coach and later an Associate Head Coach under former Purdue-Fort Wayne assistant Paul Corsaro. Burris and Corsaro worked together at UIndy for four seasons (2020-24) and helped lead the Greyhounds to the best seasons in school history. Not only did they win back-to-back Great Lakes Valley Conference regular season titles in 2023 and 2024, but they also hosted the NCAA Division II Midwest Regional for the first time since 1998.
In April 2024, Burris followed Corsaro to IUPUI – which was later changed to IU Indy – and is currently Corsaro’s top assistant and recruiting coordinator.
Fun facts: Burris is a native of Owensburg, Indiana, which is an hour and 15 minutes away in driving distance from the IU Indy campus. He also graduated from Eastern Illinois University in 2004 with a Bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts.
