NIU may have lost a head coach when Jim Molinari defected to Bradley last week, but one of his prize recruits is coming to NIU anyway.

Hubert Register, a 6-8 forward from Minneapolis who averaged 15 points and 10 rebounds and earned all-city honors, signed a national letter of intent with NIU last Wednesday.

“(Molinari) told me that (he might be leaving) before I signed. But I felt that Northern had what I wanted,” Register told The Northern Star. “But I felt like I was losing a friend that I hadn’t made yet,” he added.

The search for Register’s next coach has produced a number of candidates. Robert Collins, a former NIU assistant under Jim Rosborough and current DePaul assistant, Mark Coomes, assistant coach at Illinois and another former NIU assistant under John McDougal, and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee head coach Steve Antrim, a finalist for the NIU job two years ago, head the list.

Collins said he is available, but has not yet applied. “I definitely would have interest,” said Collins who declined to comment further.

Coomes would not say if he’s interested. “I’m certain Northern will get the right person for the job,” Coomes said. “(But) I’m not going to comment on my potential interest for the job.”

The 43-year old Antrim, who led UW-M to an 18-10 record in the school’s first year in Division I, was unavailable for comment but did interview for the NIU position in 1989 and is considered a strong candidate.

Whoever the coach will be will have to deal with the possible transfer of freshman guard Mike Lipnisky, who said earlier in the week he might leave. “Right now the best thing I can do is finish good academically this semester,” Lipnisky, who averaged 6.3 points for NIU, said. “(Who the new coach is) will make a lot of difference.”

Fellow freshman guard Mark Layton said he’s sticking with NIU. “I won’t transfer,” Layton said. “It doesn’t really matter who the new coach is.”