Rob Judson had some good times at the University of Illinois.

With the head coaching job open at U of I, if Judson wants the position, he isn’t letting on.

While Judson has been mentioned by ESPN’s Andy Katz as a possible replacement and is rated as a top five candidate by IlliniBoard.com, an Illinois fan site, he said Illinois Athletics Director Ron Guenther has not contacted him since the position opened.

“Any time a coach or a team does well, the coach sometimes gets some recognition and appears in different situations,” said Judson, who is being rumored as a possible candidate to succeed Bill Self, who was announced as the new Kansas coach on Monday. “I had a good time at Illinois, but I’ve never thought of anything but the next day. All I’ve ever tried to do is work as hard as I can at where I’m at and not get too far ahead.”

On the road recruiting all of Monday, Judson avoided directly answering if he’d take the Illini job, but his days in Champaign have been some of his most memorable.

The current NIU basketball coach was a student-athlete there from 1976 to 1980. The 45-year-old Judson met his wife, the former Kim McCarty, in college. He was a proud member of Alpha Tau Omega and was a star on the hardwood.

A four-year varsity player for the Illini, he started a couple of games his freshman year, eight or nine his sophomore season and gradually more his junior and senior years. He has guarded Michigan State’s Earvin “Magic” Johnson, among other future NBA superstars.

When he left the central Illinois campus, he set the Illinois career free-throw percentage record with a .875 mark.

He returned to Illinois for five years (1996-’01) as an assistant coach and left with a .659 winning percentage.

Passed up for the head coaching job when Lon Krueger left to take the Atlanta Hawks position in 2000, Judson stuck around for a year with Bill Self at the helm before coming to NIU.

Judson was grateful that Guenther allowed him to stay after Krueger left.

“Ron was very generous to me,” Judson said. “Just the opportunity to stay and to continue to work with the guys who we recruited.”

If Judson returned to Illinois this year, he would be with players he recruited at one point or another, except for out-of-state freshmen Deron Williams and Kyle Wilson and junior Jack Ingram, who came to Illinois from Tulsa, following Self.

While Judson said he hasn’t applied for the job, he added that “you don’t really apply for a Big Ten school like Illinois,” because the administration seeks its possible candidates.

Judson was the fourth member of his family to letter at Illinois, and his history runs deep through the Champaign university. For now, he is set on next year for the Huskies.

“We’re real excited about what our guys are doing here and how hard the guys are doing this spring,” Judson said. “The whole group is ready to take another step forward for next year.”