RHIT didn't look terrible last night vs. St. Mary of the Woods. They've recruited reasonably well and have some nice-looking freshman. Reigning HCAC Freshman of the Year post player (forget her name) was in civilian clothes on the bench. They'll definitely need her at the Midwest Classic next week.
Couple mistakes made during time-outs that cost them some possessions with not being prepared for what SMWC threw at them but hopefully they'll figure it out. They still suffer from the lack of a truly explosive guard or wing who they can throw the ball to at the end of the shot-clock and just go create and score - or create for teammates. Those kids exist but if they want to major in engineering they're going to MIT or Stevens - or Division I somewhere.

Don't know if anyone noticed that MSJ defeated WHEATON last night. In the grand scheme of things that's akin to N. Illinois knocking off Notre Dame in FB. Monumental win for MSJ.

Should be an interesting HCAC race this year. Transy will re-load of course but might be more gett-able than they were the last few years with all the veterans.

Quote from: PauldingLightUP on May 23, 2024, 12:51:14 PMLett departs Millikin for head coach at another school TBA next weeks.


https://athletics.millikin.edu/news/2024/5/23/womens-basketball-letts-departure-leaves-millikin-searching-for-new-head-womens-basketball-coach.aspx

Any guesses where she'll reappear?

Not that it really matters to me personally, but from what I've recently been told, there is a 100% chance that Transy hires a female to replace Fulks. No idea who that'll be of course. Todd was hired under a completely different regime and his hire would have never happened today. Fortunately, there should be a multitude of very well-qualified young female coaches who apply - especially in light of the program's recent success and it's overwhelming advantages over the rest of the HCAC (location in KY and in downtown Lexington in particular along with the school's commitment to financial aid across the board).
This will help them avoid the last HCAC school's fate - that set-out specifically to hire a female in defiance of Title VII. You can ask them how it worked out when they had at least a dozen highly-qualified men who applied for THEIR open WBB position - including at least three with NCAA Tournament experience - only to get too cute and elevate a female graduate assistant from an NAIA school - whom they had to run off within 18 months, as I recall. At least RHIT, with all the attendant wokeness and incompetence, offered their open WBB position to a white male (out of desperation...but I digress) who promptly turned them down due to said wokeness and incompetence. Nevertheless, at least some attempt was made to find the best PERSON for the job - which you have to acknowledge and respect.

Glad to hear the girls are having fun again. They really ought to win a minimum of 16 games this season with the amount of talent that the former coach was able to recruit - Hard to believe that he was that good a recruiter if he was such a lousy coach. They've got 3 kids that had multiple Division I offers as well as Reese who was a solid, solid HS PG. Add seasoned veteran Black and the heady Gallegos (whose sister is on the Mexican women's national team) and you have a hell of a group of kids that were assembled well before the new staff arrived - but to their credit they've managed to keep them all together. I'm sure the new staff were made very well aware that, if they didn't accomplish anything else this year, they weren't to run anyone off! Looks like there is a couple of capable female assistant coaches as well - which is something that was always lacking in the past, for sure. This has worked out reasonably well so far - despite the coaching search devolving from a handshake agreement last winter - to literally the flip of a coin in July. The true test will be recruiting. Since Division III and/or high academic experience held no consideration in the "search process", we'll see what they are able to bring in next year on their own.

Quote from: Jester1390 on July 05, 2023, 12:47:44 AM
Hi Engine

i am aware of  many things none good.  I will send you privately emails i sent and responses i got. Would love to post on here but discretion  better serves my daughter. The school knew she was right. All the players who left said they would come back with a change and even when they cancelled the season the girls said they would still come back with a change so their former teammates wouldnt lose a season instead of cancelling it and the AD didnt even respond.

Well...that's because she needed cause to fire him. Having to cancel the season lent some weight to her decision to get rid of the coach. Why in God's name she didn't just ease him out with some dignity at the end of the 2021-22 campaign and get all those kids back when she had a chance, I guess we'll never know. Indiana is, after all, an at-will employment state and as I understand it, all RHIT coaches work on one-year contracts that are rolled-over every summer. At any rate, a dignified exit for one of the most successful and longest-tenured coaches in the department would also have probably served to help get a better pool of candidates last summer before word got out what a dysfunctional place RHIT has become. That is assuming, of course, that the AD desired a large pool of highly-qualified WBB candidates to choose from - which I'm not so sure about anymore.

The coaching search for the new women's basketball coach at RHIT was incompetently conceived, incompetently led, and, if some of the shenanigans I've heard are to be believed, sketchy.

Having said all that, I'd never in a million years wish for someone to fail. The new coach is, I'm sure, a gentleman, a good family man, and, hopefully a good coach as well. Regardless how the position came to him, he's gotten a shot, and I hope he makes the most of it and lifts up the program. Good luck, Coach Paul.

Quote from: Jester1390 on June 26, 2023, 10:35:26 AM
Engine sometime today the new head coach will be announced my daughter told me . He is a guy who was out of basketball for 6 years before coming back last year  the entire staff was let go after the end of the season after going 9-21 .

DEVRINN PAUL
Paul spent three years at Marshall University from 2013-16 as an assistant coach and recruiting specialist before moving into consulting for the last six years.

Prior to Marshall, Paul was at the University of Louisville for three years as the video coordinator for the women's basketball team. Prior to being named video coordinator, he was a graduate assistant for the Cardinal women's basketball team for two years and graduated with his master's (higher education in human resources) in 2010.

At Louisville, Paul was part of the first Cardinal women's basketball program to make it to the NCAA Final Four (2009). During his time at Louisville, the Cards made four NCAA Tournament appearances and advanced to the national championship game twice. Louisville advanced to the NCAA final, losing to Connecticut. Along the way to the title game, the No. 5 seed Cards defeated the No. 1 seed Baylor, and in doing so were nominated for "Best Upset" at the 2013 ESPYs.

Paul's duties as video coordinator included preparing scouting reports, producing highlight videos and game film, helping with recruiting videos and developing game plans alongside the coaching staff.

Prior to Louisville, Paul attended Kentucky State University in Frankfort, Ky., where he worked as the student manager for the men's basketball team. He graduated with his bachelor's in business marketing with a minor in journalism in 2008.

A Hempstead, N.Y., native, Paul moved to Louisville at age 11 and attended Waggener High School, where he played varsity basketball and football. He received a Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Educational Foundation scholarship award in 2003 for football, and was first team all-district in 2002 and 2003.

Jester - are you aware of any goings-on in the athletic department at RHIT? My sources still around town have reported things over the past year or so but they've all culminated for me with this recent hire. With SO many talented, hard-charging, and accomplished assistants and former head coaches out there, the very fact that this arrogant and stupefying decision was made at all is all the proof an observer would need to understand that something is really, really wrong in Terre Haute.

I probably shouldn't be surprised based on a few things I'VE heard, but just wondering if I'm the only one hearing them.

Quote from: Ron Boerger on June 26, 2023, 04:56:41 PM
On another note, RHIT has their 2023-4 roster up; 10 young women, including four newcomers.  It appears that everyone who could return did.

I believe the 6'2 girl is a nice player - undoubtedly recruited by the previous staff and decided to enroll at RHIT anyway. He'll start with a cupboard that's not completely bare - with an All-conference performer in Baum, a Freshman of the Year candidate in Roland, and nice role-players in Miller and Gallegos-Rodriguez. I think there's enough talent there that Prevo would have won at least 10-11 games with this group - we'll see what happens. What he won't have, unfortunately, will be a single soul who can handle the ball in the backcourt, other than Baum. We will find out soon enough if he can coach. It'll take a couple years to find out if he can recruit.

What WILL be interesting will be the direction of the program if there are any injuries? The standard has already been laid down and if two kids go down (if Randolph remains sidelined they only have 9 players) and they have only seven players at any point in the season, they won't be able to play. Per the AD's decision last year, it will be too hard on the kids mentally - so she won't dare allow them to play with only 7 kids next year.

Quote from: Ron Boerger on June 26, 2023, 04:38:27 PM
Strange hire, indeed.  Totally perplexed at what the AD at RHIT was thinking (if the hire wasn't dictated by someone in administration which given the general cluelessness shown may be the case).  Good luck to all involved.

Common sense would infer that one of two things happened here:

#1 - The search was botched because the AD has no clue how to run a candidate search at a high-academic D-III institution - to say nothing of the very different academics and demographics found at a unique school like RHIT. She's been there long enough now (18 months) that she should have some clue what she's doing. It's pretty simple. Go out there and try to find someone who's preferably coached women's basketball at the Division III level - has coached at a reasonably high academic school - and has a proven track-record of recruiting high-academic kids - or at a minimum has spent some small amount of time doing it.

#2 - It occurred to me that they might never have had any decent candidates to begin with. For whatever reason. Location? Poor pay? Poor benefits? Could it be that there's been a lot of negative talk out on the grapevine among the coaching fraternity and RHIT is now known as a place to avoid?

The more I think about this, the more bizarre this looks. There are some aspects of this that are very much open to interpretation - beginning with the fact that this "search" officially began two months ago after the position had been vacant for six months prior to that. It took TWO months for this AD to find a coach who's never coached at or recruited at a high-academic school or at the D-III level. Not only that, it took two months to find a coach who's been off the sidelines for most of the last decade.
Why was great care taken to find D-III-experienced, high-academic-experienced coaches for the other high profile programs at RHIT, but the WBB job is open to whomever will take it?

I think it's a fair question, and I'm not suggesting that experience at a high-academic school is a guarantor of future success - but for God's sake, don't you need to have some parameters for your search?

It just looks like nobody really wanted the job. Why?

I wish Coach Paul the best and want to see him succeed. Hopefully he'll be able to get the numbers back up and return the program to some level of competitiveness.

Having said that, think about this for a moment if you will.

- He spent a single season, this past season, as the entry-level assistant at Cincinnati. Prior to that, he'd been completely out of college basketball for SIX seasons. Completely out of college basketball. Ask yourself this question - would the AD's at U. Of Chicago, UT-Dallas, DePauw, IL. Wesleyan, or Transy (all programs that RHIT has defeated within the past 5 years) hire someone who hadn't coached basketball at any level since 2016?

- He's never worked at, coached at, or recruited athletes to a high-academic institution.

- He's never coached in, and has no experience in Division III.

I hope it becomes a non-issue because  the new coach hits it out of the park and has great success - but it's a really, really unconventional hire.

Disagree with me about it being a strange hire? Why is RHIT's new baseball coach from WashU? Why is RHIT's football coach from U. Of Chicago? The new men's BB Coach doesn't have high-academic experience - but he DOES have Division III experience. A lot of it. A lot of success in Division III before coming to RHIT. Even the AD herself had the requisite Division III experience at both high-academic (Pomona-Pitzer) schools as well as good schools where they care about their athletics (Wabash). My question is this - Why does all that caution about having the right individual with the right experience leading a program at VERY unique and high-academic school - suddenly go out the window? Why is it suddenly ok to NOT have high-academic experience, to NOT have Division III experience, and, unlike the aforementioned coaches, who were all extremely high-functioning and successful assistant coaches at glittering D-III programs, an actual recent record of success coaching a team on the court - to say nothing of actually BEING on a court for the last several years.

With all due respect, and charitably, it is a strange hire.

RHIT should be announcing the new WBB head coach soon, hopefully. Fingers crossed and we'll see if the AD has figured out that the following, at a minimum, are required of Rose-Hulman coaches.

This isn't difficult.
- Don't hire a kid who was a GA last year. The last thing the program needs is someone who's barely older than the players they are coaching. Only desperate liberal arts schools do that.

- Hire someone who knows what it's like to recruit and coach high-achieving Type-A personalities who often are perfectionists and occasionally need to be talked down off a ledge (just like myself and both daughters and every teammate they ever had at RHIT) after they've just bombed a test an hour before practice or a home game. Someone who's been at a high-academic school before as a player or coach.

- Hire someone who's been around Women's basketball and understands the differences between coaching the different genders.

- Hire somebody who has experience/understanding of NCAA Division III and wants to specifically be in Division III - and who isn't applying simply because they need a job. The very last thing this program needs is someone who  will move on from RHIT the minute something they perceive as "better" at a higher division comes along.

The young ladies deserve those things at a minimum. Hopefully that's what the AD has figured out over the past 7 months that this job has been empty.

Quote from: Jester1390 on May 30, 2023, 03:39:33 PM
Hi Engine

I just returned from Rose and my daughters graduation.   I was told as you said. 4 people have been offered and turned down the job.  The remaining player's are concerned that there wont be enough players for next season.  As i stood in the gym beaming with pride as my daughter graduated and gratefull to the academic part of Rose that hasd secured her a six figure job I am still filled with rage and disgust knowing the inside problems that go back to the championship days and knowing the athletic director was well aware and chose to do nothing.   I know Coach Prevo personally and like him I even recruited for him but there were problems with his approach to players that gos farther back then just my daughters class that i was not aware of. 

The group who quit have been called  program killers.  What a farce. They were a group of very smart women who said enough is enough and drew a line in the sand   Make no mistake the program finds itself where it is because of Tweedy and President Coons.

If that is indeed true, what you heard, Jester, that ain't good. Any idea why the job is so undesirable?

Common sense tells me that any impressive applicants haven't wanted the job so far, leaving what kind of candidates at this point? I'm unsure if I've ever heard of a job search where every single finalist, in their turn, declined it. That's a bit unseemly. If indeed that is the case - for the love of God, why?

This isn't a run of the mill typical Division III liberal arts college - this is the #1 ranked engineering college in the United States. They've recently won three HCAC titles, were a single possession away from advancing in two consecutive NCAA tournaments, defeated at least a dozen ranked teams (including #7 and #13) since 2012, and were a defensive statistical juggernaut - completing two consecutive seasons (2017 and 2018 I believe) as the #3 scoring defense team in all of D-III. RHIT's facilities are in the top-10% of D-III schools nationwide, and they have a permanent spot in the single most prestigious D-III women's basketball event other than the NCAA Tournament, the Midwest Classic with IL. Wesleyan, DePauw, and WashU - and advanced to the championship game as recently as November 2021. Other than Trine, RHIT is the only school that has even come close to defeating Transy since the pandemic  - look up the two 2021-22 games if you don't believe me.

This isn't a program with no hope of even being any good. It has a bloodline. It has a pedigree. It's not a stepping-stone job. With the cost of living in Terre Haute, it should be the kind of place a great coach could come in and build a powerhouse program and stay for 20 years, racking up wins.

I don't get it. I don't understand why this isn't a desirable job. There are better jobs out there, for sure, but the RHIT job ought to at least be in the top half of D-III jobs, at a bare minimum. RHIT shouldn't be having to settle on whomever will take the job. This is a job that should be going to someone with high-academic Division III, or comparable Division I experience (the Bucknells, Colgates, and service academies) and a thorough knowledge of and appreciation for NCAA Division III - or at least the atmosphere at great academic schools.

I'd still like to know why the men's search last year took all of six weeks, while the women's search is now in it's seventh month?

Perhaps my apprehensions will be proven misplaced, and the new AD will hit it out of the park with this hire. Fingers crossed.

Congratulations on your daughter's graduation. Wish her success and happiness!

We'll see how good things are in Terre Haute. I'm afraid the women's basketball program at RHIT has been dealt a "Death Penalty" every bit as destructive and program-killing as anything the NCAA enforcement folks could perpetrate - and it is 100% self-inflicted.

Suffice to say, the school's WBB program would appear to be in a heap of trouble. From former classmates who still live in the area and are either still plugged-in or know someone who is,  I heard four to six finalists all either turned the job down outright or couldn't wait for the extraordinarily lengthy process to finally play out and had to move on and accept other jobs. That might not be exactly how things happened, but RHIT is one of the very few schools that listed a women's basketball head coaching job so far this spring, that has not filled that position. Perhaps the only school not to have filled a posted position within 30-45 days. I heard that the Men's BB hiring process last summer was a complete debacle as well - at least they managed to find a good coach at the end. I fear that won't be the case with WBB. Why the pessimism, you ask? You need look no further than the last time a basketball position at RHIT was open. Coach Loyd left for DePauw at the very end of April last year. His successor was named almost exactly 8 weeks later - which means the job had been offered and accepted at least 10-14 days prior to the announcement on August 1st. Why in the world was the men's basketball position filled in 6 weeks but the women's position has now dragged-out for six months? Why would the DePauw job be so much more desirable than the RHIT job. What isn't RHIT doing or offering that is making it difficult to retain outstanding coaches and now, apparently, difficult to find them as well?
It's a bit shocking that this job was not filled the first time around. Why? Is it the pay? Is it the location? Is STEM seen as too much of a challenge? Are potential coaches scared away by the Herculean rebuilding effort left in the wake of the past 6 months.

For the love of God, aren't there any assistants from the UAA (Carnegie Mellon, Case, Chicago, etc), the NESCAC, MIT, CalTech, Stevens, Rensselaer, Hamilton, Worcester, Rochester Tech...that want to move-up? You know, RHIT had one hell of a program as recently as 2018-19. I don't get it. What's wrong that nobody (qualified) wants that job?

RHIT is extraordinarily blessed to have a great athletic department full of coaches that understand the very delicate balancing act of academics and athletics at the institute. Is it a mere coincidence that the institute plucked the perfect candidate for its football program a decade ago? He wasn't just just any candidate, mind you, he had a lot of experience in the high-academic realm at Chicago. Look what he's accomplished since. Same with basketball - the most recent former coach that was allowed to leave played (I believe) at Chicago himself. That department has been the model of stability and achievement over the past decade plus. My greatest concern is that they wind up having to settle on someone with only scholarship (NAIA, D-2, D1) experience and no inkling what a crazy-difficult, nuanced place RHIT IS, and it could set the program back another 5 years beyond its current predicament - which might as well be forever. Perhaps they will be prescient enough and fortunate enough to find someone who can learn and adapt. I hope so.

I hope my fears are misplaced.  I've taken pride in and followed RHIT athletics since Coach Touchton called my house for the very first time in 1978, wanting to talk about some school (with a hyphenated name) I'd never even heard of - and I'm really confounded. As someone who attended the institute when it was male-only, and as the father of girls, I always had a soft spot for the women's sports at Rose, particularly basketball. I'm just having a hard time imagining how long it's going to take to rebuild after all this uncertainty around the program after literally more than  half a year with nobody at the helm.

Perhaps finding and hiring Division III basketball coaches is much more difficult than I think it is, and I'm being too harsh. The RHIT job should be desirable and should have had a multitude of quality candidates. If there weren't, why? If there were, why isn't one in place already? Perhaps I'm just blinded by my fandom, and a coaching job at RHIT sadly does not reflect the same prestige as the school's academics, as the coaching jobs at UAA schools do. Perhaps the coaching search at RHIT really shouldn't be any different from that at Adrián, or Albion, or Defiance, or Anderson. Maybe RHIT isn't special and any moderately-talented coach can be successful. Perhaps a coach with high-academic experience is t even necessary. Perhaps I'm just being (unfairly) unrealistic. When I ask myself those questions, however, I'm still left with the realization that these issues should have made it much easier to find a coach, not more difficult - which suggests the job should have been filled long-ago.

Of course congrats to Transy on their first national title. There just wasn't anyone out there this year that could defend what they do. Perfect example of a coach implementing a fantastic system and finding the perfect kids to run it. If Coach Fulks doesn't move up to Division I soon, it'll only be because she doesn't want to. I'll be intrigued, as always, to see how many non-conference road games they schedule next year after having lost so many great players to graduation. It would not shock me to see them win 20+ games and return to the NCAA Tournament - because I'm sure they replaced the departing kids with the same level of talent.

Quote from: True To The Cru/Riley Zayas on March 15, 2023, 05:22:53 PM
My latest feature is up on D3hoops.com, highlighting Transylvania's run to the Final Four. Had a great conversation with Juli Fulks and Madison Kellione earlier in the week. Can't wait for the matchup against Smith!

https://www.d3hoops.com/playoffs/women/2023/not-this-time-for-transylvania

Will be interesting, indeed. Other than a loss to Thomas More in 2019 (after very controversially hosting the first weekend) this will be Transylvania's first NCAA Tournament game played somewhere other than their home floor - since the 2014-15 season. They are all-to-aware how weak the HCAC is - so their non-conference schedule every season is carefully calibrated to play teams that aren't good enough to beat them, but just good enough that it won't blatantly look like a schedule full of cream-puffs - and even in those instances they try every way in the world to host those games - usually via their two pre-Christmas tournaments. They rightfully feel invincible at home, and their coaching staff very much believes in the power of home games...and vice versa. I'll guarantee their staff is sweating bullets today, worried about how they'll shoot the ball in a gym they aren't used to and 100% comfortable in - because there might not be a women's team in NCAA Division 3 as reliant on the 3-pointer as Transylvania - but they ARE very good at it.

Having said that, Transylvania IS really good, and extremely well-coached. I would not be surprised to see them blow-out Smith, as I was definitely not impressed with what I saw of them last weekend. Maybe it wasn't a great sample, but it will require a really, really good defensive team to take down Transylvania, and Smith ain't  it.

The key to defeating Transylvania is to defend the living daylights out of them, don't give them easy looks, make them scratch and claw for everything. The over-looked key to their success is their ability to create 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th chances and extra possessions by out-working and out-hustling the other team for loose balls and rebounds - especially Stacy and Thornton. They remind me a great deal of the 2005-2013 DePauw teams in that regard. Just relentless.

A gritty, hard-nosed defensive team that doesn't turn the ball over against their press (that's really just designed to eat up the shot-clock), and won't allow them to run up and down the floor, chucking 3's and chasing offensive rebounds, is Transylvania's Kryptonite. If you don't believe me, go and watch last year's NCAA game vs. Trine, or any 2015-2022 game vs. Rose-Hulman (when they actually had athletes). I just don't know that there's anyone left in the field that can do that. The HCAC will probably see it's first basketball trophy this weekend.

Quote from: Jester1390 on December 13, 2022, 05:58:24 PM
So, grand total...26 kids
Erin Davie
Heather Finnell
Addie Johnson
Hayley Gilliam
Olivia Ottone
Kristen Belyea
Jamie Loving
Jordan Hagood
Shelby Julian
Mandy Routon
Chiarra Franklin
Brianna Glieseman
Sophie Brooks
Stacy Fox
Cassie Utley
Abby Holloway
Caitlin Young
Desirae Webster
Jordan Barlow
Kahlan Jester
Lindsey Thomas
Jenna Myers
Ashley Black
Manuella Shomba
Rowan Hein
Nosa Igehon
Plus the whole recruiting class of 2018

Hey Jester - Wondering if you know anything about a rumor that's circling around locals, particularly alums? I was told that the AD would not allow any efforts to try to find a way to finish the season even thought the players wanted to keep playing.

How crazy is that - to not act on first-hand information (and probably much more) TEN MONTHS ago, then wait until the season has begun and rip it away from the kids in order to be able to use low numbers to get rid of the coach? That's like amputating your leg to get rid of athlete's foot! If this is true, I cannot fathom why they would have waited and allowed it to reach this point. Suffice to say that it sounds like RHIT has an athletic department in deep turmoil based on this and other issues relating to other sports and their coaches.

How can a department implode like this in such a short period of time? I have friends/classmates that remain involved with the institute in different capacities, and athletics are a huge topic of conversation. 

I can see why you're upset, Jester. Had this been properly handled, your daughter would still be playing basketball, the kids who did try to play this year would have a season, and the school and athletic department would not have to suffer the humiliation of having to cancel it's most visible women's sport for an entire year.

Quote from: Baldini on December 10, 2022, 09:35:23 PM
Took in the double hitter at Transylvania today and I would say the women's offense is still not in sync, but their high level of pressure defense and offensive rebounding will take them a long way. How far will depend on their 3-point shot making in games come tournament time.   

Transylvania added a game at John Carroll next Saturday to replace the lost game with RHIT, will be their toughest test of the remainder of the regular season schedule. They will need to take their A game with them to avoid a setback.

A little shoutout to the officials in both games today, thought they did a great job today. I've probably seen this women's game crew do a dozen or more games the past few years, mostly NAIA games and thought they let them play for the most part. Bluffton is a physical team and if they hadn't started so cold shooting the ball, they probably would have been in it all game. Bluffton won the second half and Transylvania never did go deep into their bench. Enjoyed watching both games.       

You're probably right about the John Carrol game - although Wisconsin Lutheran has a reputation as a giant-killer occasionally. Bluffton and possibly Hanover might give them trouble on the road, but it's all set-up for Transylvania to run the table. They are a fun team to watch, especially since they've embraced a tougher, more defensive-minded approach - actually they've been getting better defensively every year since 2019. Offensive rebounding from the perimeter really is their secret sauce.

As someone who likes to watch great basketball, I really wish they'd venture out and play better teams. I know as soon as RHIT felt like they had the talent, they really loaded-up with as many strong games as possible - almost all of them on the road. Hope, WashU, Chicago, IL. Wesleyan. Albion, Rhodes, Depauw, Texas-Dallas (when they were great)...etc. That Hope game was so much fun to watch. During the Bromenschenkel era RHIT always had a top-10 SOS until HCAC games began. I'd so much rather see Transy step-out and at least try to play some top-notch teams a couple times per year - it would be good for them come tournament time. They've stepped-out of the friendly confines of the Beck Center to play a D-III thoroughbred program exactly twice (counting the ETBU game in the pandemic year) in the past five years. It's almost as though their schedule is set-up to guarantee as many home games as possible, with any away games being against teams that aren't horrible, but aren't great either. Just enough flavor to guarantee themselves home-court advantage in the NCAA Tournament - which they have an outsized chance at getting in any given year being an NCAA favorite geographically.

I think it actually hurts Transylvania just a little bit that they don't have a halfway decent RHIT on their schedule this year. The antidote to Transylvania is a team that defends like it's hair is on fire and makes things exceedingly difficult offensively, has guards that will be tough against the slapping and reaching and can hold on to the ball and won't turn it over against their press, and gives them only one shot per possession and won't allow them to run wild from the perimeter, shooting 3's and getting long rebounds every other possession - just like RHIT did twice in close games last year and Trine did in the NCAA Tournament. The more often they see teams like this, the better prepared they'll be when the games really count. Go watch the first 4-5 minutes of the Transy-RHIT game from last weekend, and then imagine a team with talent, athleticism, and length doing the same thing - Transy would have been in a serious scrap. Hopefully, the schedule they have will wind up being strong enough to help propel them a game or two further this season. It would really help the conference to have a team make the Final Four or challenge for a national title.