Quote from: jumbomumbo on March 15, 2025, 01:04:22 PMTrinity 83-57 over catholic
Emory 77-72 over Wesleyan

Mumbo nailed the Trinity score pretty close but has struggling with predicting Wesleyan all year. Wesleyan consistently outperforms Mumbo's models. That being said,
Trinity 74-68 over Wesleyan to advance to the National championship likely against NYU.

List of schools to win back to back NESCAC Championships and go to back to back Final Fours

1. Trinity 2024 + 2025
2. Amherst 2013 + 2014
3. Williams 2003 + 2004

Pretty good company to join. Both of the prior runs included national championships

Also I like NYU over WashU maybe 76-68.
Then Trinity gets it done in a great final, 72-70.

I doubt he'd be interested in returning to D3 after two D1 head coaching gigs but who knows, maybe at this stage of life he wants a different sort of job security and not have to deal with paying for players and perhaps coaching at a school like Middlebury would be appealing - Tobin Anderson was just (crazily) fired by Iona.  He is a Wesleyan grad who coached Hamilton for years, so he certainly knows NESCAC well, and he's still only 53. If I was Midd I'd at least see if he was interested ...

Quote from: nescac1 on March 17, 2025, 12:12:52 PMI doubt he'd be interested in returning to D3 after two D1 head coaching gigs but who knows, maybe at this stage of life he wants a different sort of job security and not have to deal with paying for players and perhaps coaching at a school like Middlebury would be appealing - Tobin Anderson was just (crazily) fired by Iona.  He is a Wesleyan grad who coached Hamilton for years, so he certainly knows NESCAC well, and he's still only 53. If I was Midd I'd at least see if he was interested ...

Iona owes him three more years on his contract, so maybe he'll come to D3 if someone made a mistake on the contract language and he can collect money from both places!

Wow, yeah, that's a lot of cash to do nothing.  Really bizarre decision by Iona ...

D1 is a bad place to be a coach. It is no fun anymore and you will likely get fired no matter what you do. D3 is the place to be!

It's all so grotesque, and this quote from the Iona AD says it all:

"With the impact of NIL changing college basketball in ways no one could have imagined, Iona feels the need to shift the direction of our men's basketball program. This requires an overhaul of our entire business model and program structure."

Anderson had two years, with a .500 record. He took the Gaels to the MAAC championship game this year. But time to blow it up.

It's so sad.

Toad is right, for the reasons explained by Bucket. 

Quote from: toad22 on March 17, 2025, 01:31:09 PMD1 is a bad place to be a coach. It is no fun anymore and you will likely get fired no matter what you do. D3 is the place to be!

I get the sentiment, but this just is not true.  For every coach that gets fired, there are hundreds that would kill to be in their place even with very little job security.  Most of the time the really weak job security applies to the power conference programs, and the amount of money you get as a fired power conference coach in terms of buyouts or remaining contract salary will always make d1 the place to be.  Anderson will get paid the remaining 3 years on his contract which is about 10 years worth of salary at a very high end coaching position you'd see at a NESCAC or UAA.   A situation like the one at Iona is still an exception when it comes to mid majors. I love d3 as much as the next person, but d1 is most definitely not a bad place to be a coach.

Quote from: stlawus on March 17, 2025, 07:21:49 PM

Quote from: toad22 on March 17, 2025, 01:31:09 PMD1 is a bad place to be a coach. It is no fun anymore and you will likely get fired no matter what you do. D3 is the place to be!

I get the sentiment, but this just is not true.  For every coach that gets fired, there are hundreds that would kill to be in their place even with very little job security.  Most of the time the really weak job security applies to the power conference programs, and the amount of money you get as a fired power conference coach in terms of buyouts or remaining contract salary will always make d1 the place to be.  Anderson will get paid the remaining 3 years on his contract which is about 10 years worth of salary at a very high end coaching position you'd see at a NESCAC or UAA.   A situation like the one at Iona is still an exception when it comes to mid majors. I love d3 as much as the next person, but d1 is most definitely not a bad place to be a coach.

Tony Bennett would like to have a word.

The D1 game has changed drastically in a very short time, and it is only going to get worse.

I didn't deny otherwise, it's a very crazy and unpredictable world.  That does not mean it's not a bad place for most potential coaching candidates.  For every Tony Bennett disillusioned with the world (after having already reached the pinnacle by the way) there are several hundred others that would do everything they could to get his position.  Dealing with NIL and portal issues is more than worth the effort to get the bag and prestige that comes with a job like that.

Arizona State's football coach summed it up best:  "There's a lot of negative of it, yes, but do you know how many people want to be a college football coach? I literally spent nine years of my life doing anything to become a coffee boy. So don't give me the, 'Oh, it's hard to be a college coach right now.' Then quit. That's how I look at it". 

Lots of NESCAC players of course on the all-region team, led by POTY Hank Morgan:

https://www.d3hoops.com/awards/all-region/2024-25/region-1-men

Am I wrong to be a little surprised by all the Okorougo love in the past few weeks? The stats are definitely good and I know he won DPOY (never been an area across the league I am good at analyzing) but I guess when I watch I don't see a top 5-10 player in the region.

For example, Dana Smith seemed much more impactful to me on last year's Trinity team and he didn't get any all region nod. Maybe Callahan-Gold was taking a lot of the love and someone on Trinity besides Vetter needed some.

It is weird to see Okorougo as first-team all region while Lazarre gets entirely shut out.  Both are excellent defensive players and statistically they are as dead-even as two players can be.  And Lazarre has really excelled in most of Trinity's biggest games - in both Wesleyan games (especially the NESCAC title game), both Tufts games,  Catholic and Keene, he was massive, averaging 17 ppg and 8 rpg in those games, so he really steps it up when it counts.  I'm not sure which of them is more important to Trinity's success, but it's certainly very close. 

I'd personally have either Gyimesi or Johnson ahead of Okorougo for a first team spot and put both him and Lazarre on the second team.  It's certainly scary that both those guys, plus Vetter, are back to lead the team yet again next year.   

I've never seen Westfield play but their FY who won ROTY must be really good to beat out Ray Cuevas, who lit it up as a rookie the way few in NESCAC can do.