MBB: Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference

[Jester1390]

ok one university ha sit all over their site.   the other has no mention of it. No article  of love and we wish him happiness going forward.  His comments have nothing  mentioning his time and appreciation at being at rose.        Calm down just saying I dont think Rose knew this was happening.   He is a very good coach and I believe he is tight with coach who retired.  Im sure he is excited to be able to recruit with not as many roadblocks

[Jester1390]

posted on their site on the 28th.  no comment yet by rose  they still have him listed as the coach so its pretty obvious they were not aware of the situation.



Greencastle, Ind. - Rusty Loyd, head men's basketball coach at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology since 2014, is DePauw's selection as head men's basketball coach. He replaces Bill Fenlon who is retiring after 30 years at the helm. Loyd becomes just the sixth DePauw head coach in the last 64 years.

"I am humbled and honored to accept the head coaching position at DePauw University," Loyd said. "I want to thank President Lori White, Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Alan Hill, and Director of Athletics Stevie Baker-Watson for entrusting me with the future of Tiger basketball. To say that I am excited is an understatement and I am thrilled to have the opportunity to support these young men as they pursue excellence in the classroom, on the basketball court, and in their future endeavors. Kristen and I are excited to begin this new journey with Mia, Mason, and Maren, and look forward to our family joining the DePauw community."

"We are so excited to welcome Rusty and his family to our Team DePauw family," DePauw Associate Vice President for Student Wellness and Theodore Katula Director of Athletics and Recreational Sports Stevie Baker-Watson said. "Our search process yielded a tremendous number of qualified individuals, and Rusty distinguished himself with his passion for the game of basketball, and his desire for the student-athletes to have a "DePauw experience" that emphasizes academics and athletics. Throughout the interview process, Rusty was clear that returning to the NCAA tournament is one of his short term goals for the program."

In eight seasons as the head coach at Rose-Hulman, Loyd led the Fightin' Engineers to a 120-78 overall record and an 82-43 mark in Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference play. He was named the HCAC Coach of the Year in 2018 and 2021 and his Rose-Hulman teams appeared in the HCAC Tournament championship game three times. He directed Rose-Hulman to the HCAC regular season conference title in 2018 while tying for second in 2019 and 2022. Loyd was named to the Silver Waves Media list of 50 Impactful Head Coaches in NCAA Division III men's basketball in 2020 and 2022. Prior to his selection as the head coach, He was the assistant men's basketball coach and head men's golf coach at Rose-Hulman for five seasons.

Loyd graduated from University of Chicago in 1998 with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. As a player with the Maroons, he helped lead the team to a 76-29 four-year record, while starting three years and serving as a captain. During his junior and senior seasons, Chicago posted a 47-8 record and earned spots in the NCAA Division III round of 16 both years. He was a three-time all-University Athletic Association selection in addition to earning two all-region honors and all-America accolades as a senior. In 2018, Loyd was selected to the UAA 30th anniversary team.

He started his coaching career as an assistant at Earlham College for two seasons before moving on to a two-year stint at Lewis University and four years at his alma mater. His first head coaching position came in June 2006 when he was chosen to direct the program at Illinois Institute of Technology where he stayed until 2009.

Loyd and his wife Kristen are parents to three children, Mia (15), Mason (13) and Maren (7).

[Enginerd]

Jester - it is pretty standard for the former school to have no comment when their head coach leaves for a different school. Situations vary but I cannot imagine there was anything less than an amicable parting. DePauw and RHIT go WAY back and have been competing against one another for over a century and there are a good many links between the programs. In fact, the retiring DePauw coach, Bill Fenlon, was actually the head coach at RHIT in the late 80's/early 90's before leaving for Texas after 2-3 years and then returning to Indiana to take the job in Greencastle after a very short stint down there -Fenlon might have been the immediate successor to the legendary John Mutchner  who retired in (I believe) 1988 - and it might have even been Fenlon that took RHIT to their lone NCAA Tournament appearance between Mutchner's and Jim Shaw's tenures.

Additionally, Coach Fenlon was very good friends with Coach Jim Shaw, who hired Coach Loyd to be his assistant at RHIT in 2009. I don't know that recruiting at DePauw will be any easier for Coach Loyd than it was at RHIT, but he'll definitely be able to recruit high(er)-academic kids that really care about competing and want to make playing basketball a focus. As much as I love RHIT, even the kids that show up really burning to compete eventually get beat-down so much by the academics that they just cannot put the same kind of mental and emotional focus on basketball that they would have wanted or been able to elsewhere. I don't know if Coach Loyd ever had to deal with that issue at RHIT, but I'm sure it's far less likely he will at DePauw.

[Pat Coleman]

I moved the posts about RHIT men's basketball into the appropriate board.

[Jester1390]

Hi engine

just stating that from appearance it looks like Rose may have been caught off guard by his decision. 

[itsnotmeitsyou]

Hi engine

just stating that from appearance it looks like Rose may have been caught off guard by his decision.

This comment is LIGHT YEARS from your previous: "No announcement by Rose so i dont think this is a friendly breakup"... Your insinuation that Rose is pleased, or happy, or ambivalent about the departure assumes facts not based in evidence.

D3 programs are consistently slow and lackadaisical when it comes to announcing departing coaching changes. The primary reason is that there are not a lot of situations which require an immediate comment for media outlets.

[itsnotmeitsyou]

... I don't know that recruiting at DePauw will be any easier for Coach Loyd than it was at RHIT, but he'll definitely be able to recruit high(er)-academic kids that really care about competing and want to make playing basketball a focus. As much as I love RHIT, even the kids that show up really burning to compete eventually get beat-down so much by the academics that they just cannot put the same kind of mental and emotional focus on basketball that they would have wanted or been able to elsewhere. I don't know if Coach Loyd ever had to deal with that issue at RHIT, but I'm sure it's far less likely he will at DePauw.

IMHO, the recruiting at RHIT could have been significantly better if Coach would've focused more on the basketball-side of the experience in Terre Haute. He would consistently say "you're not coming to Rose for basketball", which for recruits who are PLAYERS and looking for a strong program, was a HUGE turnoff. Obviously $$ is always an issue, but IF you want engineering (in whatever form) and you play basketball at a high level (D1, D2, top-level D3), RHIT is by far the BEST place in America to play!!!! You can, and should, be able to get talent at Rose that other D3 programs wouldn't have any chance to get. Look at the womens program... how many D1/scholarship-caliber kids have enrolled or strongly considered or transferred in the last few years? The mens program should have that as well. This job is a GOLD MINE!!!!!

Coach won't have the same significant differentiators at DePauw as he does at Rose, but it may be easier to get kids even though it is a comparatively more-level playing field vs conference opponents.

I wish him well. With the right hire, Rose could improve to consistently compete on a Regional and National level.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Are there a lot of high level basketball players who want engineering degrees? It's pretty darn difficult to do both.  It's not like Caltech and MIT are perennial national contenders.

[Jester1390]

Rose sports pages are pretty good at being updated. as of right now still no mention of him leaving and still listing him as a coach.  Its my OPINION he left and Rose did not see it coming.   There is a new athletic director which they haven't had one previous and DePauw is a good school but its a lateral move its not a vertical move up to more prestigious job.   He knows how to coach and will be great at Depauw

[Jester1390]

Rose-Hulman sports speaks for themselves.  Football team of all engineers made the NCAA playoffs. Golf team is playing in Ncaa tournament this year. across the board number of their teams are successful.  Just because your smart doesn't mean you cant play

[Jester1390]

also itsnotmeitsyou is also correct. In my time with the womans program plenty of high caliber men and women have come to the program. Including a d-1 player last year and a freshman recruited d-1. In the last 3 years they have had 3 other d-1 recruits and 2 d-2 recruits.   the problem is on the womens side is that they all have stopped playing. I have my thoughts on that but will save for another time.  The men side didn't have guys quitting and they had a all American on their team along with pretty good talent to go with Mr. Mcgee

[itsnotmeitsyou]

Are there a lot of high level basketball players who want engineering degrees? It's pretty darn difficult to do both.  It's not like Caltech and MIT are perennial national contenders.

Well.... YES! Lots of them. Here's just ONE example out of many: After graduating Magna Cum Laude from Rutgers, 6'10" Myles Johnson transferred to UCLA and pushed a Master's Degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering in the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering.

Why is it that NESCAC or UAA schools - all with exceptionally rigorous admissions and degree completion standards - consistently compete on a national level? It is the exact same scenario: high academic requirements and high financial costs.

[Pat Coleman]

Cool story -- not relevant to D-III.

It's the same scenario at other rigorous academic schools, except those schools offer a much wider range of majors and degree programs.

[itsnotmeitsyou]

Rose sports pages are pretty good at being updated. as of right now still no mention of him leaving and still listing him as a coach.  Its my OPINION he left and Rose did not see it coming.

That may be true, but the lack of public response does not (and should not) infer an acrimonious "breakup" as you previously stated.  Using your logic, if I stood on the beach and scooped up a glass full of water, I would be able to say: "obviously there are no fish in this sea because there are none in my glass!"

[itsnotmeitsyou]

Cool story -- not relevant to D-III.

It's the same scenario at other rigorous academic schools, except those schools offer a much wider range of majors and degree programs.

Well you would be right, EXCEPT there was a D3 National Basketball Player of the Year who played at, if I recall, MIT recently.

Coaches can choose to recruit whoever and however they want. Unfortunately, too many choose to assume, like you and Ryan, that there aren't enough really talented athletes to make their program great. If you just want kids who attend the school to play basketball, fine - you'll just turn into CalTech (historically bad)... when in fact the opposite end of the spectrum (historically good) is possible.