MBB: NESCAC

[ThumannsOwn]

It's been a few years, so folks may forget, but Maker, after taking over a team (granted, with some really strong talent) that had been to only one NCAA tourney in the prior four years, in six years as a D3 coach, coached his team to two national title games, a third Final Four, and an elite 8, recruited a guy who is now an NBA starter, coached a national POY, and beat Amherst in both the Final Four (handily, as an underdog) and the Elite 8.   If he DOES one day end up as a D3 coach, whoever hires him is getting the most overqualified D3 coach in recent memory, at least, other than Jim Calhoun!

I know. Plus associate head coach at Dartmouth for a decade, and assistant to Dana Altman at Creighton and John Beilein at West Virginia. Far and away the best experience among the finalists. I'm disappointed for him, though I also know he's at peace with Amherst's decision.

I agree with Bucket here on Maker's credentials.

The rumor mill has been flying over the last few days and includes the following:

Larry Anderson was the committee's top choice, which to me seems to make a lot more sense than Marlon Sears. It is not clear yet if he declined an offer or, as some have suggested here, pulled his name out of the hat after the final interview. It will be interesting to see if any leaks going forward confirm or deny this.

Some Amherst alums are hearing rumblings of questionable recruiting tactics and/or treatment of players on the part of Coach Sears at MSU. I suppose any decent coach can or will face such scrutiny, but certainly makes one wonder about leaving a D3 head coaching job after 5 years to take an associate HC role at an Ivy, only to put your name back in the hat for another D3 job (albeit a much nigher profile one) a year later.

[Pat Coleman]

Sometimes you find out D-I ain't all it's cracked up to be.

[SpringSt7]

Well he spent 15 years in D1 before he went to Montclair St...

[Pat Coleman]

Yes, but picture all that -- then you get to be a head coach, and have to go back to being an assistant. Whether it's being at D-I, or being an assistant, or some combination of both, you definitely find that there are coaches who come back to D-III.

Mitch Cole at Berry is another one of those guys. Head coach at D-III Birmingham-Southern, left to be a D-I assistant, came back to coach at D-III Berry. Heck, Brian Neal, the new Wittenberg women's coach, spent several years as the head coach at Xavier and is back in D-III.

D-III is a pretty good place to be, all things considered.

[nescac1]

I have a hard time believing that an Ivy League school would make anyone its associate head coach, and Amherst its head coach, fresh off allegations of some sort of impropriety.  Anything is possible, but spreading vague, wholly unsubstantiated rumors is pretty uncool. 

[Bucket]

I have a hard time believing that an Ivy League school would make anyone its associate head coach, and Amherst its head coach, fresh off allegations of some sort of impropriety.  Anything is possible, but spreading vague, wholly unsubstantiated rumors is pretty uncool.

Agreed. And given the recent troubles w other Amherst teams, I can guarantee you the school conducted exhaustive due diligence, and if there was even a hint of impropriety, Coach Sears's candidacy would not have survived.

There are legit reasons to question whether he was the right hire, but this should not be one of them.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Yes, but picture all that -- then you get to be a head coach, and have to go back to being an assistant. Whether it's being at D-I, or being an assistant, or some combination of both, you definitely find that there are coaches who come back to D-III.

Mitch Cole at Berry is another one of those guys. Head coach at D-III Birmingham-Southern, left to be a D-I assistant, came back to coach at D-III Berry. Heck, Brian Neal, the new Wittenberg women's coach, spent several years as the head coach at Xavier and is back in D-III.

D-III is a pretty good place to be, all things considered.

Very true.  You won't get into the BIG bucks like a Coach K, but you and your family will certainly live comfortably.  And you won't face the pressures (media, alums, boosters, etc.) that come with D-I.  AND, in most cases, you will actually get to see your players graduate (rather than jumping to the NBA or getting busted)!  

I have no trouble at all understanding why SOME D-III coaches, whose success certainly would lead to D-I opportunities, decide instead to be D-III 'lifers'.

[jayhawk]

I seriously doubt there was impropriety in Marion Sears

I know about the comment but I would be careful as I always am now about "internet chatter"

Larry Anderson has done an excellent job at MIT, which is not an easy place to win
It is quite possible that when it came down to a final decision it might have been a difficult place to leave as I am sure he is in a very comfortable situation

As far s Mike Maker he did an amazing job at Williams, it was very sad for me to see the situation at Marist,.
My daughter was on the ultimate frisbee team at Amherst and she was playing in a tournament at Williams. An Amherst player got hurt and Mike Maker , who then I believe was coaching Williams freshman women's soccer came over to help
Had a chance to briefly chat with him he was a super nice person
I think he must had a great experience with John Bellein

I hope and am sure that Mike Maker  will land a job

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Yes, but picture all that -- then you get to be a head coach, and have to go back to being an assistant. Whether it's being at D-I, or being an assistant, or some combination of both, you definitely find that there are coaches who come back to D-III.

Mitch Cole at Berry is another one of those guys. Head coach at D-III Birmingham-Southern, left to be a D-I assistant, came back to coach at D-III Berry. Heck, Brian Neal, the new Wittenberg women's coach, spent several years as the head coach at Xavier and is back in D-III.

D-III is a pretty good place to be, all things considered.

Very true.  You won't get into the BIG bucks like a Coach K, but you and your family will certainly live comfortably.  And you won't face the pressures (media, alums, boosters, etc.) that come with D-I.  AND, in most cases, you will actually get to see your players graduate (rather than jumping to the NBA or getting busted)!  

I have no trouble at all understanding why SOME D-III coaches, whose success certainly would lead to D-I opportunities, decide instead to be D-III 'lifers'.

There are many who decide after the fact to become lifers ... after they have gone back and forth and just not found a spot they feel comfortable ... and then they do.

Josh Loeffler at Johns Hopkins was in DIII for awhile. He did really well at Stevens. He left to be a D1 assistant and seemed to be on that track at Loyola especially (among other stops). Now he is back in DIII and probably will be for a bit of time (JHU ain't a bad job).

Pat points out another and there are others we can point to as well. Many in fact.

I think Larry Kosmolski is another example ... he is doing pretty well at Swarthmore and a few years ago I would have thought he would have been gone sooner or later. That has changed. He seems really happy at Swat and I don't think he goes anywhere for awhile. Gary Grzesk has decided D1, at least UWGB, isn't for him and has stayed pretty loyal to DIII. Sure, he might move up someday, but he also seems to be choosing this world more than the D1 one.

I think Mike Maker saw an opportunity, even though Marist has never seemed like a great program, he felt he had to take advantage of ... sadly it didn't work out. The only thing odd that I pointed out previously ... this is the first time I've seen his name in the mix since he left Marist. I don't follow all openings, but I did find it interesting especially in DIII that his name hasn't come up previously.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

It's been a few years, so folks may forget, but Maker, after taking over a team (granted, with some really strong talent) that had been to only one NCAA tourney in the prior four years, in six years as a D3 coach, coached his team to two national title games, a third Final Four, and an elite 8, recruited a guy who is now an NBA starter, coached a national POY, and beat Amherst in both the Final Four (handily, as an underdog) and the Elite 8.   If he DOES one day end up as a D3 coach, whoever hires him is getting the most overqualified D3 coach in recent memory, at least, other than Jim Calhoun!

I know. Plus associate head coach at Dartmouth for a decade, and assistant to Dana Altman at Creighton and John Beilein at West Virginia. Far and away the best experience among the finalists. I'm disappointed for him, though I also know he's at peace with Amherst's decision.

I agree with Bucket here on Maker's credentials.

The rumor mill has been flying over the last few days and includes the following:

Larry Anderson was the committee's top choice, which to me seems to make a lot more sense than Marlon Sears. It is not clear yet if he declined an offer or, as some have suggested here, pulled his name out of the hat after the final interview. It will be interesting to see if any leaks going forward confirm or deny this.

Some Amherst alums are hearing rumblings of questionable recruiting tactics and/or treatment of players on the part of Coach Sears at MSU. I suppose any decent coach can or will face such scrutiny, but certainly makes one wonder about leaving a D3 head coaching job after 5 years to take an associate HC role at an Ivy, only to put your name back in the hat for another D3 job (albeit a much nigher profile one) a year later.

Let's say this ... I'm not sure you will get the whole story about Larry Anderson's situation from those at Amherst. I don't think everyone would know what he decided or not.

You can also (learn?) to trust me when I post things, even in a sheepish kind of way.

[ThumannsOwn]

Let's say this ... I'm not sure you will get the whole story about Larry Anderson's situation from those at Amherst. I don't think everyone would know what he decided or not.

You can also (learn?) to trust me when I post things, even in a sheepish kind of way.
[/quote]

Agreed. We are more likely to get any leaks about the Larry Anderson situation from his camp and not from Amherst.

No need to learn to trust you and your posts, as I already did coming in. And, by the way, you seem to be a very self-confident poster, as opposed to a sheepish poster.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Let's say this ... I'm not sure you will get the whole story about Larry Anderson's situation from those at Amherst. I don't think everyone would know what he decided or not.

You can also (learn?) to trust me when I post things, even in a sheepish kind of way.

Agreed. We are more likely to get any leaks about the Larry Anderson situation from his camp and not from Amherst.

No need to learn to trust you and your posts, as I already did coming in. And, by the way, you seem to be a very self-confident poster, as opposed to a sheepish poster.
[/quote]

I don't think you will get any "leaks" from Larry Anderson's camp what-so-ever.

And my sheepish comment is when I am careful with what I say or how I say it.

[NEhoops]

Best of luck to Coach Sears. I hope he keeps the Amherst program at a high level and does the NESCAC proud. Since when do we criticize coaching hires before they've even made it through the first game?

I can't quite follow the cryptic posts about Coach Anderson. He would have been a great hire for Amherst. I'm sure he's in a good situation at MIT, and in some similar cases, not necessarily this one, the sole reason for applying for another job is to have leverage in future negotiations.

I'm assuming the only offer that was made was to Coach Sears and he accepted. Hard to believe since you won't see many athletic directors pass on Coach Maker when they get to his resume. Hoping to see him back on the sidelines soon. While his run at Marist wasn't a memorable one, he was certainly compensated appropriately.

[jumpshot]

Whoever at amHerst missed the opportunity to hire Mike Maker made a legendary mistake.

[JEFFFAN]

Whoever at amHerst missed the opportunity to hire Mike Maker made a legendary mistake.

Keep in mind that professional qualifications was not the most important factor, Jumpshot.   If it had been, there would be a different new coach at Amherst.