MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Viking Blue]

Glad to hear North Park has a coach in place.

Greg-do we know where Dylan Howard is from, originally, and if he has any Chicago connections?

[AndOne]

Thanks, Q.

Alternating years sounds fair.

As with many other things, playing the men's games on Tuesday's may be "fair" but its also stupid.
As Devildog pointed out, after I initially reported the switch to Tuesdays, boys high school games are mainly played, at least in the Chicago area, on Tuesdays and Fridays. Most teams also play on Saturday night about 1/2 of the time. This is going to eliminate the possibility of recruiting more than 50% of the time as its already impossible to recruit on many if not most Saturdays during the season with most college teams playing on Sat. If a team really wants to see a kid on Tues what are they supposed to do---have one of the coaches skip the game to see the HS kid play?
This decision, while "fair," is right up there with the famously well regarded men's/women's doubleheaders. JMHO

100% agree.  While technology has made film readily available for most any HS player, it can never replace watching a live game as far as observing demeanor, leadership traits, attitude, awareness, etc.  Perhaps we should start playing football games on Friday nights too so the FB coaches don't have to watch film on Sunday.  Dumb, dumb, dumb. 

And while film can go so far relative to giving a coach an idea of a kid's ability, the most important part of the actual recruitment process is conducted through face to face meetings/discussions with the kids.
Also film is often not that useful of a recruitment tool as many dads compile a "highlight" film/CD of their child's accomplishments and mail it to a coaches, or more likely multiple coaches. "Film" is only valuable if it shows a complete game thus giving an accurate picture of a kid's complete performance

[Gregory Sager]

Glad to hear North Park has a coach in place.

Greg-do we know where Dylan Howard is from, originally, and if he has any Chicago connections?

My pretty exhaustive Google search of Coach Howard has not turned up the identity of his hometown. So, who knows? AndOne's mysterious source might be right after all about Coach Howard having a Missouri background. I only know that he's never played or coached in the Show-Me State.

(Incidentally, since Dylan Howard played in the late '80s at Alabama-Birmingham under the legendary Gene Bartow, I wonder if he was a teammate of Danny James. James played at UAB and then transferred to North Park and was an All-CCIW third-teamer as a Viking in 1989-90.)

Dylan Howard's never coached in Chicagoland, either. The closest he came was Fort Wayne, where he was an assistant coach at St. Francis (IN), an NAIA school that was ranked #1 in the country at one point during his time there. Again, as for personal ties to this area on his part, I can't say.

[Gregory Sager]

Thanks, Q.

Alternating years sounds fair.

As with many other things, playing the men's games on Tuesday's may be "fair" but its also stupid.
As Devildog pointed out, after I initially reported the switch to Tuesdays, boys high school games are mainly played, at least in the Chicago area, on Tuesdays and Fridays. Most teams also play on Saturday night about 1/2 of the time. This is going to eliminate the possibility of recruiting more than 50% of the time as its already impossible to recruit on many if not most Saturdays during the season with most college teams playing on Sat. If a team really wants to see a kid on Tues what are they supposed to do---have one of the coaches skip the game to see the HS kid play?
This decision, while "fair," is right up there with the famously well regarded men's/women's doubleheaders. JMHO

100% agree.  While technology has made film readily available for most any HS player, it can never replace watching a live game as far as observing demeanor, leadership traits, attitude, awareness, etc.  Perhaps we should start playing football games on Friday nights too so the FB coaches don't have to watch film on Sunday.  Dumb, dumb, dumb. 

And while film can go so far relative to giving a coach an idea of a kid's ability, the most important part of the actual recruitment process is conducted through face to face meetings/discussions with the kids.
Also film is often not that useful of a recruitment tool as many dads compile a "highlight" film/CD of their child's accomplishments and mail it to a coaches, or more likely multiple coaches. "Film" is only valuable if it shows a complete game thus giving an accurate picture of a kid's complete performance

Very true. If you want to hear a college coach snicker, mention that you saw a prospect's performance on YouTube.

[AndOne]

Women's HS basketball is typically played on Monday and Thursday, while the men's games are Tuesday and Friday. 

No, in Chicagoland they play quite a bit on Tuesdays.

While most games in Chicagoland may be played on Tuesdays, many girls games in the suburban areas are also played on other days. Yes, there are many Tues girls games in the suburbs, but you also see games being played on other weekdays as with the boys weekday games being played almost exclusively on Tuesdays, it makes it rather impossible to be playing both a boys and a girls game simultaneously in the same gym.

[AndOne]

Glad to hear North Park has a coach in place.

Greg-do we know where Dylan Howard is from, originally, and if he has any Chicago connections?

My pretty exhaustive Google search of Coach Howard has not turned up the identity of his hometown. So, who knows? AndOne's mysterious source might be right after all about Coach Howard having a Missouri background. I only know that he's never played or coached in the Show-Me State.

(Incidentally, since Dylan Howard played in the late '80s at Alabama-Birmingham under the legendary Gene Bartow, I wonder if he was a teammate of Danny James. James played at UAB and then transferred to North Park and was an All-CCIW third-teamer as a Viking in 1989-90.)

Dylan Howard's never coached in Chicagoland, either. The closest he came was Fort Wayne, where he was an assistant coach at St. Francis (IN), an NAIA school that was ranked #1 in the country at one point during his time there. Again, as for personal ties to this area on his part, I can't say.

With regard to the Missouri-Mississippi question, I think its more that either my sources, while knowing it was MS
mistakenly said MO or more likely, my mistakenly thinking I heard MO when, in fact, they actually said MS.
Again, the primary point of my initial post on the subject of the new NPU coach was to advise it wasn't going to be one of the gentlemen whose names had previously been mentioned as possibilities.

[Gregory Sager]

Women's HS basketball is typically played on Monday and Thursday, while the men's games are Tuesday and Friday. 

No, in Chicagoland they play quite a bit on Tuesdays.

While most games in Chicagoland may be played on Tuesdays, many girls games in the suburban areas are also played on other days. Yes, there are many Tues girls games in the suburbs, but you also see games being played on other weekdays as with the boys weekday games being played almost exclusively on Tuesdays, it makes it rather impossible to be playing both a boys and a girls game simultaneously in the same gym.

Suburban schools in Chicagoland play quite a few Tuesday games, too. Yes, it's impossible to play a boys game and a girls game simultaneously in the same gym, but it's quite possible to play one right after the other.

[AndOne]

Yes Greg, it certainly would be possible to play one after the other.
BUT---The last time I saw that happen in the suburbs was....................NEVER!   
And, although this might sound bad, I'm frequently in HS gyms on Tuesday nights during basketball season. 

[Dennis_Prikkel]

Yes Greg, it certainly would be possible to play one after the other.
BUT---The last time I saw that happen in the suburbs was....................NEVER!   
And, although this might sound bad, I'm frequently in HS gyms on Tuesday nights during basketball season. 

au contraire, mon ami

the MSL in the NW suburbs regularly schedules girl/boy doubleheaders / and alternates who gets the later game as well, so often it is the girls playing the 2nd game.

[Gregory Sager]

And, although this might sound bad, I'm frequently in HS gyms on Tuesday nights during basketball season. 

Don't feel guilty about it, Mark. Women's basketball is not for everybody. If I had a nickel for every time I've heard a men's basketball fan disparage the women's version of the game I'd have ... a lot of nickels. I enjoy watching CCIW women's basketball games as well as working them as a scorekeeper, but I'm not really the proselytizing type when it comes to my choices of sports fandom.

I completely agree with you that it's more of an imposition upon CCIW men's basketball coaches to recruit while playing on Tuesday nights than it is for CCIW women's basketball coaches to do so. But "imposition" is not the same thing as "impossible," and I don't think that this decision by the league warrants the label of "stupid." The bigger issue is still one of fairness. The internal institutional difficulty with having to make the Saturday/Tuesday turnaround rather than the Saturday/Wednesday turnaround is very real, and this decision balances it out.

My hope is that the schedulemaker the league is going to hire will be able to construct a men's and women's combined schedule for 2012-13 that will allow the men and women to play simultaneously on Wednesday nights by utilizing all eight CCIW gyms. It would mean that those of us who want to watch both teams from our respective schools play will be unable to do so half the time. But such is life; sometimes two steps forward requires one step backwards.

Yes Greg, it certainly would be possible to play one after the other.
BUT---The last time I saw that happen in the suburbs was....................NEVER!   
And, although this might sound bad, I'm frequently in HS gyms on Tuesday nights during basketball season. 

au contraire, mon ami

the MSL in the NW suburbs regularly schedules girl/boy doubleheaders / and alternates who gets the later game as well, so often it is the girls playing the 2nd game.

... and thus our CCIW Chat Fun Fact of the Day is that Mount Prospect has a more progressive approach to high school sports than does Naperville.

I'm waiting for fellow MSLer Pete McBride to weigh in on this now.

[omaha]

Dylan Howard is a native of Fort Wayne and a four-year varsity starter in high school.  He received a scholarship to the University of Alabama-Birmingham and was a four-year letterman under Gene Bartow.  During his four years at UAB the team reached the NCAA tournament twice and reached the final four of the NIT.

After college he played two years overseas in Asia and was named to the All-League team in 1989 and 1990.  He received the Asian League's MVP award in 1989.

[Gregory Sager]

The good reverend is a better Googler than I. Thanks for tracking down Coach Howard's hometown.

Sounds like Coach Howard was indeed a UAB teammate of former Vikings guard Danny James. Between that and the news that Marc Horner's nephew is going to be on next year's NPU roster, it's beginning to feel like 1990 all over again.

[Ralph Turner]

North Park University will announce today that the eighth head coach in the history of Vikings men's varsity basketball will be Dylan Howard. (As an FYI to Dan Sand and any other broadcasters who may be reading this, Coach Howard pronounces his first name "Die-lan" rather than "Dill-un"). Currently an assistant coach at D1 Mississippi Valley State, Coach Howard has a pretty solid resume. I'm particularly impressed by what he managed to do with the Hardin-Simmons program when he was the head coach there. (I'm sure that Ralph Turner can provide some insights into Coach Howard's tenure down there in Abilene.)

Welcome to NPU, Coach Howard, and best of luck to you. You've never met me, but I've just become your biggest fan.

(The fact that Coach Howard bears such a striking physical resemblance to Mike Singletary, or at least he does in the picture posted on the Mississippi Valley State website, gets a thumbs-up from me, too. )

Congratulations to NPU.

Dylan Howard was the most successful coach (IMHO) that HSU had ever had, relative to the classification at which they played, NCAA University back in the 1950's in the Border Conference with Texas Tech, Arizona, New Mexico, Arizona State, Texas Western/UTEP, or DI-C Transamerica Conference with Harvey Catchings and Stedman Graham/"Mr Oprah Winfrey", or NAIA with the Texas Intercollegiate Athletic Conference or D-III/ASC.

Dylan made HSU a winner in the tough ASC.  I always liked Dylan.

The referenced spat with the now-departed McMurry assistant should not be overblown.  Coach Howard was appropriately counseled and the co-culprit is no longer at McMurry. Thank goodness!

Our new head coach (ASC Champion in his inaugural season) is hundreds of times better than the assistant who blew his chance to succeed Coach Holmes.

[Ralph Turner]

http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20100112/SPORTS0203/301129990/1018

Does anyone know what happened to Dylan Howard, the former HSU coach?  What's he doing since he left HSU?

EDIT:  Thanks for the hyperlink, and +1  "mad"!

The story talks about Coach Howard being inducted into the 2010 Silver Anniversary Class of the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame.

Congratulations to Coach Howard. 

[havej]

the MSL in the NW suburbs regularly schedules doubleheaders?  They play 2 a year in what is called "Pack the Place" which always occur on a Friday night.

They alternate years in terms of who plays first - pretty sure it was the boys this year.