MBB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Next Man Up]

I am comfortable saying that at the very least it may have been a factor and accelerated their exit timelines because why deal with the drama (for lack of a better word) when I have this other option immediately available that I'd be interested in eventually anyway?

This seems reasonable.

When the Vice President of Athletics talks to the head coach of a major sport only 2-3 times over an entire school year (the Vice President's FIRST YEAR) I'd say that could definitely be a factor in the coach's departure.

And when, in exit interviews, long term highly successful coaches say things like "over this past year working here has not been near as much fun as it used to be," that is pretty strong evidence that a dysfunctional void  exists in Athletic Administration and there's a good chance that ongoing back room shenanigans abound.

[Next Man Up]

I infrequently visit this place and so maybe the answer to my questions appear on pgs XX.  Do people know the composition (names/titles) of the search committee?  Is it normal to have a committee present its top pick to the AD?  I presume the AD had a spot on the committee and thus participated in the interviews.

I think every AD has a variation of how they want a search to go. Most of the time the committee comes up with 3 finalists that come for on campus interviews and the AD is absolutely involved at that point. Sometimes the committee stops with recommending 3 and lets the AD pick one, other times the committee will bring in 3 and give the AD an order of their preference. There are other variations of this as well.

47 days. Even with all the internal strife and dissension, much faster than I anticipated.

Question: Can you really call someone an Athletic Director if they're not really directing the department?

Two points need to be made here;
1. The NCC search process in this instance was anything but normal. As I understand from several contacts, the only two people whose opinion the President really cared to hear were the the two amigas, VP of Student Affairs and Athletics Jessica Brown, and Assistant (Yes, I said Assistant) Athletic Director Sue Kane who recently became Sue Kane-Hammond, wife of the NCC President. While Athletic Director Jim Miller was on the Final Selection Committee with the the aforementioned women, the widely held belief was that his opinion wasn't going to be seriously considered. Anybody you might ask was of the opinion Jessica Brown had a predetermined agenda/opinion. It was a given that Sue Kane-Hammond's position would be reflective of Brown's.

And there's even more intrigue here that centers on the widely held belief that Brown cares nothing for family, tradition, loyalty or earned opportunity, and just wants to make her own mark despite the damage it might inflict while using her position as a stepping stone to move on to a larger institution in a few years. Additionally, there is a widespread (though unconfirmed) rumor that Kane-Hammond will soon no longer be employed by NCC. The consensus is the effective date will be May 27th. We'll see.

2. An AD, or any job holder for that matter, can only do his job if he is allowed to do it.
In Jim (NCC Class of '86) Miller, NCC has about the most experienced, knowledgeable, and competent AD that any D3 institution could hope to have in the position. During his tenure, which began in 2005, NCC has won 87 CCIW team championships, 18 NCAA Division III National Championships, and 43 individual national champions. Under his leader ship NCC's has had 22 CoSIDA academic All-Americans, and 601 nationally recognized academic awards. Miller was the 2020 National D3 Athletic Director of the Year.
Normally an Athletic Director will have a large say with regard to the appointment of any new Head Coach. The search committee will usually make a recommendation to the Athletic Director who would make a decision, and send his selection to the VP of athletics who would normally approve the selection, and then run it by the President who would most often just rubber stamp the selection. However, in this case, it was widely reported that whatever opinion Miller had, it was basically relegated to no better than third in importance if it was truly even considered at all. Rather ridiculous. However, just like Vince Kmiec, another case of an established and successful NCC athletic family member being disrespected.

This process has truly been a tangled mess, cloaked in a heavy dose of attempted secrecy.

* As I said before, nothing here is meant as an indictment of Coach Figueroa. There is no reason to suspect he is not a good man, and he certainly has an enviable record.
Rather, our (scores of NCC basketball people) collective angst is directed at the school Administration as it's widely felt they disrespected the accomplishments, loyalty, and dedication a 12 year student-athlete and staff member has given the College without returning those qualities in not appointing him to the position he had earned and deserved. Almost as bad as Vince being denied is the fact that the Administration seems to have no idea of how mad they have made so many NCC family members and furthermore, that they don't seem to care one bit. The results of their actions might be rather disastrous, especially in the short term.

[USee]

* As I said before, nothing here is meant as an indictment of Coach Figueroa. There is no reason to suspect he is not a good man, and he certainly has an enviable record.
Rather, our (scores of NCC basketball people) collective angst is directed at the school Administration as it's widely felt they disrespected the accomplishments, loyalty, and dedication a 12 year student-athlete and staff member has given the College without returning those qualities in not appointing him to the position he had earned and deserved. Almost as bad as Vince being denied is the fact that the Administration seems to have no idea of how mad they have made so many NCC family members and furthermore, that they don't seem to care one bit. The results of their actions might be rather disastrous, especially in the short term.

Well, here is the first sign the arranged marriage of Coach Figueroa and Coach Kmiec may be headed toward the Mike Ditka/Buddy Ryan level of interesting. Then again, the way that one ended wasn't all bad for fans!

[robertgoulet]

* As I said before, nothing here is meant as an indictment of Coach Figueroa. There is no reason to suspect he is not a good man, and he certainly has an enviable record.
Rather, our (scores of NCC basketball people) collective angst is directed at the school Administration as it's widely felt they disrespected the accomplishments, loyalty, and dedication a 12 year student-athlete and staff member has given the College without returning those qualities in not appointing him to the position he had earned and deserved. Almost as bad as Vince being denied is the fact that the Administration seems to have no idea of how mad they have made so many NCC family members and furthermore, that they don't seem to care one bit. The results of their actions might be rather disastrous, especially in the short term.

Taking the dysfunctionality of the admin out of things and looking strictly at the VK situation: I am completely fine with how things played out. Just bc VK has been with the program for a long time and is liked/loved by players/etc doesn't mean he's the best person for the job/should be given the job. I think it's pretty clear that Figueroa and Kelly both had much better resumes for a position like NCC's.

I'd like to think the current AD would have conducted the process the same way if he actually had been given the authority to, not just picked VK bc he was the easy, feel good story. Thank Vince for his work, tell him to go get some HC experience and be successful at a lower level D3 school and we will see you in the future.

FWIW - the former NCC players I had talked with all thought the final candidate list was weaker than they'd hoped it would be, with VK being the weakest of them all.

FWIW pt 2 - A friend of mine's son was recruited by Figueroa pretty heavily this past season. He said that he is a great guy, absolutely loves him.

[WUPHF]

I am surprised that the North Central finalists did not include more Division III head coaches.  I would have expected to see more moves similar to the transition from Rose-Hulman to DePauw. North Central has to be the Top 30 job it was described by others.  But who knows...

The NYU vacancy has three finalists who are all reportedly Division I assistants so I don't know.

[Gregory Sager]

When the Vice President of Athletics talks to the head coach of a major sport only 2-3 times over an entire school year (the Vice President's FIRST YEAR) I'd say that could definitely be a factor in the coach's departure.

This makes me very happy that North Park has a significantly different administrative setup than North Central's. Even the online athletics staff directories of the two schools reflect that contrast. NPU doesn't have anywhere near the resources that NCC has, but at least it has a much cleaner and clearer chain of command for athletics.

[itsnotmeitsyou]

I am surprised that the North Central finalists did not include more Division III head coaches.  I would have expected to see more moves similar to the transition from Rose-Hulman to DePauw. North Central has to be the Top 30 job it was described by others.  But who knows...

The NYU vacancy has three finalists who are all reportedly Division I assistants so I don't know.

I COMPLETELY agree. Approximately 75% of the finalists for the NPU & NCC jobs had no prior head coaching experience. That may be OK in other leagues, but not in one of the power D3 conferences in the country.

I think we can definitively say it is a trend. Heck, of the last 6 coaching changes (NCC, NPU, AC (2x), MU, CC) in the CCIW, going back only a couple of years, only two hires (Figueroa - NCC, Schaefer- AC) had any head coaching experience.

[USee]

I am surprised that the North Central finalists did not include more Division III head coaches.  I would have expected to see more moves similar to the transition from Rose-Hulman to DePauw. North Central has to be the Top 30 job it was described by others.  But who knows...

The NYU vacancy has three finalists who are all reportedly Division I assistants so I don't know.

NYU finalists are long time assistants from Tommy Amaker's staff at Harvard, longtime assistant from James Jones staff at Yale and an assistant from Matt Lengel's staff at Colgate. All D1 assistants. I also remember the Johns Hopkins search a few years back there were a couple D1 assistants up for that one and they hired John Loeffler, a D1 assistant from Loyola, MD.

[sac]

I am surprised that the North Central finalists did not include more Division III head coaches.  I would have expected to see more moves similar to the transition from Rose-Hulman to DePauw. North Central has to be the Top 30 job it was described by others.  But who knows...

The NYU vacancy has three finalists who are all reportedly Division I assistants so I don't know.

Top 30?  There are a lot of great D3 locations, North Central has had great success the last couple decades mainly due to Todd Raridon.  Before he arrived, NC struggled for years, 13 consecutive losing seasons before Benji Taylor got them to 12-12 his last year there, Raridon just finished his 12th straight winning season at NC.  I'm not certain NC is even one of the top 3 CCIW jobs, Todd made it a top 3 or 4 program in a very competitive conference. 

D3 coaching isn't for everyone.  You have to love being underpaid, working without all the resources you need, recruiting kids who think they're better than your level, recruiting against NAIA's that can offer the moon, being the 4th or 5th coach in line to talk to a player after games, recruiting a kid for the entire season only to lose him after a D1 or D2 swoops in late in the year with a scholarship, trying to explain over and over how you can't offer scholarships but your son should be happy to pay 30,000 for the chance to play basketball.  Being away from your family nearly every night 9 months out of the year.  Its madness

You have to really love coaching and/or working in higher education to want to coach D3.  I marvel at these guys sometimes.

[WUPHF]

Top 30?  There are a lot of great D3 locations, North Central has had great success the last couple decades mainly due to Todd Raridon. 

I say Top 30 but I could live with Top 50.

I do think the coach is key with basically every Division III job, so credit to Coach Raridon.

If Carnegie Mellon had Coach Edwards, for example, they would be a Top 30 job.  Washington University was 0-0 before Edwards arrived and athletics was not valued under the previous Chancellor so the most of the programs were mired in mediocrity.

If I were making a list, I would add location and the overall success of the athletic department and with that, North Central is hard to beat.

[north central]

First of all, congrats to Anthony Figueroa, who aside from being one of my best friends is an excellent basketball coach and will do well at North Central. I completely disagree that the candidate pool was not strong especially considering the pool of candidates for other CCIW job openings. Anthonys record at the JUCO (83-25 the last four years) was phenomenal and he has done nothing but win at a high level at Parkland. Vince is a excellent coach (68-26 the last four years) and I think was much more deserving of an opportunity to be a head coach than some guys that were hired at other CCIW schools. I also challenge anyone to find a coach who took a team from zero wins to over 20 wins in a three year period, that has also won multiple CCIW championships and been to a final four ( 70-39 the last four years). The candidate pool was really strong. There were several  successful head coaches that applied and were not finalist.  I have the utmost respect for Jim Miller but without going into further details much of what Mark said is spot on. I truly believe he had no say in this decision. There were just some things done throughout this search that were completely unprofessional and just not the way you do things when conducting a coaching search.Having spoke to several others involved , they all agree. Someone said there is a lot going on at North Central within the athletic department and that is an understatement to say the least.
I always have had the philosophy that if a program is winning and there is an assistant coach there that has been influential in the success then that person should be first in line for the job. However in this situation I was torn between one of best friends
and one of my former players who I recruited to North Central. Throughout this process it was clear the administration, not Jim Miller had an agenda and certain criteria that they wanted in the next coach, luckily that agenda landed them a great coach. I just hope the North Central alumni and supporters give Anthony a fair shot and appreciate all the hard work he has put in throughout his career to get to this point and know he not only deserves this opportunity but he EARNED it. I have 100% confidence that he will keep North Central at or near the top of the CCIW as long as he is there. Anthony along with Vince will make a great staff because both are extremely smart, hard working and flat out good dudes.

[WUPHF]

I completely disagree that the candidate pool was not strong especially considering the pool of candidates for other CCIW job openings.

If someone said the pool was not strong, then I missed it.

[USee]

Mike Schauer named acting AD at Wheaton. Will continue as BBall HC.

https://athletics.wheaton.edu/news/2022/5/10/general-mike-schauer-named-acting-director-of-athletics-at-wheaton.aspx

[USee]

* As I said before, nothing here is meant as an indictment of Coach Figueroa. There is no reason to suspect he is not a good man, and he certainly has an enviable record.
Rather, our (scores of NCC basketball people) collective angst is directed at the school Administration as it's widely felt they disrespected the accomplishments, loyalty, and dedication a 12 year student-athlete and staff member has given the College without returning those qualities in not appointing him to the position he had earned and deserved. Almost as bad as Vince being denied is the fact that the Administration seems to have no idea of how mad they have made so many NCC family members and furthermore, that they don't seem to care one bit. The results of their actions might be rather disastrous, especially in the short term.

Taking the dysfunctionality of the admin out of things and looking strictly at the VK situation: I am completely fine with how things played out. Just bc VK has been with the program for a long time and is liked/loved by players/etc doesn't mean he's the best person for the job/should be given the job. I think it's pretty clear that Figueroa and Kelly both had much better resumes for a position like NCC's.

I'd like to think the current AD would have conducted the process the same way if he actually had been given the authority to, not just picked VK bc he was the easy, feel good story. Thank Vince for his work, tell him to go get some HC experience and be successful at a lower level D3 school and we will see you in the future.

FWIW - the former NCC players I had talked with all thought the final candidate list was weaker than they'd hoped it would be, with VK being the weakest of them all.

FWIW pt 2 - A friend of mine's son was recruited by Figueroa pretty heavily this past season. He said that he is a great guy, absolutely loves him.

I have no dog in this fight but the idea you can't be a first time head coach in a power conference is not based in reality. Certainly NCC doesn't win a football Championship without first time HC Jeff Thorne at the helm. Wheaton named Jesse Scott to his first HC role, replacing Mike Swider, and had a top 10 team (ultimate results tbd). Vince Kehres was a first time HC and won the title 2x, going to the championship game 5 of his first 6 years. Lance Leipold was an assistant at UWW and then a coordinator at Nebraska-Omaha before getting his first HC gig and promptly winning 6 of the next 8 national titles.

Greg would know better but I'm pretty sure Bosko was assistant at NPU for 8+ years before becoming HC for the first time and winning a few Natty's. Heck Dennie Bridges was an assistant at IWU before getting his first college HC job. That turned out ok.

You don't need HC experience to be a nationally prominent program in D3. What you DO need is institutional alignment for any coach to be successful.

[robertgoulet]

I have no dog in this fight but the idea you can't be a first time head coach in a power conference is not based in reality. Certainly NCC doesn't win a football Championship without first time HC Jeff Thorne at the helm. Wheaton named Jesse Scott to his first HC role, replacing Mike Swider, and had a top 10 team (ultimate results tbd). Vince Kehres was a first time HC and won the title 2x, going to the championship game 5 of his first 6 years. Lance Leipold was an assistant at UWW and then a coordinator at Nebraska-Omaha before getting his first HC gig and promptly winning 6 of the next 8 national titles.

Greg would know better but I'm pretty sure Bosko was assistant at NPU for 8+ years before becoming HC for the first time and winning a few Natty's. Heck Dennie Bridges was an assistant at IWU before getting his first college HC job. That turned out ok.

You don't need HC experience to be a nationally prominent program in D3. What you DO need is institutional alignment for any coach to be successful.

I absolutely don't think you HAVE to have HC experience to succeed. If VK was judged to have been the best option then I'd have said let's go. The comment was made with NMU's insisting that VK was owed the job in mind. I think he had the weakest resume of those 3 that I mentioned. Doesn't mean he would fail.