MBB: Centennial Conference

[Hoopdog14]

Wow!  Who knew there were so many fans of mediocrity!

MACSouthwest:  Since you are a fan of proverbs think on the one of "better to remain silent and be thought a fool rather than speak....
Doing things on the cheap?? Seems the Girls program was riding those same buses with much different results.  The internal conflicts over his tenure grew and he blamed everyone but the guy in the mirror

Sarantoga:  "Early Christmas"??  About 3  years too late, at least

Team Monix:  What will I do with my life ??  Maybe enjoy Mules basketball as I did in the pre-McClary years.

Funny how McClary's record is on par with Nugent at Washington and I remember cheers over his dismissal.  Alumni of the Mules program are not saddened by this action and they had first hand experience that none of us had. 

[TeamMonix]

Pretty sure McClary is walking away with an above average record which isn't close to Nugent but its sad that you find so much happiness having a man fired who was an alumni and put over a decade into Muhlenberg as a head coach and assistant.

[TeamMonix]

And in regards to being cheap...McClary was at the bottom of the CC in mens coaches salaries (but they expect him to finish at the top). That is far from the same for the women's coach in comparison to the rest of the league.

[TeamMonix]

Nugent ended his career as head coach with a record of 121-230, giving him a winning percentage of .345.

McClary was 112-94, giving him a winning pertcentage of .54

[BeRightOn]

And in regards to being cheap...McClary was at the bottom of the CC in mens coaches salaries (but they expect him to finish at the top). That is far from the same for the women's coach in comparison to the rest of the league.

Where can one find access to coaches' salaries?

[Reserved Seat]

good question--I wondered it it's possible to determine when many of the coaches have other roles, also.

[NEPAFAN]

And in regards to being cheap...McClary was at the bottom of the CC in mens coaches salaries (but they expect him to finish at the top). That is far from the same for the women's coach in comparison to the rest of the league.

Where can one find access to coaches' salaries?

You can find a lot of good data on the equity in athletics website. Just put in the institution of your choice:

https://ope.ed.gov/athletics/#/

[MACsouthwest]

Madeira was 311-247 in 22 Seasons.   .57 winning percentage.

[TeamMonix]

As we are throwing out records & winning percentages the current AD at Mule had an overall record of 91 - 133 (42-66 in Conference) as the head baseball at Muhlenberg. He must know what it takes to win in the centennial conference!

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Funny how McClary's record is on par with Nugent at Washington and I remember cheers over his dismissal.  Alumni of the Mules program are not saddened by this action and they had first hand experience that none of us had.

I don't think that is a fair characterization of what happened when Nugent left at all. I think many felt he got the raw end of the deal from the AD - I know people who feel that way. He also got kicked heading into his son's senior year and many thought the program wasn't worse off than where it had been. There were also talk about other programs getting put in more favorable positions than basketball and it not being Nugent's fault. I certainly don't remember any cheering about the decision. There are many who had a lot of respect for Nugent. Sure, there were probably some, like yourself, you had a negative point of view... but I think you are overinflating the reaction like you have overinflated Nugent's record (or underinflated McClary's).

[Polly Math]

If anyone at Washington was cheering when Coach Nugent left they haven't had much to cheer about since. Just went an impressive 3-15 in conf. play.   Nugent was a decent coach and fine man who won when he had players, and lost when he didn't. McClary at Muhlenberg was a different case -- no doubt that he had plenty of talent in the 2012-14 years and could have won a title.  People can debate why he didn't.   My own take is that it may have been a mistake to build the whole attack around a brilliant but erratic and temperamental scoring guard who had trouble delivering the goods in big games.  Had they pulled out a few more playoff wins all would have been well.  But by the end of 2014 season when they collapsed late in the season and folded late at McDaniel in the play-in game it was pretty clear that the wheels were coming off.   Recruits looking to play in the Centennial for "established" had F&M, JH and Dickinson to consider.  Those wanting the hungry up and coming scene had Swat. 

[Polly Math]

Meanwhile, back in the present.  Pretty gruesome loss for F&M last night. They dominated for 30 minutes with Federici looking great and Dickinson barely hanging in, thanks largely to the play of reserve guard Mike Hinckley, who seemed to have swallowed a bottle of Adam Honig pills before the game. F&M seemed to have things well in hand with a 12 point lead with 10 to go when they started jacking up 3s.  Looking for the dagger, I guess.  Must have missed 5 or 6 in a row, then started turning it over and rapidly the 11 pt lead became a 4 pt deficit.  F&M battled back to tie it at the 2 minute mark but could not close.   It looked like the Dips ran out of gas.  Their field goal % in the last ten minutes must have been in the 15% range.   Congrats to Dickinson for making the finals for the 4th time in 5 years. 

THE nightcap was your typical 4-5 vs 1 seed game.  Ursinus fought hard for a half but Swat's size, toughness and fresher legs were too much in the 2d.  Some of the Bears looked a little rattled at the raucous environment.  The exception was Knowles, who closed his career with a magnificent performance.   Ursinus will be back.  The announcers pointed out that the 4-5 seed has not only never won the tournament, they have never even made the finals.  Tough to perform on one night's rest when your opponent has had 7, is at home, and has the best regular season record. 

Congrats to Swat for a great atmosphere.  Looks like the Swat community has decided that winning mens basketball is not such a terrible  thing after all.  Logic says Swat should crush Dickinson.  They are bigger, stronger, shoot better, have the best player in Wiley and rebound extremely well.   The  factor in Dickinson's favor is their team quickness, also after a season with several improbable late comeback wins, they won't panic if they find themselves down.  But you have to make Swat a huge favorite to take their first Centennial championship.

[Gabriel]

Bears just ran out of gas last night as evidenced by their poor shooting percentage and losing the battle of the boards 46 to 26.  But----take nothing away from Swat, they are the better team and should win over Dickinson tonight.  Bears lose only Knowles (major loss) and Mekongo (played little) to graduation so they should be tough again next year with four seniors and some promising underclassmen.  Bears need to get more consistent production out of their forwards.  Strong game against JHU on Wednesday but they disappeared last night.

[Reserved Seat]

Looks like Swarthmore lucked out to get a home game.  Didn't expect that at all.  Hope Swarthmore represents the CC well.

[Swish3]

Looks like Swarthmore lucked out to get a home game.  Didn't expect that at all.  Hope Swarthmore represents the CC well.

Neither did anyone else...had everything to do w/the NCAA giving the CNU women's team the hosting privileges, even though the CNU men had better comparative criteria.