The Career of Mike Schaplowsky- a 50 Year Dynasty
 

Before I left, I decided to start another project, this one being another FBCB project (man I love that game!) I'm going to copy and paste my posts from greydogsoftware to here, because quite frankly, there are a lot more followers here than at grey dog software. Here we go.

I have decided to go ahead and do a single player dynasty, but it's not going to be your play em out type dynasty. I will be focusing on Mike Schaplowsky, who I will be starting out with a coach level of 7, so he'll have lots of room to improve. The difference is I'll be simming every game, but I will be handling recruiting, depth chart, and team strategy. I will also be playing out any tournament games, which include conference tournament and any postseason tournament games. I will decide later on what to do about in-season tournament games. I plan on simming the first season then actually taking a job offer, no matter the team or conference prestige, although I'm sure it will be a low prestige team and a low prestige conference. I will look to get job offers with higher prestige conferences and schools. I plan on monthly reports for this dynasty, and I will use Mike Schaplowsky for 50 years, at which time he will retire and I will see how he fits into the coaching leaderboard.

More updates later, I have to pick a team and get it set up, but I plan on getting at least part of a season in tonight. With simming games and monthly reports, I could get through a season fairly quick, but with other projects going on, I expect the 50 in-game seasons to span well over a few months.

I will be starting my career with Sam Houston State of the Southland Conference. I totally lucked into this job offer, as they were 28-5 last season, their previous head coach took the job at Weber State, a totally lateral move, but whatever. I'm happy to be here. Let's take a look at things before we get started.

Game Options:

Injuries and suspensions are on:
Players can turn pro out of high school
Non-5th year transfers must redshirt and players can refuse redshirts.
Limited Conference Movement
Team prestige and conference prestige can both change throughout the game, so I'll keep an eye on this.
All 4 tournaments: NCAA, NIT, CBI, CIT. Only difference is NIT will be 40 teams.
Starting year for the dynasty was 2014, so I'll be starting my career in 2015, which means I'll go until 2065.

Sam Houston State History:






Sam Houston State is in the Southland, which has a conference prestige of 1

We have 4 scholarships to hand out this season, and we lose a player at every position except SG. With a small recruiting budget available, we'll definitely look to get the best we can get in the state of Texas.

Here's a look at the 20 players we have selected to our call list and evaluation list to start the recruiting process:




Edgar, Wan, and Montero have been offered scholarships, they are all players with either blue or green colored potential and are top 3 on the list.

Looks like we've got a great chance to sign Wan in the early signing period, as we're the only school he is looking at now. Montero has gotten back to a very high interest, but we're only #2 on his list. Derosier has narrowed it down to us and Clemson at the moment.

The early signing period has come and gone, and Derosier signed with Clemson. Nobody signed with us. That scholarship offer has gone to Kumar now.

As we get set to start the 2015-2016 season, here's a look at this seasons roster and schedule.


As you can see, we lose quite a bit of talent next season. Forbes is our make or break player, and the other 3 seniors, well, they just didn't quite produce like we'd hoped. The starting lineup will consist of:

C- Paul Erickson
PF- James Tesch
SF- Richard Cousin
SG- Scott Wolcott
PG- Wilson Forbes

Not the most grueling schedule, the game against Michigan is part of the Alaska Shootout in which we are the 5th seed. That will be tough. Houston, TCU, Rice, and Texas A&M will also be challenges.

November 2015



3-2 in the month of November, I'll take it. The win at LA Tech was really nice, and we hung with Michigan for about 30 minutes before running out of gas, and took the Wildcats to double overtime. I'm happy, but we have to keep it going.

Overall Record: 3-2
Home Record: 0-0
Road Record: 2-0
Neutral Record: 2-1
Rank: NR
RPI: 237

Leaders

PPG

PG Wilson Forbes- 20.4
SG Scott Wolcott- 17.0
PG Richard Cousin- 11.4

RPG

PF James Tesch- 8.6
C Paul Erickson- 6.0
PG Richard Cousin- 4.2

APG

PG Wilson Forbes- 3.2
SG Scott Wolcott- 3.2
SF Adolphe Houzet- 3.0

Recruiting News

I have just gotten my first signing, as SF Chester Kumar signed with us. He's ranked 364th overall.

Still hoping to land Edgar, Wan, and Montero.

December 2015


What a great month! Not too happy about the lack of competition we gave Texas A&M, especially after our close games against Michigan and K-State. Of course, I also didn't expect us to win all the games of the TCU, Houston, SMU series. 10-3 with 1 more non-conference game before we start Southland play. I'll take it!

Overall Record: 10-3
Home Record: 6-0
Away Record: 3-1
Neutral Record: 1-2
Rank: NR (received 2 votes in mid-major poll!)
RPI: 61

I like that RPI, which already has us in contention for an at-large bid.

Season Leaders

PPG

PG Wilson Forbes- 17.8
SG Scott Wolcott- 13.9
SF Richard Cousin- 11.2

RPG

PF James Tesch- 8.1
C Paul Erickson- 7.2
SG Scott Wolcott- 4.4

APG

PG Wilson Forbes- 4.3
SF Richard Cousin- 2.5
SG Scott Wolcott- 2.4

Recruiting News

We have 3 of our 4 pieces filled for next season, as Burt Wan (#272 nation) and Chris Edgar (#212 nation) committed. We beat out Florida for Edgar, and beat out North Carolina and Wake Forest for Wan, so those are definite big time wins in the recruiting wars. Sadly, Gustavo Montero signed with Texas Southern, a school with a prestige of 10. Really Gustavo? You sign with a school that is currently 4-7? Your loss buddy, your loss.

So now we've got 1 scholarship to fill, and it needs to be a big man. I'm going after a guy from Alabama and a guy from Italy. The guy from Italy, Adriano Ferrari, would be huge, as he is the #131 recruit in the nation, and he has nobody on his top school list right now.

January 2016


That loss to Texas A&M-CC was the only blemish this month in a month where we absolutely dominated our opponents. Here's a look at the Southland standings:


It's easy to see why this is a 1 bid, prestige 1 conference. Only 2 teams in the conference have winning overall records, us and Nicholls State. Brutal.

Overall Record: 16-4
Conference Record: 5-1
Home Record: 10-1
Road Record: 5-1
Neutral Record: 1-2
Rank: NR (11 votes in mid-major poll)
RPI: 124

No surprise that our RPI took a huge hit once we got into conference play.

Stat Leaders

PPG

PG Wilson Forbes- 17.2
SG Scott Wolcott- 14.8
SF Richard Cousin- 10.7

RPG

PF James Tesch- 8.8
C Paul Erickson- 6.7
SG Scott Wolcott- 4.8

APG

PG Wilson Forbes- 4.7
SF Richard Cousin- 2.6
SF Adolphe Houzet- 2.1

1 injury note to tell you about, as our leading rebounder James Tesch left our last game with a torn ligament, he's done for the season. George Travers will start at PF now. A couple of unhappy players but I don't care, they are nothing but bench warmers anyways.


No good news at all on the recruiting front. Our Italy guy signed with Utah, we just got started way too late recruiting him. I've gone after every PF or C that I can find that is still uncommitted, which doesn't seem to be very many.

February 2016

A perfect month, and why not? We're running through the Southland and will probably be in a new conference next season. Here is a look at the conference standings with 1 Southland game left:


Sadly, even with our record, our SOS and RPI is so bad thanks to playing in a very weak conference, that the only way we'll sniff the Big Dance is to win the Southland Tournament. It's a shame we aren't in position for an at-large berth. The moral of the story? Schedule tougher non-conference opponents. On a good note, we've wrapped up the top seed in the conference tournament and clinched a postseason berth no matter what.

Overall Record: 25-4
Conference Record: 14-1
Home Record: 14-1
Road Record: 10-1
Neutral Record: 1-2
Rank: NR in AP Poll, #18 in mid-major poll.
RPI: 106

Stat Leaders

PPG

PG Wilson Forbes- 16.7
SG Scott Wolcott- 14.3
SF Richard Cousin- 11.3

RPG

PF James Tesch- 8.8
C Paul Erickson- 7.1
SG Scott Wolcott- 4.6
SF Richard Cousin- 4.6

APG

PG Wilson Forbes- 4.9
SF Richard Cousin- 2.7
SF Adolphe Houzet- 2.4

Pretty sad when our leading rebounder hasn't played in over a month. That tells me how bad of a rebounding team we are.

The injuries piled up this month, as both C Lonnie Tingley and PF George Travers are on the injury list now. 3 of our big men out, which has created a major decline in talent in the low post.

Not much to talk about on the recruiting front, chances are we'll be saving our last scholarship for a possible transfer in the offseason.

We had 1 more conference game to begin March, on the 5th we travelled to Texas State and won 78-56, so here are the final conference standings.

The Southland tournament is ours to win, and there is no reason why we shouldn't.

Only the top 8 seeds make the tourney, so here are the Quarterfinal match-ups.

(8) Texas-Arlington vs. (1) Sam Houston State
(5) Texas-San Antonio vs. (4) Lamar
(7) Stephen F. Austin vs. (2) Nicholls State
(6) SE Louisiana vs. (3) Texas A&M-CC

March 10, 2016

Southland Quarterfinals
(8) Texas-Arlington (8-21) vs. (1) Sam Houston State (26-4)

We beat them by 11 on the road in early February and by 30 at home just a few days ago. They have nobody that averages double figure scoring, so I expect my bench players to get a lot of minutes this game. And as expected, I was able to get everybody in the game, as we won easily, 56-33. I was impressed with the guys that don't get a lot of playing time, I realize it was against subpar competition, but we actually extended the lead in the last 4 minutes of the game. Here's a look at the box score:


Other Southland Tournament Scores:

(4) Lamar- 63, (5) Texas-San Antonio- 59
(7) Stephen F. Austin- 76, (2) Nicholls St.- 46 (WOW!)
(3) Texas A&M-CC- 74, (6) SE Louisiana- 58


March 11, 2016

Southland Semifinals
(4) Lamar (15-15) vs. (1) Sam Houston State (27-4)

We beat Lamar by 11 at home in late January, and by 19 at their place in late February. Brad Branum is about the only player they have worth mentioning, so if we stop him, we should roll along. Unfortunately, we didn't. We only led by 3 at halftime and both Scott Wolcott and Wilson Forbes had 3 fouls, so they would really half to be careful in the second half. They weren't, as both picked up their 4th foul early in the half. In fact, Lamar was in the bonus before the first media timeout. It was all I could do not to get thrown out of the game, but as a team we kept our composure and ended up with nobody fouling out, and fought through struggles to earn, and I mean earn, a 67-57 victory!


We will face Texas A&M-CC in the Southland Championship, as they defeated Stephen F. Austin 58-54

March 13, 2016

Southland Championsip
(3) Texas A&M-CC (14-17) vs. (1) Sam Houston St. (28-4)

Don't sleep on this team, they handed us our only conference defeat early on in Southland play. Although they don't have much to work with, they are well coached and really know how to grind a game out. We want to run, run, and run some more against these guys and force them to play our game. And it turned out to be another tough first half, as Richard Cousin was hit with a technical early in the game, and he sat most of the first half. We couldn't make a free throw to save our lives, and only led by 3 at halftime. It took us a LONG time to get going in this one, but when we did, we did. Although he didn't get POTG, Tony Atkins is our unsung hero tonight. He came off the bench and really gave us a spark offensively when nobody else could get a shot to fall. We pulled away in the last 6 minutes and won 62-44, which means we are going dancing! I'm not even going to try and guess our seed, we're 29-4, but we play in one of the worst conferences in America, so I wouldn't be surprised if we get a 14, 15 seed. I'm hoping for a 12, but I know that's wishful thinking.


As we communed at the school campus for the selection show, I almost choked on my Coke when our name was finally announced. A 14th seed in the NCAA Midwest Region and a meeting with (3) Kansas. It's not a big shock to anybody that I lived the majority of my life so far in the Jayhawk State, so a chance to play Bill Self and his Jayhawks is an honor. Granted, we'll probably get our tails kicked, but I told the guys to go out there, compete, and anything can happen.

To give you an indication of how bad the Southland was this season, we were the only team to receive a postseason bid. In fact, only 1 other team finished with a winning record. That was Nicholls St. at 16-14. Had they not been upset in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament, they might have snuck into the CIT.

March 18, 2016

NCAA Tournament Midwest Region First Round,
(14) Sam Houston State (29-4) vs. (3) #20 Kansas

The key to this game is just to have fun, play hard, don't press, and I told the guys to try and win as many 4 minute segments as they can. If we can get the majority of those, we have a good chance to win this game. And we really did play well overall, but Kansas is tall, long, and athletic. They beat us on the boards 43-22, many of those being offensive boards. That was really the difference in the game as our season comes to an end with a 75-59 loss in a game that we had down to 6 early in the second half. So the run ends, and I wished Coach Self well after the game.

Just to show you how wacky this season was, a 10 seed, yes I repeat, a 10 seed made the national championship game. That 10 seed was Vanderbilt, but they were demolished 69-51 by 3 seed North Carolina.

2016 Offseason

Awards

Many awards to talk about. While we got no national awards, we cleaned up in the Southland. Here's a look:


The first thing that jumps out at me is that I didn't get Coach of the Year, but I guess it was expected I would take this team as far as I did. If not me, why not give it to the coach that had the only other overall winning record in the conference this season. Nice that we put 4 of 5 on the All-First Team, but I hate that 3 of the 4 are seniors.


Departing Players

PG Wilson Forbes- graduating
SF Richard Cousin- graduating
C Paul Erickson- graduating
SF Adolphe Houzet- graduating

Losing those 4 players hurts, as they were really the heart of our team this season. But, never fear, because..

Final Recruiting Class

JR PG Burt Wan (***, #272 overall)
FR SF Chris Edgar (***, #212 overall)
FR SF Chestar Kumar (***, #364 overall)

That class? Good for 83rd in the nation, and tops in the Southland by a wide margin. Looks like we'll dominate again next season. I expect Chris and Burt to start right away, and there's a chance Chestar will play decent minutes as well.

Sadly, none of our players got drafter, although I did hear that Wilson signed a developmental contract. Our prestige went from 53 to 54, and as expected, our conference prestige stayed at 1. If there was something lower than 1, the Southland would probably have it. A 0.1 maybe?

Conference Movement

We are staying in the Southland this season, but the rumor is that if we dominate like we did last season, we'll get promoted to a prestige 2 conference.

Job Offers

Being my second year as an NCAA coach, I wasn't expecting too much in the way of job offers, and of course I didn't get any at all. No biggie, I've got work to do here at Sam Houston State yet.

We weren't able to secure any transfers, so we'll have an extra scholarship to use this season. We've accepted a bid to the Anaheim Invitational where we'll be the 6th seed.

Ah it would have been nice for Mike to knock off Kansas!

We've got 4 scholarships to use this season, and I'm debating on cutting a couple of walk-ons to add 2 more scholarships, and maybe try to get a transfer in the offseason. Obviously we'll try and stay as local as possible.

I've got an initial call list of 20 players, and here it is.


Obviously the 4 and 5 star players are still a reach, but in order to get this team better for opponents like Kansas, I've got to make some stretches.

Offseason Recruiting News

August 2016

I'm offering scholarships to Whitehead and Leduc. I've got a couple 4 star players that have average interest now, and 1 of them is from Texas, so guess what? I'm going to go visit them myself.

September 2016

Well that didn't go as we hoped. We are #1 on Leduc's list now. I'm also offering a scholarship to Dillon, as him being from Australia, I'm hoping since nobody else is looking at him, we can get him to recruit early.

October 2016

Yes! Dillon now has a very high interest in coming to Sam Houston St! He's coming for a visit this month which pretty much eats up our recruiting budget, but if we can get him it would be a huge score! Leduc is still #1 on our list, and Carl McGinnis, the 5 star recruit we are looking at, is still interested in us. I'm going to cut another walk-on so that I have a scholarship to offer him.

November 2016 (early signing period)

Well we knew it was a longshot, but McGinnis declined our offer. So we have offers in to Leduc, Dillon, and Whitehead that we are waiting to hear from. I've also offered a scholarship to Chris Lukas, a 4 star SF.

Nobody is willing to redshirt this season, so we'll have have a 12 man roster that are all eligible to play.

Here's a look at our roster for the 2016-2017 season:


While you can't see the colors for current/potential, I can tell you this. We have a lot more current and future talent on the perimeter than we do in the post, and here I am recruiting 4 guys that mostly play the perimeter. Well, if that is to be our strength, then so be it. Here's a look at the 2016-2017 schedule:


As you can see, we tried to schedule a little bit tougher by agreeing to go to Kansas State and Creighton. Louisiana Tech, Houston, and Tulsa could be tough games as well

November 2016



Well a nice recovery after losing our first 2, but man do those first 2 losses hurt. Wouldn't be so bad if we competed in either of them, but we didn't. Ironic that we drew Southern Miss in our preseason tourney, especially since we host them later on in December.

Overall Record: 4-2
Home Record: 2-0
Road Record: 0-1
Neutral Record: 2-1
Rank: NR
RPI: 88

Leaders

PPG

PG Burt Wan- 18.3
SG Scott Wolcott- 15.7
SF Chris Edgar- 10.2

RPG

C Lonnie Tingley- 7.7
PF James Tesch- 6.2
SF Chris Edgar- 4.0

APG

SF Chris Edgar- 2.3
SG Scott Wolcott- 2.2
SG Kevin Penland- 1.7

Recruiting News

We have a scholarship offer open now, as Steven Whitehead decided to sign with Rice. Ugh! Fortunately we are still #1 for Dillon and Leduc, but Lukas has Texas in front of us.

December 2016


Only a 7 point loss at Houston kept us from having a perfect December. That win at Creighton is going to be very nice come March. And we didn't just beat Creighton, we humiliated them. Unfortunately, this is where our RPI takes a huge hit, as the start of January also means the start of Southland play. Ugh!

Overall Record: 11-3
Home Record: 6-0
Road Record: 3-2
Neutral Record: 2-1
Rank: NR Media Poll, #13 Mid-Major Poll
RPI: 17

Man I love that RPI, too bad it will drop and keep dropping.

Leaders

PPG

PG Burt Wan- 19.4
SG Scott Wolcott- 15.1
SF Chris Edgar- 9.3

RPG

C Lonnie Tingley- 6.9
PF James Tesch- 6.4
SG Scott Wolcott- 4.4

APG

SG Scott Wolcott- 2.3
SF Chris Edgar- 2.1
SG Kevin Penland- 1.5

Injuries

We currently have 2 injuries affecting the roster. Chris Edgar has a torn ligament, somewhere, the game doesn't specify. He's out for 56 more days, which means we should have him back around tournament time. George Hazard is a little less severe as far as length, as he has a concussion. That is nothing to joke around with, he's out for 2 more weeks.

Recruiting

We've signed our first recruit of the season. John Leduc, a SG, has signed with us. This is big, as we beat out Tulsa, Texas, Kentucky, and Arizona for his services. Dudley Dillon still has us as his #1, and he still has no scholarship offers anywhere else. Chris Lukas only has an offer from us, but he is definitely waiting on the big schools, as there are 3 ahead of us.

January 2017


Well, our hopes of an undefeated conference season were dashed, but to be fair, Texas A&M-CC is the only other team in the conference with a non-losing record. This conference sucks, and I'm hoping that if I'm with Sam Houston St. next year, we'll be in a different conference.

Overall Record: 17-4
Conference Record: 6-1
Home Record: 10-0
Road Record: 5-3
Neutral Record: 2-1
Rank: NR Media Poll, #16 Mid-Major Poll
RPI: 64

Still a pretty good RPI considering everything.

Leaders

PPG

PG Burt Wan- 19.4
SF Scott Wolcott- 16.4
SF Chris Edgar- 9.3

Amazing! Chris hasn't played in over a month and he's still 1 of the top 3 leading scorers on this team.

RPG

C Lonnie Tingley- 6.9
PF James Tesch- 6.6
SF Scott Wolcott- 4.9

APG

SF Scott Wolcott- 2.2
SF Chris Edgar- 2.1
SG Kevin Penland- 1.5

No doubt about it, this is not a passing team.

Injuries

Ugh! The injuries are piling up to begin February. Aside from Chris Edgar being hurt, Tony Atkins sprained his knee and is out 5 more days. Also, Chestar Kumar has a torn ligament, and he's out for 47 days, which means he could be done for the season, depending on how far into March we play.

Recruiting

Score! Thank you Dudley Dillon! He has officially signed with us, making him the first 4 star recruit I've signed here at Sam Houston. Next goal! A 5 star recruit.

Chris Lukas still only has us 3rd on his list. He is bound and determined to wait for the big boys to offer him a scholarship, but I refuse to withdraw mine. And since we've got to have a post player next season, I'm offering a scholarship to a 2 star PF, Thierry Delemontagne out of France.

February 2017


The good news about the conference is that there are now 3 other teams besides us that have non-losing records, and 1 of those, Nicholls St., even has a winning record. That helps the RPI out. We've clinched the #1 seed in the Southland tournament about.. oh.. 6 games ago. 1 more regular season game in March. Oh yeah, as for the Bubble Watch, we are so safely in that we aren't even listed on the big 15 team overall Bubble Watch. Score!

Overall Record: 25-4
Conference Record: 14-1
Home Record: 14-0
Road Record: 9-3
Neutral Record: 2-1
Rank: Receiving 7 votes in Media Poll, #14 in Mid-Major Poll
RPI: 53

Leaders

PPG

PG Burt Wan- 17.3
SF Scott Wolcott- 17.2
PF James Tesch- 9.3

RPG

C Lonnie Tingley- 7.9
PF James Tesch- 6.7
SF Scott Wolcott- 5.0

APG

SF Scott Wolcott- 2.4
SF Chris Edgar- 1.7
SG Kevin Penland- 1.6

Injuries

No new injuries to speak of, as both Atkins and Edgar are back in the lineup. Kumar has 19 more days, so he may see some action yet this season.

Recruiting

Damn! We lost out on Chris Lukas. Alabama finally shot him an offer, and he took it. We are in the mix for Delemontagne, but he's got us listed 4th on his top 5, and the top 3 have offered. Uh-oh! So now we have another scholarship to offer, and we are going after Craig Turnbull of Australia.

We had our final conference game on March 4th, winning it 80-72. The final Southern Conference standings are as follows:


Our toughest competition in the Conference Tourney should be Texas-Arlington and Nicholls St. Here are the Quarterfinal Pairings:

(8) Stephen F. Austin vs. (1) Sam Houston St.
(5) Texas A&M-CC vs. (4) Northwestern St.
(6) Texas-San Antonio vs. (3) Texas-Arlington
(7) Lamar vs. (2) Nicholls St.

March 9, 2017

Southland Quarterfinals
(8) Stephen F. Austin (12-17) vs. (1) Sam Houston St. (26-4)

This is a game we should have no trouble with, and everybody should get some minutes. We beat them by 16 at home in early January, so we know they can pose a little bit of a threat, but I'm not worried. Well.. I should have been. They jumped out to an 8-0 lead before my guys woke up and decided to play some basketball. It wasn't a clinic on ball handling, as there were 37 combined turnovers, and they actually shot 10% better than we did. The difference in this one was three pointers. We made 11, they made 3. So we advance, but it wasn't pretty.


Other Conference Tournament Games:

(5) Texas A&M-CC- 63, (4) Northwestern St.- 54
(6) Texas-San Antonio- 59, (3) Texas-Arlington- 51
(2) Nicholls St.- 69, (7) Lamar- 58


March 10, 2017

Southland Semifinals
(5) Texas A&M-CC (14-16) vs. (1) Sam Houston St. (27-4)

This game scares me because they are the only team that defeated us in conference play, even if it was only by 2 points and it was on the road. But even at our house, we only beat them by 8. They've got 2 guys that average double figure scoring, so the key is obviously to stop them. Realizing we are safely in the NCAA tournament, I want my guys to make sure they understand, 2 more wins will probably get us a better seed. And message delivered! It was only a 5 point halftime lead, but we laid into them in the 2nd half, forcing 21 turnovers for the second straight game while committing only 7 ourselves. When you take 14 more shots than your opponent, your chances of making more than them increase significantly, and that's what happened. So for the 2nd straight season we advance to the Southland Final, but who will we play?


Other Conference Tournament Games:

(6) Texas-San Antonio- 74, (2) Nicholls St.- 69


March 12, 2017

Southland Championship
(6) Texas-San Antonio (16-14) vs. (1) Sam Houston St. (28-4)

We'll be playing this game with a new starting PF, as James Tesch suffered a broken nose in practice yesterday. Lonnie Tingley will start in his place. James will probably play, but I'm going to try and limit his minutes based on how the game goes. We definitely lucked out by not having to play Nicholls St., as we beat these guys by 8 at their place and by 35 at ours. Projections have us as a possible 7 or 8 seed in the dance, so this is a must win. And win we did, in convincing fashion, as we jumped out to a big early lead and coasted from there. Burt Wan scored 34 for us and Chris Edgar added 20, and we won our 2nd straight Southland Tournament Championship! Now we await our seed in the Big Dance.


I still think we're gonna get screwed on our seeding, as we are 26th out of 33 teams in conference RPI. But, I had the gang over to my house for the selection show. And guys, I gotta tell you, this team is head over heels right now. Not only did our seed come close to matching projections, as we got the 9th seed in the South Region, but our opponent is very, very beatable. We draw George Mason in the First Round, so obviously the committee is trying to get rid of a non-BCS team right off the bat, but that's ok. We win this game, we get Tennessee, who is the #1 seed in our region. I want Tennessee, but we can't overlook George Mason. Oh and btw, we'll go into the NCAA Tournament ranked #25 in the Media Polls!! George Mason isn't even getting any votes there. We are 10th in the Mid-Major Top 25, and they are 16th.

Texas-San Antonio got rewarded for getting to the Southland Championship, as they got the 15th seed in the CIT. They will travel to 2nd seeded Montana. Nicholls St. was the only other team with an overall winning record in the Southland, and they got left out. Makes sense, especially since they lost in the Quarterfinals of the Southland Tourney.

As I am pressed for time, I won't go into a lot of detail about the NCAA Tournament, we lost to (8) George Mason 63-54, meaning a first round exit 2 years in a row. Damn, I thought we could get this one. So it's on to the offseason.

2017 Offseason

Awards

Southland Coach of the Year goes to.. me! Let's take a look at the Southland Awards in full:



Departing Players

SF Scott Wolcott- graduating
PG Tony Atkins- graduating
PF James Tesch- graduating

Losing this guys hurts, especially Scott, as he was huge for us this season. Tony played some key minutes as did James when he wasn't hurt.

Final Recruiting Class

PG Dudley Dillon (****, #99 overall)
SG John Leduc (***, #329 overall)

Dissapointing that we filled 2 of our 4 scholarships this season, but the guys we got will be huge! Dudley is our most prized recruit, being that he is the first 4 star I've signed. Unfortunately, we've already got Burt starting at PG, and I'm sure not gonna waste a redshirt on Dudley, but John however, is looking like a redshirt candidate, if he'll accept it. Our class was ranked 82nd in the nation and tops in the Southland.

None of our seniors got drafted, and our prestige stayed at 54.

Conference Movement

To my surprise, we are staying in the Southland this season, I really thought we'd move up after dominating the conference 2 straight seasons. We are still listed as a conference prestige of 1, wish some of these other teams would start playing ball. I'll entertain any job offers I get, because it's getting boring running through this sh*t hole of a conference.

Job Offers

Well, that settled that. No frikkin offers this season either. Are you kidding me? Not 1 school wants the services of a guy that has dominated his conference for the last 2 seasons? OK, whatever, I'll go dominate the cropland.. I mean the Southland again.

And this is where I stop, as I am heading out of town for the next 5 days, coming back sometime Monday.

After cutting some dead weight from the team, we've got a whopping 6 scholarships to hand out! Unfortunately, this is going to create a problem as we already have 11 players on the roster. I'm not sure if there is a max roster, I was thinking it was 15. We only lose 3 seniors, so I have a feeling not every scholarship is going to get used, and if they do, I may have to say bye bye to some players I really don't want to lose. As it stands, the plan of attack this year is to go after big men, as all 3 of the seniors we lose are big men, and we only have 1 other on the roster. 4 big men total, yikes! Here is the initial 20 man call list.


As always, some of these guys will be reaches, and some of these guys will get cut from the call list after evaluation, but I've got a nice starting base to go off of, as once again I tried to stay local, as local as I could.

Offseason Recruiting News

August 2017

I've offered scholarships to Devaughn, Daniels, and Sirois, all centers, but they all can play PF if I need them to. Unfortunately only Devaughn is showing any interest in us at the moment.

September 2017

David Leach, a SG, has been offered a scholarship after his evaluation, as has Dewitt Donald, a 5 star PF. What a steal he would be. Sadly, Devaughn now has only average interest in us.

October 2017

We are going after 5 guys that have average interest in us, time to start thinking about back-up plans, as the early signing period is about to begin, and I have a feeling we are gonna lose at least 2 of these guys.

November 2017 (early signing period)

As I feared, we lost out on Leach, Donald, and Sirois. Dangit! I've thrown some more players on the call list, as back-ups, but I did an absolutely horrible job of recruiting this time around, as I spent way too much time going after guys I had no chance of getting as opposed to sticking with the 3 star guys that showed interest in us. Rats!

I redshirted Jon Leduc, as he was the only one willing, so that gives us 10 eligible players this season. That's more than enough, as long as nobody gets hurt or suspended, knock on wood!

Here's a look at the roster for the upcoming season:


I wish I could figure out a way to get the current/potential colors to show up, as you could see how troubling the roster for the future really is. Aside from any recruits we may get, we'll have just 4 players of blue or green potential coming back. As for this year, the team should run through Wan, no doubt about it.

And a look at the schedule:



Definitely not as tough of a schedule as it was last season, but still some challenging games upcoming.

November 2017



Rats! So close to a perfect month, dang it Louisiana Tech! Still a much better start than I figured, but we've got a couple more tough ones in December.

Overall Record: 5-1
Home Record: 2-1
Road Record: 3-0
Rank: RV in media poll, #9 in mid-major poll
RPI: 217

We will definitely be going down in both polls after our loss to LA Tech.

Leaders

PPG

SG Burt Wan- 18.2
SF Chris Edgar- 14.5
PG Dudley Dillon- 9.2

RPG

PF Lonnie Tingley- 11.8
C George Travers- 6.8
SF Chris Edgar- 3.7

APG

SG Kevin Penland- 2.2
SG Burt Wan- 2.0
PF Lonnie Tingley- 2.0

Recruiting News

We lost out on a couple recruits we were going after, and I knew we would. I'm evaluating some new recruits and hoping we can make it work.

December 2017


Well we've already lost as many games this season as we did last season, but we've played some really good competition. Air Force was a great win and we hung with Michigan St. Houston and LSU were games to forget though.

Overall Record: 9-4
Home Record: 5-1
Road Record: 3-2
Neutral Record: 1-1
Rank: NR in media poll, #13 in mid-major poll.
RPI: 31

That RPI proves how tough our schedule has been early on, and it could have been even tougher. It's almost time for conference play, and I'm expecting nothing less than a dominant run again.

Leaders

PPG

SG Burt Wan- 18.6
SF Chris Edgar- 13.5
PG Dudley Dillon- 10.5

RPG

PF Lonnie Tingley- 9.4
C George Travers- 6.2
SF Chris Edgar- 3.5

APG

SG Burt Wan- 2.6
PG Dudley Dillon- 2.3
SG Kevin Penland- 1.7

Recruiting News

We've lost out on a couple more recruits, but we might get a steal with Richard Jeter, as right now we are at the top of his list, overtaking some big schools. He's coming to campus this month and hopefully that'll seal the deal.

Now for the really bad news: We've lost Burt Wan for the rest of the season. The clown decided that grades weren't important, and now he's done for the season, on academic suspension. Really Burt? Really? Kevin Penland will take his place in the starting line-up, and now we are just 9 deep heading into conference play.

January 2018


We just can't seem to make that undefeated run through conference play, as there always seems to be a slip-up. Not to be expected though, when you play in a conference as weak as ours, of course there's going to be mental lapses.

Overall Record: 15-5
Conference Record: 6-1
Home Record: 9-1
Road Record: 5-3
Neutral Record: 1-1
Rank: NR in Media Poll, #11 in mid-major poll.
RPI: 60

No surprise our RPI would drop from playing in this conference, but not as much as I thought. Still a month left in the season though, and we really need to go through February undefeated.

Leaders

PPG

SG Burt Wan- 18.6
SF Chris Edgar- 13.3
PG Dudley Dillon- 10.2

RPG

PF Lonnie Tingley- 9.4
C George Travers- 6.7
SF Chris Edgar- 3.7

APG

SG Burt Wan- 2.6
PG Dudley Dillon- 2.6
SG Kevin Penland- 2.2

Recruiting News

We're still on top in the race for Richard Jeter, and I'll be visiting him personally this month. Out of necessity, I've went after some 2 star recruits. I can safely say this won't be our best recruiting year. Naturally, this will be the year we get promoted to a better conference, when the recruiting is down.

February 2018


And let the downslide begin. For the first time in my reign here, we've lost 2 conference games. I suppose it's a good loss though, as it gives another team a chance to make the postseason. Anything to better the conference, as our conference ranking is currently 28th. Eek! Brutal

Overall Record: 22-6
Conference Record: 13-2
Home Record: 12-1
Road Record: 9-4
Neutral Record: 1-1
Rank: RV (8 votes) in Media Poll, #6 in mid-major poll.
RPI: 53

Leaders

PPG

SG Burt Wan- 18.6
SF Chris Edgar- 13.6
PG Dudley Dillon- 10.6

RPG

PF Lonnie Tingley- 9.9
C George Travers- 6.4
PG Dudley Dillon- 3.6

APG

PG Dudley Dillon- 2.8
SG Burt Wan- 2.6
SG Kevin Penland- 2.5

Finally, somebody overtakes Burt in a statistical category.

Recruiting News

Ugh! Richard Jeter ended up signing with UConn. We'll now look to go after SG Johannes Bory hard, as we are at the top of his list. We're also going after a few others, but no way do we fill all 6 scholarships, and to me that is just embarrassing.

We won our final conference game 81-59, so the final Southland standings look as follows:


Again, we win the conference with ease and clinch a postseason berth no matter what. We're projected in the NCAA Tournament, as of now, but I'd prefer just to go take care of business and win 3 games in our conference tournament to leave no doubt. Here are the Quarterfinal pairings:

(8) McNeese St. vs. (1) Sam Houston St.
(5) Texas-Arlington vs. (4) Nicholls St.
(6) Texas A&M-CC vs. (3) Texas St.
(7) Texas-San Antonio vs. (2) SE Louisiana

I'm pretty sure it won't make a difference, but SE Louisiana and Texas A&M-CC are both 16-13, the next best overall records in our conference (pathetic). If either one of those schools advances to the Southland Championship, I think they have a great chance to make the postseason.

March 8, 2017

Southland Quarterfinals
(8) McNeese St. (10-19) vs. (1) Sam Houston St. (23-6)

This should be a game we win easily as we beat them by 11 at their place early in the conference season. Unfortunately it was a lot tougher than it should have been, as we trailed by 6 at halftime and had to rely on a last second putback from George Travers just to send the game to overtime, but we pulled it out 59-56. Whew! Unfortunately we lost Chester Kumar for the rest of the season. He didn't start, but he did give us minutes off the bench, and we are now just 8 deep the rest of the way.


Other Conference Tournament Games:

(4) Nicholls St.- 67, (5) Texas-Arlington- 64
(3) Texas St.- 80, (6) Texas A&M-CC- 59
(7) Texas-San Antonio- 70, (2) SE Louisiana- 59


March 9, 2018

Southland Semifinals
(4) Nicholls St. (16-14) vs. (1) Sam Houston St. (24-6)

After last night, I'm not taking anything for granted here. Nicholls St. is a pretty good team, even if we did beat them by 15 at home in conference play. Things have changed a lot since then though. The bad news in this one was that we didn't play a lick of defense. The good news is neither did they, and we escaped with a 95-90 victory to advance to the championship game. The real difference in this one came at the line as we made 8 more free throws than they did.


Other Conference Tournament Games:

(3) Texas St.- 85, (7) Texas-San Antonio- 73


March 11, 2018

Southland Championship
(3) Texas St. (16-15) vs. (1) Sam Houston St. (25-6)

We beat them by 14 at home and by 1 at their place in the regular season, as they are in our division we see them twice. They base their game through the post play, so if we can shut that down we have a good chance to win our 3rd consecutive Southland Tournament, if not, we could very well lose. And lose we did, as Texas St. came out hot, never looked back, and beat us 79-73. The good thing is the conference will be sending at least 2 teams to postseason play, but now we have to sweat it out to see if we made the NCAA Tournament.


Texas St. received the #15 seed in the NCAA Midwest Region where they will play #2 seed Creighton in the First Round. We had to sweat it out for a couple regions, but were ecstatic when we saw our name pop up: Sam Houston St. earns an at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament as the 11th seed in the South Region, where we will take on #6 seed Florida St. It's going to be a tough game for sure, but I am crazy happy that we had a good enough resume to get an at-large berth.

The Southland had 4 teams make the postseason this year, as SE Louisiana and Texas A&M-CC both made the CIT. SE Louisiana will be the 11th seed and travel to 6th seed Wichita St., while Texas A&M-CC will be the 12th seed and travel to 5th seed Wright St.

March 15, 2018

NCAA Tournament- South Region First Round
(11) Sam Houston St. (25-7) vs. (6) Florida St. (23-9)

The one thing I haven't accomplished here yet is winning an NCAA Tournament game. I'm 0-2 so far, and this one certainly won't be easy. The Seminoles really only go about 7 deep, and all 5 of their starters average over 30 mins a game. The key is to get a couple of them in foul trouble and make them get into their bench. And we did, getting 2 of their starters and 1 of their bench players in foul trouble. We led by 3 at halftime, and quite frankly outplayed them, but 1 frikkin basket cost us, as we walked off 53-51 losers, ending our season with a 25-8 record. Heartbreaking loss.


The other Southland teams had about the same kind of results, as Texas St. lost 84-57 to Creighton in the NCAA Midwest Region First Round, SE Louisiana lost 90-82 to Wichita St. in the CIT First Round, and Texas A&M-CC actually beat Wright St. 52-51 before losing to 13th seeded San Diego 67-61, ending the Southland run in the postseason.

One huge upset in the NCAA Tournament, and I do mean huge! 16th seeded St. Francis-NY shocked the world by beating top seed Washington in the NCAA West Region First Round, then followed that up with a 65-54 win over 9th seeded San Diego St. in the Second Round before getting hammered by 4th seed Kentucky in the Sweet Sixteen. If they can do it, we can too.

2018 Offseason

Awards

No national awards, and I didn't get Southland Coach of the Year. That went to Milton Gaona of Texas St. I'm ok with that. However, we did have several conference awards. Let's take a look:


Nice job Dudley! We'll be relying on him for sure next season.

Departing Players

PF Lonnie Tingley- graduating
C George Travers- graduating
PF Cody Headley- graduating
SG Burt Wan- graduating

Lonnie, George, and Burt are going to be killers to lose, and I wish Burt would have stayed eligible for his senior season, as we really could have used him down the stretch. Each of these guys played key roles, and unfortunately with our lack of a recruiting class this season, we're in some trouble depth wise.

Final Recruiting Class

none. Not one single recruit. That falls on me. I went after guys that were out of our range, and my fallback guys had already committed elsewhere. I screwed the pooch here. No need to mention our recruiting class was last in the nation. Whew boy!

None of our seniors got drafted, and our prestige again stayed at 54. Also, my coaching skill improved, so I put 10 points each in offensive and defensive coaching, bringing those up to 65 each.

Conference Movement

A little bit bittersweet, as once again Sam Houston St., even after 3 regular season conference championships in a row, does NOT get promoted. Actually, with a depth chart of 7 right now, the last thing we needed is to move up. We may actually have our struggles in the Southland this season.

Job Offers

I actually got 3 offers in the first round of head coach movement, but they were all crap offers: Brown, Texas-Arlington, and UC Santa Barbara. Why in blue blazes would I wanna move to a team in the same conference, especially since we've dominated it? Although Texas-Arlington does have a stacked roster, and by stacked I mean 15 players, but only a few look to be decent. Same thing with Brown. UCSB tempted me for a moment, but no.

The second round of head coach movement was a completely different story. Belmont, Houston, Memphis, Penn, Western Kentucky, and Winthrop all want me. I gotta be honest with you, that Memphis job is looking very, very tempting. The only thing stopping me from jumping on it is guilt. Is it fair for me to leave Sam Houston St. with just 7 eligible players on the roster? Kinda like I'm letting somebody else clean up my mess. I'm gonna have to stop here and think about it. I realize it's only a game, and if this was a real life decision it'd be that much tougher. I'm treating it like a real life situation. Anybody that has any opinions, feel free. I'm gonna sit on this one for a little while.

Not going to push you one way or the other, but I'll be anticipating your decision. :)

For those wondering, I have made a decision... Mike Schaplowsky is moving to Memphis! In the long run it was just too good of an opportunity to pass up. I'll still feel a little bad about leaving Sam Houston State in such bad shape depth wise, and I'll continue to track them, but this is about my career. Had they gotten a promotion to a better conference like they should have, then I might have stayed.

So, when I get back from my road trip next week, I'll be taking a look at what's going on with my new school, the Memphis Tigers.

Here's a look at our initial 20 man call list, my first in my new job at Memphis.




With a $28,000 a month recruiting budget, I can certainly do a lot more than I could at Sam Houston, as I evaluated quite a few more players than those that are on the call list.

Offseason Recruiting News

August 2018

I've offered scholarships to Tomblin, Maggio, Hatcher, and Strom. I feel like my chances are good to get Tomblin, even if he is just a 3 star recruit. Maggio and Strom are already evaluated out to be decent players. I have 6 scholarships, I'm holding onto the other 2 for now.

September 2018

We are still at the top of Tomblin's list, while Hatcher, Strom, and Maggio have us toward the bottom. I've offered my last 2 scholarships to Nemeth and Mick, who aren't being heavily recruited at the moment, so if I can steal them it would be great for the program.

October 2018

Tomblin has given us a verbal, so we've got him. I think we've got a shot at Mick, as Green Bay and Wisconsin are his other choices right now, and Wisconsin hasn't offered. If they don't, I think we'll jump over Green Bay. We're in a dead heat for Maggio, with Auburn and UAB. As far as Hatcher, Strom, and Nemeth go, I don't like our chances.

November 2018 (early signing period)

It was a no on everybody but Tomblin, and not even Tomblin signed his letter this time. Bummer, back to the grind. I suck at recruiting. We've offered scholarships to the other 3 still on our call list that haven't signed, those being Prieto, Parkman, and Cepeda. There's a 4 star player from Russia that nobody is looking at, so we're going after him now as well.

That's it for tonight, roster and schedule coming tomorrow.

Here is a look at the roster for your 2018 Memphis Tigers.


Post play is going to be the strength of this years team, as we have 4 C/PF that are either green or blue current. We've only got 1 perimeter play that is currently rated in the blue, but a few others with blue potential.

And the schedule:



By no means is this the worlds toughest schedule, with Tennessee being our toughest non-conference opponent. But with this my first season on the job, I wanted to get a good feel for the team. Don't get me wrong, this schedule isn't a cakewalk. Villinova and Southern Illinois should both provide tough games, and Wichita St. and George Mason could as well.

Something I have to deal with here at Memphis that I didn't really have to deal with at Sam Houston St. is the possibility of early draft entries. We've got 2 such players this season. Gaston Lytle is projected to go late in the draft, so he most likely will not enter. Mark Cohen is projected to go late 1st round, and he is still on the fence.

November 2018


Not a bad start to the season, as we lost in the championship game of the Preseason NIT. Didn't have any other games scheduled this month because we know there was a possibility of a deep run.

Overall Record: 3-1
Neutral Record: 3-1
Rank: #7 in Coaches Poll (apparently Memphis isn't a mid-major team as Conference USA appears to be a prestige of 5).
RPI: 23

There will be a decrease in the polls thanks to the UConn loss.

Leaders

PPG

PG Amos Lusk- 14.8
PF Gaston Lytle- 14.0
C Franklyn Crandell- 8.8
SG Thomas Diaz- 8.8

RPG

SG Thomas Diaz- 10.5
C Franklyn Crandell- 6.5
PF Mark Cohen- 5.0

APG

SG Thomas Diaz- 4.0
SF David Berg- 2.5
PG Amos Lusk- 2.3

Never would have expected a shooting guard to be the team rebounding leader, let alone average double figures in rebounding. Not only that, but he is the assist leader, but still, 4 a game isn't earth shattering.

Recruiting News

We did get a commit this month, but had 3 other offers declined.

Troy Tromblin, a 3 star center from Florida, signed on the dotted line. Not as if we needed another post, but when you're trying to fill slots, you'll take what you get. Still 5 scholarships to hand out though.

December 2018


A 4-3 month is my worst month ever as a D1 head coach. I knew that some of those non power 5 schools would be a challenge, and Green Bay and Wichita St. proved to be. Of course, Tennessee is rolling over everybody so far, but as soon as I get my guys in here (who am I kidding, I suck at recruiting) maybe we'll be good again.

Overall Record: 7-4
Home Record: 3-2
Road Record: 1-1
Neutral Record: 3-1
Rank: NR
RPI: 58

Leaders

PPG

PF Gaston Lytle- 12.8
SF David Berg- 10.9
PG Amos Lusk- 10.7

RPG

SG Thomas Diaz- 9.2
C Franklyn Crandell- 6.7
PF Mark Cohen- 5.1

APG

SG Thomas Diaz- 3.9
PG Amos Lusk- 2.6
SF David Berg- 2.5

I do like the fact we have 4 guys averaging double figures in scoring, with 1 more just missing the double figure mark. Diaz has to be our MVP right now, as he is averaging 9.9 PPG along with leading the team in RPG and APG.

Recruiting News

4 scholarship offers, all rejected. We're going overseas to find guys that aren't being recruited yet and hopefully steal some of those. Recruiting is pathetic right now, has to get better.

January 2019


Conference play has been my saving grace in my first season at Memphis, as the non-conference slate was an issue to say the least. We are currently on an 8 game winning streak, but let's be honest. Conference USA isn't exactly one of the elite conferences, as it is only 13th in the conference RPI. However, we've got a great win at Southern Illinois on our resume. It's not out of the realm of possibility that we only end up with 1 or 2 more losses in the regular season.

Overall Record: 15-5
Conference Record: 5-0
Home Record: 5-3
Road Record: 7-1
Neutral Record: 3-1
Rank: #19 Coaches Poll, not eligible for mid-major poll
RPI: 25

Leaders

PPG

PF Gaston Lyle- 12.2
SF David Berg- 11.0
PG Amos Lusk- 10.4

RPG

SG Thomas Diaz- 8.0
C Franklyn Crandell- 7.3
PF Mark Cohen- 4.9

APG

SG Thomas Diaz- 3.9
SF David Berg- 2.8
PG Amos Lusk- 2.5

6 guys averaging 9 ppg or more is nice, but I'm still disappointed that our highest assist guy is only 3.9 apg. Gotta find some guys that are willing to share the ball a little better.

Recruiting News

SF Stan Martin is now #1 on our list, and we are #1 on his. If the campus visit goes well, we should get him. Sadly, that still leaves 3 scholarships to fill, assuming we do get Stan. There's a 4 star guy still out there that hasn't received any offers, we're gonna try to steal him.

February 2019


I picked up my 100th career win in the 77-60 win over Rice, and I'm now 104-25 in my career. As expected, we did lose a couple in February, and we've got 3 games left. We lead the Conference USA by 1.5 games over Tulsa, who, ironically we play in the last game of the regular season, a game that could decide the C-USA regular season title. Either way, we're a lock for the Big Dance, although that could change if we lose our last 3 regular season games.

Overall Record: 21-7
Conference Record: 11-2
Home Record: 9-4
Road Record: 9-2
Neutral Record: 3-1
Rank: #19 in coaches poll, not eligible for mid-major poll
RPI: 34

Leaders

PPG

PF Gaston Lyle- 11.8
SG Thomas Diaz- 11.4
SF David Berg- 11.0

RPG

SG Thomas Diaz- 8.1
C Franklyn Crandell- 6.9
PF Mark Cohen- 4.5

APG

SG Thomas Diaz- 3.5
SF David Berg- 2.6
PG Amos Lusk- 2.4

Diaz is the MVP of this team, no doubt. He's in the top 3 in almost all of the statistical categories, and leading 3 of them (he's also leading us in steals per game). Of course, he just so happens to be a senior, which means I'm losing a lot of my production next season, and recruiting isn't going as well as I'd hoped. Speaking of...

Recruiting News

As expected, we did sign SF Stan Martin, another 3 star prospect, out of Australia. Unfortunately, everybody else we were looking at signed elsewhere. All we can do now is go after the best 3 star guys that we can find, and hope we can luck out in getting a couple of them, otherwise we'll have 4 scholarships available for transfers.

Cool career, hope you keep it up.

I think Memphis was a no brainer -- you had to go, I mean just the year before you couldnt wait to get out of southland.

Thanks for reading, I appreciate any comments I get. Yeah, I think I knew I was going to go to Memphis all along, I just felt bad for leaving Sam Houston St's cupboard bare. Which reminds me, I need to check and see how they are doing. Thanks again for following.

We rolled through our last 3 conference games in March, and the final C-USA standings look like this.


I'd be shocked if it isn't us against either Tulsa or UTEP in the championship.

We get a bye into the Quarterfinals, and on March 13th, 2019, the First Round was played. Here are those results.

(5) Houston- 72, (12) SMU- 53
(11) Marshall- 65, (6) UAB- 49
(7) Rice- 77, (10) Central Florida- 71
(8) ECU- 78, (9) Southern Miss- 66

The Quarterfinal pairings are as follows:

(8) ECU vs. (1) Memphis
(5) Houston vs. (4) Tulane
(7) Rice vs. (2) Tulsa
(11) Marshall vs. (3) UTEP

March 14, 2019

Conference USA Quarterfinals
(8) ECU (11-19) vs. (1) #12 Memphis (24-7)

We only played these guys once in the regular season, and we beat them by 30 at their place. I'm not expecting much trouble with this one at all. Once again though, I came in overconfident and not with the best gameplan. They jumped out to an 8-2 lead early before we righted the ship, forcing 19 turnovers and holding them to 36.5% shooting in a 63-55 win.


Other Conference Tournament Games:

(5) Houston- 74, (4) Tulane- 55
(3) UTEP- 74, (11) Marshall- 66
(2) Tulsa- 76, (7) Rice- 68

As expected, we take care of business in the semifinals, we face either UTEP or Tulsa in the ship.


March 15, 2019

Conference USA Semifinals
(5) Houston (20-12) vs. (1) #12 Memphis (25-7)

Crap! I just found out Amos Lusk tore his ACL during yesterdays quarterfinal, and he's out for a long time. Houston is another team we only played once in the regular season, and they handed us one of our 2 conference losses, so this is a revenge game for us. Unfortunately, we didn't play like it. The Cougars dominated us from start to finish, leading by 13 at the half. The free throw shooting disparity, which is a big problem in FBCB, went their way. They were 24-30, we were 10-15, a huge factor. The final score, 93-80 in their favor. So now we sit and wait, knowing we will be safely in, but also knowing we blew a huge chance.


The Tulsa-UTEP game came down to a buzzer beater, as Tulsa won 82-80. The Golden Hurricane kept it going in the C-USA Championship, getting another buzzer beater to win 80-78 over Houston and win the conferences automatic bid.

2019 Selection Sunday

Tulsa got the 12th seed in the NCAA Midwest Region, and will take on 5th seed Southern Illinois.

We received the 7th seed in the NCAA South Region, and will take on 10th seed USC.

UTEP got the 4th seed in the NIT West Region and will host 5th seed George Mason in the Second Round.

Houston got the top seed in the NIT Midwest Region and will host the winner between (9) Arizona St./(8) Penn in the Second Round.

UAB got the 7th seed in the NIT South Region and will host 10th seed Winthrop in the First Round, with the winner travelling to 2nd seed Texas A&M.

And finally, Tulane got the 14th seed in the CBI and will travel to 3rd seed St. Marys in the First Round.

Oh, and for those that are wondering, Sam Houston St. finished 18-13 overall, and 13-3 in the Southland. They were upset in the First Round of the Southland Tournament, but got an automatic bid to the NIT as a result of winning the Southland regular season conference title.

That's still a nice first year so far (not sure what the board's expectations are - don't remember if you posted it). If there's a second bad recruiting year, though (because a Top 25 team should be doing better than 3* guys IMO), you may want to jump ship. :D

March 21, 2019

NCAA Tournament- South Region First Round
(10) USC (21-9) vs. (7) #14 Memphis (25-8)

This is a winnable game, but we're still gonna have to bring our A game. USC has 8 guys that can hurt us at any time, and we've got to key in on their post guys. If we can shut down action in the post, I think we've got a good chance to win.

And win we do! It was only a 2 point game at halftime, but we turned it up in the 2nd half, forcing a lot of turnovers and forcing them to take some terrible shots. For the first time in my career, I've accomplished the goal of winning an NCAA Tournament game, as we advance with a 68-57 victory!



March 23, 2019

NCAA Tournament- Second Round
(15) Illinois-Chicago vs. (7) #14 Memphis (26-8)

Wow! I'm not sure what to make of the fact that we are playing Illinois-Chicago, who beat (2) Villanova 57-54 in the First Round. On paper, it looks like we should have the advantage, but they beat a team that beat us by 18 back in January. To say I'm nervous is an understatement, especially since I was really looking forward to a rematch against Villanova. But.. we move on. A look at Illinois-Chicago's roster doesn't really scare me too much, they've got a PG and a C that are currently in the green, but they've got 8 or 9 others with green potential. We just need to play a good, balanced game.

As expected, this one was tough! They jumped out on us quick, but we responded like a championship team should, taking an 11 point lead into the locker room. Their starting backcourt, Gerry Passmore and James Stotts, combined for 35 of their points, but we were able to shut everybody else down. Despite the fact that we committed 21 turnovers, which I'm not happy about, we move on to the Sweet Sixteen with a 67-62 victory!

Thanks, yea I always forget to put the board expectation. The one thing I like better about DDS:CB is that there is more than just 1 goal, usually 4 or 5. DDS:CB is a more advanced game, and I just can't get it to run right consistently on my computer, plus the loading times are longing. I'd like to see some changes made to FBCB, but nonetheless, the goal for the season was to Reach the Sweet Sixteen, so we've accomplished that.

The way the season started, I was wondering if we'd even make the postseason or not. It was a rough start. As for recruiting, I for the life of me can't seem to figure out how to recruit on this game. I always go in with a plan, but I never get the guys I want, then I have to scramble. I know recruiting isn't that hard, it's just not happening for me. I agree, Memphis should be getting more 4 and even 5 star recruits.