Tiger93

Also, I know it means nothing but fun reminder that we did finish 19 spots higher than the Terps in the NET rankings last year. https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/basketball-men/d1/ncaa-mens-basketball-net-rankings.

CBS Sports stopped doing this feature this year, but SI.com is still keeping going the 1-363 preseasons rankings. I have always liked it because it at least forces the person doing it think for one second about each school as they put them order. Surely, less thought goes into the mid-major schools than the bigger ones, but I still enjoy it. Anyways, Towson is No. 96. It takes another 27 spots to get to the next CAA team. However, Hofstra, Delaware and Charleston are all clumped pretty close together. Nothing really earth-shattering just figured I would share. https://www.si.com/college/2022/11/02/ranking-every-team-in-college-basketball-unc-gonzaga

It still feels like it will come down to that last weekend at SECU against Hofstra. At College of Charleston doesn't have as much recent futility as it did before 2019. Towson has only played at Charleston three times (2-1 record) since 2019 with all the COVID scheduling. However, like you said last year Towson won a tough five-set match and lost one as well at Charleston. They have already lost five times at home this year and don't seem quite as formidable as usual. Of course, they should not be overlooked. I was just looking at the attendance for the year, and it looked like they had 1,000+ fans for the Rutgers match which stood out compared to other matches this year. Does anyone know if there was anything special done for that match, and if there are plans to try to do something similar for that last weekend against Hofstra?

That is awesome news, and even more exciting that they might have a shot to get the championship game. We are 1-0-1 against the remaining field of Drexel (w, 2-1), Northeastern (t 0-0) and Hofstra (have not played). Good luck to the team on Sunday!

To me the goal is to have a good program year-in and year-out that puts us in position annually to get us to the dance. Obviously getting there in the first place is first and foremost on everyone's mind, but as much as others might think it is delusional focusing on the fundamentals of figuring out a successful pattern for recruiting and succeeding in the regular season, scheduling strong and winning games against good non-conference teams to boost NET rankings, actually winning against top non-conference foes (which I think is as much lacking on Skerry's resume as conference tournament performances), figuring out a way to win a minimum 12 conference games a season, and trying to figure out a way to be a team that would be considered for an at-large bid someday are my goals. This is how I am assessing our program. I don't think we are there, but I am hoping we are building up on these pillars. If we have a season like last year and get knocked out in the conference tournament I will consider it disappointing, but if we go 18-13 and 9-9 in conference play and making it to the NCAA Tournament as a 16 seed there will also be a level of disappointment. We will have accomplished what we all wanted to get to the tournament, but that would be severely underachieving during the season, which will take enjoyment out of the overall journey. My point is March is not the only standard to hold this program too, but obviously it is the main thing a lot of us long-term fans focus on because we just want to experience it once. However, going to the NCAA Tournament isn't going to put more fans in the arena. I believe building a reputation as a good program will. My point is I will actually be more critical of Skerry if we go 18-13 and 9-9 and make the tournament, then if we go 24-7 and 14-4 and miss it, because we won't be living up to the standard that I expect this team to have. It is certainly a debate and I don't admit to be fully right, but this is my opinion. Agreed, but expectations should be weighed to all parts of the season. When judging where this program is going long-term I think we need to look at what non-conference teams we can beat, where are we in the NET, where do we finish in the conference, do we get an NCAA Tournament bid (and if we don't do we make a good run in the NIT). I think we have to judge all of these things. I don't think the criteria is just did we make the tournament or not. Another reason I think the holistic view is important is I believe Charleston is going to become a monster under Kelsey and we have to figure out ways to continuously get better as a program or we along with other programs may see them fly right past us.

Why are we even introducing conversation about the CAA Tournament and now? I completely agree there are immense expectations for the team this year, but that journey starts on November 7th. I expect high quality and consistency from this team throughout the year. There will be ups and downs (hopefully a lot more ups) and we can figure what we like and don't like about the team as we are moving along. This urge to jump immediately to March is unnecessary. We all will be disappointed if this isn't a NCAA Tournament team. Of course our reactions on how to unpack stuff like that differ in a lot of ways. However, in the meantime can we enjoy all the preseason buzz and talk through what we are seeing from this team, and hopefully enjoy the ride. This program is in a pretty good place with hopefully more attendance to follow (that is always a tough one). No matter that outcome in the CAA Tournament, last year was a blast and to me even ending in disappointment doesn't change that. Let's enjoy the ride and hope the team learned from last year's conference tournament experience and can use it as fuel to play at even more consistently high level this year. I don't disagree with the overall take about the NCAA Tournament or bust, but I hope we don't lose appreciation for having a good team during the year by trying to skip breakfast, lunch and dinner and going straight to dessert.

Didn't see that threat initially. Great start on a list of names.

Being a TU Alum would be a bonus if that person is the best candidate for the job, however it should not be one of the criteria we use in our selection. I really like how we say we don't trust the administration to make the hire, but very few outside of Atlanta Tiger have actually given concrete examples of who we should/could hire (myself included). I would venture to say that that Steven Eigonbrot probably has more connections and knowledge of what to look for in the current college football landscape than we do. That is why I ask if anyone has any ideas of who to hire. I will fully admit that it would take me a while to do the research to even have a somewhat credible list (if I could even produce one), led alone a preference. I hope Rob and the guys on this year's team can close out a more manageable part of the schedule with some Ws. I am interested in hearing possible names and conversation because at the end of the day this will be a good opportunity. It is going to be bittersweet because Rob gave us some really great memories, but I think it is a great opportunity to make a hire to build onto everything that Phil Albert, Gordy Combs and Rob have done for this program.

I had completely forgotten that. Makes sense. Good time to schedule UMass when they would do a 1-for-1 and could get markedly better quickly under Frank Martin.

CBS Sports also did a capsule on Towson as one of 15 mid-major teams to watch in 2022-23. https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/best-of-the-rest-mid-major-2022-23-preview-picks-predictions-for-teams-outside-power-conferences/

I agree, but I think they have an easier time getting opponents to come there because it is a part of the country where teams want to travel around that time of year for a tournament/game. St. Mary's is always a win-win opportunity in terms of being a high quality team that you can't damage your RPI/NET playing, and they have better leverage then we do when it comes to scheduling home-and-home. I agree with your goals that we all want, but I don't think the program factors are an apples to apples comparison right now. It would be great if they were someday. Skerry has to mindful of playing quality teams. The Penn, UNC-Greensboro, LIU and Bryant matchups are all part of one-for-one contracts that just happen to be away this year. The neutral site tournament is part of most teams schedules and takes away three more non-conferences games. Clemson, Northern Iowa and UMass are all pretty solid matchups and teams that would not come here unless we did two-for-ones or a neutral site game and one at their place. That leaves us with local matchups (Coppin State) and two one-for-ones (Navy and Albany) at home. If we wanted to trade Northern Iowa, Clemson and UMass for worse games against local teams, non D-1 opponents or low quality D-1 teams at home that was probably the only other option unfortunately. We could also play really good teams on the road with no return of games to Towson. I think UMass and Northern Iowa are good examples of teams that would probably do one-for-ones with a St. Mary's type program but not us. I do agree with you and most that I am a little disappointed that Skerry has never leveraged one of his previous coaching connections into at a minimum a two-for-one visit from a high major. TCU or Pittsburgh feel like teams we should be able to get to do that, but that is all easier said then done.

St. Mary's definitely has a more successful history, better leverage and more desirable geography than we do when it comes to their home schedule. Part of why I think it is more important to build a sustainable program than just purely focusing on the NCAA Tournament is the more people get used to us having a strong program, the more things like scheduling, attendance and recruiting take care of themselves. St. Mary's has built up their reputation over the last 15-20 years. It would be nice to string together 5-6 straight years of high NET rankings, top three conference finishes, some strong non-conference wins, and yes, most importantly, NCAA Tournament appearances so we can be viewed in a positive way reputationally in college hoops circles moving forward. I have noticed the last 3-5 year the College Basketball Weave guys (who I reference quite a big because I am impressed with the depth and breadth of their knowledge) have mentioned us more. A lot of this because of some of the transfer recruiting that Skerry has done (which has obviously been a mixed bag). They have taken notice seem to always mention Towson in passing when they talk about mid-major transfer updates. It also feels like Skerry has a pretty decent relationship with Jon Rothstein who seems to go out of his way to mention Towson 3-4 times a year.

Wasn't the 1992-93 squad the one that dominated the whole Big South season and got knocked off by Winthrop in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament? My freshman year was 1993-94 when we dominated Big South play and lost to Liberty in the semifinals. We have a few of these years sprinkled in with many other mediorce and bad ones. Hopefully, we can exorcise those demons this year. I would definitely agree there is a lot of room for optimism. Let's enjoy the ride from day one, and hopefully we can get where we need to go.

I believe so, and it looks like Delaware was picked fourth. https://bluehens.com/news/2013/10/22/209289636.aspx

I agree on the need to cash in on this opportunity to make the NCAA Tournament, but I will believe it when I see it that this team will be so dominant that they will have three of the five All-CAA performers. I don't view the preseason coaches poll as adding sort of extra weight to our already high expectations. I will say after looking at our schedule 20 wins and 12 conference wins should be minimal expectations. I will be disappointed if we don't reach those benchmarks. I will be disappointed if we aren't at least a top 80 NET team, and yes I will be disappointed if we don't minimally make the conference tournament finals (and yes it will be very frustrating if we don't make the NCAA Tournament). I think this team has a lot of pressure on it (in a good way) and I am hoping they deliver on all of our expectations. However, living up to their potential is a season-long pursuing, not a three-game pursuit. I don't view it as NCAA or bust, but I do view it there are large expectations on the success of this squad and I am hoping the live up to it.

KenPom is great tool about midway through the season when there is real data used, but his preseason rankings, while fun, are as useless as everyone else's polls. I would expect Charleston, Delaware and Hofstra to be slightly higher than those numbers, and I am sure there are one or two that will surprise and be better. I think this league has some solid programs in it, but as we have discussed before while Monmouth and Stony Brook have had some pretty good years in the past they don't appear to be in a great place to make it any better this year (although I still think one of them will do better than expectations). Also, I know it is not the only tool the NCAA uses, but I believe the NET rankings (while probably not as good a tool as KenPom) are more important than KenPom.

Tight conference race. Eight teams that are .500 or better, ten teams with at least two wins, and 10 teams squeezed between 14 and 8 points (not all that impressive since there aren't that many games that have been played). Looks like we are the only team that has beaten Drexel all year (of course their schedule doesn't look overly difficult). I didn't realize that we hadn't won 10 games in a season since 2000 and that we haven't had a winning conference record since that same year. I completely forgot that we won the America East while I was in school in 1996. I also remember Hartford was a great program for a long stretch in the America East, and I looked up the other time we made the conference championship in 1997 and got bulldozed in the finals 8-0 by the Hawks. Also cool to see Nia Christopher tied for eighth in the nation in goals with 11 and Riley Melendez on a school-record pace for goals against at 0.52 a game. I won't pretend I knew all this before I looked it up, but fun to see the women have this historic season.

We are probably a few years away from anything but Power 5 football being financially relevant when it comes to the landscape of college football. Anyone outside of those selected few universities will have to decide if their university and community provide enough financial support, and if they can support the NIL process and other crazy costs that come with running a program these days. The crazy Power 5 TV deals are the only thing keeping most of those schools profitable (i.e. Maryland). It seems like the non-Power 5 FBS schools will essentially become FCS schools and everyone else get bumped down a rung. We have never had the fanbase or sustained success to suggest we should even think about being a FBS school so I think if we want to be anywhere near that next level down the road we have a lot investing and planning to do, and my number one question will always be if we go all in on that path will the end result be worth it. The answer for most is no. I guess this will be up to president and AD to chart out their path, but I think you could argue that if what they chose doesn't look terribly ambitious that they might be doing it the smarter way. There is a reason why NDSU hasn't gone to the FBS. There is no point. Their brand is strong enough to satisfy their fans, and going to the FBS will not really make them any more profitable unless by some miracle that got invited to the Power 5 club. I know a team like JMU hopes they can be good enough to get someone in the ACC to consider them down the road to be part of the club once that conference gets enough members stolen from them. If that doesn't work (and it likely won't) their current road won't really do much for them financially in the long term. They will still be successful, because of the interest in the community and their alumni, but they won't be a relevant college football program outside of what they already are now. I don't know where we are heading, but I think the focus now is try to make a solid financial commitment to prepare for the future, hire a good head coach and map out 3 or 4 scenarios for new conferences, because it won't be our choice and we just need to be ready to move when all of the other dominoes fall and pick the best and most financially sustainable path. Any other ideas are fairly unrealistic.

UCF also lost to Houston this weekend leaving Towson and No. 1 Texas as the only undefeated teams left in Division I.

The first NCAA RPI was released today Towson is ranked No. 43. It is worth noting that Pittsburgh is No. 4 and was ranked No. 5 by the committee in the top 10 seedings they released this weekend. Delaware is the only other team in our conference under 100. The next best conference team is Northeastern at 156. Other notable teams we have played are Princeton at 92, Rutgers at 152, Bowling Green at 30 (which surprised me) and American at 103. https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/volleyball-women/d1/ncaa-womens-volleyball-rpi

Agreed. The fact you guys are bringing up Skerry in this thread is borderline idiotic. We are all pretty much in agreement that football needs to move in another direction, and I do appreciate Atlanta Tiger bringing up ideas and people reacting to it. This is the conversation. We can have the Skerry conversation (as dumb as it is) when the season starts, and for those of you that want him gone it is not worth even having the conversation until March. In the meantime, lets stay on the football coach topic. I agree with the sentiment that someone who can recruit the DMV is important (or at least someone who can assemble a staff that can do it effectively). I wish I had extensive enough knowledge to come up with names, but I feel like a lot of us will have to do some digging. I have much more confidence that Eigenbrot has a ready-made list of names in his mind to check on than I would have that Tim Leonard would have (no evidence for this, just a hunch). I am not sure there is a ready-made list of boxes to check for this hire, because at this level there are so many different directions you can go and some of the guys you can and can't get are based on circumstance or connections with the AD or university. This will be an interesting process. In the meantime, I just hope we can play well enough so this season doesn't get ugly.

I agree with this mostly and won't fully argue. However, I will have to say that to provide full context you have to acknowledge there were some accomplishments during that time including: - Going 4-2 in that stretch against Delaware (not a great Delaware group, but a rival is a rival) - In 2015 playing fairly close with East Carolina and beating #22 Villanova, and finishing 5-1 at home - In 2018, beating #10 Villanova, #13 Stony Brook, #5 Elon and making the playoffs (although losing to Duquesne was embarrassing) - In 2019, played a decent first half against Florida and had a playoff berth in our sights before choking against Elon (that is a positive that ultimately turned into a negative) To be fair, we were 25-31 in conference play in that span, not great. The only point in this exercise is to agree that Rob did not do great in this span, but that there were some positives. I do agree most of the time the negative results have outweighed the positives in that span. However, in my mind (and this is all opinion and preference) we did not reach a point where I thought a change was fully needed until 2019 when we couldn't get into the playoffs despite the amazing efforts of Flacco. I think there are definitely arguments that we didn't have the right AD in place to make that hire (which is another issue altogether), and that COVID circumstances didn't make it the best time to search for a coach. I am not here to make excuses, I just think we need to acknowledge facts on all ends of things. I do agree that this program has decayed rapidly the last three years.

I actually think this is all happening at the right time. I am not as down on Ambrose as many on this board, but the writing for me has probably been on the wall since we lost to Elon and missed the playoffs in Flacco's last year in 2019. All the COVID stuff made it hard to do anything in a fair way, and frankly I don't think we would have been prepared enough to get a good outcome out of a search process. I appreciate everything Ambrose has done and while you all want to equate all his success to Terrance West and say Ambrose got lucky, that was a badass offensive line that West was running behind. Ambrose was a big part of putting that line and team together. I was in Baton Rouge when we actually physically hung with LSU for a half and that was a pretty amazing thing to watch. I also think Rob deserves some credit for getting Flacco here, although I don't think we were nearly as successful at that time as we should have been. I love having an alum as a coach, and I always appreciated that Ambrose shows his love and pride for Towson in a landscape dominated by the Ravens and Terps. As for the bad, I always felt like we weren't very good on special teams, had some dumb penalties, bad clock management, have been very hit or miss on QB transfers, didn't capitalize on run to the national title game, and have not developed a system where our players have developed well (although the transfer portal has thrown that out the window). Right now, this program does not have an identity at all (as evidenced with all of the transfers that aren't amount to much colletively) and we need to have one in a league that feels like it is there for the taking if we can just get back on track as a program. There were a lot of highs with Rob, but this program is having more bad moments than good ones recently. I have always been against the trigger happy fire-the-coach crowd mainly because I didn't think think AD we had in place would do a great job finding a replacement. I feel like now that we gone out and hired what I consider a quality AD I have more confidence that we are in the right space to hire new football coach. There is a lot of season left and I will be rooting for Rob to turn this ship around, but I think it is pretty evident a change is needed at this point.

Probably never going to make it into the top 25 this year, but at least they got some national recognition with the National Player of the Week award. https://www.avca.org/awards/players-of-the-week/gamechanger-avca-division-i-women-player-of-the-week.html. Towson is now only joined by Auburn, Texas and UCF as one of four undefeated teams in the nation. https://www.ncaa.com/stats/volleyball-women/d1/current/team/51

Thank you for putting this together. This is some great information. Much appreciated.