Tiger93

This is not meant to defend Skerry, but there has pretty much been total ineptitude around this program since the last year of Terry Truax (95-96 was our last solid non-Skerry year) and everyone else before Skerry (not just Kennedy). There have been some pretty good years under Skerry, but this is all starting to go in the wrong direction. Everyone who has criticized Skerry has a very one-sided, short-term memory view of this program. However, I will agree with most of what is being said at this point because since the end of the 2017-18 season this program has mostly been a debacle. I just have three questions: What is your realistic plan to replace Skerry? (I know this has been talked about plenty) How are you going to get a better coach with the current decision-makers in place? Who are the realistic candidates for Towson based on our budget and job stature that you think can do better based on what this program has been for the last 23-24 years?

True, but Towson is likely playing three of the top four teams in the league in the first three games of the year. I was mainly pointing out it is a tough start. Still, I get your point. If we don't play better we are not going to get many wins in a competitive conference. I expect a much better performance today.

All conference games are tough is cliche. Playing UNC-Wilmington, Elon or Drexel would be a little easier than playing the projected top three teams (Hofstra, Charleston, and Northeastern) in the conference to start the schedule. That being said, if we are any good (which we don't look like so far) I would expect to win one of these two home games and that is going to be tough now. Of course it is disappointing to lay an egg in the opener but we have 17 more of these conference games to go. I will try to be a little less of an rmist and actually wait a couple of games before I jump all over how bad we are going to be this year.

Too early to determine where we will finish in the conference based on one game, but yes Saturday's performance was highly disappointing. If Skerry and the players don't come out ready to play at a high level today against Hofstra I will join the negativity, but let's see what today brings before calling the season over. We knew this was a tough schedule to start conference play, but we are at home and I was hoping to be able to win at least one of these games to get off on the right foot in conference play.

RundaPower, why is this a dumb move? I realize we might not be up to the competition and that outside of FCS circles NDSU only has a limited amount of brand-name recognition (you have to admit they have a little having hosted College Gameday twice). No matter who our coach is and what we think about this program, we have shown we can compete in the conference at times and that we can be a top 20ish team. Why not give it a shot?

Interestingly enough they actually have not played an FBS school since beating Iowa State 34-14 in 2014. FBS schools probably got sick of losing to them. They are at Oregon to start the season next year but are slated to play Towson, Albany, and Valpo in 2021. Of course, we also have San Diego State in 2021. I don't know how the CAA schedule shakes out that year, but if we play James Madison that will be an absolutely hellacious schedule. This is exciting. There is no excuse for this game not to be close to a sellout, especially considering they will probably bring at least 1,000 fans. I know they are not a brand name, but we should at least be able to hype up the concept of this game to get close to filling the place.

This is an interesting conversation overall for Towson basketball. As much as I love this program, our lack of a conference championship since 1991 combined with a shortage of signature wins does make us uniquely woeful as a D-1 program. The one victory no one talked about here was the win over St. John's in the Preseason NIT in 1993 (I know it was not at home, but it was my first experience as a college student rooting for Towson). The West Virginia buzzer-beater on the road (the same year we beat Louisville) was fun too (but again not at home), although they were not very good at the time. I do have to give Skerry credit for one thing. This year's schedule is actually a pretty good one. We have criticized him in the past for the schedule, but the combination of high profile games (Florida, Xavier) decent to high RPI mid-major opponents (Buffalo (who just beat an undefeated DePaul team), Kent State, Vermont, and Liberty) and some winnable games (GW, Morgan State and hopefully UMBC (who were are favored by 9.5). I don't think the science of getting good teams to play you at home is as clear as some make it out to be. I think it is usually a combination of luck, previous connections, circumstance, recruiting or desire to have a player play at home and sometimes open dates. It always seemed to me that Pittsburgh or TCU with Skerry's connections might be good targets to bring to Towson, but I don't know how much he has stayed in contact with Jamie Dixon or Pittsburgh. I would be happy if we could get Maryland to play us at the Baltimore Arena again for a couple of trips there, but I think that ship has sailed.

This team really deserves a ton of credit! Going 18 for 18 in conference matchups is absolutely incredible, no matter what the sport or the level. The Tigers are one of only seven teams in the NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball to be undefeated in conference play this year, and they are the only team in the entire nation to go undefeated in conference play and not get pushed to the fifth set in any match. Hopefully this year we can get a manageable first-round matchup and win our first NCAA Tournament match.

Oddly enough, the last team to miss the NCAA Tournament from the CAA happened the same year we got shafted in 2012. Richmond was 8-3 with a 6-2 conference record and missed the tournament. I believe it was a smaller field back at that point. They lost to Virginia, Old Dominion and New Hampshire, and beat Villanova who was also 6-2 (as was Towson). https://caasports.com/documents/2019/7/22/2019_CAA_Football_Guide_WebSMALL.pdf. Out of the two main projections I looked at (College Sports Madness and HeroSports) one has us in the last three in and the other has us as one of the first teams out. This is an odd year because we don't really have a great win (Maine and The Citadel seem to the best on the surface), but we have lost to Florida and three teams ahead of us in the conference. I don't think anything is guaranteed in this case and this is not a very good CAA year (looking back on it 2012 was historically good). Our resume was a little better last year (with wins over Villanova and Elon on the road), but we have one more win this year. It is always hard because I never know enough about the other conferences to have a great feel for this. All we can do is take care of business and see what happens.

I get the premise behind this, but I have to disagree. Whatever level we play, our goal should be trying to win the conference title and then trying to get as close to a national title as we can. Those are the most important accomplishments on our list in my opinion. While beating Maryland or a top 25 team would be huge in the short-term, the next week to a month, maybe even the rest of the season, building a consistent program is more significant. I get from a publicity and fan standpoint a lot more people will care, but it would be better if we could build something that can last in the long-term here. I would take a CAA title (and of course an FCS Championship) over any of this because that is really what our players are out there trying to accomplish week in and week out. I would be really excited if we can giving Florida a great game, and being in Baton Rouge when Towson took a 9-7 lead in the second quarter was one of more favorite in-person football moments. However, I really want to be able to expect to be a contender in the CAA and a top 20 team on an annual basis. We have done this sporadically, but if we are doing right we should be able to be more consistent with those goals. Other good things will come with that.

I went to that LSU game (was hoping to swing this weekend's game), and it was an absolute blast to see our team physically battling LSU tooth and nail. I am fine with these games. I just don't want us to ever repeat what we did in 2012 when we played both Kent State and LSU (and I know we probably never will). Also in 2012, we scheduled LSU the week before a big game at James Madison and lost that game. That was a scheduling loss and even though we got ripped off out of playoff spot that year we also did a bad job of scheduling even though it was fun from a fan standpoint. This year I think we did it right playing Florida before home games against Albany and Bucknell. Nothing against those teams, but I hope we can win those games no matter what happens this week. The other part about playing top 10 teams compared to decent teams like Maryland and USF is that the top 10 teams take us much less seriously. I mean when Alabama is tied with The Citadel at halftime and we are almost beating No. 3 LSU halftime, you know they are not 100 percent dialed in. Let's roll with the experience, see what happens and use it to our benefit going forward.

We always get too far ahead of ourselves when it comes to this program. That was an awesome win on Saturday and it is exciting to be in the top five. It was great to rip the game from Maine and impose our will in the second half. That being said, can we just make sure we take care of business next week against Villanova before we talk about beating Florida, winning national titles and other stupid things like FBS football (I know no one has mentioned this, but it always seems to creep its way in when we are doing well). The 2011-13 stretch was a truly special one for this program. I was wondering if we would ever get back to it. Last year offered a glimmer of hope in terms of working our way back and we are off to a nice start, but let's try to build something sustainable here. Annual victories in the playoffs, an outright CAA title and getting good student engagement with good turnouts like it sounds like the North Carolina Central game was (I am just going off photos and the chatter I heard on this board). Here is hoping that this is a special season, but also that our program is not Tom Flacco or bust. Lets put together a complete performance against the Wildcats and do our best against Florida.

Just about every power conference team is going to try to play the bulk of their non-conference games at home so it makes it difficult to get them to SECU no matter what level they are in their conference. I do agree that once every 3 or 4 years we should be able to get one of them to come to SECU in a 2-for-1 if we try hard enough, and don't mind stacking a bunch of road games in a future schedule. I do like that we are involved in the Battle for the Capital event. Those teams are a good level for us and have the possibility to be high-level mid-major squads, and it is bus ride back. I also liked the Atlantic City Tournament last year. Taking advantage of close neutral-site games gives any local fans a chance to travel nearby, isn't too much of a financial outlay, the tournaments often draw at least a decent level of competition. I hate the D-3 games (as does everyone), but I think the coaching staff has done a decent job the last couple of years of finding some good neutral-site tournament opportunities.

Seems like a good get, but I always thought our program would be better if we could get more kids like this as freshmen. I realize this is easier said than done. Just a casual thought/wish for the program.

TCU88, I completely agree with this statement. I just wanted to add in the regular-season conference record since in my estimation it is every bit as important as the tournament record, and Skerry does not get enough credit for it. In the same breath, he deserves every bit the criticism he gets for his conference tournament record because it is awful. I understand the call for a new coach and dissatisfaction with him, but I just feel we are one year away from being able to completely judge it. Admittedly, I am generally overly cautious when it comes to this because I don't believe in upsetting consistency unless things are going really bad. Things are heading in a bad direction, but I think next year there is some potential to turn it around. For context, I also wanted to add what other programs in this conference have done in their coaching situations (with the caveat that I may be misinterpreting some of these). Delaware let Monte Ross coach for 10 years (he did win one title which got him a couple of extra years) before firing him after a 7-23 season. Drexel let Bruiser Flint coach for 15 years (he was definitely more successful on the front of his tenure) before firing him after a disastrous 6-25 season. Bill Coen did not get to his first NCAA Tournament until his ninth season (although he did get to an NIT and CBI Tournament and generally has one of the top 2-3 resumes in this conference). Tony Shaver has been pretty good the last six years (10+ conference wins each year), but had two winning seasons in his first 10 years. Clearly his fanbase is getting a little tired of no tournament as well. Tom Pecora was 154-125 and 90-71 in nine years and reached the NIT nine times at Hofstra. They hired Mihalich after he went to Fordham. Hofstra has definitely made some solid coaching hires. James Madison fired Matt Brady after making one NCAA Tournament (the year there were six teams in the CAA Tourney). He went 23-13 in the conference his last two years. They fired him and Louis Rowe has gone 33-63 in his first two years. UNC-Wilmington made an awesome hired with Kevin Keats who got them to back-to-back NCAA Tournaments. CB McGrath is struggling two years into his tenure. College of Charleston basically fired Doug Wojcik because of the controversy surrounding him and new president. Earl Grant has been pretty good so far. Elon has Matt Matheny who is 151-168 and has only had one winning conference record in three years. There is no real point to this list, other than six of the nine programs have let coaches stay nine or more years in tenure within the last two hires. UNC Wilmington seems like the program most willing to go for home run hires, and they have done fairly well. They did awesome with Brownell, Wainwright, and Keats, and are probably the poster child for moving on to the next chapter quicker than most. College of Charleston has a good basketball reputation and moved on to the right person in Earl Grant. James Madison's situation is probably the most similar to ours because Matt Brady was good, but not great. However, he did make an NCAA Tournament which gives him the edge over Skerry. Their recent hire of Louis Rowe (33-63 in three years) shows the other side of UNC-Wilmington in how things can go south when you are not satisfied with good and want more. Skerry has done a lot to move this program forward. He might not be the person to get to the next level, but I feel based on what he has done compared to his predecessors he deserves some benefit of the doubt going into next year. If we are sitting in the same place next year, I will be right there with all of you guys. Until then, I am alright with Skerry being our coach.

I am not in much of a mood to defend Skerry after what I watched on Saturday. However, I will point out that in the timeframe you have decided to select for Skerry Towson has tied for the third-best conference record in the CAA. I would not trivialize approximately 10 wins per season in a conference play, but I will also say based on the current trend it loses its luster somewhat. Northeastern is 78-46 (.629), William & Mary 71-53 (.573), Hofstra 67-57 (.540), Towson 67-57 (.540), College of Charleston (.538), UNC-Wilmington 61-63 (.492), James Madison - 59-65 (.476), Delaware - 57-67 (.460), Elon - 36-54 (.400), Drexel - 45-79 (.363). The conference tournament numbers are definitely horrible. Here they are since Skerry started: UNC-Wilmington (10-5,.667, two titles), College of Charleston (8-4,.667, one title), Northeastern (10-6,.625, one title), Delaware (8-6,.571, one title), William & Mary (7-8,.467, no titles), Hofstra (5-7, .471, no titles), James Madison (5-7,.471, one title), Drexel (4-8,.333, no titles), Towson (2-7,.222, no titles), Elon (1-5, .167, no titles). It is also worth nothing Elon's only conference tournament win came against Towson in 2015. As for the non-conference, I will take your word. Anecdotally I feel like Hofstra, College of Charleston and Northeastern have been good at this recently. William and Mary and UNC-Wilmington do a little better than the rest, and I would lump Towson in with Delaware, Drexel, Elon, and James Madison in terms of not grabbing great non-conference wins and sometimes scheduling light, but I would have to look deeper. As for a coach, I think their goals go like this. Quality conference record (Skerry has done alright at this, but is definitely going in the wrong direction), Conference Tournament (I not ultimately the measuring stick is getting to an NCAA Tournament, but it is too random to value over success during the regular season). I would put non-conference a distant third. It is important, but if the first two aspect are checked off it ultimately does not matter. If they are not checked off as we are saying here, it is a smaller part of the issue. Ultimately, Skerry has been an average coach in the CAA and he looks a lot better because Towson has been a way below average program. I agree with a lot of the negative sentiment, but also think there is something to build on player wise for this year. I do wish Skerry would adapt his style into something a lot more aesthetically pleasing to watch, but if we can get back on the winning track I ultimately don't care. Again, my reason for posting is not to argue, but more to confirm and she further light on some of the stats that have been brought up here.

Well, we have won more than one game in a conference tournament only once since 1992 when we won the ECC Tournament (never did it in the Big South, never did it in the America East), so that makes sense.

TSU88, you make it sound like we are not taking those years into account. That 41-49 record is mostly because of the 14-22 record the past two years. These past two years are mostly what I am (and I think others) concerned about and I have pointed that out multiple times in my posts pretty clearly. It is why I think next year we need to take a long, hard look at what direction we are heading as a program. I would hope you would be fair enough to point out that Towson was 11-7 in conference play in both 15-16 and 16-17 without Benimon as well. I won't bring up the 20 wins in those two years, because I do agree somewhat on the softer pre-conference schedule. All I am saying is you at least need to bring some balance into this argument. Skerry has led Towson to four pretty good seasons. The trend is going the wrong way in the last two years. We can all have our opinions about where the program is going and what we like and don't like about Skerry, but please make sure to present a balanced account of what has been a pretty solid coaching tenure.

One week at a time, but what a great start this has been. If you go by Inside Lacrosse poll it is 1 vs. 2 when Towson meets Cornell. Of course, Towson has to play Jacksonville and Cornell has to play No. 4 Penn State (according to the same poll) prior to that game. Sounds like it will be a competitive weekend of lacrosse in Charlotte.

I agree with you if you are talking about what has happened the last year and a half. However, I would argue with you that up until conference season started last year (17-18) we were not accepting mediocrity. From the 2012-13 season to the 2016-17 season Skerry led the Tigers to a 53-35 record in CAA Play. That was the best record of any of the teams in the CAA during that five-year stretch. Here is the list during that stretch: Towson 55-35 (.611), William & Mary 50-38 (.568), Northeastern 50-38 (.568), UNC-W 49-39 (.557), James Madison 47-41 (.534), Delaware 43-45 (.489), Hofstra 40-48 (.455), College of Charleston (joined league in 13-14) - 31-39 (.443), Drexel 32-56 (.363). I would say is unfair to count Skerry's first year in any of this since Pat Kennedy left the worst mess of a program I can imagine. Last year, Towson started 11-1 so that was not mediocre. The base of all of your complaints lies in three areas, and I would not disagree with any of them. The last year and a half has been a mess (true). Postseason futility, Skerry I believe is 2-6 in the CAA Tourney (true). The last part is somewhat subjective, but I tend to agree that Skerry's style of play is not my favorite to watch and might not be a good recipe for one-and-done tournament format games or success of modern-day recruits (true). My overall point is I am very frustrated with the last 51 games of Towson basketball (17-34, that is not mediocre that is bad), but I don't believe you are giving Skerry enough credit for what he has done in conference play for the bulk of his tenure. There is definitely validity in the criticisms, but I don't think it is fair to say we are accepting mediocrity by keeping Skerry for one more year. I will definitely agree that I don't like the direction we are going in right now. Just two different ways to look at this I guess.

I am all for the people that are alarmed by the direction this program has taken since about midway last season. I too am alarmed and I think we do need to start to examine what better options are out there. I think that is a conversation that is based on next year's team's results, not this one. Also, can we have a small dose of reality about what Towson basketball has been the last 25 years? My freshman year (1993-94) the Tigers finished in first place in the Big South with a 15-3 record. From the 1994-95 season prior to Skerry's hire (before the 2011-12, which is unfair to judge because of how bad Kennedy was), Towson finished fifth or better in the conference once (from 1994-95 to 2009-10). Since Skerry has taken over, Towson has finished fifth or better five of the nine years and third or better four times. They had one 20-win season in Division I prior to Skerry's arrival and he has had three since taking over. I don't particularly like the style that we need to play to succeed under Skerry even when we have been good, I don't like how we play in conference tournaments (2-6 by my count) and I don't like what happened after last season (we can blame the players all we want, but it still is not a good look any way you look at it). However, the guy has been easily the best coach we have had since Terry Truax (I know, not saying much). We have three legitimately special years in the Skerry era in my estimation. The 2012-13 team might have been the best, most cohesive group that Skerry had and I will still say they would have a chance to make a nice run in the conference tournament (the last quality version of the CAA) if Pat Kennedy had not gotten us ineligible season that year. The next year (2013-14) was the first 20+ win team since my already referred to freshman year. The William & Mary loss in the tournament was the most disappointing of the Skerry era, and was a terrible loss. The 2016-17 team was about 5-6 minutes away from going to the conference title game. I get that we have not made a conference a conference title game in forever, I get that our program needs to have higher standards, and I get the arrow of those program's progression is going the wrong direction, but I will ask two questions. First, if we make a hire do you think we will do any better than Skerry? Second, if we go out and make that hired do you really want this AD to decide who that would be? I don't feel confident that we will get a quality candidate, and I would like someone else to make that hire if and when that day comes. I think this team actually has some decent parts (as it has shown being in virtually every game recently until the season finale). Personally, I think Skerry should get one more season and we can assess from there. Just one fan's opinion and I respect and understand there are a lot of ways to look at this.

To answer the first question about playing No. 1 teams at home. Based on the Towson media guide (record book), the No. 1 team has played here 11 times. The last time was Virginia in 2010. Eight of those 11 meetings unsurprisingly have come against Johns Hopkins. Towson's wins against No. 1 teams at home came in 1989 in a 9-8 OT win against Hopkins and in 1992 with an 8-7 OT win against Loyola. I was also looking at this yesterday, and I believe if we could pull off the win tonight it would be the first time we beat both Hopkins and Loyola in the same season since 1996. That year, Towson went 3-0 against the local rivals winning at home against No. 9 Loyola 12-11 in the earlier portion of the season, winning at No. 5 Hopkins 13-12 late in the season and knocking Loyola out of the NCAA Tournament 16-11 before getting crushed by Princeton to get knocked themselves in a game I, unfortunately, witnessed in person. This is really an impressive schedule that we have put together. It is exciting to have this opportunity tonight and to still have three top-10 teams left on the schedule in Cornell, Duke, and Denver. Hopefully, we can get the win tonight.

Great win! Good to see this team show progress as the year moves along. There is definitely some talent there, and some good building pieces for the futures. However, beating the second and third place teams in the conference also gives us some good vibes for the now. It would be nice to see them carry some of this momentum forward with a strong performance against Hofstra on Saturday, but they are playing really well. Just nice to see two quality conference wins in back-to-back games. It is funny. Last year there was more talent and more expectations in this program, but I just hated the vibe around this group. This year has been rough, but feels like there is more of a collective effort to get better as the year progresses.

Mat, your work is appreciated. I am not a frequent poster, but definitely am a frequent reader and I appreciate having a place like this to consume Towson content and break down the highs and lows of Towson sports.

The CAA could care less about whether we do or do not get a seed. The only thing the CAA cares about is getting in as many teams as possible and having the team that wins it. The FCS really could care less. If anything, we are not relevant enough for the FCS to care. It is too early to care about the polls. If you really want to forecast I would guess it is simple. If we win out, we will probably have the opportunity to ost at least through the quarterfinals, if we lose once we will probably host through the first round (probably the second round), if we lost twice we will probably get in and might host the first round and if we lose three times we probably will not get in the tournament. I think everything is pretty cut and dry. There is no use in listening to the artificial noise. Just take care of business. We are capable of losing any of the remaining games, and with James Madison being a home game I think we are capable of winning any of them. Personally, I think we should not lose any more than two games, but who knows what happens. Let's just enjoy the ride and stop complaining about the seats being uncomfortable. This has been and I think it will continue to be a fun season.