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mat1992

Skerry selected as court coach for U19 World Cup Team

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After seeing Abilene Christian beat Texas and Loyola smack Illinois in the NCAA Tournament, it made me think that all of these P5 teams are foolish for not scheduling just one simple road game at a lower-end non-con opponent.  If you're a Bill Self or a Coach K or a Jay Wright, why wouldn't you subject your team to a hostile environment against a much lesser team in November or December to give them an idea of what they could run into if they earn that expected high seed in the Tournament?  But no, if Duke is gonna play a Temple or Maryland is gonna play us, etc, they have to do it at a neutral site/big arena rather than expose their kids to an actual pressure game that could pay dividends down the line.  I'd think that a Michigan would rather lose to Oakland in November than ignore them and then get upset as a 3 seed in the Tournament.  Not only would it help the high major get a little bit of experience in that type of game, it would also help grow the game a bit more across the board.  It's one game in November or December.  If they're a pretty decent team, a potential loss shouldn't be an issue for their Tourney hopes.

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It must be different for regions and conferences.  
USF never has had to do 2 for 1’s and has had Stanford, Cal and Arizona State come in between 2018-19 & 2019-2020 seasons. 
Seasons before this they would get lucky hosting a team on its way over or back from a Hawaii tournament.  Seton Hall & Ohio State. 
I just have a hard time with the fact that SECU opened in 2013 and we have no marquee games to show for it.  
Wichita State renovated their Charles Koch Arena and it propelled them to host a list of big programs. 

Ok I’m beating a dead drum.  Towson had the chance to be a top mid major and pissed it away.  

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20 hours ago, TuTigers2012 said:

I think we all would but don’t hold your breath. The local teams think they are to good. Pat, for as well traveled as he’s been, doesn’t seem to have the connections to make it work. Add in our athletic department incompetence and we have coppin, Loyola, Lasalle and goucher. 

every other caa school has gotten it done recently except us...

Most of those teams got those games for opening a new arena, no?  While TCU is bigger powerhouse as a program I feel like getting Temple to come in when the arena opened was a bigger draw. 

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16 hours ago, mat1992 said:

Yes, it would be nice to add a Maryland or a Villanova or Virginia, but that ain't happening. It takes two to tango and why would those teams want to play at a mid-major arena that would be packed for the first time since it opened? As mentioned in the past, PS won't do a 2-for-1. That's one home game for two future road games for those not familiar with the term.

As for the Louisville game, that once came fortuitously because Louisville needed an opponent at the last second. Literally two months before the game. They took the road game (foolishly) for two future home games. It also happened to be Denny Crum's youngest team and that was a time when freshmen and sophomores rarely left early. Did the fact that we went to the NCAA Tournament in 1991 probably help get that game? Sure, that and having an opening on the schedule. That was the weirdest Towson team of all time. They were a pretty bad team overall, but they beat West Virginia and Louisville. Go figure. Looking back, we also played Tennessee on the road as the last regular-season game (77-60 loss). Scheduling was a lot different back then. But again, that same team that beat West Virginia and Louisville went 12-15 and 6-10 in the Big South. We ended with an 85-55 loss to Charleston Southern in our first game in the Big South Tournament. How in the hell did a team with Ralph Blalock (should be in HOF), Ralph Biggs (HOFer), a bruiser who could shoot in Stevie Thomas and a solid 6-9 center in Jason Crump not do better than 12-15? It was kind of the beginning of the end for Truax and it goes back to a problem we still have today...we lacked a strong point guard.

As for Michigan, I forget the exact details. Truax was not the coach that year in November of 1997, it was Mike Jaskulski. But I believe Coach T worked that one out before with Steve Fisher, who was fired or former Loyola coach Brian Ellerbe, who took over for Fisher on an interim basis after he was fired. That was probably the most fun you could have in a loss in OT. Biggest crowd I believe ever. Raul DePablo did a Kevin Huerter and went nuts for six of seven three's for 18 points (pretty much all he could), but didn't take the last 3 to tie it in overtime. That went to Marlon Wise, who was not a very good shooter. 

 

 

I definitely remember the Michigan game was the first home game of the Mike Jaskulski era (not sure he deserves to even have an era). Me and one of my friends drove to American to watch Towson win on the road in his first game as head coach. In his first home game they played the Wolverines pretty tough until the end. I think you are right that Truax worked that out with Fisher/Ellerbe prior to getting fired. 

I would agree that year might have been the beginning of the end of Truax, but we redshirted Scooter Alexander that season. I thought I remembered that we were ineligible to make the NCAA Tournament out of the Big South that year because we were transitioning to the NAC (eventually renamed the America East). That West Virginia win was a buzzer beater three with the game tied by Ralph Blaylock on Gale Catlett Night.

The next year, 1995-96, was probably Truax's last stand when we finished 11-7 and third in the NAC (the next time our conference record would be this good was 2012-13). I remember an odd scheduling quirk had us play Delaware in the final two games of the season (both of which we lost), but then we knocked them out of the tournament in third straight meeting on their home floor behind several clutch Florian Schneider three-pointers off the bench. We made it to the conference tournament semifinals (something we did not replicate until Kennedy's magical run in 2009), and lost when the referees gave Jeff Myers and Malik Rose a parade to the free-throw line. 

The next year was Truax's last, as he went 9-19 despite a great year form Ralph Biggs. I also thought they should have given him one more year, but as we have seen with Skerry I am admittedly forgiving to coaches and always think they are 1-2 players away from putting things together. I remember before they got rid of Truax hearing a rumor that North Carolina might come to the Towson Center (I believe Truax was a grad assistant there), but in retrospect that probably was not true.

As for scheduling then vs. scheduling now, I agree it was very different. Like you said, I believe that Louisville game was actually scheduled either right before or during the first week or two of the season. I have never heard of anything like that happening at the D-1 level. The one thing that I think is the same between the two eras is that previous relationships or visits home for a star players are often reasons for big teams to come to a smaller team's gym. They also usually do require 2-for-1s so I don't think that is sword Skerry should die on if the right opportunity is presented. I am just surprised that Skerry has never been able to get Pittsburgh or TCU to come here with the relationship it seems like he has with Jamie Dixon, but I do understand that might be a tad simplistic. 

Sorry for the long post, but I just enjoyed Towson basketball so much from my freshman year 1993-94 through my senior year 1996-97 (even when we were bad his last year, Truax's teams played a fun style). Skerry has brought back some of the winning with not quite as enjoyable of a style. I just want another year like 2013-14 where I can actually trick myself into believing we have a shot to make the NCAA Tournament. My freshman year (1993-94) when we dominated the Big South only to lost to Liberty in the semifinals, the aforementioned 1996-97 season and 2013-14 season were the only seasons in nearly 30 years of watching Towson basketball where I let myself believe it was possible to get to the NCAA Tournament (I got excited, but never truly believed it during the Kennedy run in the CAA Tournament in 2008-09).  

Edited by Tiger93
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3 hours ago, griggey20 said:

Most of those teams got those games for opening a new arena, no?  While TCU is bigger powerhouse as a program I feel like getting Temple to come in when the arena opened was a bigger draw. 

Eh no not really. 

northeastern has had Michigan state, st bona, Oakland odu uab richmond davidson 

hof has had San Jose state, cal state Fullerton, st bona, Villanova (next door)

Drexel has had penn state (next door) and obviously the other Philly teams

Delaware- nova (neutral) Notre dame uncg Buffalo USF st bona

wm- odu st joes mason Marshall wofford liberty Charlotte 

jmu- UVA x2 (one for new arena one not) Charlotte richmond. Marshall app state 

elon- Duke (next door) Unc (new arena) uncg, USF, furman Charlotte 

uncw- unc Stanford uncg Davidson Charlotte 

Charleston- Oklahoma state, lsu miami (fl) vcu uri Davidson

obviously geography plays a role and we aren’t around many decent to good programs. Other schools have gotten neutral site or home games against much better names. Sometimes it takes creativity and flexibility which our athletic department doesn’t posses  

agree temple was better than tcu.  Our best home games since 2010... oregon state, temple,  odu, Kent state, gw?

 

 

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No doubt, redshirting Scooter Alexander that year of 2014-15 turned out to be a mistake. He wasn’t a point guard, but was automatic for 15ppg and decent defense. I don’t remember us not being eligible for the NCAA Tournament because we played in the Big South Tournament. But either way, that was an underachieving team. The biggest criticisms of those teams was that they couldn’t win tournament games outside the Towson Center or Towson Center South (the RAC).

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1 hour ago, mat1992 said:

No doubt, redshirting Scooter Alexander that year of 2014-15 turned out to be a mistake. He wasn’t a point guard, but was automatic for 15ppg and decent defense. I don’t remember us not being eligible for the NCAA Tournament because we played in the Big South Tournament. But either way, that was an underachieving team. The biggest criticisms of those teams was that they couldn’t win tournament games outside the Towson Center or Towson Center South (the RAC).

You are correct. It wasn't just Towson, the Big South did not get a NCAA Tournament bid that year. I believe that is why we redshirted Scooter Alexander. I think the conference not having a bid had something to do with combination of Campbell leaving, UNC Greensboro only recently having joined the conference, Towson leaving the next year and maybe one or two other schools in the same category. It was one of those weird situations where not enough schools in the conference were eligible or something similar to that. Sorry to hijack the thread with old history. Just wanted to close the loop on the conversation.  

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8 hours ago, Tiger93 said:

I definitely remember the Michigan game was the first home game of the Mike Jaskulski era (not sure he deserves to even have an era). Me and one of my friends drove to American to watch Towson win on the road in his first game as head coach. In his first home game they played the Wolverines pretty tough until the end. I think you are right that Truax worked that out with Fisher/Ellerbe prior to getting fired. 

I think Louis Bullock for Michigan was from somewhere around DC so it was billed as a bit of a home game for him as well.

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