Legacy of Coach Street

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CBS set up a camera crew to film us during the selection show. Every year teams reactions are captured and shown on television as their tourney dreams are either granted or dashed. We gathered at the pavilion for the live feed... Heading into selection show we knew that our chances of being selected were not in our favor. Joe Lunardi had us the outside looking in and he is usually spot on with his bracket. Personally, I did not think we would get the invitation. We had a poor record against teams in the top 70 rpi. As the teams were announced and things started to wind down, we watched as the bracket filled up. In the end, we were not selected for the tourney. It came as no surprise to the majority of the team as Coach McCoy prepared us for the strong possibility that we would not be selected. Still, after a long season filled with hard work and long nights, not being selected stings and you could definitely feel the air go out of the room...

Usually when one door closes, another opens. This was the case for us. Although not getting into the big dance hurt, we were selected to play in the NIT. It was a small consolation, but at least we would still be playing. We were chosen as a #2 seed and would be hosting Air Force at the Liacouras Center... We handled Air Force rather easily. Zack Felton led the way, scoring 20pts and grabbing 12 boards (his 9th double-double of the year). Our guards, Jarvis and Nooner continued with their cold play combining for only 10pts on 4-11 shooting. However, the were starlings on the defensive side. Air Force committed 21 turnovers and was held to just 21% from beyond the arc...


Our season ended the following game at home against an athletic Washington team 76-53. 4 of the 5 Husky starters scored in double digits, while our top scorer Felton scored only 11pts on 5-19 shooting. Heading into the game I really felt that we matched up well against Washington. Poor shooting and a slow start once again was the story...


Notre Dame went onto win the National Championship in a tight game over Georgetown 82-79. They entered the tourney as a 3 seed... Kansas' sophomore sg Mike Stanley took home National Player of the Year award. He averaged 26ppg, 1.8asts, 5.5rebs a game and led Kansas to a 27-7 record and a #2 seed, where they were upset bu Uconn in the round of 32...Villanova's Tiwaun Lee was the coach of the year. He led the wildcats to a 33-4 record and a run to the final four... No players on our roster brought home any national awards or honors. Zack Felton was named 1st team allconference, he was the only Owl to be recognized for any honors in our conference...


After a season that began with such great promise and even a national ranking (as low as 19), I am left feeling underwhelmed and disappointed with the way the season turned out. Zack Felton led our team in scoring (13.6ppg) and rebounding (8.6). The only other player to average double digits scoring was junior pg Deon Jarvis (12.2). Freshman guard Mike Porter was our most efficient 3pt shooter at 52%. I was really disappointed in the offensive play of Zack Felton. His fg percentage was abysmal for a big man 30%. Our team was among the top rebounding teams in the conference and we committed the third fewest turnovers. Our team shooting percentage was last in the conference and it was a key contributor to our disappointing season... As for myself, I may be a little biased, haha, but I feel that I've made great strides as a coach (entered coaching with 30s across the board in all areas). I feel I progressed in every area of my coaching ability, especially offensively (34), defensively (34), and player development (34)... During the offseason I was contacted by a few smaller schools interested in me interviewing for assistant coach roles. However, at this point in my career I am content and happily learning under the tutelage of Coach McCoy...

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this dynasty is down due to the fact I keep recieving an error message stating that the index was outside the bounds of the array... I have no idea what this means or how to go about fixing it. I have multiple saves, but from different points of the season. however, as I click to end season, I recieve the error message... im undecided if I should just abandon this, keep it on the back burner until I find a solution, or just start a new legacy moving a few years into the future of this previous dynasty where coach street becomes a head coach...

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I lost my original Temple assistant coach dynasty due to an error I could not get around... I have decided to keep the character, along with the original premise, and back story. However, I will be picking up the story 5 years into the future, as a now 27yr old Coach Street steps out of the shadows of an assistant coach and into the lime light of a head coach... To do this I had to start a new dynasty beginning in the year 2017. Obviously, there will be no actual game history from 2013 til the start date of this association, but I will make up a history n use it as canon for the sake of this story...

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Man, those last 5 years flew by. It feels like they never even happened, haha. I have learned a ton over the last few years. I have grown leaps and bounds as both a coach and a man. The time I've spent at Temple, first as a player then as a coach, have created memories, lessons, and experiences that I will carry on for the rest of my life... As a team, we had some success over the last 5 seasons. We made the NCAA tournament each of the last 3 seasons and 4 of the last 5, reaching as far as the sweet sixteen two seasons ago. I went from the 3rd assistant on the staff, to becoming Coach McCoys right hand man. I learned so much from that man. He has become a father figure to me, a confidant, a mentor, and a friend... He decided to retire at the end of the 2017-2018 season. Which brings us to the present. I was now an unemployed coach, looking for work. Thankfully, over the last few seasons, we as a basketball team had success and personally, my reputation as a coach has grown. I was sure Temple would decide that I was the perfect replacement for Coach McCoy, especially considering McCoy, himself, recommended me to fill the vacancy. I interviewed for the position to take over as Temple's Men head basketball coach... Unfortunately, and much to my chagrin, I was passed over. The athletic director told me that I was a serious contender, but he felt I was too young and he thought Temple needed to fill the vacancy with a bigger name coach, with more of a resume...


To the unemployment line I went... I knew I wouldnt be without a job for long. After all I was the next big thing in coaching, right? Turns out I was right. Request for interviews came in by the dozen. A few bigger schools were looking at me to join their staff as a 2nd assistant. There were some mid-majors that wanted me to interview for their 1st assistant opening. I was even contacted by a few smaller schools to interview for their head coaching openings... After much debating and thought, I decided that it would be best for my future, both financially and to build my resume, to take a small school up on their offer and interview for a head coaching gig.


I decided to interview for the head coaching opening at Rider University. Driving to the interview, I was nervous yet excited. Thankfully, the interview went great, at least I thought. Here are some excerpts from the interview...

Tom Prince, athletic director at Rider University: "What can you bring to Rider University?"

Street: "I feel my biggest strength as a coach is my ability to connect with my players. I aim to build a family atmosphere for this program where we learn and grow together as both players, coaches, student athletes, and men."

Prince: "Rider isnt exactly a haven for 5 star recruits, or even 3 star recruits for that matter. What can you do to bring in better talent?"

Street: "Im a basketball coach. Give me a ball and a hoop, and Mr Prince, you could give me 5 blind kids for all I care and Ill build a winner... Im very confident in my abilities and my system, I will bring out the best in my players, regardless 5 star or walkon."

Prince: "Speaking of systems, what type of offense and defense will you mainly employ and tell me some about your coaching style?"

Street: "I am a very defensive oriented coach. On the defensive side of the ball, I want my players in their opponents face. I dont want them to be able to breathe. I like to extend my defense to take away the three ball. You know Im a Temple man, so you know I love the 2-3 matchup zone. The majority of our defensive sets our zones. I will throw in man to man throughout a game to keep my opponents off balance. I want my players attacking the defensive glass. Depending on my players, I will use full court presses and traps more or less often..."

Prince: "Impressive, what about on the offensive end?"

Street: "My offense is greatly varied depending on my talent and the type of players I have. It would be unfair to commit to a specific offense at the moment before looking at my guys perform. However, I would prefer to run the princeton offense. I tend to run a slower paced offense because of the amount of energy we will exert on the defensive end."

The interview went on for over 2 hours... In the end, I am proud to say i am the new head coach of the Rider University Broncs... Lets get to work.

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Rider is minuscule in size compared to Temple. Located in Lawrence Township in Mercer County, New Jersey. There are approximately 4,500 undergraduate students. Temple is located in the city of Philadelphia with around 28,000 undergrads. Getting used to the size and quiet nature of this school and community will take me a while to adjust, compared to the hustle and bustle of Philly. Luckily, the campus of Rider is about an hour commute from Philadelphia, so I decided to keep my home and stay in Philly...

I needed to fill all three of my assistant coach positions. I knew exactly the type of assistants I wanted. However, with a relatively small budget and relative obscurity of Rider, I knew I would probably have to settle for coaches a little less than desirable. I interviewed about 10 different coaches, mainly high school coaches, young coaches looking to break in, and older coaches looking for a paycheck. After about three weeks of interviews, I had my staff in order.

1st assistant: Mark Bekale, 46 yrs old. He seems is a highly ambitious coach. Bekale has spent his entire coaching career coaching high school basketball in New Jersey. I dont see any one area Bekale thrives in, but he does have over 20 years of coaching experience and he has built relationships with high school coaches throughout the state. His primary responsibility will be recruiting.

2nd assistant: Jamie Evans, 61 yrs old. Evans is an experienced man, with over 35 years of coaching. He spent the majority of his career coaching high schools. He was also a head coach at the division 2 level. He spent the last 3 seasons as an assistant coach at William and Mary. He is a man with strong morals and very high intergrity. I liked Evans because he is a disciplinarian. Like Bekale, Evans has no particular strengths as a coach. His primary responsibility will be scouting.

3rd assistant: Marvin Grace, 56 yrs old. Grace is a relative newcomer in the coaching ranks. He was a high school principal for 20 years. After he retired from that position, he became an assistant coach at a junior college, located in New York. This will be his 3rd season in coaching. He really impressed me during the interview process. Like, Evans, Grace is a disciplinarian. Evans has the least amount of ability on my staff. He will handle our practice scheduling and our workout scheduling.

On paper, our roster does not appear to be strong. We will have to defeat teams with great sound ball, both offensively and defensively. Talent alone will not be able to win us games, so we will have to outwork every team we face...

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The Rider University Broncs enter the 2018 season with new leadership. Gone is Coach Rick Martzel, 6 seasons 62-86 , and in is new coach Mike Street. The 27 year old Street becomes the youngest coach in men division 1 basketball. He spent the last 5 seasons under the tutelage of Coach John McCoy, as an assistant at Temple University. Street will have his work cut out for him taking over the reigns of this program. Rider has not had a winning season in 8 seasons, haven't won their conference in 25 years, and have only been to 3 NCAA tournaments ever... The roster is young, the dearth of talent. Rider will be led by jr sf Aaron McCuthison (14.4 ppg last season). Last season Rider finished in the bottom 3 in the conference in most offensive and defensive statistics. It looks as if it will be another long season for the Broncs...

Rider starters and key contributors:

PG: Keith Walk jr, 6'5" 185lbs. Coach Street said he loves Walk's size as he favors bigger point guards. His size should give Walk the keys to the team to start the season. However, look for fr Kerwin Seegars to challenge for the starting spot. Last season Walk averaged 4.3 ppg in a backup role...

SG: Shon Neely so, 6'5" 194lbs. Last years prize recruit, Neely stepped on campus and started since day one. Neely had an up and down rookie season, however he did earn a spot on the freshman all conference team. Neely has freakish athletic ability and is one of the conferences most exciting players in the open floor.

SF: Aaron McCuthison jr, 6'6" 240lbs. McCuthison is the unquestioned leader of this team. He does the majority of hi damge down on the low blocks. He is not the quickest player on the wing, but he has excellent body control and can create his own shot. Last season he led the team in scoring, rebounding, and minutes per game. McCuthison also sports a 3.8 gpa and was an academic all-american last season.

PF: Trenton Joyce sr 6'8" 219lbs. Joyce enters this season as the projected starter at pf. Coach Street said Joyce has been one of the teams hardest workers thus far in camp. Trent did not see much action throughout his first 3 seasons at Rider. He enters this season averaging 1.2 ppg for his career.

C: Rudy Gooden so 6'8" 194lbs. Gooden moves from the staring 4 spot over to the 5 spot. Street said he moved Gooden to the 5 because of his ability to pass. Last year Gooden averaged 7 ppg and 5 rebounds per game. Gooden will have to make tremendous strides this season if the Broncs have any hope to be competitive.

6th: Roshown Sims jr 6'8" 238lbs. Sims should be the first man off Street's bench this season. Sims has long arms and a solid frame. He should be able to help the front court on the boards. Sims is not a factor on the offensive end, but should be able to provide Street with quality minutes on the defensive side.

7th: Kerwin Seegars fr 6'1" 208lbs. The prize recruit in Martzel's final recruiting class. Seegars remained committed to joining the Broncs even after the firing of Martzel. As a high school senior, Seegars averaged 14ppg and 8 assists per game, while leading his team to the New Jersey State Playoffs. Seegars should challenge Walk for the starting pg spot and it should be expected that Seegars ends up the starter before the season concludes.

8th: Mark Bergmann jr 6'10" 276lbs. Bergmann will be the primary big man reserve. Bergmann does not provide much offense but he should be able to move players off the blocks on defense and while rebounding.

Strengths: The strength of this Rider team will be its youth. Although not expected to compete for the conference championship, this team should be able to grow and gain valuable experience this season in order to set up a run for next season.

Weaknesses: Once again Rider will be one of the poorest defensive teams in the Metro Atlantic Conference. This should really stick in Streets crawl, as he prides himself and his teams on the defensive end. Rider has no lock down defenders or dominant rebounders.

Prediction: Rider will be luckyto win 10 games this season. They should finish last in the conference. Predicted record 9-18...

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Heading into the season we have 2 scholarships to offer. Athletic Director, Tom Prince informed me that our budget for the season would be $149,000. After our assistant coaches salaries came off the budget, we were left with $77,000 to assist us in out recruitment of prospective student-athletes. I knew recruiting would be difficult for us, at least until we started putting some winning seasons together. As a staff, we decided just to purchase our regional gold report and decided to only attend one camp, the Big Apple Showcase. I wanted to focus our recruiting efforts to players located in New Jersey. After our initial assessment and discussions, we trimmed our list to around 20 players. There were a few players on our list that had me intrigued. Shooting guard, DeMario Finley was the player we had rated at the top of our board. He was 6'5" with a terrific stroke from downtown. The second player on our board was center Travis McFadden. McFadden's grades were scaring several teams off, and it was an uncertainty if he would even qualify. None the less, the WSSN had him rated as the 87th best center in the class. We needed help inside, so he is a player we will offer early in the process...

After a few weeks on the recruiting trail, I fell less in love with Finley's game. He shown a lack of hustle and his ball handling skills left much to be desired. However, McFadden was still on our radar. A few other players that were high on our list included, point guard Alan Anderson. He was only 5'7" which does not fit my preference from that position, but he was quick as wink and was fearless on the court. Power forward Jelani Hamilton was another player on our short list. He wasn't very athletic, he looked like a bear on a unicycle running up and down the court, but he did have a nice handle and looked to be a decent passer from the post... We decided to offer our two scholarships to center Travis McFadden and power forward Jelani Hamilton. I feel as if we have a decent chance of landing both players. While not top ranked players, they both have abilities that I find attractive and they both will fill our needs...

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Heading into my first game as a head coach, I was very nervous. As a player I would have butterflies before each game, but they would leave as soon as the game started. I was hoping it would be the same case for me as a coach. I would like to say that I gave some gripping, inspiring speech, that inspired our players and they ran out on the court ready to take on the world. That was not the case. I just tried to instill in our players the importance of playing good team defense, feeding off one another, protecting the ball, and playing as a team. I'm sure the squad is sick of hearing me hammer home the same points over and over... Anyway, our first game was on the road against Rhode Island. We jumped out to an early lead17-11. Freshman pg Kerwin Seegars came off the bench and drilled 2 3pointers, the second one extending our first half lead to 12pts. Thanks to some bad turnovers, the Rams were able to head into halftime trailing by only 7, 35-28... Thanks to a great defensive effort in the second half, we were able to pull away from the Rams in the second half. We went onto win 72-56...Sophomore sg Shon Neely paced our team with 16pts. He went 5-8 from the field and 4- 4 from the charity stripe. Reserve pg, fr Seegars also scored in double digits, adding 11pts. I was really proud of our defensive effort. We held Rhode Island to a pitiful 17% from the 3pt line... I wasn't happy with our guard inability to protect the ball, 9 combined... Hey, put it in the book. 1-0 one the year. This coaching thing is easy...


Maybe not... We would go on to lose the next 5 games. Early on in the season we were having problems scoring the ball. In our 5 straight defeats we scored 43,46,53,48, and 42 points. For the most part, our team shooting percentage was respectable. Our problem was turnovers. Turnovers are unacceptable. As a coach, you have to be able to have trust that your guys will make the right decisions and take care of the basketball. Now I know why most coaches are bald or grey...

To close out the nonconference portion of our schedule, we ended with 3 straight home games against IPFW, Eastern Michigan, and Lamar. I was hoping we could win 2 out of the 3, or at least play some better ball heading into conference play. Against IPFW we really had the long ball working. We hit 12 threes in the game. None more importantly than jr sf Aaron McCuthison's 3 ball from the corner with only 12 seconds remaining. That gave us a 3pt lead and thanks to some great defense, IPFW wasn't able to get a good look at the basket and had to force a long range 3 attempt... We went on to roll in the next 2 games, giving us 3 straight wins and gives us some positive energy heading into conference play.

Heading into conference play we are 4-5

Im happy with the way our team shares the ball and looks for the open man. We have been shooting great through the first portion of the season from the field and from downtown... Im not happy with our lack of inside scoring. We are getting very little scoring from our bigs down on the blocks. Our starting 4 and 5 have only scored in double digits once all season (sr pf Trent Joyce had 10 against Lamar)... Overall, I think our team is coming together. We have been playing some good team defense. We have been holding our opponents to shooting just 27% from the arc so far. If we continue playing this good defensively, I think we have a shot to contend in our conference...

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Coming into conference play, we were hot, sporting a 3 game winning streak. We were really starting to come together as a team... We continued our winning ways with a 87-69 win at home over Marist. Senior power forard, Trenton Joyce led the way with a career high 16pts. Things took a drastic turn for the worst. We would go on to lose 7 straight games. We were not protecting the basketball and once again our bigs disappeared on the offensive end. As a coaching staff we were left searching for answers. Junior pg Keith Walk was really in a shooting funk. His field goal percentage over the losing streak was 31%. He was also throwing the ball all over the court, commiting 33 turnovers. Unfortunately, we would were not able to take hime out of the starting lineup. This was due to the fact that backup freshman pg Kerwin Seegars injured his ankle and was limited to the amount he could play. There was a change to the lineup though. Out was sophomore center Rudy Gooden (averaging 2pts a game and only 3 rebounds per game) and junior Mark Bergmann was inserted. He gave us some more size inside, 6'10", 276lbs. His first game as a starter against Quinnipiac he dropped 11pts and 8 boards. Sophomore Shon Neely was leading our team in scoring and his athletic ability continued to impress...


After starting conference play at 1-7, we looked to end the losing streak at get back on track at home against Canisius. We jumped out to an early
12 point lead and never looked back, winning 65-47. Small forward Aaron McCuthison led the way with a season high 23. Hopefully, this game would be what McCuthison needed to get going. Last season, he was the team's leading scorer... 2 straight road loses dropped us to 2-9 in conference play. We were tied for last with Canisius. This was significant because the team that finishes last in the conference does not qualify for the conference tournament. We needed to pick it up and play better now... We would close out the regular season going 4-3. Our conference record was 6-12, while we
were 10-17 overall. We finished 9th (out of 11) in our conference. The good news was that we qualified for the conference tournament...

As expected, we were able to land the 2 players we offered scholarships to. Center Travis McFadden from Hackettstown, NJ, was the first to sign his letter of intent. He finsished his senior year leading his team to a 20-10 record and a trip to the state playoffs. He averaged 17.2 ppg, 6.6 rebounds, and 2 blocks per game. He finished the season ranked 186th best center in the nation... Power forward Jelani Hamilton also signed a letter of intent early in the recruiting process. He helped anchor Glen Ridge High to a winning season. He averaged 12 ppg and 8 rebounds per game. He was not a highly sought after prospect, ranked the 300th top power forward in the nation...

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This years Metro Atlantic Tournament is wide open. Through the 18 game conference schedule, no team established themselves as the clear cut favorite. Preseason favorite, Sienna, has not lived up to expectations, finishing 11-7 and 19-12 overall. They finished 4th in the conference, but don't count the Saints out. They have the fire power to make a run in this tournament. Monmouth and Niagara both finished at the top of the conference with identical 13-5 conference records. The bottom four teams,#7 Manhattan vs #10 Marist, #8 Quinnipiac vs #9 Rider, will open things up Thursday, with the winners facing the top 2 seeds on Friday. Iona 11-7, 18-13 comes into the tournament hot, winning 5 out of their last 6. Look for the Gaels to continue their hot play and make a run in this tourney...

Rider vs Quinnipiac game recap

This game pits the 7th seeded Quinnipiac Bobcats against the 10th seeded Rider Broncs. This will be the second time in 7 days that these two teams will meet. They closed out the regular season against each other, with Rider coming out on top 68-54...The Bobcats entered this game as the favorite and came out to prove they are the better team. However, the Broncs
had other things in mind. These two teams traded baskets the first 5 minutes of the game, with no team able to gain control of the game. Quinnipiac was able to dominate the paint, scoring 20 points inside during the 1st half. As good as the Bobcats inside game was working, The Broncs were able to keep up from the charity stripe. Rider went 10-12 from the
line in the 1st half. Quinnipiac would enter halftime leading 32-30...The second half was an enitrely different story. Rider continually turned the ball over and missed shot after shot. They would finish shooting just 31% from the field and 30% from the 3pt line. Meanwhile, Quinnipiac's pg Rashif Williamson and pf Barry Reese each finished with 16pts each. Quinnipiac would outscore Rider 33-17 in the second half, winning easily 65-47. Rider would commit 18 turnovers, including 6 from starting pg Keith Walk. Shon Neely was the only player to reach double digits scoring for Rider with 11 points. The season ends here for Rider, while Quinnipiac advances to take on top seed Monmouth...

Quinnipiac would go on a magical run in the conference tournament upsetting top seeded Monmouth and 4th seeded Siena, along the way
to the championship game. They would end up losing the championship game to Iona 83-79... Iona would go on to earn the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. They would enter as the tournament as a 14 seed. They would lose to 3 seed Marquette in the first round 70-66...