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Conference Tournaments

Conference R

#4 seed [i]Maryland Eastern Shore Hawks[/i] (18-10)—91, #5 seed Delaware Fightin’ Blue Hens—75 (Four minutes into the game the Hawks grabbed the lead and never gave it up. At the half they were on top 40-36 and then they buried Delaware in the 2nd half. SF Anthony Wilks—26 pts, 5 reb; SG Renard Bell—11 pts, 11 reb, 5 ast; reserve forward Dennis Anderson—14 pts, 3 reb; C Kyl'e Mader—11 pts, 3 ast.)

#4 seed Maryland Eastern Shore Hawks (19-10)—71, #9 seed Grambling Tigers—64 (There were 12 lead changes in the first half and initial 4 minutes of the 2nd half. But the Hawks were ahead for a bigger portion of that time and then opened a 15 point lead before the Tigers made a late run to cut that lead in half. C Kyle Mader—18 pts, 3 reb; PG Joseph Page—17 pts, 3 reb, 2 stl; SG Renard Bell—11 pts, 4 reb, 6 ast, 2 stl, 2 blk; SF Anthony Wilks—8 pts, 10 reb.)

#4 seed Maryland Eastern Shore Hawks (20-10)—76, #2 seed South Carolina Upstate Spartans—60 [Championship] (6 lead changes in the first half but the Hawks came on strong in the final 3 minutes to take a 41-33 lead at the break. Then they gradually pulled away to win convincingly by hitting 52% of their FG’s, 56% of their 3’s, and being +11 on the boards. SG Joseph Page—18 pts, 5 reb, 7 ast, 2 stl; SF Anthony Wilks—14 pts, 6 reb, 2 stl; PF Zamiro Colter—13 pts, 6 reb, 3 blk; C Kyle Mader—10 pts, 4 reb, 2 blk. “Fantastic that we won the conference championship!” exclaimed Coach Mike McMillan. “We’ve had our ups and downs this season. I’m really impressed how our guys came together to surprise everyone by getting the automatic bid to the Big Dance.”

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NCAA Tournament Selections

Maryland Eastern Shore is the 15th seed in the East Region and will play #2 seed Temple
UC San Diego is the 9th seed in the South Region and will play #8 seed Saint Mary’s

NIT Selection

Southeast Louisiana is the 5th seed in the South Region and will play #4 seed Texas El Paso

CIT Tournament Selection

Western Illinois is the 7th seed in the Midwest Region and will play #2 seed Florida Gulf Coast

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CIT TOURNAMENT RESULTS

#7 seed Western Illinois Leathernecks (16-13) vs #2 seed Florida Gulf Coast Eagles (18-11)

“We’re 11.5 point underdogs but my guys have the ability to surprise people. This will be a game of opposites: they’re strong offensively and we’re strong defensively. We’re going to have to work hard but if we can make them play our game, we have a good chance to score an upset,” said Coach Terry Morillo. “While the Eagles main offensive set is the high post offense, they have a lot of offensive freedom and run a very fast-paced offense. Hopefully we can slow them down some. They’re guards (PG Jamal Virgil and SG Brett Mitchell) have combined to average over 32 ppg. Both hit a high percentage of their shots.”

Here's how the game progressed:

The Leathernecks had a hard time sinking their shots while the Eagles shot well early in the game and took a 20-5 lead with 12 minutes remaining in the first half. Western Illinois finally began to score but were unable to shut down Florida Gulf Coast and could only narrow the gap to 40-28 by halftime. The Eagles’ SF Travis Nooner and PG Jamal Virgil had 11 and 10 points, respectively, in the first half. Western Illinois scored the first 5 points of the 2nd half to narrow the gap to 7 but the Eagles quickly re-established a solid double-digit lead. The Leathernecks made another push that cut the lead to 55-53 with 10 minutes remaining. Florida GulfCoast responded by lengthening the lead to 11 points with 5 minutes to go. The [b]Leathernecks could get no closer than 8 after that and fell to Florida Gulf Coast by a final score of 82-70[/b].

SG Brandt Kennedy—16 pts, 4 reb, 4 stl; PG Bill Shin—14 pts, 5 ast, 3 stl; C Walter Jackson—13 pts, 7 reb.

“We kept getting close but the Eagles were knocking down their shots (they hit 61% of their FG’s) and we just weren’t able to shut them down,” said Terry Morillo.

NIT TOURNAMENT RESULTS

#5 seed Southeast Louisiana Lions (18-10) vs #4 seed Texas El Paso Miners (16-14)

“The Miners are slight favorites after going up against some pretty good competition in Conference E. Overall we’re pretty equally matched with them and I like our chances. Their scoring comes most from their perimeter players so we’ll try to contain them,” said Coach Ramon Montez.

Let’s see how the Lions did in this game:

The game was hotly contested for the first 10 minutes, but then the Lions’ C Travis Dixon got into foul trouble. The Miners edged ahead by getting to the foul line then in the latter portion of the first half, they began out-playing SE Louisiana and pulled away to a 39-25 halftime advantage. The Miners’ PF O’Hanlon and PG McFall both scored 10 points.
Some god-awful shooting by the Lions in the 2nd half doomed their chances of catching up and they were never able to get closer than 10 points. When the buzzer sounded, Texas El Paso had knocked of SE Louisiana by a 74-51 score.

PF Tom McCrary—12 pts, 5 reb, 2 blk; SF Leroy Phillips—10 pts, 7 reb; PG Mike Bree—9 pts. The Miners’ PG Brandon McFall scored 22 points.

“We weren’t up to the challenge. Once we fell behind, the Miners took advantage of our poor shooting and sloppy ball control,” said Coach Montez. “It really hurt to have both Travis (Dixon) and Tom (McCrary) get into foul problems. With them on the bench for much of the game, we just got no interior production.”

NCAA TOURNAMENT RESULT

#15 seed Maryland Eastern Shore Hawks (20-10) vs #2 seed/#8 ranked Temple Owls (22-8)

“Going up against Temple is a huge challenge but one we welcome. The Owls got upset in their opening Conference A tournament game. Few, if any, are giving us a chance in this game. But who’s to say we can’t pull off an upset also? I’m considering playing “Hoosiers” for our guys to get them pumped up and believing,” said Coach Mike McMillan.

Here’s a summary of how the game progressed:

Temple got out of the blocks quickly and opened a double digit lead after 5 minutes of play. MD Eastern Shore hung in the game but trailed the all the way up to the end of the half at which point the Ows led 43-31. PG Joseph Page led the Hawks early in the second half to edge within 4 points of Temple with 14 minutes to go. But turnovers by MD Eastern Shore then resulted in being held scoreless for 6 minutes during which Temple opened a 31 point lead. The Hawks were able to cut into that large lead a little in the final 4 minutes, but MD Eastern Shore still got blown out of the tournament 81-61.

PG Joseph Page—15 pts; C Kyle Mader—13 pts, 8 reb, 4 blk; SF Anthony Wilks—11 pts, 3 ast; PF Zamiro Colter—8 pts, 4 reb, 2 blk.

Coach McMillan said, “We felt it was an honor to be in this tournament. It hurts to get bounced out in the first round. We would have liked to put up a better showing, but Temple was just too strong for us.”

#9 seed UC San Diego Tritons (24-6) vs #8 seed Saint Mary’s Gaels (21-8)

Coach Ken Yamoto said, “We’re the underdog, but we came here to make some noise and surprise some people. We played the Gaels in pre-conference play early this season and almost beat them (losing 60-56) on their court. If we can hold their two top scorers (SG Christian Griffiths and SF Ayuba Adebowale) down better than we did that night, we have a good chance of coming away with a win.”

Let’s see what happened in today’s game:

St. Mary’s went up 10-0 after 4 minutes of play. The Tritons cut the lead to 5 with 9 minutes left in the half but could get no closer and trailed 31-23 at halftime. The Gaels outshot the Tritons 50% to 28% in the first half. UC San Diego never solved their shooting woes in the 2nd half and they were quickly saddled with a double-digit deficit that they could never eliminate. St. Mary’s basically repeated in the 2nd half what they had done to the Tritons during the first 20 minutes. UC San Diego went down to a 66-48 defeat.

SG Brandon Payne—13 pts, 5 reb, 2 stl; PG Solomon Rayner—11 pts, 3 ast.

“This was our worst defeat of the entire season. Gotta give St. Mary’s a lot of credit for deploying a tenacious defense that we just couldn’t solve,” said Coach Ken Yamoto.

Tournament Champs

CIT: Texas A&M
CBI: Rice
NIT: Wright State
NCAA: Georgia

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Awards:

Jeremy Young, Georgia State: Conference I 2nd Team All-Conference

Brandon Payne, UC San Diego: Conference Q Player of the Year

Solomon Rayner, UC San Diego: Conference Q Defensive Player of the Year

Ken Yamoto, UC San Diego: Conference Q Coach of the Year

Brandon Payne, UC San Diego, Conference Q 1st Team All-Conference

Brandt Kennedy, Western Illinois: Conference Q 2nd Team All-Conference

Anthony Wilks, MD Eastern Shore: Conference R 1st Team All- Conference

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Records of the 5 Coaches:

Here’s how the 5 Musketeers have done in their 12 seasons as head coaches:

Dontell Spencer, Georgia State Panthers—Overall Record: 210-112 (.652); Season records: 6-10, 9-7, 11-8, 25-6, 24-10, 21-10, 23-6, 24-6 while at Arkansas-Pine Bluff and 18-12, 14-13, 21-9, 14-15 while at Georgia State; 6 NIT and 3 NCAA appearances with 1 advancement to NIT Semifinals and 1 to NIT Championship game; Ranked in Top 25 one season; 6 promotions to higher conferences while at Arkansas Pine Bluff and 2 promotions to a high conference and 1 relegation to a lower conference while at Georgia State; Conference Coach of the Year 4 times; Reputation: 38.

Ramon Montez, Southeast Louisiana Lions—Overall Record: 220-131 (.627); Season records: 8-7, 14-14, 14-16, 18-14, 24-7, 23-8. 21-9, 19-12 (while at Alcorn State) and 24-8, 19-13, 18-12, 18-11 with 1 NIT and 1 CIT appearances (while at SE Louisiana); 1 CIT, 2 NIT, and 5 NCAA appearances, 6 promotions to higher conferences while at Alcorn State and 3 promotions to a high conference while at SE Louisiana; Conference Coach of the Year 2 times; Reputation: 23 (he sustained a greater than 10 point decrease after Alcorn State was placed on probation in 2038, but most of his skill ratings are between 57 and 72).

Mike McMillan, Maryland-Eastern Shore Hawks—Overall Record: 198-138 (.589); Season records: 8-7, 6-9, 12-17, 12-17, 20-9, 21-10, 20-10, 21-10, 25-10, 17-14, 16-14; 20-11 with 2 CIT, 1 CBI, 1 NIT and 2 NCAA appearances with 1 Championship at CIT, 5 promotions to higher conferences; Conference Coach of the Year 3 times; Reputation: 37.

Terry Morillo, Western Illinois Leathernecks—Overall Record: 173-139 (.554); Season records: 4-11, 7-8, 4-11 at Dixie State and 13-16, 15-15, 16-12, 23-8, 17-12, 24-7, 22-9, 12-16, 16-14 at Western Illinois; 1 CIT and 4 NCAA appearances; Ranked in Top 25 one season; 6 promotions to a higher conferences; Conference Coach of the Year 1 time; Reputation: 28.

Ken Yamoto, UC-San Diego Tritons—Overall Record: 184-132 (.582); Season records: 3-12, 2-13, 6-9 at Tarleton State and 10-17, 15-13, 20-11, 14-15, 24-6, 22-9, 24-8, 20-10, 24-7 at UC-San Diego; 1 CBI, 3 NIT, and 2 NCAA appearances with advancement to 1 CBI Semifinal game and 1 NIT Semifinal game; 7 promotions to a higher conference; Conference Coach of the Year 4 times; Reputation: 34.

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The 5 coaches (Ken Yamoto (KY), Mike McMillan (MM), Ramon Montez (RM), Dontell Spencer (DS), and Terry Morillo (TM ) get together in early April:

KY: Phew, that was a quick exit for each of us from the post-season tournaments.
TM: Yeah, and none of our teams even came close to winning.
DS: Well, at least the 4 of you got your teams into a post-season tournament…unlike me. It was a pretty disappointing season for me.
MM: Dontell, you’ve got the best overall record of any of us.
RM: Hey though, congrats to each of you for having a player who won a conference award this season. And Ken, way to go in being named your conference’s coach of the year!
DS: Say, I haven’t told anyone yet except my wife. But I wanted to let y’all know. I’m retiring.
TM: Oh come on Dontell, you can’t leave coaching.
DS: I’ll be 69 next season so It’s time. I’ve got some health issues I need to attend to and I also want to spend more time with my kids and grandkids and coaching just doesn’t fit for that.
KY: It’s not going to be the same not having you actively involved as a coach, Dontell, but I hear ya. It’s definitely best to attend to the most important aspects of life and certainly your family and your health are paramount.
MM: By the way: I’ve had a call that brings up a whole new challenge. I need to investigate it a bit more, but will getting back to all of you very soon.
RM: Hmm…that’s mysterious. You can’t let the cat out of the bag yet?
MM: No, not yet, but as soon as I can I’ll be back with all of you.

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Mike McMillan talking to Terry Morrillo, Ken Yamoto, and Ramon Montez

I know you each love your team but I have a major change that I’d like you all to carefully consider. It’s a bit off the wall, but I think it’s exciting.

I recently was contacted by Ron Storm, the AD at Indiana University. I never thought it could be about being their head coach and it wasn’t. What he laid out was that the basketball program at Indiana had been deteriorating declining in recent years. They’ve now been relegated over the years from Conference C all the way down to Conference H. He said the administration and alumni were embarrassed for what had been the biggest power in the state known for basketball now being seen as an also ran. They were demanding that something be done to turn things around and rebuild the program to again be a powerhouse.

Ron said he wants to try out a brand new concept. Here’s what he laid out to me. They know they can go out and find a strong head coach. But they’ve been doing that and the program has continued to languish. So what he wants to do is to hire four head coaches instead of a head coach and 3 assistant coaches. These co-head coaches would work pool their individual talents to develop the program. Ron said he’d been keeping track of we, the 5 Musketeers. He said he understood that Dontell Spencer was planning to retire and he wanted me to talk with the remaining members of the 5 Musketeers (well I guess now it’s the 5 minus 1 Mustketeers) about all coming to Indiana as his 4 co-head coaches.

I saw your mouths drop open and the doubts that were quite apparent on your faces. I had the same initial reaction. But this is likely to be the only chance in any of our careers to coach at what had been and could be again a premier basketball program.

Here’s how it could be set up. Each of the 4 of us would be responsible for one aspect of the program. One would handle practices and player development, another recruiting, another scouting and one would be the primary person responsible for offense and defense (or maybe those two aspects would be handled by two different co-head coaches). But we’d all be able (and encouraged) to back each other up on all aspects beyond o primary area of responsibility. I think as time went on this arrangement might undergo some alteration as needed. We know each other very well and I truly believe that most decisions would be reached through consensus and I’m confident that if there was a difference of opinion that we could come up with a way to resolve it amicably.

Indiana is willing to do what’s necessary to invest in this concept and the re-building of their basketball program. That means they’re willing to pay each of us equally and our individual salaries would be MUCH higher than we’re presently getting by coaching at lower prestige programs. Individually we’re all very good head coaches, but I think as a team we can meld out strengths and would be great together.

[After much discussion, the 4 agreed to consider it and get back together in a few days to make a final decision. They also agreed that if they were to accept this proposal that they would all have to agree. If one did not want to do it, then this would not be for any of them.]

A few days later they reconvened and again had an extended discussion. The decision, which was unanimous, was to give it a try. Each would resign their present positions and accept the contracts as co-head coaches at Indiana. They agreed on the following distribution of primary responsibilities based on each coach’s skills and experience:

Mike McMillan—Offense plus overall coordination between the 4 co-head coaches
Terry Morillo—Defense plus Scouting
Ramon Montez—Player development/Practice
Ken Yamoto—Recruiting

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Terry Morillo

Holy cow! Just got to Bloomington and the first thing was for us to determine what we wanted to ask of the board of directors for Indiana University for the upcoming season. We all agreed to ask for a budget increase, but since last season’s record was unimpressive and we’re all new here, we were all accustomed to and expected a quick denial. But...we got our request approved…$13,500 more! It’s a new world. I guess Ron Storm, our AD, wasn’t blowing smoke when he told us the university would be supportive of our efforts to improve the program.

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2042-2043 SEASON

Ron Storm, our AD [talking to the 4 (remaining of 5) Musketeers

I wanted to reiterate how happy I am to have all 4 of your aboard. As I told you before you agreed to join with us, the Athletic Department and the Indiana University administration and alumni will be supportive because they really want to see the Hoosiers moving back up the Division 1 ranks.

With that said, we just got the evaluation of last season’s recruit class as compared to other D1 basketball programs. It ain’t pretty. Indiana’s recruit class last season was ranked as the 164th best. Quite simply, that sucks. It’s obvious that the 164th best recruit class is very unlikely to improve our program. I hate putting pressure on you so early after you all just got here, but it’s imperative that the 4 of you turn that around and move us way up that list this coming year. Indiana University should pull in high quality recruits. Everyone in the state of Indiana knows what “Hoosier Hysteria” is. As Dr. James Naismith said when he visited Indiana in 1925, “While the game was invented in Massachusetts, basketball really had its origin in Indiana, which remains the center of the sport.”

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Ken Yamoto 

3 players transferred away from the Hoosiers team. We weren’t sorry about that at all. Because that gives us a chance to go after some good transfer players. With all 4 co-head coaches actively involved, we aggressively went after some top flight transfer players during the Transfer Portal and were fortunate to land a PG, SF, and C. All 3 of those players are strong players and have a good chance of winning starting roles this coming season for us, and if not, they’ll certainly provide solid depth on our roster. Here’s the players transferring to us, where they played last season and how they did:

PG Dwayne Serraville, averaged 32.1 mpg, 12.1 ppg, 5.8 apg, and 3.5 rpg at Georgia as a sophomore

SF Julius Waterman, averaged 12.6 mpg, 4.7 ppg and 2.8 rpg as a freshman at Cornell

C George Zinn, averaged 12.7 mpg, 5.8 ppg and 3.2 rpg as a freshman at Seton Hall