With Seton Hall University selecting Bobby Gonzalez as the new coach for its men’s basketball program, Adam Zagoria of NorthJersey.com suggests the Pirates look at former player and current William Paterson head man Jose Rebimbas for an assistant position.

Zagoria touts Rebimbas’ talent as a recruiter, including drawing Horace Jenkins back into basketball, and his success at the NJAC school. William Paterson won the conference tournament and finished the 2005-2006 season ranked No. 24 with a 23-8 record.

Gonzalez apparently hasn’t reached out to Rebimbas yet and he is not necessarily looking to leave WPUNJ. But it might be tough to say no to his alma mater. He played on Seton Hall’s 1989 national finals team.

If Rebimbas does make the move from Wayne to South Orange, New Jersey, he’ll have his work cut out for him as a recruiter. Zagoria reports that SHU has “no recruits signed for next season.” WPUNJ is expected to return most of its key contributors from last year’s tournament team.

Incidentally Gonzalez is not completely unfamiliar with Division III. The Binghamton, NY native graduated from Buffalo State College in 1986.

Oof. Thank goodness that wasn’t our Final Four. With an average margin of victory of 15 points you’d think it was the Division III committee that put the brackets together.

I’ll take our Final Four any day. The sum total of our four games’ margin of victory (12 points) was better than the closest game in the D-I showcase (14). And it’s not like the D-I games were close games that got away with free throws and the like down the stretch.

At least it gave me some time to work on other things.

… and they had athletic careers and the like, for the most part. As proof of that fact, here’s a piece from Maine’s Brunswick Times Record, detailing one official’s path to calling a Final Four game. Great piece, worth a read.

OH!
THE PLACES YOU’LL GO!

You’ll be on your way up!
You’ll be seeing great sights!
You’ll join the high fliers
who soar to high heights.

You won’t lag behind, because you’ll have the speed.
You’ll pass the whole gang and you’ll soon take the lead.
Wherever you fly, you’ll be the best of the best.
Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.

-excerpt from Dr. Seuss, “Oh, the Places You’ll Go”

I couldn’t think of a more appropriate way to open with my thoughts from Springfield than that. For those who don’t get the connection, read Mark Simon’s article on Hope College on the D3hoops.com main page.

What a wonderful weekend of basketball in Springfield at Blake Arena. The “Birthplace of Basketball” saw Hope defeat Southern Maine 69-56 for their second NCAA Division III women’s basketball championship. The Flying Dutch are based out of Holland, Michigan, but they operated like something out of a factory assembly line in Detroit.

Bria Ebels with her quickness, tenacity and big shot making capability would be the foreperson. Going down the assembly line, there’s someone for each aspect of winning a basketball game. Julie Henderson electrified the Hope contingent with her defense and speed in transition. Linda Ebels, Ellen Wood and Lindsay Lange provided the size and muscle on the block. The three did a magnificent job on First Team All-American Ashley Marble, limiting her to eight points. And each time Hope went down low, one of the three was there to grab an offensive rebound, or put the ball in the basket. The assembly line turned out to be a well-oiled machine that took the title.

You have to feel for the Huskies fans. Southern Maine under Gary Fifield has been so close to winning the national championship. The Huskies have been to the title game three times and the national semifinals five times. Meghan Myles tried to put the team on her back for a second straight day, but on Saturday it wasn’t meant to be. Interesting decision for Ashley Marble as Mark Simon, Gordon Mann and I talked about on the broadcast. Marble academically is a senior, but has one year left of athletic eligibility. Does she come back for one more run at the title? Even though they don’t have a national champion, USM still is one of the most dominant women’s basketball programs in the country. They’ve won 20 or more games a NCAA record 26 times in a row.

Nice to see the University of Scranton finally win the National Third Place Game. Southern Maine won the consolation game last year and road that into this year all the way to the title game. Scranton does graduate two seniors, but brings back Taryn Mellody and Allison Matt. Plus, Tiffany Williams is only going to get better. Under Mike Strong, Scranton’s been a powerhouse in the Middle Atlantic, I think that will continue into next year. The Lady Royals put Friday night’s disappointment behind them, and played very well on Saturday afternoon.

For Hardin-Simmons, a tough weekend on the scoreboard, but just the fact that they made it to Springfield is remarkable. Their starting point guard Sara Hauk went down late in the season and the Cowgirls lost three of their final four with Rachel Cisneros running the point. HSU got the ball in the NCAA tournament and ran with it. Coach Briggs has already gathered 100 victories in four years. The future looks bright for the Cowgirls. Remember, like Hope, they won four games away from their home floor to make it to the National semifinals.

I’ll take a lot of memories away from Springfield. The atmosphere as I wrote about in the game-day blog was through the roof. On Saturday, there was a crowd of over 2,000 people jammed in for the title game. In the eight seasons I’ve been broadcasting women’s basketball, that’s the most electric setting I’ve seen. Kudos to all of the fans that trekked into Western Mass this weekend. Springfield College and AD Cathie Schweitzer did a tremendous job hosting. Gordon Mann will write about that later in the week.

Thank you to everyone this weekend who either listened or watch coverage from Springfield. We hope you’ll join us at the Blake Arena next year.