Author Archives: Pat Coleman

D-III fans should thank Gary Bettman

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Even if you know who Gary Bettman is, you’re probably confused by the headline. But if you think about it, the NHL commissioner may very well have ensured more Division III basketball coverage on ESPN next season.

Blame the NHL players, blame the owners — it doesn’t matter. There was no hockey this past season and the lockout depressed the television contract’s value so much that ESPN not only didn’t pick up its $60 million broadcast contract option for 2005-06, it ended negotiations on a new contract altogether, according to Toronto’s The Globe and Mail newspaper.

“If the NHL decides it wants to come back with us, and propose a new offer, given our history, we’ll listen,” ESPN’s executive vice president of programming and production, Mark Shaprio, told the newspaper. “But anything in the neighborhood of $60 million is a conversation we’re not willing to have.”

Without hockey in the way, you can expect ESPN to add more college basketball, and the cable network should consider a WIAC game or a CCIW game for next year’s schedule.

If that happens, you know who to thank.

Congrats, Coach Murphy

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WildcatsThis was a move you could see coming. Tom Murphy, longtime head coach at Hamilton and a 600-game winner, was forced to retire from Hamilton at the end of the 2003-04 season.

Kevin Grimmer, athletic director and men’s basketball coach at SUNYIT, as well as a Hamilton alumnus, adds his former head coach to his staff for 2004-05. Grimmer’s son, Nick, is a senior and by all accounts, the Wildcats’ best player. (He goes on to earn honorable mention all-SUNYAC honors.)

So now Grimmer’s son has graduated, he has an athletic director post to worry about, and a 600-game winner next to him on the bench. What better time to step aside and hand over the reins to your mentor?

Or, as one Division III coach told us, “It’s great to see one of the true legends of Division III coaching get another shot at a head coaching job. Kudos to SUNYIT for righting Hamilton’s wrong.”

On the recruiting trail

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It’s been a while since we’ve done a roundup of where kids are going. But before we dive in, I should remind people of the following about Division III recruiting:

1) There is no letter of intent. There is nothing binding a kid to actually attend the school, or even to play basketball once they’re there.
2) See No. 1.

You have to take this information with a grain of salt. Will any of these kids be any good? We make no guarantees.

We start off with an odd transfer, where the son of NAIA Carroll (Mont.) coach Gary Turcott has elected to transfer from Carroll to Pacific. “Ryan was an important member of our team,” Gary Turcott told the Billings Gazette. “He made significant contributions in many areas.”

Turcott was a redshirt freshman this past season after missing his first year recovering from knee surgeries. He played 23 games and scored 26 points. shooting 5-for-13 from three-point range.

Nicole Lobach is transferring from Division I Binghamton (a D-III alumnus) to Messiah. “I think I’ll be better off at Messiah,” she told the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin. “I think it will just be a better fit for me.”

Lobach played in all 28 games, making nine starts. She averaged 4.9 points, 2.7 rebounds and 1.5 assists. She is a Hanover, Pa., native.

2005 national champion Millikin recently announced five recruits: Mahomet-Seymour’s Laura Engstrom, Lexington’s Samantha Hayes, Jody Johnson of Nokomis, Ricki Dorsett of Sterling Newman and Brittany Patete of Lombard. Engstrom, a 5-10 guard/forward, earned first-team all-area honors from The Pantagraph of Bloomington, Ill.

The rest of the list:
Men’s recruits
Hanover (Va.) HS guard Max Stone is headed to Averett. He averaged 13 points, 5.5 rebounds and 3.8 assists.

John Ward, of Hampton (Pa.), will play at Denison. A 6-2 guard, Ward averaged 15.5 points.

Jarmel Arrington, Northern Nash (N.C.) HS, to North Carolina Wesleyan. James Jones of Havelock (N.C.) HS signed one of those so-called letters of intent with North Carolina Wesleyan.

Pinckney (Mich.) HS guard Brandon Rogowski will play for Albion. Forward Rob Majors has chosen Defiance. Jon Teuber will attend Olivet.

John Grotberg, who last played at Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook-Kingswood, will attend Grinnell. According to the Ann Arbor News, Grotberg led the Detroit area in 3-point shooting as a junior but sat out his senior season with an injury.

Ryan FitzPatrick, a 6-3, 180-pound guard from Conestoga High School (Berwyn, Pa.), will attend Scranton. FitzPatrick averaged 15.3 points, 4.2 assists, 4.3 rebounds and 2.1 steals per game for the 23-8 Pioneers. “Ryan is regarded as one of the top 3-point shooters in the Philadelphia area,” says Danzig. “We are very excited to have him in our program. He’s athletic, has tremendous skills and is a player who will make an impact on our program.”

Bill Moakley, a 6-8 center from Wayne Valley, will play for Montclair State.

Adam DeMatteo, Hempfield Area Senior High School, to W&J.

Glen Burnie (Md.) HS forward Chris Schrader has committed to play at Hood.

Arundel’s (Md.) Tyler Brown has committed to Shenandoah.

Hollis/Brookline (Mass.) senior Zach Etten will play at Division III Babson. He reportedly turned down a track scholarship from U. Conn.

5-10 guard Nick Olivero to Catholic U. from W.T. Woodson HS (Fairfax, Va.).
Olivero’s teammate, 6-3 guard Tim Kohlrus, has decided to attend Washington College.

Morgan VanBuren is headed to St. John Fisher, from Creston HS (Mich.).

UW-La Crosse’s recruiting class includes Blair-Taylor HS guard T.J. Nereng and David Chivington, a 6-8 forward from Oshkosh (Wis.) West HS. More on this pair from the La Crosse Tribune.

Mercer County’s Kameron McRay will play for Centre.

Women’s recruits
Northland’s incoming class:
Lindsay BeBeau, 5’6″ Guard, Ashland, Wis.
Lisa Brilla, 5’11” Wing, Ashland, Wis.
Amanda Brundige, 5’10” Post, Green Island, N.Y.
Carrie Canfield, 5’10” Post, Florence, Wis.
Jessica Graham, 5’7″ Guard, Bessemer, Mich.
Erica Hoffman, 5’9″ Guard, Lennon, Mich.
Anna Lembcke, 6’1″ Post, Norwood Young America, Minn.
Kayla Ryynanen, 6’0″ Post, Chassell, Mich.
Jessica Strandlund, 5’2″ Guard, Froid, Mont.

Lakisha Miller of Cowley College, a two-year school in Arkansas, is transferring to Aurora.

Hannah Scherger, Sidney Lehman Catholic High School, to Wittenberg.

Mercer County’s Jillian Horn will play for Thomas More.

REMEMBER: If you have a name of a recruit that you want to post here, first, make sure he or she has not already been mentioned in our Division III recruiting roundups, and secondly, you must provide a link to the information in a newspaper or on a school’s Web site. Posts that do not follow this criteria will be removed.