DI Coaching ties to DIII

Started by haterinthehouse, October 04, 2009, 09:05:31 AM

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haterinthehouse

We have seen many DIII Coaches/players make names for themselves at the DI level. Most recently I noticed that Zach Spiker (Ithaca alum & former assistant at Cornell University) was named Head Men's Basketball Coach at Army.

Dave Paulsen made the jump from Williams to Bucknell. Jay Wright once worked at the U of R and is the man at Villanova. I guess even going further, Greg Popovich was long ago the head coach at Ponoma.

What other connections are out there?

Mr. Ypsi

Perhaps the most prominent link currently would be Wisconsin.  Former coach Dick Bennett coached UW-SP (though they were then NAIA; he was NAIA COY in 1984).  Bennett was succeeded in Madison by Bo Ryan, who won FOUR d3 national titles at UW-Platteville.


David Collinge

Virginia Commonwealth's new head coach is Shaka Smart, Kenyon College class of '99.  One of his assistant coaches is Mike Rhoades, Lebanon Valley class of '94 and for ten years the head coach at Randolph-Macon.  VCU's director of basketball operations is Kyle Getter, who has worked at both Wabash and Hanover.  Go Rams!

haterinthehouse

I just thought of Josh Loeffler as well. He moved from Stevens IT to be an assistant at Lafayette

John Gleich

Also from Wisconsin...

From UWSP class of 05:

Jason Kalsow is an assistant at UW Green Bay

Nick Bennett is the head assistant at Florida Gulf Coast University.


From UW Platteville class of 91:

Rob Jeter is the head coach at UW Milwaukee
UWSP Men's Basketball

National Champions: 2015, 2010, 2005, 2004

NCAA appearances: 2018, '15, '14, '13, '12, '11, '10, '09, '08, '07, '05, '04, '03, '00, 1997

WIAC/WSUC Champs: 2015, '14, '13, '11, '09, '07, '05, '03, '02, '01, '00, 1993, '92, '87, '86, '85, '84, '83, '82, '69, '61, '57, '48, '42, '37, '36, '35, '33, '18

Twitter: @JohnGleich

Gregory Sager

John Giannini, the head coach at LaSalle, coached Rowan to the '96 D3 national championship. He also spent his playing days in the D3 ranks, at North Central.
"To see what is in front of one's nose is a constant struggle." -- George Orwell

HCACBBALL

Gregory,

Thanks for the info on John Giannini.  I am a NCC Grad and no idea that we had such a good coach as a Alum. 

I know in the CCIW there was a wave of coaches that came down from D1 to D3.  Benjy Taylor at NCC (He is no longer there), obviously Augie.  Was this just a short lived trend or does that happen more than one thinks?

dansand

Quote from: HCACBBALL on October 12, 2009, 08:35:54 PM
Gregory,

Thanks for the info on John Giannini.  I am a NCC Grad and no idea that we had such a good coach as a Alum. 

I know in the CCIW there was a wave of coaches that came down from D1 to D3.  Benjy Taylor at NCC (He is no longer there), obviously Augie.  Was this just a short lived trend or does that happen more than one thinks?

I think Coach Giovanine's situation is almost unheard of. He left a D1 head coaching job to move to D3. Someone might know of a similar move, but I can't think of any. I don't think it's terribly unusual for a D1 assistant to take a HC job in D3, but I think that schools are usually looking to fill a HC vacancy with someone with previous head coaching experience. I could be wrong, but that's my impression.

Gregory Sager

Quote from: dansand on October 14, 2009, 03:38:11 PM
Quote from: HCACBBALL on October 12, 2009, 08:35:54 PM
Gregory,

Thanks for the info on John Giannini.  I am a NCC Grad and no idea that we had such a good coach as a Alum. 

I know in the CCIW there was a wave of coaches that came down from D1 to D3.  Benjy Taylor at NCC (He is no longer there), obviously Augie.  Was this just a short lived trend or does that happen more than one thinks?

I think Coach Giovanine's situation is almost unheard of. He left a D1 head coaching job to move to D3. Someone might know of a similar move, but I can't think of any. I don't think it's terribly unusual for a D1 assistant to take a HC job in D3, but I think that schools are usually looking to fill a HC vacancy with someone with previous head coaching experience. I could be wrong, but that's my impression.

Rees Johnson came to North Park after being a fairly successful head coach at D1 Northeastern Illinois, but the circumstances were unique. In the spring of '98 NEIU disbanded its athletic department and dropped all sports without any prior warning, leaving Johnson high and dry. Fortunately for him, North Park fired its head coach at about the same time, and NPU is just a couple of blocks east of NEIU.

HCACBBALL, Giannini was my contemporary when I was at North Park. He was an All-CCIW third-teamer as a sophomore and again as a senior for NCC. He was a pretty big part of Bill Warden's total turnaround of what had been the perennial doormat of the CCIW. By Giannini's senior year the Cardinals were able to finish in a tie for second place at 11-5, after going 0-16 in CCIW play his freshman year.
"To see what is in front of one's nose is a constant struggle." -- George Orwell

amh63

Glen Miller at the U. of Penn and former head coach at Brown U. was the head coach at Conn. C in the NESCAC where he lead the Camels to the Div 3 final four in 1999.

John Gleich

Quote from: dansand on October 14, 2009, 03:38:11 PM
I think Coach Giovanine's situation is almost unheard of. He left a D1 head coaching job to move to D3. Someone might know of a similar move, but I can't think of any. I don't think it's terribly unusual for a D1 assistant to take a HC job in D3, but I think that schools are usually looking to fill a HC vacancy with someone with previous head coaching experience. I could be wrong, but that's my impression.

How about Brad Soderberg?  It's a different situation many times over... he played at UWSP and coached at Loras before moving to D-II South Dakota State, and then on to Wisconsin... where he was placed as the interim coach to replace the (temporarily) retiring Dick Bennett.  He got Wisconsin to the NCAA tournament... but he wasn't retained in favor of Bo Ryan... but then Brad got the Saint Louis U job.  After 5 years and 2 NIT trips, he was fired and now is the head coach at NAIA Lindenwood U in Saint Charles, MO.

... Rather than starting another thread (NAIA coaches with D-III ties who have coached in D-I) I thought I would just note this here.

I don't know Brad personally... but I think he's kind of gotten the shaft in the coaching realm a little bit.  I found an interesting story about Soderberg's return to coaching.

I guess, technically, the D-III ties come in with UWSP's current afiliation (Point was NAIA when Soderberg was there) but that would hold true for Dick Bennett too.  We're going to claim them for D-III.   :)
UWSP Men's Basketball

National Champions: 2015, 2010, 2005, 2004

NCAA appearances: 2018, '15, '14, '13, '12, '11, '10, '09, '08, '07, '05, '04, '03, '00, 1997

WIAC/WSUC Champs: 2015, '14, '13, '11, '09, '07, '05, '03, '02, '01, '00, 1993, '92, '87, '86, '85, '84, '83, '82, '69, '61, '57, '48, '42, '37, '36, '35, '33, '18

Twitter: @JohnGleich

HCACBBALL

Coach Soderberg is a class act.  I have met him several times and he was nothing but kind and generous to me. 

Gregory did Giannini play for Coach Warden?  Coach Warden was another class act. 

magicman

Mike Deane, Small College All American from Potsdam State in 1973 and 1974, was an assistant coach at Potsdam St. in 1974-75. an assistant coach at Plattsburgh St in 1975-76, where he also was the head baseball coach and became the head coach at Oswego State from 1980-82. His DI coaching career began as an assistant coach at Michigan St. from 1982-86. He became the head coach at Siena College in 1986 and has won 432 DI games, the biggest probably being 14th seeded Siena's upset of 3rd seeded Stanford in the 1st round of the 1989 NCAA tournament. He is starting his 7th year as the head coach at Wagner College of the North East Conference. Mike is 1 of only 13 active coaches to have led 3 different teams to the big dance( Siena, Marquette, and Lamar). The following link from Wagner Athletics has his career highlights.

http://www.wagnerathletics.com/coaches.aspx?rc=52   

magicman

Another DI coach with ties to DIII is Paul Evans who coached at St. Lawrence University from 1973 to 1980. Paul went on to coach at Navy from 1980 to 1986 and then at Pittsburgh from 1986 to 1994