Thanks everyone for the congrats. I know I'm in my mid-30s and I should not derive happiness from the success for teenagers who play basketball. However, I love basketball and I love my school. My closest friends are from that place. And my education there was a large contributing factor to any professional and/or creative success I've ever had. It's such a weird college -- I spent my years drinking 40s on the hood of abandoned cars, went to sleep to sporadic gunfire, got to see The Promise Ring and a bunch of other great bands for free with the 15 other kids with any music taste who went there and in general just had an awesome experience. On top of it, I also have a MA from there and worked on campus for a few years so I got to see it from an adult perspective and grew to like it even more.
The team hasn't been to the NCAAs since 1991. I started in 1995 so they never went to the tournament since my tenure began. They used to be a power (national championship and NITs and Top 10 rankings) before falling off. Then in 2004, the worst happened -- three kids were kicked off the team for two separate sex crimes incidents and the men's and women's coaches were fired for hiding it. It was awful. We got killed in the local media (largely from Steven A. Smith) who were pissed that we fired a basketball coach who gave good quotes yet overlooked the fact that he broke federal laws by not reporting an alleged rape. One of the players, BTW, is current San Antonio Spur Gary Neal. So anytime you hear "Towson State grad who transferred from La Salle" -- that's the story why. And no one in the press wrote too much about the former coach Billy Hahn's repugnant behavior on the witness stand where he said nonsense like "Girls spread their legs for players". He's human garbage to the fullest degree.
Making it even crazier, our current coach has been building to this in fits and starts. He had a really great recruiting class a few years ago that was built in an interesting way -- he assembled a team largely comprised of guys between 6'5" and 6'8" in height, all of whom could play any position. His argument was that it's hard to get good big men or guards at the A-10 level but good swing guys fell through the cracks. They were set to do damage their senior year when they added a Top 50 recruit big man. Low and behold, four starting players tore ACLs or other season ending injuries so they fell apart.
The next year, the sophomore stud center turned into a total head case. He was an awful ballhog and teammate and used to scream at the coaches and the like constantly. I hate ripping on any college kid but this guy was just bruuuutal. He got kicked off the team/transferred at the end of the year to West Virginia... whose main assistant coach is now Billy Hahn, who grabbed this kid just to stick it to us.
This team is so much fun and great. Their star is a kid named Ramon Galloway. He grew up right within walking distance from the school which is one of the worst neighborhoods in Philly. He has had as rough a life as a 22-year-old kid can have. He went to South Carolina initially to get out of Philly. However, his grandfather who helped raised him needs a liver transplant so he got a waiver to come home. On top of it, his dad's blind from being shot in the head (yet goes to every game). He has two brothers in lock-up for drugs/guns/etc. There's also an unknown thing going on with his mom right now.
He is the nicest kid. It's a small school and I know a bunch of people who work on campus who have either taught him or interacted with him. They all say he's great -- shows up and participates in classes, is really funny, intelligent, etc. He's also really appreciative of the college and the fact he gets to play in front of his family (who take up most of an entire section of our gym).
I'm partial, but I think he's the most underrated player in the country. He has a game that's patterned after James Harden. He has range from anywhere within half court (and frequently shoots from that far out). He's also absurdly athletic and has a few ESPN SportsCenter Top 10s. He loves defending and also can pass. We played Iona this year and he had 21 points by halftime and zero in the second... but doled out 11 assists.
Yesterday was awesome. I was on campus for the announcement. We were literally the last team selected. It was a total nightmare but came together. I'm still flying high.
Poll