Threes A Crowd: The Southern Kentucky Saddlebreds (1992-2012) (FBCB)

[Young Drachma]

Okay, so this the sequel to this dynasty (http://www.operationsports.com/forums/basketball-dynasties/727216-king-hill-kentucky-hs-basketball-dynasty-fbcb.html) so I'm keeping the same universe with HS and college in FBCB and the pro league in FBPB but I'm focusing on the college league now.

Here's the story:

What we'll do in the sequel is taking over a college program, we're only going to recruit guys who are 3-star or lower with an exemption to carry a blue chip (4 or 5) guy if we can ever get one at a time...

I'm really curious to see how far a team with mid-level talent can do in the game over a fixed period of time. If I'm feeling ambitious, then we'll go ahead and tinker with coaching strategies, but in general this will be a high level dynasty where I set things up for the year and let it go, besides doing recruiting for the team. I'll only post the season results, maybe the report the game generates with stats and mention how the team did in the post-season if it gets there.

The HS dynasty will continue to give me talent and I'll probably populate the game with more 3-star recruits as a result to keep it interesting for me, but we won't be paying as much attention to the high school game besides taking recruits from there for the time being.

The pro game will also be there and I'll eventually follow careers of guys, but it's possible I run a bunch of college seasons before I go back to the pros again.

I'm going to take over fictional Southern Kentucky University in Burkesville, KY. SKU is moving up to D1 and are playing in the Sun Belt conference. We're starting in the 1992-93 season. Their mascot is the Saddlebreds, named after the only native horse breed to Kentucky. Only Murray State uses a horse nickname (Racers) for their teams, all of the teams in the state despite the horse heritage of the state don't use horse-based nicknames and so, SKU's doing so is kind of neat.

Their rivals are fictional programs Central Kentucky & Kentucky A&T. I'm going to create a regular season tournament for four teams so CKU, SKU, KA&T and one of the other four-year programs in Kentucky to have them play each other and it'll be hosted by SKU. If nothing else, it ensures we'll get to see some of the state's other teams.

To figure out SKU's initial prestige, I took the mean of the teams in the conference excluding them and came up with 45 and then subtracted 11 to make sure they're the lowest in the conference since the lowest was 35. So they'll start at 34 (out of 100).

[Young Drachma]

The first year team will be all walkons, so it'll be terrible. I'm going to force them all to the draft at the end of the season, so I have 12 scholarships to work with from the start. There were previously no transfers, but I've turned them on starting now and players don't have to sit out a year before playing on their new team.

Players can leave for the NBA after one year in college, like real life too.

[Young Drachma]

The first head coach in SKU history is Bob Smith, a 61-year years young assistant from UConn. His only head coaching experience came at Stephen F. Austin. He has a career record of 51-69, but let's consider that 1) this is Southern Kentucky 2) most of the other candidates were too young for an upstart program and 3) Smith was a late starter who cut his teeth as an assistant at Louisville, which is what sold me on him for this job.

He's not going to be a very good gameday coach and he's no longer term solution, but he was looking for a head coaching job to retire, wanted to get back to Kentucky and we wanted someone who would start the program off right, was familiar with the state and understands how major college basketball works since it's where we'd like to be someday.

So there you go.


COACH DETAILS

Robert Smith - Head Coach - Southern Kentucky
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Age: 61
High School: Minster High School
Hometown: Minster, OH
Alma Mater: Liberty

Current Level: 4
Career Record: 51 - 69

Recruiting: B-
Scouting: A+
Offense: F-
Defense: F+


Coaching History:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season Team Position W L CW CL Postseason
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1991 Connecticut Assistant 24 9 11 7 Loss in NCAA Round 1
1990 Connecticut Assistant 24 10 12 6 Loss in NCAA Round of 32
1989 Stephen F. Austin Head Coach 8 21 5 15 No Postseason
1988 Stephen F. Austin Head Coach 12 17 9 11 No Postseason
1987 Stephen F. Austin Head Coach 14 15 6 14 No Postseason
1986 Stephen F. Austin Head Coach 17 16 12 8 Loss in CIT Round 1
1985 Louisville Assistant 28 10 12 6 Loss in NCAA Final Four
1984 Louisville Assistant 31 5 16 2 Loss in NCAA Sweet Sixteen
1983 Louisville Assistant 23 10 13 5 Loss in NCAA Round of 32
1982 Louisville Assistant 18 14 10 8 No Postseason
1981 Louisville Assistant 21 13 10 8 Loss in NCAA Round 1
1980 Louisville Assistant 18 13 9 9 No Postseason

Awards & Achievements:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season Award
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No awards won.

Job Movement:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season Move
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1992 Hired by Southern Kentucky (Head Coach)
1992 Quit job with Connecticut
1990 Hired by Connecticut (Lead Scout)
1990 Fired by Stephen F. Austin
1986 Hired by Stephen F. Austin (Head Coach)
1986 Quit job with Duke to pursue a higher position
1986 Moved with head coach from Louisville to Duke
1980 Hired by Louisville (Lead Scout)

[Young Drachma]

For clerical purposes (aka, so I don't forget)


For 1991-92:
The Sacramento Kings moved to San Diego (Conquistadors)
The Milwaukee Bucks moved to Anaheim
The Oklahoma City Thunder moved to Aurora, IL (Chicago Comets)

I'm eventually going to own the Comets, because for some reason earlier tonight I was looking at the retired jerseys of the Colorado Avalanche and thought about how interesting it is when a team moves to a new place, adopts a new identity and then because they're successful are able to attract a solid fanbase.

The Clippers debacle and how they're still worth lots simply because they managed to get the right players at the right time, a sweetheart lease and backed their way into a market where they were largely terrible forever made me want to see what the ascent of a 2nd team can be like and since in my game, the Thunder were terrible and I was either going to move them or Memphis since their market sizes are about the same, I moved the Thunder who since 1959 had only made the playoffs twice (1959, 1974).

They'll be the Western Conference team in Chicago, which is in contrast to the other two city teams in the league where both teams play in the same conference. The Bulls won their first NBA title in 1988

[Young Drachma]

1992-93 SEASON RESULTS



SOUTHERN KENTUCKY SADDLEBREDS TEAM INFO

Current Performance
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Team Prestige: 34 Record Vs 1-50: 0-3 Poll Rank: NR
Season Record: 7-23 Record Vs 51-100: 1-3 RPI Rank: #331
Conference Record: 4-16 Record Vs 101-200: 1-4
Home Record: 4-14 Record Vs 200+: 5-13


Team Stats CR NR Opp. Stats CR NR Margin CR NR
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Points 70.8 5 242 Points 80.5 12 328 Points -9.7 12 335
O.Reb 11.2 12 352 O.Reb 16.8 11 294 O.Reb -5.5 12 350
D.Reb 20.6 12 340 D.Reb 22.4 2 101 D.Reb -1.8 8 281
Rebounds 31.8 12 352 Rebounds 39.2 9 200 Rebounds -7.3 12 343
Assists 15.2 2 157 Assists 15.0 11 151 Assists 0.3 3 147
Steals 6.4 6 166 Steals 7.2 10 321 Steals -0.8 9 237
Blocks 2.1 10 302 Blocks 3.3 3 88 Blocks -1.1 10 264
Turnovers 18.3 12 336 Turnovers 16.2 7 180 Turnovers 2.1 11 294
Fouls 18.9 10 294 Fouls 18.0 1 112 Fouls 0.8 8 248
FG% .456 1 47 FG% .458 12 327 FG% -.002 5 177
FT% .726 2 29 FT% .715 10 332 FT% .011 6 146
3P% .350 7 170 3P% .380 12 335 3P% -.030 10 271
PPS 1.27 1 31 PPS 1.29 12 339 PPS -.024 7 200
Adj. FG% .515 3 86 Adj. FG% .528 12 337 Adj. FG% -.013 7 225

[Young Drachma]

I was taking too much time to sim and honestly, I really just wanted to run this experiment with one mission in mind and one mission only. I want to know how far a team of three star or lower players can do with all other things being equal in the game. They can have one blue chip guy or not, but ultimately, curious to see how well they can do and how far they can get.

I was getting bogged down in the details though, doing this really just helps me better understand how to recruit for online leagues in-game and so forth. So rather than just trying to do it organically, I've decided to just let the game sim each season and at the end of the year, I go into Southern Kentucky's recruiting class and then change them to be guys from the high school dynasty.

It obviously borks their true high school rating, but thousands of HS guys each year go under or unrecruited and manage to turn into solid college dudes or pros. Our batch of dudes will simply go under that banner even though we (in theory) know they might be better than the guy I'm replacing them with.

I don't have a formula for this. I think initially, we'll limit the team to:

1 blue-chip player (4 or 5 star recruit)
3 blue collar recruits (3 star)

and then the rest can be 2 and 1 star guys. In past tests, I've already identified that good coaching helps a lot and so, we'll have to ensure the team has that in order for this to work (think Shaka Smart/Brad Stevens/Boheim over say, someone not those guys..) but that's perfectly okay.

Based on the results over the next few years, we'll make adjustments. We won't ever let the program get so good that they're able to bring in guys who are elite all the time, because that'd defeat the purpose though if they get too good for the Sun Belt we can look for an upgrade in conference.

[Young Drachma]

1993-94 SEASON



SOUTHERN KENTUCKY SADDLEBREDS TEAM INFO

Current Performance
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Team Prestige: 32 Record Vs 1-50: 1-3 Poll Rank: NR
Season Record: 19-14 Record Vs 51-100: 1-3 RPI Rank: #173
Conference Record: 10-10 Record Vs 101-200: 6-7
Home Record: 12-8 Record Vs 200+: 11-1


Team Stats CR NR Opp. Stats CR NR Margin CR NR
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Points 80.3 1 47 Points 75.2 8 203 Points 5.1 3 67
O.Reb 14.5 5 244 O.Reb 13.2 4 39 O.Reb 1.4 4 101
D.Reb 23.2 4 217 D.Reb 20.7 3 22 D.Reb 2.5 4 43
Rebounds 37.8 5 238 Rebounds 33.9 2 18 Rebounds 3.9 3 50
Assists 20.0 1 9 Assists 14.8 7 112 Assists 5.2 1 5
Steals 7.4 4 86 Steals 6.1 4 112 Steals 1.3 3 74
Blocks 2.9 8 230 Blocks 3.2 4 71 Blocks -0.3 8 195
Turnovers 16.0 5 122 Turnovers 16.6 7 160 Turnovers -0.6 7 135
Fouls 16.9 8 115 Fouls 16.0 9 319 Fouls 0.9 11 255
FG% .487 1 3 FG% .463 12 336 FG% .023 4 70
FT% .737 1 17 FT% .652 1 41 FT% .085 1 5
3P% .348 9 170 3P% .349 5 165 3P% -.001 8 166
PPS 1.26 1 26 PPS 1.24 8 286 PPS .020 5 143
Adj. FG% .549 1 15 Adj. FG% .530 11 337 Adj. FG% .019 5 106



After Bob Smith retired, So. Kentucky hired away Kentucky native Alonzo Jones from Cal State Fullerton to be their new Head Coach. He had immediate dividends in his home state leading the Saddlebreds to a 19-14 record in their 2nd season in D1 and an appearance in the NIT. He'll be hired away this off-season by another program, making the school pick its third head coach in three years, but the name we're bringing in will be familiar if you followed the other dynasty.



COACH DETAILS

Alfonzo Jones - Head Coach - Southern Kentucky
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Age: 42
High School: Highlands High School
Hometown: Ft Thomas, KY
Alma Mater: Furman

Current Level: 6
Career Record: 64 - 33

Recruiting: 100
Scouting: 15
Offense: 70
Defense: 35


Coaching History:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season Team Position W L CW CL Postseason
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1992 Cal State Fullerton Head Coach 24 9 12 4 Loss in NIT Round 1
1991 Cal State Fullerton Head Coach 21 10 10 6 Loss in NIT Preliminary Round
1990 Kansas State Assistant 34 4 16 2 NCAA Champion
1989 Kansas State Assistant 30 8 14 4 Loss in NCAA Championship Game
1988 Kansas State Assistant 31 6 16 2 Loss in NCAA Elite Eight
1987 Virginia Assistant 25 8 13 5 Loss in NCAA Round 1
1986 Virginia Assistant 20 12 12 6 Loss in NCAA Round 1
1985 Virginia Assistant 17 16 6 12 No Postseason
1984 Virginia Assistant 15 15 5 13 No Postseason
1983 Virginia Assistant 12 20 3 15 No Postseason
1982 Virginia Assistant 20 12 10 8 Loss in NCAA Round of 32
1981 Virginia Assistant 16 15 8 10 No Postseason
1980 Virginia Assistant 21 14 11 7 Loss in NCAA Round of 32

Awards & Achievements:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season Award
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No awards won.

Job Movement:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season Move
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1993 Hired by Southern Kentucky (Head Coach)
1993 Quit job with Cal State Fullerton
1991 Hired by Cal State Fullerton (Head Coach)
1991 Quit job with Kansas State to pursue a higher position
1988 Hired by Kansas State (Recruiting Coordinator)
1988 Quit job with Virginia to pursue a higher position
1980 Hired by Virginia (Recruiting Coordinator)

[Young Drachma]

SADDLEBREDS HEAD TO THE A-SUN


Southern Kentucky has left the Sun Belt and will be replaced by football playing Florida A&M and will take up residence in the Atlantic Sun conference where they'll have an in-state program rivalry with Northern Kentucky and probably a chance to compete for the conference title right out of the gate, though they did lose to Florida Gulf Coast in the NIT last year and that team has left the league for the Atlantic 10.


FORMER MURRAY STAR BRIAN PACE TO COACH SOUTHERN KENTUCKY
After paying his dues in the high school ranks for the past four years, Brian Pace, who spent four years at Murray State before eschewing a pro career overseas, has accepted the head coaching job at Southern Kentucky.

Pace, 29, spent three years at the Van Blake School in Stovall County before spending last season at George Rogers Clark HS. His teams made the Elite 8 in each of the past two years and lost in the Regional Final the two previous years. His career record in HS was 115-18 and Southern Kentucky administration couldn't be happier about bringing this in-state native to coach their college team.

"Coaching is coaching, ultimately," said Tad Giltner, athletic director at Southern Kentucky. "We think Brian is the kind of guy players will be able to relate to, parents will trust and can elevate our program to the next level. We're excited for him to start."

[Young Drachma]

1994-95


The Saddlebreds made their first NCAA tournament in their 3rd year in D1. They lost in the Round of 32 to Georgetown, after upsetting 5th seeded UAB in the 1st round of South Region play.

SOUTHERN KENTUCKY SADDLEBREDS TEAM INFO

Current Performance
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Team Prestige: 34 Record Vs 1-50: 2-3 Poll Rank: NR
Season Record: 28-7 Record Vs 51-100: 2-1 RPI Rank: #64
Conference Record: 15-3 Record Vs 101-200: 3-1
Home Record: 13-3 Record Vs 200+: 21-2


Team Stats CR NR Opp. Stats CR NR Margin CR NR
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Points 89.4 2 5 Points 77.4 5 254 Points 12.0 1 8
O.Reb 16.9 2 62 O.Reb 15.3 4 199 O.Reb 1.6 3 85
D.Reb 26.9 2 19 D.Reb 23.9 3 143 D.Reb 3.0 1 25
Rebounds 43.8 1 25 Rebounds 39.1 3 157 Rebounds 4.6 2 40
Assists 20.3 1 5 Assists 15.9 5 252 Assists 4.4 1 7
Steals 6.9 4 104 Steals 6.2 3 161 Steals 0.7 5 107
Blocks 3.8 1 144 Blocks 3.1 6 63 Blocks 0.7 1 105
Turnovers 14.0 1 28 Turnovers 16.4 4 119 Turnovers -2.4 3 48
Fouls 15.9 1 39 Fouls 17.5 6 186 Fouls -1.6 1 64
FG% .464 2 22 FG% .430 2 140 FG% .034 1 38
FT% .776 1 1 FT% .664 2 93 FT% .112 1 1
3P% .334 5 224 3P% .347 6 175 3P% -.013 5 211
PPS 1.25 2 34 PPS 1.13 1 81 PPS .115 1 27
Adj. FG% .533 2 22 Adj. FG% .493 2 155 Adj. FG% .039 1 38

[Young Drachma]

What I haven't been doing is keeping track of how many collective stars our teams have on them at the end of each year (Re: recruit stars) because that's the real point of the exercise in the first place. It might also be interesting to see what the stars of the Final Four for that year are, especially after noticing last year that Belmont put a team in the Final Four with no blue chip recruits (All 3 star or lower) so it's clearly possible to do it, what I'm wanting to see how sustainable it is over a long period of time.

Like does a real life mid-major team have a shot, in-game, of managing to be a perennial contender despite not being able to attract blue chip talent like more heeled competitors? I'm more interested in that than anything.

I've created a separate save, because I'd actually like to go back to this point at some point for other experiments and I think if I know I won't lose this particular setup where I am now, then I can sim faster and just focus on 1) getting results and focus less on 2) adding players to the dynasty which I don't want to do right now save for maybe changing the names of the Kentucky generated pool and maybe adding a few more Kentucky players to the pool when it's thin, since I do want these teams to be more homegrown.

[Young Drachma]

I deliberately put them in the Atlantic Sun, as I saw it as a chance for the program to grow and make tournaments. Plus I don't envision this school as a football school.

1995-96

So the 1995-96 season I knew, after last year, would be better. I scheduled weak again, because that's the trick to this deal. Though they did get a game against Kentucky -- on the road -- and managed to win, so...I knew when I saw that this team was going to be tough. Which is funny because last year's team featured Jayquell Clayton, a blue chip kid who fell to this school because I edited a player from Kentucky randomly before I started this and he ended up at SKU as a walkon without me realizing he'd end up there.

Anyway, he's off to the NBA now and what's left are two seniors, a massive amount of juniors, but none are blue chip recruits. The roster does boast 5 (3*) recruits, but the rest are two-star and below.

1995-96 was a weird tournament year, probably the weirdest I'd ever seen in all of the years I've simmed in this game. 12 double-digit seeds managed to win first-round games. The Sweet 16 featured the following seeds:

1, 5, 10, 14, 1, 13, 15, 6, 8, 4, 10, 11, 9, 4, 10, 3

So two top seeds did manage to survive, but this was not a good year to be chalk. For the part of the Saddlebreds, they earned an 10 seed in the South region, their 2nd straight tournament appearance.

1ST ROUND: Southern Kentucky 85, 7) Washington 82
2ND ROUND: Southern Kentucky 97, 2) Central Florida 92
SWEET 16: Southern Kentucky 94, 11) Alabama 76
ELITE 8: Southern Kentucky 91, 4) Florida 71
FINAL FOUR:

Brian Pace has brought SKU to the Final Four in just his 2nd year on the job. For what it's worth, all of the other high seeds lost their Elite 8 games.

1985-86 FINAL FOUR
5) VILLANOVA (30-6)
1) NOTRE DAME (32-3)
10) SOUTHERN KENTUCKY
4) GEORGETOWN (31-6)

All of these teams come replete with blue chips galore. Too many to even bother to count, honestly. But last year, Belmont got to the same spot that SKU is in now and a year later, they finished 15-16 and didn't make any post-season. Of course, Butler in real life did that after back to back title game appearances.

FINAL FOUR: Villanova 103, Southern Kentucky 100

So the magical run comes to an end, with the Saddlebreds taking the whole state with them on a ride that ends with a 29-8 season.

I didn't do anything to induce this or resim or anything like that. (If I were, they'd have won it all because it'd make for a better story...)


SOUTHERN KENTUCKY SADDLEBREDS TEAM INFO

Current Performance
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Team Prestige: 40 Record Vs 1-50: 4-1 Poll Rank: NR
Season Record: 29-8 Record Vs 51-100: 5-2 RPI Rank: #32
Conference Record: 14-4 Record Vs 101-200: 6-4
Home Record: 14-2 Record Vs 200+: 14-1


Team Stats CR NR Opp. Stats CR NR Margin CR NR
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Points 86.6 1 11 Points 74.4 2 147 Points 12.2 1 9
O.Reb 16.7 2 25 O.Reb 13.6 5 149 O.Reb 3.1 2 32
D.Reb 29.2 3 27 D.Reb 26.8 2 180 D.Reb 2.4 3 45
Rebounds 45.9 3 11 Rebounds 40.4 2 157 Rebounds 5.5 3 24
Assists 18.2 2 29 Assists 14.8 3 141 Assists 3.4 1 17
Steals 6.5 3 79 Steals 4.8 3 43 Steals 1.7 2 43
Blocks 3.5 1 123 Blocks 2.7 5 81 Blocks 0.7 3 93
Turnovers 12.8 4 84 Turnovers 14.1 3 124 Turnovers -1.4 3 90
Fouls 16.3 3 70 Fouls 15.9 10 323 Fouls 0.4 7 208
FG% .427 4 185 FG% .415 2 64 FG% .012 2 98
FT% .760 1 5 FT% .689 6 231 FT% .071 1 13
3P% .327 2 215 3P% .312 2 30 3P% .016 2 114
PPS 1.19 2 90 PPS 1.11 3 59 PPS .084 1 52
Adj. FG% .519 1 40 Adj. FG% .467 2 52 Adj. FG% .052 1 20


FWIW, in this dynasty, here are our past champions up to now:

NCAA Champs

Season Team Record Opponent Score
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1995 Villanova Wildcats 32-6 Notre Dame Fighting Irish 102-88
1994 Tennessee Volunteers 33-5 Notre Dame Fighting Irish 98-78
1993 Michigan Wolverines 37-3 Duke Blue Devils 88-84
1992 Kentucky Wildcats 28-11 Ohio State Buckeyes 74-71
1991 North Carolina State Wolfpack 29-9 Florida Gators 79-57
1990 Kansas State Wildcats 34-4 South Carolina Gamecocks 115-108
1989 Michigan Wolverines 27-11 Kansas State Wildcats 88-77
1988 Memphis Tigers 37-2 Duke Blue Devils 83-67
1987 Tennessee Volunteers 35-3 Gonzaga Bulldogs 88-86
1986 UNLV Rebels 29-10 Villanova Wildcats 70-59
1985 Florida State Seminoles 31-7 Duke Blue Devils 80-63
1984 Colorado Buffaloes 26-10 Duke Blue Devils 69-61
1983 Creighton Bluejays 33-5 Oregon Ducks 87-59
1982 Texas Longhorns 32-5 Florida Gators 88-82
1981 Oklahoma State Cowboys 31-7 Kansas State Wildcats 81-68
1980 San Diego State Aztecs 35-5 Tennessee Volunteers 69-68

[Young Drachma]

1995-96 CONTINUED


SOUTHERN KENTUCKY SADDLEBREDS Schedule

Date Opponent Record RPI Result Score Record
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11/08/95 at #17 Kentucky 24-10 17 W 89-80 1-0
11/14/95 Murray State 19-15 106 W 96-84 2-0
11/15/95 North Carolina A&T 17-15 143 W 87-71 3-0
11/21/95 Oral Roberts 6-23 353 W 99-76 4-0
11/24/95 at Robert Morris 8-21 315 W 94-66 5-0
11/25/95 at Texas A&M Corpus Christi 13-17 322 W 91-66 6-0
12/05/95 at UMass Lowell 8-21 336 W 80-75 7-0
12/06/95 at VMI 7-23 351 W 68-50 8-0
12/12/95 Houston Baptist 14-15 197 L 82-73 8-1
12/14/95 VMI 7-23 351 W 90-65 9-1
12/15/95 Central Kentucky 20-12 98 W 89-79 10-1
12/16/95 Kentucky A&T 18-16 196 L 94-91 10-2
12/23/95 at USC Upstate 19-14 92 L 91-86 10-3 (0-1)
12/28/95 Lipscomb 18-14 153 W 71-55 11-3 (1-1)
12/30/95 Northern Kentucky 7-24 348 W 98-65 12-3 (2-1)
01/04/96 at Kennesaw State 15-15 177 W 80-77 13-3 (3-1)
01/06/96 at Mercer 22-11 57 W 87-61 14-3 (4-1)
01/11/96 Stetson 14-19 189 W 92-83 15-3 (5-1)
01/13/96 North Florida 12-19 231 W 107-70 16-3 (6-1)
01/18/96 at Jacksonville 14-16 230 L 90-88 16-4 (6-2)
01/20/96 at East Tennessee State 8-22 338 W 88-70 17-4 (7-2)
01/25/96 at Northern Kentucky 7-24 348 W 86-75 18-4 (8-2)
01/27/96 at Lipscomb 18-14 153 L 84-80 18-5 (8-3)
02/01/96 Mercer 22-11 57 W 77-55 19-5 (9-3)
02/03/96 Kennesaw State 15-15 177 W 90-78 20-5 (10-3)
02/08/96 at North Florida 12-19 231 W 86-59 21-5 (11-3)
02/10/96 at Stetson 14-19 189 L 78-59 21-6 (11-4)
02/15/96 East Tennessee State 8-22 338 W 77-63 22-6 (12-4)
02/17/96 Jacksonville 14-16 230 W 75-63 23-6 (13-4)
02/24/96 USC Upstate 19-14 92 W 100-61 24-6 (14-4)
02/29/96 vs. North Florida 12-19 231 W 102-80 25-6
03/01/96 vs. USC Upstate 19-14 92 L 84-63 25-7
03/15/96 vs. #18 Washington 25-8 61 W 85-82 26-7
03/17/96 vs. Central Florida 25-10 5 W 97-92 27-7
03/21/96 vs. Alabama 22-12 47 W 94-76 28-7
03/23/96 vs. #9 Florida 27-10 7 W 91-71 29-7
03/30/96 vs. #4 Villanova 32-6 2 L 103-100 29-8

SOUTHERN KENTUCKY SADDLEBREDS General

Player # Pos Yr Ht Wt Sch Acd Status Hometown
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DeAndre Broadnax 11 SG Sr 6-7 207 Yes 84 OK Plainfield, KY
Abdul-Malik Alcala 5 SF Sr 6-4 202 Yes 78 OK Paris, KY
Tiontay Downes 13 PF Jr 6-7 255 Yes 75 OK Louisville, KY
Elden Meyers 40 C Jr 6-9 256 Yes 29 OK Grundy, VA
Xavion Bowen 45 PF Jr 6-8 210 Yes 24 OK Collierville, TN
Cee Cee Daniels 22 PG Jr 6-0 190 Yes 55 OK Tampa, FL
Jamiah Mathias 31 SF Jr 6-4 196 Yes 73 Unhappy Mt Washington, KY
Ernesto Feldman 43 SF Jr 6-8 210 No 85 OK Marshall, MI
Emil Schwarz 2 C So* 6-8 247 Yes 44 OK Cartersville, GA
Ezra McCracken 54 SG So 6-0 187 Yes 71 OK Florence, KY
Jamal Hatcher 33 SF Fr* 6-4 238 Yes 50 Unhappy Corbin, KY
Scott Callaway 41 C Fr* 6-7 225 Yes 100 Unhappy Byron, WY
Shon Boyd 32 SF Fr 6-5 229 Yes 100 Redshirt Williamstown, KY
Randall Gilbertson 53 SG Fr 6-1 195 No 11 Redshirt Aurora, IN
Barton Mercier 42 PF Fr 6-5 242 No 87 Redshirt Herrin, IL


SOUTHERN KENTUCKY SADDLEBREDS Averages

Player Pos GP GS Min Pts Orb Reb Ast Stl Blk To Fls +/-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Abdul-Malik Alcala SF 37 37 31.2 15.9 3.1 6.5 2.5 1.1 0.2 2.2 1.9 9.5
Tiontay Downes PF 37 37 28.4 6.3 2.9 9.9 1.7 0.9 1.7 1.1 2.0 10.1
Cee Cee Daniels PG 37 0 27.5 13.4 0.8 3.1 4.9 1.5 0.1 2.3 1.8 6.1
DeAndre Broadnax SG 37 37 26.9 18.3 1.4 5.7 3.9 0.6 0.2 2.9 2.4 11.9
Elden Meyers C 37 37 26.1 7.8 2.6 6.7 1.5 0.2 0.6 0.9 2.6 10.4
Ezra McCracken SG 37 37 23.7 15.8 1.5 2.8 1.6 1.2 0.1 1.0 1.9 7.6
Xavion Bowen PF 37 0 17.2 3.9 2.4 7.2 0.8 0.5 0.1 1.0 1.9 3.4
Emil Schwarz C 36 0 8.6 2.0 0.8 1.8 0.5 0.3 0.3 0.4 0.6 0.1
Ernesto Feldman SF 36 0 8.1 2.2 1.1 1.8 0.6 0.2 0.1 0.6 0.8 2.0
Jamal Hatcher SF 17 0 3.2 1.5 0.4 0.6 0.2 0.1 0.0 0.2 0.2 -0.8
Scott Callaway C 15 0 2.5 0.7 0.0 0.1 0.1 0.0 0.1 0.3 0.3 0.7
Jamiah Mathias SF 8 0 1.4 1.1 0.0 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.3 0.1 -0.8
Shon Boyd SF 0 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Randall Gilbertson SG 0 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Barton Mercier PF 0 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

[Young Drachma]

I'm going to attempt to sim faster and just give the relevant information -- team roster, end of the year stats and maybe the schedule. It'll be stat dumpy, but the real goal here is to see after 20 years where a team ends up that started from scratch and recruits nothing but 3-star and below talent with one occasional blue chip allowance.

[Young Drachma]

1996-97: With a few conference shifts that have occurred (conference prestige fluctuation is on...) it made sense to look for a new home for the program after the Final Four year. The Missouri Valley Conference was at nine teams and represented a pretty big step up in weight class prestigewise with programs ranging from 39 to 70 in prestige. SKU is now at 50 after the Final Four run, putting them on the lower end of the scale in this league, meaning it should be a good home for a while.

Plus, what's nice about this move is getting out of a league with a Kentucky team so it makes it easier to recruit the South without interference by playing in a midwestern league, with programs that probably fit the profile of SKU better than the schools in the Atlantic Sun.

Barring something crazy, the team will remain the MVC for the next 16 seasons, as I think it's the best fit in terms of cultivating rivalries and playing with teams that don't play football too like Wichita State.

[Young Drachma]

1996-97



SOUTHERN KENTUCKY SADDLEBREDS General

Player # Pos Yr Ht Wt Sch Acd Status Hometown
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Elden Meyers 40 C Sr 6-9 256 Yes 29 OK Grundy, VA
Gerrard O'Neill 0 PF Fr 6-9 236 Yes 94 OK Marietta, GA
Tiontay Downes 13 PF Sr 6-7 255 Yes 75 OK Louisville, KY
Cazzie Tidwell 3 SG Fr 6-2 188 Yes 10 OK Mount Zion, GA
Derick Edie 50 SG Fr 6-3 181 Yes 33 OK Church Hill, TN
Ezra McCracken 54 SG Jr 6-0 187 Yes 71 OK Florence, KY
Cee Cee Daniels 22 PG Sr 6-0 190 Yes 55 OK Tampa, FL
Xavion Bowen 45 PF Sr 6-8 210 Yes 24 OK Collierville, TN
Emil Schwarz 2 C Jr* 6-8 247 Yes 44 OK Cartersville, GA
Scott Callaway 41 C So* 6-7 225 Yes 100 Unhappy Byron, WY
Jamal Hatcher 33 SF So* 6-4 238 Yes 50 Unhappy Corbin, KY
Jamiah Mathias 31 SF Sr 6-4 196 Yes 73 Unhappy Mt Washington, KY
Barton Mercier 42 PF Fr* 6-5 242 No 87 OK Herrin, IL
Shon Boyd 32 SF Fr* 6-5 229 Yes 100 OK Williamstown, KY
Randall Gilbertson 53 SG Fr* 6-1 195 No 11 OK Aurora, IN

SOUTHERN KENTUCKY SADDLEBREDS Recruiting

Name Pos Ht Wt Rating Interest State
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gerrard Pedroza C 6-11 202 *** Committed Tennessee
Remington Neal PF 6-7 242 *** Committed Tennessee
Jon Frazier SF 6-7 220 *** Committed Georgia
Severin Jessberger SG 6-5 203 *** Committed Germany
Urbanus Riley PG 5-11 167 *** Committed Georgia

SOUTHERN KENTUCKY SADDLEBREDS Averages

Player Pos GP GS Min Pts Orb Reb Ast Stl Blk To Fls +/-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Derick Edie SF 31 31 30.5 19.1 3.5 8.4 2.8 0.7 0.3 3.0 2.6 10.7
Tiontay Downes PF 31 31 28.7 7.6 3.0 10.8 1.7 1.2 1.6 1.0 2.3 9.6
Cee Cee Daniels PG 31 30 28.2 14.1 0.8 3.4 6.1 2.0 0.0 1.9 2.0 9.0
Cazzie Tidwell SG 31 1 22.9 12.3 0.9 2.3 1.8 1.0 0.1 1.9 1.8 5.7
Ezra McCracken SG 31 31 21.1 11.1 1.2 2.5 1.6 1.1 0.2 1.1 1.7 6.0
Xavion Bowen PF 31 2 14.9 4.8 2.2 5.8 1.0 0.2 0.2 0.7 1.5 4.6
Emil Schwarz C 31 0 12.9 3.6 1.4 2.7 0.5 0.5 0.5 0.5 1.4 1.4
Randall Gilbertson SG 31 0 10.1 3.8 0.4 1.8 1.5 0.1 0.0 0.9 0.8 0.6
Elden Meyers C 30 29 23.4 6.7 3.3 6.3 0.8 0.3 0.9 0.8 2.5 8.4
Jamal Hatcher SF 30 0 5.6 3.2 0.5 1.1 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.3 0.3 1.7
Scott Callaway C 21 0 3.0 0.5 0.0 0.4 0.0 0.1 0.1 0.2 0.2 -1.2
Shon Boyd SF 20 0 2.6 0.8 0.4 1.2 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.3 0.2 -1.2
Jamiah Mathias SF 3 0 1.7 0.7 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.3 0.0 -3.0
Barton Mercier PF 1 0 1.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.0
Gerrard O'Neill PF 0 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

SOUTHERN KENTUCKY SADDLEBREDS Schedule

Date Opponent Record RPI Result Score Record
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11/10/96 Texas A&M Corpus Christi 7-22 349 W 100-78 1-0
11/15/96 UMKC 9-21 293 W 70-58 2-0
11/16/96 VMI 15-16 209 W 92-83 3-0
11/21/96 Western Carolina 16-15 267 W 67-56 4-0
11/25/96 at William & Mary 8-22 317 W 87-69 5-0
11/26/96 at Virginia 15-17 79 L 76-74 5-1
11/29/96 at Colorado 24-13 29 W 89-80 6-1
12/05/96 Grambling State 11-19 283 W 91-64 7-1
12/10/96 Idaho State 14-17 166 W 73-70 8-1
12/13/96 at Murray State 18-13 109 W 97-87 9-1
12/20/96 Eastern Kentucky 7-22 233 W 93-65 10-1
12/21/96 Kentucky 12-18 169 W 92-84 11-1
12/28/96 Providence 23-12 42 W 90-88 12-1
01/03/97 Nebraska Omaha 12-19 250 W 92-65 13-1
01/08/97 Bradley 14-18 117 W 98-80 14-1 (1-0)
01/11/97 at Southern Illinois 21-12 59 L 106-103 14-2 (1-1)
01/15/97 at Indiana State 19-15 102 W 96-67 15-2 (2-1)
01/18/97 Missouri State 16-15 171 W 97-73 16-2 (3-1)
01/22/97 at Wichita State 21-13 87 W 86-63 17-2 (4-1)
01/25/97 Drake 24-10 54 L 85-74 17-3 (4-2)
01/29/97 Evansville 11-21 216 W 83-56 18-3 (5-2)
02/01/97 at Illinois State 9-21 204 W 99-88 19-3 (6-2)
02/05/97 at Bradley 14-18 117 W 81-79 20-3 (7-2)
02/08/97 at Missouri State 16-15 171 W 95-76 21-3 (8-2)
02/12/97 Wichita State 21-13 87 L 71-63 21-4 (8-3)
02/15/97 Southern Illinois 21-12 59 W 97-88 22-4 (9-3)
02/19/97 at Drake 24-10 54 L 91-81 22-5 (9-4)
02/22/97 at Northern Iowa 17-15 113 W 85-77 23-5 (10-4)
02/26/97 Illinois State 9-21 204 W 91-81 24-5 (11-4)
03/01/97 Indiana State 19-15 102 W 74-62 25-5 (12-4)
03/07/97 vs. Evansville 11-21 216 L 93-85 25-6
03/20/97 vs. #19 Florida 25-10 17 L 85-75 25-7


The team earned a #9 seed in the NCAAs after an upset 1st round loss in the MVC tournament. They lost to 8-seed Florida in the 1st round of the NCAA tournament.

Notre Dame beat Louisville 88-82 in the title game.

[Young Drachma]

1997-98


SOUTHERN KENTUCKY SADDLEBREDS Recruiting

Name Pos Ht Wt Rating Interest State
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reg McLendon PF 7-2 232 *** Committed Tennessee
Westbrook Goss PG 6-2 175 *** Committed Indiana
Vinny Griffiths PG 6-0 182 *** Committed Canada

SOUTHERN KENTUCKY SADDLEBREDS General

Player # Pos Yr Ht Wt Sch Acd Status Hometown
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Emil Schwarz 2 PF Sr* 6-8 250 Yes 44 OK Cartersville, GA
Ezra McCracken 54 PG Sr 6-0 191 Yes 71 OK Florence, KY
Jamal Hatcher 33 SF Jr* 6-4 240 Yes 50 Unhappy Corbin, KY
Scott Callaway 41 C Jr* 6-7 227 Yes 100 Unhappy Byron, WY
Shon Boyd 32 SF So* 6-5 230 Yes 100 OK Williamstown, KY
Randall Gilbertson 53 SG So* 6-1 198 No 11 Unhappy Aurora, IN
Cazzie Tidwell 3 SG So 6-2 196 Yes 10 OK Mount Zion, GA
Derick Edie 50 SF So 6-3 199 Yes 33 OK Church Hill, TN
Jon Frazier 52 PF Fr 6-7 224 Yes 26 OK Powder Springs, GA
Remington Neal 20 PF Fr 6-7 244 Yes 26 OK Corryton, TN
Urbanus Riley 15 PG Fr 5-11 182 Yes 54 OK Douglasville, GA
Severin Jessberger 21 SG Fr 6-5 211 Yes 39 OK Karlsruhe, Germany
Gerrard Pedroza 24 C Fr 6-11 210 Yes 82 OK Adamsville, TN
Arne McDaniel 35 PF Fr 6-8 213 No 27 Redshirt Baldwin Park, CA


SOUTHERN KENTUCKY SADDLEBREDS Schedule

Date Opponent Record RPI Result Score Record
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11/09/97 vs. Kentucky 7-20 215 W 95-77 1-0
11/15/97 vs. Louisville 20-9 15 L 90-71 1-1
11/19/97 Missouri State 12-19 172 W 84-80 2-1
11/22/97 NJIT 6-23 333 L 91-89 2-2
11/23/97 Oklahoma 8-21 214 W 87-78 3-2
12/01/97 at Rice 9-19 249 W 89-73 4-2
12/06/97 at Seton Hall 9-19 151 L 84-75 4-3
12/14/97 at Minnesota 17-11 29 L 82-65 4-4
12/19/97 Central Kentucky 20-10 201 W 73-71 5-4
12/20/97 Northern Kentucky 12-18 260 W 108-87 6-4
12/27/97 Butler 12-17 206 L 66-63 6-5
01/01/98 Cincinnati 15-13 61 L 98-81 6-6
01/07/98 Missouri State 12-19 172 L 99-96 6-7 (0-1)
01/10/98 at Indiana State 21-9 46 L 76-61 6-8 (0-2)
01/14/98 Evansville 10-20 262 W 83-82 7-8 (1-2)
01/17/98 at Northern Iowa 24-6 23 L 97-74 7-9 (1-3)
01/21/98 Bradley 20-10 43 L 82-73 7-10 (1-4)
01/24/98 at Wichita State 15-16 101 W 93-89 8-10 (2-4)
01/28/98 Indiana State 21-9 46 W 80-79 9-10 (3-4)
01/31/98 at Illinois State 16-15 111 L 84-65 9-11 (3-5)
02/04/98 at Southern Illinois 16-15 144 L 83-77 9-12 (3-6)
02/07/98 Northern Iowa 24-6 23 L 78-56 9-13 (3-7)
02/11/98 Illinois State 16-15 111 W 72-65 10-13 (4-7)
02/14/98 at Missouri State 12-19 172 L 95-94 10-14 (4-8)
02/18/98 at Evansville 10-20 262 L 98-82 10-15 (4-9)
02/21/98 Wichita State 15-16 101 W 106-104 11-15 (5-9)
02/25/98 at Bradley 20-10 43 W 80-76 12-15 (6-9)
02/28/98 Drake 19-12 53 L 103-88 12-16 (6-10)
03/01/98 Southern California 17-12 55 L 78-70 12-17
03/05/98 vs. Evansville 10-20 262 W 90-85 13-17
03/06/98 vs. Northern Iowa 24-6 23 L 80-67 13-18

SOUTHERN KENTUCKY SADDLEBREDS TEAM INFO

Current Performance
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Team Prestige: 54 Record Vs 1-50: 2-7 Poll Rank: NR
Season Record: 13-18 Record Vs 51-100: 0-3 RPI Rank: #252
Conference Record: 6-10 Record Vs 101-200: 4-5
Home Record: 8-8 Record Vs 200+: 7-3


Team Stats CR NR Opp. Stats CR NR Margin CR NR
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Points 80.2 2 116 Points 84.2 10 334 Points -4.0 9 261
O.Reb 16.5 2 53 O.Reb 15.1 5 232 O.Reb 1.4 3 94
D.Reb 25.0 10 291 D.Reb 29.1 9 319 D.Reb -4.1 10 344
Rebounds 41.5 10 165 Rebounds 44.2 8 301 Rebounds -2.7 8 273
Assists 15.0 10 193 Assists 18.1 10 351 Assists -3.1 10 340
Steals 7.3 3 56 Steals 5.0 2 34 Steals 2.3 1 23
Blocks 2.5 9 250 Blocks 3.9 8 283 Blocks -1.5 9 311
Turnovers 11.3 1 6 Turnovers 15.7 2 44 Turnovers -4.5 1 6
Fouls 17.9 9 234 Fouls 16.3 8 292 Fouls 1.6 9 294
FG% .432 5 168 FG% .460 10 345 FG% -.028 9 304
FT% .691 4 136 FT% .701 8 287 FT% -.010 4 216
3P% .322 10 287 3P% .385 10 347 3P% -.063 10 334
PPS 1.08 10 337 PPS 1.24 10 333 PPS -.164 10 345
Adj. FG% .460 10 329 Adj. FG% .526 10 341 Adj. FG% -.067 10 349

SOUTHERN KENTUCKY SADDLEBREDS Averages

Player Pos GP GS Min Pts Orb Reb Ast Stl Blk To Fls +/-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ezra McCracken PG 31 31 30.3 15.2 1.4 3.2 3.2 1.4 0.1 1.7 2.2 -1.6
Cazzie Tidwell SG 31 31 25.4 11.7 1.3 2.9 2.6 1.5 0.2 1.9 1.8 -2.1
Emil Schwarz PF 31 31 22.5 5.9 2.6 6.2 1.0 0.6 0.7 0.9 1.3 -1.3
Gerrard Pedroza C 31 31 21.8 7.2 2.7 5.7 1.1 0.7 0.3 1.0 2.2 -2.1
Remington Neal PF 31 0 19.1 5.6 2.7 6.9 0.9 0.4 0.3 0.9 2.6 -0.8
Severin Jessberger SG 31 0 17.8 7.1 1.1 2.6 1.6 0.5 0.3 0.7 1.4 -3.2
Jon Frazier PF 31 4 14.4 4.0 0.9 2.7 0.7 0.6 0.0 0.7 1.6 -3.9
Urbanus Riley PG 31 0 7.1 4.4 0.4 1.0 0.5 0.4 0.0 0.5 0.7 -0.4
Jamal Hatcher SF 31 0 6.5 3.3 0.4 1.2 0.4 0.2 0.1 0.5 0.7 -0.7
Scott Callaway C 28 0 8.1 1.3 0.3 1.3 0.4 0.3 0.4 0.3 0.7 -2.4
Derick Edie SF 27 27 27.3 15.3 2.9 7.4 2.7 0.7 0.1 2.2 2.9 -1.3
Shon Boyd SF 24 0 4.3 1.8 0.5 1.7 0.2 0.2 0.0 0.3 0.3 -0.5
Randall Gilbertson SG 7 0 3.0 0.3 0.0 0.4 0.3 0.0 0.0 0.1 0.1 -0.1
Arne McDaniel PF 0 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0




The Saddlebreds fell hard, experiencing their first losing season since their first year in D1. But the MVC is unforgiving that way. They lost to Northern Iowa in the 2nd round of the MVC tournament and end the year 13-18. After this losing season, it begs the question as to whether Brian Pace is committed to this job for the long haul. Naturally, he's the hottest coach in the game hands down and many people are calling to see if he'll take a higher paying job elsewhere.

I think the problem this past year is the fact that a lot of the 2-star guys who had overachieved in the past didn't with these current classes. The game is consistently recruiting 3-star guys for the program though, which is good to see. I haven't had a hand in recruiting the past two years either even in name changing and that's why you notice there are no Kentucky guys coming to the program. I think I'd like to see some come back in eventually, as it's when this program is at it's best, but...maybe down the road when we've simmed a few more years.

Meanwhile, we'll see if the program can rebound.

He's argued up to now that he'd like to stay at SKU for the entirety of his career, but for a guy who never got to play in the pros, a chance at the big time might be too much to pass up.

I guess we'll see how it goes?

[Young Drachma]

1998-89
So as everyone expected, Brian Pace left Southern Kentucky after four years with a record of 95-40, three NCAA appearances and a Final Four under his belt to take the job at Texas A&M.

So who will replace him? I went searching for a Kentucky native coach without having to create one in-game and ran across 56-year old Clint Sistrunk.


COACH DETAILS

Clint Sistrunk - Head Coach - Southern Kentucky
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Age: 56
High School: Johnson Central High School
Hometown: Paintsville, KY
Alma Mater: Boston College

Current Level: 12
Career Record: 407 - 194

Recruiting: 97
Scouting: 100
Offense: 100
Defense: 43


Coaching History:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season Team Position W L CW CL Postseason
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1997 UCLA Head Coach 15 17 5 13 No Postseason
1996 UCLA Head Coach 22 10 12 6 Loss in NCAA Round of 32
1995 UCLA Head Coach 16 16 7 11 No Postseason
1994 UCLA Head Coach 17 14 10 8 No Postseason
1993 UCLA Head Coach 15 17 7 11 No Postseason
1992 UCLA Head Coach 22 11 12 6 Loss in NCAA Round of 32
1991 UCLA Head Coach 16 15 7 11 No Postseason
1990 UCLA Head Coach 22 10 11 7 Loss in NCAA Round 1
1989 UCLA Head Coach 24 10 11 7 Loss in NCAA Round 1
1988 UCLA Head Coach 22 11 11 7 Loss in NCAA Round of 32
1987 UCLA Head Coach 31 7 13 5 Loss in NCAA Elite Eight
1986 UCLA Head Coach 28 6 14 4 Loss in NCAA Round 1
1985 UCLA Head Coach 26 11 11 7 Loss in NCAA Elite Eight
1984 UCLA Head Coach 22 10 11 7 Loss in NCAA Round 1
1983 UCLA Head Coach 29 8 16 2 Loss in NCAA Final Four
1982 UCLA Head Coach 33 3 16 2 Loss in NCAA Round of 32
1981 UCLA Head Coach 26 7 15 3 Loss in NCAA Sweet Sixteen
1980 UCLA Head Coach 21 11 10 8 Loss in FBCA Round 1

Awards & Achievements:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season Award
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1983 Conference Coach of the Year (Pacific-12 Conference)
1983 Pacific-12 Conference Champion
1982 Conference Coach of the Year (Pacific-12 Conference)
1982 National Coach of the Year
1982 Pacific-12 Conference Champion

Job Movement:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season Move
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1998 Hired by Southern Kentucky (Head Coach)
1998 Quit job with UCLA
1980 Hired by UCLA (Head Coach)


UCLA's prestige in-game isn't as high as you think (it was in the 60s) so him coming home to Kentucky isn't that weird, especially to an upstart program after being forced to resign at UCLA for missing the tournament in 6 of the last 8 years. He only had one Final Four in all that time and it's UCLA we're talking about here.

So anyway, I thought he was a great fit for our program and the sort of guy that we could bring in after Brian Pace and not have fans howling quite as much.

How do you think we did?

[Young Drachma]

1998-99


SOUTHERN KENTUCKY SADDLEBREDS General

Player # Pos Yr Ht Wt Sch Acd Status Hometown
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jamal Hatcher 33 SF Sr* 6-4 241 Yes 50 OK Corbin, KY
Scott Callaway 41 C Sr* 6-7 228 Yes 100 OK Byron, WY
Shon Boyd 32 SF Jr* 6-5 230 Yes 100 OK Williamstown, KY
Randall Gilbertson 53 SG Jr* 6-1 200 No 11 Unhappy Aurora, IN
Cazzie Tidwell 3 SG Jr 6-2 199 Yes 10 OK Mount Zion, GA
Derick Edie 50 SF Jr 6-3 202 Yes 33 OK Church Hill, TN
Jon Frazier 52 PF So 6-7 224 Yes 26 OK Powder Springs, GA
Remington Neal 20 PF So 6-7 245 Yes 26 OK Corryton, TN
Urbanus Riley 15 PG So 5-11 184 Yes 54 OK Douglasville, GA
Severin Jessberger 21 PG So 6-5 213 Yes 39 OK Karlsruhe, Germany
Gerrard Pedroza 24 PF So 6-11 212 Yes 82 OK Adamsville, TN
Arne McDaniel 35 PF Fr* 6-8 214 No 27 OK Baldwin Park, CA
Reg McLendon 10 C Fr 7-2 239 Yes 23 OK Paris, TN
Vinny Griffiths 40 SG Fr 6-0 184 Yes 19 OK Grand View, Canada
Westbrook Goss 13 PG Fr 6-2 181 Yes 24 Redshirt Evansville, IN

SOUTHERN KENTUCKY SADDLEBREDS Averages

Player Pos GP GS Min Pts Orb Reb Ast Stl Blk To Fls +/-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Derick Edie SF 30 30 27.9 14.5 3.0 7.6 2.5 0.7 0.5 3.0 3.2 -0.9
Vinny Griffiths SG 30 1 21.4 13.2 1.5 2.9 1.6 1.2 0.2 1.4 2.1 0.4
Cazzie Tidwell SG 30 29 25.4 11.1 1.3 2.7 2.4 2.0 0.0 1.6 2.1 1.2
Severin Jessberger PG 30 30 22.2 10.0 0.9 2.7 1.8 0.4 0.2 1.8 2.0 -0.9
Gerrard Pedroza PF 30 30 22.7 7.7 3.0 6.2 1.2 0.4 0.3 1.4 2.2 0.2
Reg McLendon C 30 30 29.1 5.8 2.1 7.9 1.9 0.5 2.6 1.4 1.8 2.1
Remington Neal PF 30 0 15.6 4.6 2.1 6.2 0.8 0.2 0.1 0.9 1.4 1.7
Urbanus Riley PG 30 0 8.3 4.0 0.2 1.0 0.7 0.6 0.0 0.9 1.3 1.3
Jon Frazier PF 30 0 12.8 3.8 0.8 2.0 1.0 0.6 0.0 0.5 1.2 0.3
Shon Boyd SF 30 0 9.3 3.3 0.7 2.1 0.6 0.1 0.1 0.9 0.7 -0.3
Randall Gilbertson SG 12 0 2.6 1.2 0.1 0.3 0.7 0.0 0.0 0.3 0.2 -0.6
Jamal Hatcher SF 7 0 1.4 1.1 0.1 0.4 0.3 0.3 0.0 0.0 0.1 1.6
Arne McDaniel PF 30 0 4.3 0.8 0.4 0.8 0.1 0.1 0.2 0.1 0.4 -0.6
Scott Callaway C 5 0 2.0 0.0 0.2 0.8 0.0 0.0 0.2 0.0 0.0 -0.4
Westbrook Goss PG 0 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

SOUTHERN KENTUCKY SADDLEBREDS TEAM INFO

Current Performance
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Team Prestige: 51 Record Vs 1-50: 2-7 Poll Rank: NR
Season Record: 16-15 Record Vs 51-100: 1-3 RPI Rank: #150
Conference Record: 9-7 Record Vs 101-200: 6-1
Home Record: 8-5 Record Vs 200+: 7-4


Team Stats CR NR Opp. Stats CR NR Margin CR NR
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Points 79.3 5 158 Points 78.8 7 169 Points 0.5 7 163
O.Reb 16.4 1 60 O.Reb 15.5 6 243 O.Reb 0.9 4 120
D.Reb 26.3 6 218 D.Reb 27.1 8 196 D.Reb -0.8 9 230
Rebounds 42.7 5 121 Rebounds 42.6 8 223 Rebounds 0.1 5 175
Assists 15.0 8 213 Assists 16.0 7 202 Assists -1.0 9 230
Steals 6.7 5 113 Steals 6.3 5 217 Steals 0.4 5 128
Blocks 4.4 6 92 Blocks 4.4 9 316 Blocks -0.1 8 172
Turnovers 13.9 5 158 Turnovers 15.0 5 94 Turnovers -1.1 3 97
Fouls 18.5 8 285 Fouls 16.4 9 300 Fouls 2.2 9 330
FG% .431 7 190 FG% .429 8 138 FG% .002 7 171
FT% .665 8 246 FT% .668 2 95 FT% -.004 5 187
3P% .375 4 79 3P% .365 9 250 3P% .010 7 136
PPS 1.12 8 293 PPS 1.17 8 168 PPS -.049 9 263
Adj. FG% .483 8 260 Adj. FG% .492 9 126 Adj. FG% -.009 7 212

SOUTHERN KENTUCKY SADDLEBREDS Schedule

Date Opponent Record RPI Result Score Record
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11/08/98 Lamar 11-21 320 W 106-85 1-0
11/13/98 Mount St. Mary's 11-19 308 L 74-72 1-1
11/14/98 Bethune Cookman 8-23 345 W 83-74 2-1
11/21/98 Eastern Kentucky 18-15 183 L 72-48 2-2
11/23/98 Hawaii 13-17 191 W 84-72 3-2
11/28/98 at James Madison 12-18 317 W 83-67 4-2
11/29/98 at Liberty 8-23 339 W 123-114 5-2
12/07/98 at Robert Morris 8-21 341 L 61-57 5-3
12/13/98 at South Dakota 15-18 213 W 71-61 6-3
12/14/98 at South Dakota State 10-21 236 L 76-60 6-4
12/17/98 vs. Detroit 24-9 37 L 75-61 6-5
01/06/99 Indiana State 12-19 210 W 72-67 7-5 (1-0)
01/09/99 at Evansville 20-11 69 L 106-98 7-6 (1-1)
01/13/99 at Bradley 25-8 21 L 92-82 7-7 (1-2)
01/16/99 Southern Illinois 14-16 121 W 99-86 8-7 (2-2)
01/20/99 at Missouri State 14-17 134 W 85-78 9-7 (3-2)
01/23/99 Northern Iowa 21-12 39 W 90-72 10-7 (4-2)
01/27/99 Wichita State 20-13 46 L 77-56 10-8 (4-3)
01/30/99 at Illinois State 19-14 31 L 87-72 10-9 (4-4)
02/01/99 vs. Arizona State 13-16 87 L 94-81 10-10
02/03/99 at Indiana State 12-19 210 W 93-62 11-10 (5-4)
02/06/99 at Southern Illinois 14-16 121 W 89-78 12-10 (6-4)
02/10/99 Missouri State 14-17 134 W 82-77 13-10 (7-4)
02/13/99 Evansville 20-11 69 L 91-87 13-11 (7-5)
02/17/99 at Northern Iowa 21-12 39 L 77-56 13-12 (7-6)
02/20/99 at Drake 19-12 54 W 78-76 14-12 (8-6)
02/24/99 Illinois State 19-14 31 W 88-72 15-12 (9-6)
02/27/99 Bradley 25-8 21 L 84-78 15-13 (9-7)
03/01/99 at Kent State 15-20 199 W 88-86 16-13
03/05/99 vs. Illinois State 19-14 31 L 73-68 16-14
03/17/99 at Portland State 18-13 206 L 77-68 16-15

SOUTHERN KENTUCKY SADDLEBREDS Recruiting

Name Pos Ht Wt Rating Interest State
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Buddy Gerber C 6-10 244 *** Committed West Virginia
Franz Shuman PF 6-10 239 *** Committed Indiana



So in the first season of Coach Sistrunk, he rights the ship and gets the team into the post-season, a 13-seed into the CIT tournament and the team loses to Portland State to end the year 16-15.

[Young Drachma]

1999-2000

We let go of several recruits from last year, because I didn't think they were going to move the team forward. The hope was to bring in some transfers to help the team a bit quicker, though what I ended up with was three redshirt freshmen.

Skelly Page from Georgia Tech, Jimmie Sutton from Indiana and Jeremy Miller from BYU.

I am tempted to redshirt Derick Edie for a year, because if we can recruit well this year, next year's class paired up with him would be a force of nature. This assumes I can recruit Kentucky kids like I want to with him, but...it'd also mean punting on this year or at least, working with what we have. I'm still deciding, but will let the preseason recruiting tell the story.

We will have <s>4</s>6 scholarships this recruiting season.

Here's a glimpse our in-state recruiting targets:


SOUTHERN KENTUCKY SADDLEBREDS Recruiting

Name Pos Ht Wt Rating Interest State
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Buddy Conners SF 6-7 215 **** Very High Kentucky
Shon Clayton SG 6-0 200 *** Very High Kentucky
Tashard Christy PG 5-11 179 *** Very High Kentucky
Dontrelle Ivy PG 6-2 183 *** Very High Kentucky
Ezra Page SF 6-6 237 *** Very High Kentucky
Romelo Holiday C 7-0 250 *** Very High Kentucky
Arne Herbert PF 6-7 217 *** Average Kentucky
Northrup Lacroix SF 6-4 198 *** Average Kentucky
Giacomo Linn SF 6-5 235 ** Average Kentucky
Jalal Leighton C 6-9 222 ** Average Kentucky
Buckie Sanderson PG 6-1 185 * Average Kentucky
Codie Overstreet PG 6-1 179 * Average Kentucky
Vinny Allen C 6-10 223 * Average Kentucky
Kinny Sharkey PG 6-0 188 **** Low Kentucky
Trent Dunaway PF 6-7 212 ***** None Kentucky


Dunaway, as well as the top six guys on my list are all imported Kentucky HS players I brought over from the other dynasty. It was time for SKU to have a Kentucky flavor. Luckily for us, these guys came in pretty interested and it didn't take much (save for Dunaway, who wanted to go big time and gave a verbal to Tennessee already..) for us to nab some of these dudes. Conners would be our first blue chip since Jayquell Clayton and we didn't even recruit Clayton so he doesn't count, so this would be a big get for us.

Now do you see why I want to pair this team with another year of Derick Edie? I'm sure they'd be fine without him, but...I think the team together would be scary good if it works out.

I redshirted Edie because we're not quite ready to see him go yet. (And injured him in-game just so that the game wouldn't have him get angry that he got redshirted and have him transfer..)


SOUTHERN KENTUCKY SADDLEBREDS General

Player # Pos Yr Ht Wt Sch Acd Status Hometown
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reg McLendon 10 C So 7-2 239 Yes 23 OK Paris, TN
Gerrard Pedroza 24 PF Jr 6-11 212 Yes 82 OK Adamsville, TN
Derick Edie 50 SF Sr 6-3 202 Yes 33 Redshirt Church Hill, TN
Cazzie Tidwell 3 SG Sr 6-3 199 Yes 10 OK Mount Zion, GA
Jon Frazier 52 PF Jr 6-7 224 Yes 26 OK Powder Springs, GA
Christopher Morel 43 C Fr 6-7 218 No 12 OK Salmon Valley, Canada
Vinny Griffiths 40 SG So 6-2 184 No 19 OK Grand View, Canada
Remington Neal 20 PF Jr 6-7 245 Yes 26 OK Corryton, TN
Franz Shuman 42 PF Fr 6-10 239 No 52 OK Carmel, IN
Urbanus Riley 15 PG Jr 5-11 184 Yes 54 OK Douglasville, GA
Shon Boyd 32 SF Sr* 6-5 230 Yes 100 OK Williamstown, KY
Jeremy Miller 31 PF Fr* 6-8 234 Yes 21 OK Tuba City, AZ
Jimmie Sutton 21 SF Fr* 6-8 272 Yes 79 OK Atlanta, GA
Skelly Page 22 SF Fr* 6-4 208 Yes 44 OK Greenbrier, TN
Parker Reinhart 13 PG Fr* 6-2 181 No 24 OK Evansville, IN


We managed to get all six of our guys:

SOUTHERN KENTUCKY SADDLEBREDS Recruiting

Name Pos Ht Wt Rating Interest State
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Romelo Holiday C 7-0 250 *** Committed Kentucky
Ezra Page SF 6-6 237 *** Committed Kentucky
Buddy Conners SF 6-7 215 **** Committed Kentucky
Shon Clayton SG 6-0 200 *** Committed Kentucky
Tashard Christy PG 5-11 179 *** Committed Kentucky
Dontrelle Ivy PG 6-2 183 *** Committed Kentucky


Maybe we've finally broken the code? This year's team had no real expectations and yes, I scheduled weak on purpose but that's not unusual for this team and it has to be when you play in a league that's not great. I always make sure we have a tournament to play in and finally stopped hosting the Bluegrass Classic, a tournament where I'd bring in teams from around KY (3 others) transferring that to Eastern Kentucky and freeing up SKU to play in other tournaments during the early part of the year.

Anyway, seems Clint Sistrunk and his staff have figured out how to work their magic and after getting through the regular season at 27-5 (14-2), the team enters the NCAAs as an 8th seed in the East region after losing the MVC tournament final to Northern Iowa.


#23 SOUTHERN KENTUCKY SADDLEBREDS TEAM INFO

Current Performance
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Team Prestige: 50 Record Vs 1-50: 2-1 Poll Rank: #23
Season Record: 27-6 Record Vs 51-100: 3-3 RPI Rank: #39
Conference Record: 14-2 Record Vs 101-200: 9-2
Home Record: 12-1 Record Vs 200+: 13-0


Team Stats CR NR Opp. Stats CR NR Margin CR NR
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Points 92.7 1 5 Points 79.9 8 153 Points 12.8 1 14
O.Reb 18.3 1 13 O.Reb 14.6 2 149 O.Reb 3.6 1 24
D.Reb 28.8 2 33 D.Reb 26.5 5 168 D.Reb 2.3 1 45
Rebounds 47.1 1 9 Rebounds 41.2 4 151 Rebounds 5.9 1 21
Assists 17.2 3 90 Assists 16.5 8 225 Assists 0.8 4 109
Steals 8.3 3 35 Steals 6.1 2 126 Steals 2.2 2 34
Blocks 5.4 2 39 Blocks 3.3 1 88 Blocks 2.1 1 23
Turnovers 13.1 1 46 Turnovers 17.6 1 10 Turnovers -4.5 1 6
Fouls 17.5 7 177 Fouls 17.5 4 171 Fouls -0.1 6 179
FG% .464 1 24 FG% .425 6 95 FG% .039 2 32
FT% .707 1 77 FT% .659 3 56 FT% .048 1 42
3P% .384 1 70 3P% .356 6 124 3P% .028 3 73
PPS 1.20 3 141 PPS 1.14 5 72 PPS .059 3 76
Adj. FG% .516 3 106 Adj. FG% .494 7 101 Adj. FG% .022 3 87

#23 SOUTHERN KENTUCKY SADDLEBREDS Schedule

Date Opponent Record RPI Result Score Record
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11/09/99 vs. Western Michigan 14-16 144 W 90-71 1-0
11/11/99 vs. Quinnipiac 21-12 69 L 91-83 1-1
11/29/99 Baylor 9-20 225 W 101-92 2-1
12/04/99 at California 17-14 63 L 113-87 2-2
12/06/99 at Fairleigh Dickinson 6-23 325 W 96-81 3-2
12/07/99 at LIU Brooklyn 20-12 171 W 100-85 4-2
12/12/99 at Vermont 14-16 321 W 92-65 5-2
12/20/99 vs. Savannah State 13-18 237 W 69-59 6-2
12/21/99 vs. UNC Wilmington 12-19 236 W 105-57 7-2
12/27/99 Wofford 10-21 303 W 110-69 8-2
12/28/99 Norfolk State 9-22 298 W 100-86 9-2
12/31/99 Butler 13-18 77 W 113-91 10-2
01/03/00 Eastern Kentucky 12-19 261 W 106-71 11-2
01/05/00 at Indiana State 9-20 269 W 83-78 12-2 (1-0)
01/08/00 Illinois State 23-10 50 W 81-74 13-2 (2-0)
01/12/00 at Wichita State 10-22 272 W 76-66 14-2 (3-0)
01/15/00 at Northern Iowa 22-12 60 W 110-106 15-2 (4-0)
01/19/00 Drake 18-12 114 W 93-68 16-2 (5-0)
01/22/00 Missouri State 13-17 178 W 99-90 17-2 (6-0)
01/26/00 at Southern Illinois 16-16 200 W 91-68 18-2 (7-0)
01/29/00 Bradley 17-15 164 L 108-91 18-3 (7-1)
02/02/00 Wichita State 10-22 272 W 104-81 19-3 (8-1)
02/05/00 at Missouri State 13-17 178 W 81-68 20-3 (9-1)
02/09/00 Northern Iowa 22-12 60 W 88-71 21-3 (10-1)
02/12/00 Indiana State 9-20 269 W 89-49 22-3 (11-1)
02/16/00 Evansville 12-18 193 W 80-66 23-3 (12-1)
02/19/00 at Illinois State 23-10 50 W 93-79 24-3 (13-1)
02/23/00 at Bradley 17-15 164 W 88-78 25-3 (14-1)
02/26/00 at Drake 18-12 114 L 116-108 25-4 (14-2)
03/03/00 vs. Wichita State 10-22 272 W 81-68 26-4
03/04/00 vs. Southern Illinois 16-16 200 W 82-74 27-4
03/05/00 vs. Northern Iowa 22-12 60 L 95-93 27-5
03/17/00 vs. Mississippi 21-11 25 L 102-95 27-6

#23 SOUTHERN KENTUCKY SADDLEBREDS Averages

Player Pos GP GS Min Pts Orb Reb Ast Stl Blk To Fls +/-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shon Boyd SG 33 33 28.5 12.2 3.3 7.9 2.8 0.8 0.1 1.7 2.3 11.0
Reg McLendon C 33 33 27.1 6.7 2.5 7.8 2.0 0.7 3.1 1.7 1.5 11.4
Jon Frazier SF 33 33 23.3 11.9 1.5 4.9 2.4 1.6 0.0 2.0 2.1 7.8
Cazzie Tidwell PG 33 33 21.9 16.1 1.1 2.2 2.4 2.1 0.2 1.3 2.0 10.9
Gerrard Pedroza PF 33 33 20.6 7.9 2.9 6.0 1.4 0.2 0.2 1.2 1.6 9.2
Urbanus Riley PG 33 0 18.1 13.9 0.8 2.4 1.9 1.0 0.0 1.3 2.1 5.4
Vinny Griffiths SG 31 0 15.6 10.4 1.4 2.3 1.5 0.7 0.1 1.4 1.8 4.1
Remington Neal PF 33 0 15.1 4.7 2.3 5.9 0.8 0.3 0.2 0.6 1.2 4.6
Jimmie Sutton C 33 0 11.5 1.6 1.5 3.9 0.7 0.1 1.1 0.5 1.1 1.5
Parker Reinhart PG 33 0 6.6 3.7 0.4 1.2 0.7 0.6 0.0 0.7 0.6 -0.1
Skelly Page SF 33 0 6.4 2.9 0.4 1.0 0.4 0.2 0.1 0.5 0.8 0.2
Jeremy Miller PF 33 0 6.1 1.2 0.3 1.8 0.3 0.0 0.2 0.2 0.5 -0.6
Derick Edie SF 0 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0


So the team ends the year 27-6, after losing to Mississippi in the 1st round of the NCAAs. Not bad after just a CIT appearance last year.
In case you were wondering how Brian Pace is doing at Texas A&M, the Aggies went 12-19 in his first year and 11-21 in his most recent season there. Maybe it's harder in the SEC than he thought? After two years at A&M, he's going to move to his alma mater Murray State to take over for retiring head coach Jake Sleeper.

Coach Sistrunk was named National Coach of the Year this season, the 2nd time in his career he's been honored with the award, the last time came 17 years ago in 1982, so not bad.

[Young Drachma]

So the decision to sit Edie a year will hopefully pay dividends as the only starters we lose this year are Shon Boyd


PLAYER DETAILS

#32 SG Shon Boyd - Southern Kentucky - Senior
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Height: 6-5
Weight: 231
High School: Williamstown High School
Hometown: Williamstown, KY

Attributes:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Type INS JPS FTS 3PS HND PAS ORB DRB PSD PRD STL BLK QKN STR JMP STA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Current: 49 52 65 0 5 20 58 50 59 59 11 35 90 91 87 100
1998: 43 45 59 0 5 19 57 50 57 54 11 33 89 90 87 100
1997: 38 39 55 0 5 18 54 50 55 50 11 31 89 89 87 100
1996: 34 34 51 0 5 17 51 50 53 46 11 29 88 87 87 100
1995: 30 29 47 0 5 16 48 50 52 42 11 28 88 85 87 100
1994: 22 21 41 0 3 14 44 50 50 36 11 26 87 81 87 100
Potential: B A B F F D C D C B F C

Health: Good
Scholarship: Yes
Status: Active Roster
Academics: 100

Stat Averages:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season G GS MIN PTS ORE REB AST TO A/T STL BLK PF
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1996 21 0 2.5 0.8 0.4 1.1 0.0 0.3 0.17 0.1 0.0 0.1
1997 24 0 4.3 1.8 0.5 1.7 0.2 0.3 0.63 0.2 0.0 0.3
1998 31 0 9.3 3.2 0.8 2.2 0.6 0.9 0.62 0.1 0.1 0.7
1999 33 33 28.5 12.2 3.3 7.9 2.8 1.7 1.63 0.8 0.1 2.3
Career 109 33 12.7 5.1 1.4 3.6 1.1 0.9 1.63 0.3 0.1 1.0

Shooting Averages:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season FGM FGA FG% FTM FTA FT% 3PM 3PA 3P% PPS +/-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1996 0.2 0.8 .250 0.4 0.5 .800 0.0 0.0 .000 1.00 -1.14
1997 0.9 2.0 .447 0.1 0.2 .500 0.0 0.1 .000 0.94 -0.46
1998 1.3 2.7 .459 0.7 1.0 .677 0.0 0.2 .200 1.18 -0.77
1999 5.2 11.1 .474 1.7 2.3 .733 0.0 0.1 .000 1.10 10.97
Career 2.2 4.7 .462 0.8 1.1 .717 0.0 0.1 .100 1.09 2.78

Stat Totals:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season G GS MIN PTS OREB REB AST TO STL BLK PF
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1996 21 0 53 16 8 23 1 6 2 1 3
1997 24 0 104 44 11 40 5 8 4 1 6
1998 31 0 289 100 25 68 18 29 2 3 21
1999 33 33 940 401 109 262 93 57 26 3 76
Career 109 33 1386 561 153 393 117 100 34 8 106

Shooting Totals
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season FGM FGA FTM FTA 3PM 3PA +/-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1996 4 16 8 10 0 0 -24
1997 21 47 2 4 0 3 -11
1998 39 85 21 31 1 5 -24
1999 173 365 55 75 0 2 362
Career 237 513 86 120 1 10 303

Career Highs:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Type Pts OReb Reb Ast Stl Blk TO FGM FGA FTM FTA 3PM 3PA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season 26 8 14 6 2 1 6 13 22 8 11 0 1
Career 26 8 14 6 2 1 6 13 22 8 11 1 2

Awards & Acheivements:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season Award
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All Player of the Game: 5
1994 High School: Rated *** and #1095 overall by the FBCB scouting service.


-- who was one of my favorite players and I wish they'd used him earlier and more -- and PG Cazzie Tidwell, who for a two-star guy was surprisingly useful. He was at three-year started and average 12.8 PPG over his time at SKU, he just wasn't much of a ball distributor (2.3 APG) and so, I didn't think he was as good a fit for our system.

But we're bringing back 1st team all-conference center Reg McLendon, Derick Edie and six of the best recruits in school history. There's going to be a huge target on this team next year and the expectations will be high, really for the first time ever.

Will they able to hold up to the scrutiny?

First, here's the teams that have made the Final Four since this dynasty began in 1980.

Stats Leaders

# Team Apps W L Pct Sweet 16 Elite 8 F4 Champs
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 Memphis 18 48 17 .738 12 10 6 1
2 Tennessee 19 51 15 .773 10 8 6 4
3 Duke 16 39 16 .709 10 6 5 0
4 Florida 18 42 18 .700 12 8 5 0
5 Creighton 13 27 12 .692 7 5 4 1
6 Louisville 13 24 13 .649 6 3 3 0
7 Villanova 15 24 14 .632 5 4 3 1
8 Kansas State 16 39 15 .722 11 6 3 1
9 Michigan 16 35 14 .714 8 6 3 2
10 Georgetown 19 38 19 .667 11 4 3 0
11 Notre Dame 20 50 19 .725 15 9 3 1
12 Arizona 9 14 9 .609 4 2 2 0
13 Colorado 13 26 12 .684 7 4 2 1
14 Wisconsin 13 20 13 .606 6 4 2 0
15 Gonzaga 16 27 16 .628 6 4 2 0
16 Ohio State 16 32 16 .667 10 6 2 0
17 Oklahoma State 16 27 15 .643 6 4 2 1
18 Texas 19 29 18 .617 7 4 2 1
19 Florida State 4 8 3 .727 1 1 1 1
20 Southern Kentucky 4 5 4 .556 1 1 1 0
21 Central Florida 5 8 5 .615 1 1 1 0
22 South Carolina 5 8 5 .615 1 1 1 0
23 Missouri 6 7 6 .538 2 1 1 0
24 Northwestern 6 7 6 .538 1 1 1 0
25 Belmont 7 7 7 .500 2 1 1 0
26 North Carolina State 7 12 6 .667 1 1 1 1
27 Stanford 8 11 8 .579 2 1 1 0
28 San Diego State 9 16 8 .667 4 1 1 1
29 Illinois 10 9 10 .474 2 1 1 0
30 Princeton 10 10 10 .500 2 1 1 0
31 Boston College 11 10 11 .476 2 1 1 0
32 West Virginia 11 16 11 .593 3 1 1 0
33 Kentucky 12 23 11 .676 8 3 1 1
34 UCLA 13 16 13 .552 4 3 1 0
35 UNLV 13 18 12 .600 5 2 1 1
36 Southern California 14 11 14 .440 2 1 1 0
37 Maryland 16 26 16 .619 8 4 1 0
38 Oregon 16 19 16 .543 5 3 1 0
39 Pittsburgh 16 19 16 .543 4 2 1 0

# Team Apps W L Pct Sweet 16 Elite 8 F4 Champs
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
40 Connecticut 18 31 17 .646 8 4 1 1

[Young Drachma]

COACH SISTRUNK LEAVES
Wasn't planning on this happening, but..it's happened. National Coach of the Year Clint Sistrunk has left Southern Kentucky University is heading to La Salle, to coach a program that's two years removed from an Elite 8 appearance and bringing back a core group of guys who they think can make it to the Final Four.

La Salle's prestige is 81. They were able to double his total compensation to nearly $1.3 million from the $655,548 he was making with us at SKU. But at least he didn't leave the cupboard bare.

My favorite for the job is 34-year old Shon Dobbs who has been an assistant with the program since 1995 and can provide continuity between administrations since he's been a coach here since the Brian Pace years and was a favorite to get the job last time when we gave it to Sistrunk.


COACH DETAILS

Shon Dobbs - Coaching Assistant - Southern Kentucky
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Age: 34
High School: Greenfield High School
Hometown: Greenfield, WI
Alma Mater: Cal State Fullerton

Current Level: 6
Career Record: 0 - 0
Salary: $30,001

Recruiting: 35
Scouting: 5
Offense: 85
Defense: 97

Coaching History:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season Team Position W L CW CL Postseason
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1999 Southern Kentucky Assistant 27 6 14 2 Loss in NCAA Round 1
1998 Southern Kentucky Assistant 16 15 9 7 Loss in CIT Round 1
1997 Southern Kentucky Assistant 13 18 6 10 No Postseason
1996 Southern Kentucky Assistant 25 7 12 4 Loss in NCAA Round 1
1995 Southern Kentucky Assistant 29 8 14 4 Loss in NCAA Final Four
1994 Lehigh Assistant 12 19 8 10 No Postseason

Awards & Achievements:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season Award
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No awards won.

Job Movement:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season Move
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1995 Hired by Southern Kentucky (Assistant Coach)
1995 Staff fired by Lehigh
1994 Hired by Lehigh (Assistant Coach)

[Young Drachma]

2000-01


#23 SOUTHERN KENTUCKY SADDLEBREDS General

Player # Pos Yr Ht Wt Sch Acd Status Hometown
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reg McLendon 10 C Jr 7-2 248 Yes 23 OK Paris, TN
Romelo Holiday 4 C Fr 7-0 250 Yes 27 OK Owensboro, KY
Jon Frazier 52 SF Sr 6-7 229 Yes 26 OK Powder Springs, GA
Derick Edie 50 SF Sr* 6-3 203 Yes 33 OK Church Hill, TN
Shon Clayton 32 SG Fr 6-0 200 Yes 36 OK Louisville, KY
Remington Neal 20 PF Sr 6-7 246 Yes 26 OK Corryton, TN
Dontrelle Ivy 2 PG Fr 6-2 183 Yes 64 OK Eastern, KY
Ezra Page 11 SF Fr 6-6 237 Yes 78 OK Warsaw, KY
Skelly Page 22 SF So* 6-4 208 Yes 44 OK Greenbrier, TN
Jeremy Miller 31 PF So* 6-9 241 Yes 21 OK Tuba City, AZ
Jimmie Sutton 21 C So* 6-8 273 Yes 79 OK Atlanta, GA
Buddy Conners 12 SF Fr 6-7 215 Yes 11 Redshirt Louisville, KY
Tashard Christy 35 PG Fr 5-11 179 Yes 90 Redshirt Somerset, KY

Here are our recruiting targets:
SOUTHERN KENTUCKY SADDLEBREDS Recruiting

Name Pos Ovl Reg Pos RPos AA AS MBB
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vinny Hillman PF 205 36 31 5 No No No
Dylan Tomlinson SF 190 29 42 6 No No No
Dino Allred PG 459 149 100 34 No No No



So good to see actual Kentucky kids on this team for once again. We have 3 scholarships and last year's recruiting class was 22nd in the nation, our best ever. We won't get that again this year.

As far as scheduling, lots of name brand teams that are probably not at their best relative to what we know in real life. No matter.


#21 SOUTHERN KENTUCKY SADDLEBREDS Schedule

Date Opponent Record RPI Result Score Record
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11/07/00 Albany 13-21 333 W 89-86 1-0
11/08/00 Central Arkansas 12-18 292 W 99-65 2-0
11/09/00 Delaware 8-24 324 W 90-74 3-0
11/16/00 vs. Akron 21-11 26 L 85-81 3-1
11/17/00 vs. Richmond 19-14 69 W 90-88 4-1
11/18/00 vs. Gonzaga 18-14 87 W 83-80 5-1
11/27/00 at #4 Florida 30-4 6 L 99-78 5-2
11/29/00 at Hartford 18-15 224 W 70-62 6-2
12/05/00 at Kansas 17-14 54 W 96-81 7-2
12/13/00 Army 12-17 241 W 80-60 8-2
12/19/00 Brigham Young 21-14 39 W 92-71 9-2
12/20/00 Central Kentucky 21-12 117 W 90-74 10-2
12/21/00 Colorado 13-18 176 W 98-66 11-2
12/30/00 Duke 22-12 17 L 100-89 11-3
12/31/00 at Belmont 8-23 235 W 97-70 12-3
01/03/01 Wichita State 22-9 36 L 84-81 12-4 (0-1)
01/06/01 at Indiana State 14-16 152 W 88-86 13-4 (1-1)
01/10/01 at Missouri State 15-16 145 W 74-62 14-4 (2-1)
01/13/01 Drake 20-14 63 W 112-92 15-4 (3-1)
01/17/01 at Bradley 16-15 94 W 98-86 16-4 (4-1)
01/20/01 Evansville 14-17 121 L 82-57 16-5 (4-2)
01/24/01 Northern Iowa 22-11 38 L 78-77 16-6 (4-3)
01/27/01 at Southern Illinois 15-17 155 W 102-71 17-6 (5-3)
01/31/01 at Wichita State 22-9 36 L 89-84 17-7 (5-4)
02/03/01 at Drake 20-14 63 W 97-70 18-7 (6-4)
02/07/01 Bradley 16-15 94 W 97-69 19-7 (7-4)
02/08/01 La Salle 24-11 32 W 95-80 20-7
02/10/01 Indiana State 14-16 152 W 81-63 21-7 (8-4)
02/14/01 at Evansville 14-17 121 W 100-91 22-7 (9-4)
02/17/01 at Illinois State 17-15 202 L 90-73 22-8 (9-5)
02/21/01 Southern Illinois 15-17 155 W 97-94 23-8 (10-5)
02/24/01 Missouri State 15-16 145 L 78-69 23-9 (10-6)
03/02/01 vs. Bradley 16-15 94 W 107-92 24-9
03/03/01 vs. Northern Iowa 22-11 38 W 99-95 25-9
03/04/01 vs. Drake 20-14 63 W 91-81 26-9
03/16/01 vs. Navy 25-9 86 W 96-66 27-9
03/18/01 vs. La Salle 24-11 32 W 91-62 28-9
03/22/01 vs. #18 Maryland 25-8 24 L 93-71 28-10

#21 SOUTHERN KENTUCKY SADDLEBREDS Averages

Player Pos GP GS Min Pts Orb Reb Ast Stl Blk To Fls +/-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dontrelle Ivy PG 38 37 30.1 13.9 1.1 5.1 4.8 0.8 0.1 2.0 2.2 6.4
Shon Clayton SG 38 32 23.7 13.8 1.3 2.8 2.4 0.7 0.2 1.9 2.1 8.2
Derick Edie SF 38 37 20.9 11.8 3.1 6.7 2.4 0.6 0.2 1.9 1.2 5.2
Ezra Page SG 38 6 23.7 11.6 2.1 3.8 1.8 1.1 0.5 2.2 2.2 4.5
Romelo Holiday C 38 12 21.1 9.2 2.2 5.4 1.3 0.4 0.6 0.7 1.9 3.3
Jon Frazier SF 38 8 17.7 8.4 1.1 4.2 1.9 1.0 0.1 1.5 1.8 3.9
Remington Neal PF 38 31 22.9 8.4 3.1 9.3 1.5 0.4 0.1 1.2 2.3 7.2
Reg McLendon C 33 27 24.0 6.6 2.4 8.2 1.4 0.6 2.9 1.1 1.2 6.8
Skelly Page SF 38 0 10.7 3.7 0.7 1.7 1.0 0.1 0.4 0.7 1.0 0.6
Jeremy Miller PF 37 0 6.1 1.2 0.5 1.9 0.2 0.1 0.8 0.4 0.5 -0.2
Jimmie Sutton C 28 0 3.0 0.9 0.8 1.6 0.3 0.0 0.5 0.1 0.1 0.8
Tashard Christy PG 0 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Buddy Conners SF 0 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0


#21 SOUTHERN KENTUCKY SADDLEBREDS TEAM INFO

Current Performance
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Team Prestige: 58 Record Vs 1-50: 4-7 Poll Rank: #21
Season Record: 28-10 Record Vs 51-100: 10-0 RPI Rank: #14
Conference Record: 10-6 Record Vs 101-200: 8-2
Home Record: 12-5 Record Vs 200+: 6-1


Team Stats CR NR Opp. Stats CR NR Margin CR NR
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Points 88.4 1 27 Points 79.3 6 157 Points 9.1 1 25
O.Reb 17.9 1 23 O.Reb 16.0 9 256 O.Reb 1.9 2 77
D.Reb 31.2 1 3 D.Reb 27.2 6 200 D.Reb 4.1 1 10
Rebounds 49.1 1 2 Rebounds 43.2 7 234 Rebounds 5.9 1 20
Assists 18.9 1 40 Assists 15.9 6 151 Assists 3.0 1 27
Steals 5.7 6 251 Steals 5.9 6 89 Steals -0.3 7 197
Blocks 5.8 2 41 Blocks 3.5 1 92 Blocks 2.3 1 24
Turnovers 13.6 7 99 Turnovers 13.7 5 226 Turnovers 0.0 6 165
Fouls 16.3 3 81 Fouls 17.0 7 212 Fouls -0.7 6 120
FG% .440 4 118 FG% .395 1 10 FG% .045 1 21
FT% .716 1 43 FT% .682 5 178 FT% .034 3 67
3P% .334 9 285 3P% .370 9 246 3P% -.036 10 297
PPS 1.18 5 163 PPS 1.08 1 14 PPS .102 2 41
Adj. FG% .506 5 141 Adj. FG% .469 1 18 Adj. FG% .037 2 51



We made the tournament as a #3 seed in the East Region. After knocking off Navy in the 1st round
96-66, we get a 2nd round date with the 11th seed La Salle who beat Georgetown, the six seed out of the east. Yes, this is the same team that stole our coach to start the year. As part of the conditions of that deal, we scheduled them for a home game this year that was a Bracketbusters game on ESPN in February and we won handily.

Can we sweep them twice in the same year?

1ST ROUND: def. 14) Navy 96-66
2ND ROUND: def. 11) La Salle 91-62
SWEET 16: lost to 7) Maryland 71-93

[Young Drachma]

The whole "going young" movement should possibly pay dividends the next few years. We're going to only have one senior this upcoming season (2001-02) and so, after a Sweet 16 run and another Top 30 recruiting class (#28 this year) to go with last year's haul, one has to expect big things from the Saddlebreds this season.

Unfortunately, we lose Shon Dobbs, who after the Sweet 16 run is wooed by Georgetown. He'd been on our staff for five years prior and he was waiting for a really good job and well, managed to land one as the "hot young assistant" on the market.

This leaves us without a head coach again for the 2nd straight year. Tough being a bridesmaid.

[Young Drachma]

Guess who we brought back to coach again?


COACH DETAILS

Brian Pace - Head Coach - Southern Kentucky
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Age: 36
High School: Apollo High School
Hometown: Owensboro, KY
Alma Mater: Murray State

Current Level: 10
Career Record: 131 - 97


Coaching History:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season Team Position W L CW CL Postseason
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2000 Murray State Head Coach 13 17 9 9 No Postseason
1999 Texas A&M Head Coach 11 21 4 14 No Postseason
1998 Texas A&M Head Coach 12 19 8 10 No Postseason
1997 Southern Kentucky Head Coach 13 18 6 10 No Postseason
1996 Southern Kentucky Head Coach 25 7 12 4 Loss in NCAA Round 1
1995 Southern Kentucky Head Coach 29 8 14 4 Loss in NCAA Final Four
1994 Southern Kentucky Head Coach 28 7 15 3 Loss in NCAA Round of 32

Awards & Achievements:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season Award
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1996 Conference Coach of the Year (Missouri Valley Conference)
1996 Missouri Valley Conference Champion
1995 Conference Coach of the Year (Atlantic Sun Conference)
1995 Atlantic Sun Conference Champion
1994 Conference Coach of the Year (Atlantic Sun Conference)

Job Movement:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season Move
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2001 Hired by Southern Kentucky (Head Coach)
2001 Quit job with Murray State
2000 Hired by Murray State (Head Coach)
2000 Quit job with Texas A&M
1998 Hired by Texas A&M (Head Coach)
1998 Quit job with Southern Kentucky
1994 Hired by Southern Kentucky (Head Coach)


After three lackluster years away, he realized how good he had it and honestly, looking at the field of candidates there weren't any people that we felt super strongly about. No one wanted Pace to leave when he did and so, when his name came up in the discussions, we reached out cautiously and he was surprised, but appreciated of the chance to "right a wrong" as he put it and to "bring a championship here, like we wanted to the first time."

Pace is still the program's winningest coach and took us to a Final Four, so...not easy to find that on the street. Hopefully this time, it'll last. This is our 10th season, so not a whole lot more seasons left, but prestige is almost double what it was when we started.

[Young Drachma]

2001-02


SOUTHERN KENTUCKY SADDLEBREDS Schedule

Date Opponent Record RPI Result Score Record
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11/13/01 vs. Tennessee Martin 16-15 189 W 107-104 1-0
11/15/01 vs. Fordham 13-17 214 W 77-71 2-0
11/22/01 vs. #6 Texas 26-10 18 L 105-101 2-1
11/27/01 at Tennessee Tech 7-22 307 W 104-94 3-1
12/01/01 vs. Cal State Bakersfield 8-22 266 W 94-65 4-1
12/05/01 at Murray State 12-16 242 L 84-65 4-2
12/11/01 vs. #23 Cincinnati 20-12 17 L 79-69 4-3
12/14/01 Davidson 13-19 187 W 106-103 5-3
12/15/01 at Eastern Michigan 16-15 294 W 88-65 6-3
12/23/01 Boise State 18-14 78 W 108-101 7-3
12/30/01 at Chattanooga 22-10 116 L 112-65 7-4
01/01/02 Hofstra 13-17 208 W 93-63 8-4
01/02/02 Kansas 12-19 150 W 78-71 9-4
01/06/02 vs. Connecticut 15-16 156 L 106-98 9-5
01/09/02 Indiana State 20-13 61 W 120-115 10-5 (1-0)
01/12/02 at Evansville 17-13 128 W 109-104 11-5 (2-0)
01/16/02 Southern Illinois 16-15 134 L 97-91 11-6 (2-1)
01/19/02 at Drake 18-15 110 L 88-52 11-7 (2-2)
01/23/02 Bradley 15-16 152 W 82-79 12-7 (3-2)
01/26/02 at Northern Iowa 13-17 162 W 83-75 13-7 (4-2)
01/30/02 Evansville 17-13 128 W 74-73 14-7 (5-2)
02/02/02 at Wichita State 23-11 54 W 78-70 15-7 (6-2)
02/06/02 at Illinois State 25-9 87 L 109-104 15-8 (6-3)
02/09/02 Drake 18-15 110 L 92-77 15-9 (6-4)
02/13/02 Wichita State 23-11 54 L 106-99 15-10 (6-5)
02/16/02 at Indiana State 20-13 61 L 103-95 15-11 (6-6)
02/20/02 at Southern Illinois 16-15 134 W 105-75 16-11 (7-6)
02/23/02 Northern Iowa 13-17 162 W 110-66 17-11 (8-6)
02/27/02 at Bradley 15-16 152 L 87-72 17-12 (8-7)
03/02/02 Missouri State 6-25 271 W 95-55 18-12 (9-7)
03/08/02 vs. Drake 18-15 110 L 102-82 18-13
03/20/02 at Detroit 20-12 230 W 108-95 19-13
03/25/02 at Arkansas Pine Bluff 20-10 219 L 91-83 19-14

SOUTHERN KENTUCKY SADDLEBREDS Averages

Player Pos GP GS Min Pts Orb Reb Ast Stl Blk To Fls +/-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dino Clauser SG 33 29 28.8 12.6 1.8 3.6 3.1 1.1 0.1 3.0 2.2 -0.5
Romelo Holiday PF 33 33 28.4 16.8 3.4 7.6 1.7 0.6 0.7 1.5 2.7 0.7
Reg McLendon C 33 33 28.3 7.3 2.9 10.5 1.6 0.5 3.5 1.6 1.6 3.5
Buddy Conners SF 33 29 26.4 10.4 3.2 6.5 2.3 0.8 0.2 2.0 2.3 -0.4
Dontrelle Ivy PG 33 33 23.9 11.7 1.3 3.9 4.6 0.7 0.0 1.8 2.2 1.8
Ezra Page SF 33 4 20.0 12.2 2.2 3.7 1.5 1.1 0.4 1.9 1.8 2.8
Shon Clayton SG 33 4 15.2 8.0 1.1 2.2 1.9 0.7 0.1 1.3 1.7 2.8
Jeremy Miller PF 33 0 10.2 3.1 0.8 3.7 0.6 0.1 0.6 0.7 0.9 0.7
Tashard Christy PG 33 0 7.0 4.7 0.6 1.2 1.0 0.3 0.1 0.6 0.7 -0.2
Jimmie Sutton C 33 0 6.7 0.7 0.8 2.6 0.5 0.0 0.5 0.2 0.3 -0.2
Dylan Tomlinson SF 31 0 5.1 2.4 0.2 0.6 0.4 0.2 0.0 0.5 1.0 -0.1
Alex Burkett PF 21 0 2.6 0.6 0.7 0.9 0.0 0.1 0.1 0.2 0.1 -1.3
Jock Childress SF 0 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Vinny Hillman PF 0 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Buddy Doran PG 0 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0

SOUTHERN KENTUCKY SADDLEBREDS TEAM INFO

Current Performance
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Team Prestige: 63 Record Vs 1-50: 0-2 Poll Rank: NR
Season Record: 19-14 Record Vs 51-100: 3-3 RPI Rank: #74
Conference Record: 9-7 Record Vs 101-200: 9-7
Home Record: 9-3 Record Vs 200+: 7-2


Team Stats CR NR Opp. Stats CR NR Margin CR NR
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Points 90.1 1 15 Points 88.0 10 336 Points 2.0 5 128
O.Reb 18.7 1 8 O.Reb 19.2 9 347 O.Reb -0.5 7 210
D.Reb 27.9 3 98 D.Reb 26.9 5 173 D.Reb 1.1 6 123
Rebounds 46.7 1 24 Rebounds 46.1 8 321 Rebounds 0.6 7 158
Assists 19.2 1 25 Assists 17.8 10 324 Assists 1.5 2 70
Steals 6.2 7 187 Steals 6.7 9 222 Steals -0.5 7 213
Blocks 6.2 1 29 Blocks 4.2 5 186 Blocks 2.1 2 39
Turnovers 15.2 8 271 Turnovers 14.8 4 124 Turnovers 0.4 6 201
Fouls 17.6 6 206 Fouls 16.8 7 246 Fouls 0.8 7 239
FG% .442 4 102 FG% .425 4 114 FG% .017 4 87
FT% .679 4 183 FT% .709 10 320 FT% -.030 8 279
3P% .359 6 181 3P% .376 9 278 3P% -.016 7 232
PPS 1.18 5 165 PPS 1.14 3 90 PPS .038 5 117
Adj. FG% .515 4 103 Adj. FG% .496 7 142 Adj. FG% .019 4 91


Haven't simmed the post-season yet, if we even make a tournament of any kind but...we'll chalk this season up to having a really young team? A waste of Reg McLendon's senior year, but I guess if he can't go into beast mode he doesn't deserve to go into the post-season.

Well the team earned a 13th seed in the CBI this year, but these lower tournaments are notoriously poorly seeded.

1ST ROUND: def. Detroit 108-95
2ND ROUND: lost to Arkansas Pine Bluff 83-91

In other news, in the NCAA tournament I've NEVER seen this. But THREE 16 seeds all won their first round matchups. I'm liking the parity that the game is generating with players able to leave early, but...that's just insane. None of them made it out of the 2nd round, though.

[Young Drachma]

Tournament Champs up to now:

NCAA Champs

Season Team Record Opponent Score
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2001 West Virginia Mountaineers 36-3 Southern California Trojans 104-74
2000 Oklahoma State Cowboys 30-7 West Virginia Mountaineers 90-73
1999 Tennessee Volunteers 35-3 Georgetown Hoyas 90-81
1998 Tennessee Volunteers 31-5 West Virginia Mountaineers 89-80
1997 Connecticut Huskies 32-5 Louisville Cardinals 76-65
1996 Notre Dame Fighting Irish 36-3 Louisville Cardinals 88-82
1995 Villanova Wildcats 32-6 Notre Dame Fighting Irish 102-88
1994 Tennessee Volunteers 33-5 Notre Dame Fighting Irish 98-78
1993 Michigan Wolverines 37-3 Duke Blue Devils 88-84
1992 Kentucky Wildcats 28-11 Ohio State Buckeyes 74-71
1991 North Carolina State Wolfpack 29-9 Florida Gators 79-57
1990 Kansas State Wildcats 34-4 South Carolina Gamecocks 115-108
1989 Michigan Wolverines 27-11 Kansas State Wildcats 88-77
1988 Memphis Tigers 37-2 Duke Blue Devils 83-67
1987 Tennessee Volunteers 35-3 Gonzaga Bulldogs 88-86
1986 UNLV Rebels 29-10 Villanova Wildcats 70-59
1985 Florida State Seminoles 31-7 Duke Blue Devils 80-63
1984 Colorado Buffaloes 26-10 Duke Blue Devils 69-61
1983 Creighton Bluejays 33-5 Oregon Ducks 87-59
1982 Texas Longhorns 32-5 Florida Gators 88-82
1981 Oklahoma State Cowboys 31-7 Kansas State Wildcats 81-68
1980 San Diego State Aztecs 35-5 Tennessee Volunteers 69-68

[Young Drachma]

2002-03

Only two seniors this year, but it's likely that Dontrelle Ivy and/or Romelo Holiday will declare early for the NBA draft after this year.

It's becoming readily apparent that you're not going to win a title or even be a steady contender in this game when you're only consistently attracting 3-star talent without being 1) in a bad conference where you can dominant and 2) have really good coaching.

If you don't do that -- also scouting is mission critical -- investing in the best scout you can find is really the way to make the game work for you, because without it, you can whiff on guys and with a good scout, it's possible for find low-level gems who can get it done for you.

But perish the thought of thinking you can turn Gonzaga into the next perennial title contender by just keeping it business as usual, because it won't work. You have to either spend a lot of time scouring for talent with you good scout in tow and hope to get fortunate, uncover a talent pipeline or exist in one natively (say, like Florida) and then have coaching that can get the most out of your guys.

Jock Childress and Buddy Doran, two of our past recruits have transferred. Childress left for in-conference program Wichita State. Doran left us for Minnesota.

Oh well.

We did score a 3-star Kentucky native who originally went to Western Carolina before transferring, his name is Vinny Starks and he'll be a perfect replacement for Reg McLendon if all goes well. So he's right on time (and this was all on the AI, as I had no hand in this recruiting, which makes it even better!)




SOUTHERN KENTUCKY SADDLEBREDS General

Player # Pos Yr Ht Wt Sch Acd Status Hometown
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jimmie Sutton 21 C Sr* 6-8 275 Yes 79 OK Atlanta, GA
Hakim Martell 45 C Fr 6-9 244 Yes 54 OK Moultrie, GA
Vinny Starks 24 C Fr* 6-11 251 Yes 29 OK Greensburg, KY
Jeremy Miller 31 PF Sr* 6-9 249 Yes 21 OK Tuba City, AZ
Romelo Holiday 4 PF Jr 7-0 254 Yes 27 OK Owensboro, KY
Vinny Hillman 20 PF Fr* 6-6 204 Yes 21 OK Romulus, NY
Ezra Page 11 SF Jr 6-6 240 Yes 78 OK Warsaw, KY
Buddy Conners 12 SF So* 6-7 218 Yes 11 OK Louisville, KY
Dylan Tomlinson 13 SF So 6-5 214 Yes 31 OK Mcmurray, PA
Shon Clayton 32 SG Jr 6-0 205 Yes 36 OK Louisville, KY
Dino Clauser 55 SG So 6-4 194 Yes 51 OK Passo Della Cisa, Italy
Tashard Christy 35 PG So* 5-11 180 Yes 90 OK Somerset, KY
Dontrelle Ivy 2 PG Jr 6-2 191 Yes 64 OK Eastern, KY
Alex Burkett 53 PF So 6-8 249 No 75 OK Camden, MS
Stacy Venable 30 PG Fr 6-0 188 No 57 OK Slidell, LA


SOUTHERN KENTUCKY SADDLEBREDS TEAM INFO

Current Performance
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Team Prestige: 65 Record Vs 1-50: 1-3 Poll Rank: NR
Season Record: 21-14 Record Vs 51-100: 6-2 RPI Rank: #75
Conference Record: 7-9 Record Vs 101-200: 9-5
Home Record: 11-4 Record Vs 200+: 5-4


Team Stats CR NR Opp. Stats CR NR Margin CR NR
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Points 93.5 1 1 Points 89.8 10 351 Points 3.7 3 93
O.Reb 20.2 1 9 O.Reb 17.8 6 273 O.Reb 2.5 2 62
D.Reb 23.5 6 194 D.Reb 25.2 10 268 D.Reb -1.7 8 277
Rebounds 43.8 2 36 Rebounds 43.0 7 286 Rebounds 0.8 5 147
Assists 21.3 1 9 Assists 19.0 10 350 Assists 2.3 1 43
Steals 9.1 1 52 Steals 6.3 4 34 Steals 2.9 1 25
Blocks 4.3 7 218 Blocks 5.9 8 299 Blocks -1.6 9 283
Turnovers 15.7 4 47 Turnovers 19.1 1 64 Turnovers -3.4 2 28
Fouls 19.9 10 332 Fouls 19.0 1 43 Fouls 0.9 6 244
FG% .451 6 78 FG% .461 9 316 FG% -.010 9 215
FT% .677 7 198 FT% .707 9 317 FT% -.030 8 275
3P% .363 10 203 3P% .376 8 225 3P% -.013 8 223
PPS 1.25 6 80 PPS 1.29 9 332 PPS -.049 8 242
Adj. FG% .523 7 106 Adj. FG% .537 9 318 Adj. FG% -.014 9 224

SOUTHERN KENTUCKY SADDLEBREDS Averages

Player Pos GP GS Min Pts Orb Reb Ast Stl Blk To Fls +/-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Romelo Holiday C 35 35 31.1 16.0 4.6 8.4 1.7 1.4 0.9 1.5 3.1 2.6
Dontrelle Ivy PG 35 35 31.1 14.4 1.7 4.4 7.3 1.1 0.1 2.1 2.3 3.6
Buddy Conners SF 35 35 27.3 11.0 3.3 6.8 2.0 1.4 0.6 2.0 2.6 0.1
Vinny Starks PF 31 27 25.2 7.6 2.7 6.3 1.4 1.0 0.4 1.4 3.2 4.5
Dino Clauser SG 35 35 24.9 13.2 2.3 4.3 2.6 1.5 0.2 3.1 2.4 3.8
Shon Clayton SG 35 0 23.9 14.7 2.5 4.9 2.5 0.8 0.1 2.3 2.4 2.1
Ezra Page SF 35 4 16.2 7.8 1.7 2.9 1.5 1.1 0.6 1.4 1.7 1.4
Jeremy Miller PF 35 4 12.3 2.4 1.0 4.2 0.6 0.2 1.2 0.6 1.1 1.0
Tashard Christy PG 33 0 7.7 5.0 0.5 1.1 1.5 0.5 0.2 1.1 0.8 0.2
Vinny Hillman PF 30 0 3.5 1.8 0.3 0.9 0.3 0.3 0.1 0.3 0.2 -0.6
Dylan Tomlinson SF 24 0 3.1 1.6 0.2 0.6 0.3 0.2 0.0 0.2 0.5 0.1
Jimmie Sutton C 6 0 1.3 0.0 0.2 0.2 0.0 0.2 0.2 0.0 0.2 -0.5
Hakim Martell C 0 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0





Highest scoring team in the nation this year, which owes to my offensive system, but we give up almost as many point as we score, hence the issue. ;)

Brian Pace fooled us again. He was offered the Memphis head coaching job and took it. We're done with him and his shapeshifting ways. Too bad, we had high hopes.

We hired assistant Bernie Boyd, who we brought in last year as an assistant after he was fired at Syracuse, he has a career record of 312-260 and has had head coaching gigs at BYU, Miami (OH) and Central Kentucky. He took BYU to an Elite 8 and was an assistant with Villanova when they lost a national championship game.

At 47, hoping he can give us some long needed stability at head coach, since Boyd will be our 4th head coach in four years (Sistrunk, Dobbs, Pace) Speaking of, Clint Sistrunk left his job at La Salle to join Michigan State after just two years and Shon Dobbs left Georgetown after just a year to become the new head man at Texas.




SOUTHERN KENTUCKY SADDLEBREDS Schedule

Date Opponent Record RPI Result Score Record
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11/14/02 vs. Murray State 15-18 211 L 102-87 0-1
11/15/02 vs. Kentucky A&T 24-10 107 W 105-90 1-1
11/21/02 vs. Kentucky 10-20 196 L 90-64 1-2
11/22/02 Michigan State 16-14 135 L 83-78 1-3
11/27/02 Cal State Bakersfield 9-22 216 W 78-57 2-3
11/28/02 at Central Arkansas 14-17 201 W 106-90 3-3
11/29/02 at SIU Edwardsville 14-15 176 W 99-89 4-3
12/09/02 vs. #14 Texas 26-8 25 L 81-70 4-4
12/14/02 Memphis 18-14 104 W 84-67 5-4
12/17/02 Coastal Carolina 11-20 172 W 99-92 6-4
12/20/02 at Eastern Kentucky 17-14 207 W 100-91 7-4
12/21/02 vs. Northern Kentucky 22-11 70 L 100-87 7-5
12/30/02 Chicago State 19-14 167 W 96-68 8-5
01/03/03 Auburn 17-13 26 W 88-87 9-5
01/05/03 Texas Christian 13-19 131 W 133-126 10-5
01/08/03 at Northern Iowa 21-10 39 L 105-96 10-6 (0-1)
01/11/03 at Illinois State 20-13 51 L 100-96 10-7 (0-2)
01/15/03 Drake 19-13 67 W 92-83 11-7 (1-2)
01/18/03 Indiana State 15-16 182 W 101-87 12-7 (2-2)
01/22/03 at Southern Illinois 20-15 109 L 90-87 12-8 (2-3)
01/25/03 at Missouri State 12-19 220 L 73-70 12-9 (2-4)
01/29/03 Northern Iowa 21-10 39 L 94-86 12-10 (2-5)
02/01/03 Bradley 12-18 227 L 92-81 12-11 (2-6)
02/05/03 at Drake 19-13 67 W 92-91 13-11 (3-6)
02/08/03 Southern Illinois 20-15 109 L 103-94 13-12 (3-7)
02/12/03 at Indiana State 15-16 182 L 104-95 13-13 (3-8)
02/15/03 Wichita State 15-18 223 W 112-95 14-13 (4-8)
02/19/03 Missouri State 12-19 220 W 93-70 15-13 (5-8)
02/22/03 Illinois State 20-13 51 W 111-104 16-13 (6-8)
02/26/03 at Bradley 12-18 227 L 110-100 16-14 (6-9)
03/01/03 at Evansville 20-13 89 W 90-76 17-14 (7-9)
03/06/03 vs. Indiana State 15-16 182 W 111-105 18-14
03/07/03 vs. Illinois State 20-13 51 W 96-90 19-14
03/08/03 vs. Evansville 20-13 89 W 88-73 20-14
03/09/03 vs. Southern Illinois 20-15 109 W 107-86 21-14
03/20/03 vs. Texas Tech 22-11 29 W 94-93 22-14
03/22/03 vs. Cal State Northridge 23-10 58 W 91-79 23-14
03/28/03 vs. Gonzaga 25-10 32 W 106-98 24-14
03/30/03 vs. #3 Michigan 30-7 13 W 118-110 25-14

Date Opponent Record RPI Result Score Record
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
04/05/03 vs. #15 Florida 29-9 18 L 98-68 25-15





A really uneven regular season where this team never knew what it wanted to be.

BEST WINS: Auburn, Memphis
WORST LOSSES: Missouri State, Bradley

Then we hit the conference tournament and decided to play like gangbusters knocking off all comers to earn the MVC tournament title and a berth in the big dance at 21-14.

Wouldn't shock me if we ended up in a play-in game, though we do have a high enough RPI to warrant inclusion in the regular bracket. I guess we'll see.

[Young Drachma]

[SPOILER]
12 SEED, WEST REGION
So we'll be taking on 5th seed Texas Tech in the 1st round. If we win? We are likely to end up with a date with in-state club Louisville. No real rivarly there, as we don't play them very much for whatever reason, usually choosing to focus on the other teams in the state. In fact, I just looked at the records and in the 11 seasons that we've been a D1 program at SKU, we've only play Louisville once ever and we lost.

But first, we have to play Texas Tech. This team you never know what they'll do on the court from night to night.

The nice thing about this year's underachieving is I shouldn't lose any of my star players to the NBA early, meaning that with any recruits I bring in, we should be able to be really deep next year.

I ran through this the first time, but was tinkering with deleting the WAC during the off-season and forgot to save. So I came back in, re-ran things without tinkering, assuming that my last save had been after the Sweet 16, but no...it wasn't and so, here's how it went:

FIRST ROUND: 12) SKU 94, Texas Tech 93
2ND ROUND: 12) SKU 91, 13) CSU Northrdige 79
SWEET 16: Southern Kentucky 106, 9) Gonzaga 98
ELITE 8: 12) SKU 118 3) Michigan 110
FINAL FOUR: 4) Florida 98 12) SKU 68

Well this was very unexpected. In the other semi-final VCU, a six seed knocked off 12) Temple 81-77 and VCU beat Florida 69-66 in the title to claim the upset and their first ever championship.

Crazy year, friends. CRAZY.

[Young Drachma]

That run was surprising, but there were so many upsets that it wasn't as much. It's what I meant that the only way to really win a title when you recruit in the Top 30 or so each year is to get a bit of luck. But it'd be that way, anyway.

With a prestige of 71, the SKU Saddlebreds are starting to look like they're outgrowing the MVC but there's no real clear destination for them. The best leagues above us are all football leagues, but having an increased budget would give the program a chance to reach a bit higher than they have now.


SOUTHERN KENTUCKY TEAM PERFORMANCE

Season Team W L CW CL Rank RPI PRS Result
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2002 Southern Kentucky 25 15 7 9 46 38 71 Loss in NCAA Final Four
2001 Southern Kentucky 19 14 9 7 101 76 65 Loss in CBI Round 2
2000 Southern Kentucky 28 10 10 6 17 15 63 Loss in NCAA Sweet Sixteen
1999 Southern Kentucky 27 6 14 2 39 43 58 Loss in NCAA Round 1
1998 Southern Kentucky 16 15 9 7 165 156 50 Loss in CIT Round 1
1997 Southern Kentucky 13 18 6 10 230 252 51 No Postseason
1996 Southern Kentucky 25 7 12 4 36 49 54 Loss in NCAA Round 1
1995 Southern Kentucky 29 8 14 4 25 32 50 Loss in NCAA Final Four
1994 Southern Kentucky 28 7 15 3 47 64 40 Loss in NCAA Round of 32
1993 Southern Kentucky 19 14 10 10 99 173 34 Loss in NIT Preliminary Round
1992 Southern Kentucky 7 23 4 16 335 331 32 No Postseason


With two Final Fours since 1992, SKU is clearly the 3rd best program in the state after Louisville and Kentucky and on the rise.

Here's where the conferences currently rate:


Conference List

Name Div Teams Games Prestige Tourney Teams Tourney Berth
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Atlantic Coast Conference 1 16 18 5 16 Yes
Big 12 Conference 1 12 18 5 12 Yes
Big East Conference 2 14 18 5 14 Yes
Big Ten Conference 1 14 18 5 14 Yes
Pacific-12 Conference 1 12 18 5 12 Yes
Southeastern Conference 1 14 18 5 14 Yes
American Athletic Conference 1 12 16 4 12 Yes
Atlantic 10 Conference 1 10 16 4 10 Yes
Big West Conference 1 9 16 4 9 Yes
Conference USA 1 12 16 4 12 Yes
Ivy League 1 8 14 3 2 Yes
Missouri Valley Conference 1 10 16 3 10 Yes
Mountain West Conference 1 10 18 3 10 Yes
Sun Belt Conference 2 12 20 3 12 Yes
West Coast Conference 1 8 14 3 8 Yes
America East Conference 1 10 16 2 9 Yes
Atlantic Sun Conference 1 10 18 2 10 Yes
Horizon League 1 10 16 2 9 Yes
Northeast Conference 1 10 18 2 8 Yes
Ohio Valley Conference 2 12 18 2 8 Yes
Patriot League 1 10 18 2 10 Yes
Southwestern Athletic Conference 1 10 18 2 10 Yes
Western Athletic Conference 1 8 14 2 8 Yes
Big Sky Conference 1 12 20 1 12 Yes
Big South Conference 2 12 16 1 12 Yes
Colonial Athletic Association 1 10 16 1 10 Yes
Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference 1 11 20 1 11 Yes
Mid-American Conference 2 12 16 1 12 Yes
Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference 1 12 16 1 12 Yes
Southern Conference 1 9 14 1 9 Yes
Southland Conference 1 14 20 1 14 Yes
Summit League 1 9 16 1 8 Yes


Looking for your favorite team? Here's where team prestige is:



Team List

Team Conference Prestige
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tennessee Southeastern Conference 100
West Virginia Big 12 Conference 100
Maryland Big Ten Conference 99
Florida Southeastern Conference 98
Notre Dame Atlantic Coast Conference 96
Texas Big 12 Conference 96
Ohio State Big Ten Conference 92
Southern California Pacific-12 Conference 92
Georgetown Big East Conference 91
Temple American Athletic Conference 91
Louisville Atlantic Coast Conference 90
Oklahoma State Big 12 Conference 90
Memphis American Athletic Conference 89
Minnesota Big Ten Conference 88
UAB American Athletic Conference 87
La Salle Atlantic 10 Conference 86
Michigan Big Ten Conference 86
Michigan State Big Ten Conference 86
Rhode Island Atlantic 10 Conference 86
Stanford Pacific-12 Conference 86
Connecticut Atlantic Coast Conference 85
George Washington Atlantic 10 Conference 85
Duquesne Atlantic 10 Conference 84
Oregon Pacific-12 Conference 84
California Pacific-12 Conference 83
Mississippi Southeastern Conference 81
Pittsburgh Atlantic Coast Conference 81
UCLA Pacific-12 Conference 81
Colorado Pacific-12 Conference 80
Washington Pacific-12 Conference 80
Wisconsin Big Ten Conference 80
Alabama Southeastern Conference 79
Duke Atlantic Coast Conference 79
Georgia Southeastern Conference 79
Missouri Southeastern Conference 79
Gonzaga Big East Conference 78
South Carolina Southeastern Conference 78
Kansas State Big 12 Conference 77
Villanova Big East Conference 77

Team Conference Prestige
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Iowa Big Ten Conference 76
Kentucky Southeastern Conference 76
Middle Tennessee Conference USA 76
VCU American Athletic Conference 76
Creighton Big East Conference 75
Clemson Atlantic Coast Conference 74
Indiana Big Ten Conference 74
Louisiana State Southeastern Conference 74
St. John's Big East Conference 74
Brigham Young Big East Conference 73
Iowa State Big 12 Conference 73
Old Dominion Conference USA 73
Washington State Pacific-12 Conference 73
Charlotte Conference USA 72
Central Florida American Athletic Conference 71
Oklahoma Big 12 Conference 71
Southern Kentucky Missouri Valley Conference 71
Arkansas Southeastern Conference 70
Miami Atlantic Coast Conference 70



Going to shut down the WAC to, at minimum free up another at-large bid or give me the ability to create another conference if I'd like to. Seattle University will move to the WCC, UMKC will head to the Summit League and the rest of the teams will become independents for now.

[Young Drachma]

Lots of conference realignment, because I felt like it. The major conferences all consolidated and the ACC has been decimated.

All of this means that the Conference formerly known as the Big 12 and still is for the time being needed to regroup and invited Southern Kentucky into its league for the upcoming season.

They'll do so without their head coach, though. Another year, another head coach who has left. AGAIN. Bernie Boyd took the head man job at the University of Kentucky, who were moved to the ACC in the recent shuffles. Their coach had been there since 1986 and won them a national title, so this is a big move. But after Boyd took us to the Final Four in his first year with the program, I think they decided to spare no expense.

Where does this leave us? In the same place it's left us for a while...without a head coach and not sure precisely which way to go with it.

We lucked out though when Notre Dame head coach Quintin Byrum was forced out there when he admitted publicly to having an affair with a student. He was forced to resign but not given a show cause since the infraction was personal. Notre Dame hired Gonzaga's coach and Byrum -- who has won titles with two programs and taken every school he's been at to an Elite 8 -- was on the board when we were the highest rated program without a coach without forcing him to go much lower than he was levelwise. He's looking to redeem himself and so are we, coming off a Final Four appearance and our 5th straight coaching change. Our AD is coming under fire for hiring people who leave, but...what happens when success breeds successful people who move on?

SKU has a higher budget now that we're in the Big 12, which helps a lot. In contrast to our past years here, Coach Byrum has assembled a staff of assistants all who were previous head coaches. Normally, we have had young guys on the bench or younger guys as our head coach. One of our assistants this year? Former SKU head coach Alfonzo Jones who only spent a year here, but left for Kansas State where he'd previously been an assistant. Well, he's out at K-State and back in Kentucky as our recruiter.



COACH DETAILS

Quintin Byrum - Head Coach - Southern Kentucky
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Age: 55
High School: Southwest High School
Hometown: Minneapolis, MN
Alma Mater: NJIT

Career Record: 578 - 223




Coaching History:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season Team Position W L CW CL Postseason
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2002 Notre Dame Head Coach 25 10 13 5 Loss in NCAA Elite Eight
2001 Notre Dame Head Coach 22 14 9 9 Loss in NCAA Sweet Sixteen
2000 Notre Dame Head Coach 27 7 14 4 Loss in NCAA Sweet Sixteen
1999 Notre Dame Head Coach 24 9 13 5 Loss in NCAA Round of 32
1998 Notre Dame Head Coach 23 14 9 9 Loss in NCAA Sweet Sixteen
1997 Notre Dame Head Coach 28 10 10 8 Loss in NCAA Elite Eight
1996 Notre Dame Head Coach 36 3 17 1 NCAA Champion
1995 Notre Dame Head Coach 33 4 16 2 Loss in NCAA Championship Game
1994 Notre Dame Head Coach 29 6 15 3 Loss in NCAA Championship Game
1993 Notre Dame Head Coach 26 9 12 6 Loss in NCAA Sweet Sixteen
1992 Notre Dame Head Coach 30 6 14 4 Loss in NCAA Elite Eight
1991 Indiana Head Coach 27 9 13 5 Loss in NCAA Elite Eight
1990 Oklahoma State Head Coach 25 10 12 6 Loss in NCAA Round of 32
1989 Oklahoma State Head Coach 24 9 12 6 Loss in NCAA Sweet Sixteen
1988 Oklahoma State Head Coach 21 11 11 7 Loss in NCAA Round of 32
1987 Oklahoma State Head Coach 15 16 5 13 No Postseason
1986 Oklahoma State Head Coach 31 7 14 4 Loss in NCAA Final Four
1985 Oklahoma State Head Coach 15 15 10 8 No Postseason
1984 Oklahoma State Head Coach 15 15 8 10 No Postseason
1983 Oklahoma State Head Coach 19 13 11 7 Loss in NCAA Round of 32
1982 Oklahoma State Head Coach 25 10 13 5 Loss in NCAA Round of 32
1981 Oklahoma State Head Coach 31 7 14 4 NCAA Champion
1980 Oklahoma State Head Coach 27 9 14 4 Loss in NCAA Sweet Sixteen

Awards & Achievements:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season Award
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1996 NCAA Champion
1996 Atlantic Coast Conference Champion
1995 Atlantic Coast Conference Champion
1994 Atlantic Coast Conference Champion
1992 Conference Coach of the Year (Atlantic Coast Conference)
1992 Atlantic Coast Conference Champion
1981 NCAA Champion
1980 Conference Coach of the Year (Big 12 Conference)
1980 Big 12 Conference Champion

Job Movement:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season Move
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2003 Hired by Southern Kentucky (Head Coach)
1992 Hired by Notre Dame (Head Coach)
1992 Quit job with Indiana
1991 Hired by Indiana (Head Coach)
1991 Quit job with Oklahoma State to pursue a higher position
1980 Hired by Oklahoma State (Head Coach)



If you notice, we've worked up the ranks from a 1 prestige conference to a 4 prestige conference now. That was by design.

So this season, we'll see how the team can follow up last year.


SOUTHERN KENTUCKY SADDLEBREDS General

Player # Pos Yr Ht Wt Sch Acd Status Hometown
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shon Clayton 32 SG Sr 6-0 207 Yes 36 OK Louisville, KY
Dontrelle Ivy 2 PG Sr 6-2 191 No 64 OK Eastern, KY
Ezra Page 11 SF Sr 6-6 241 Yes 78 OK Warsaw, KY
Romelo Holiday 4 C Sr 7-0 255 No 27 OK Owensboro, KY
Tashard Christy 35 PG Jr* 5-11 180 Yes 90 OK Somerset, KY
Buddy Conners 12 SF Jr* 6-7 219 Yes 11 OK Louisville, KY
Dylan Tomlinson 13 SF Jr 6-5 216 Yes 31 OK Mcmurray, PA
Dino Clauser 55 SG Jr 6-4 199 Yes 51 OK Passo Della Cisa, Italy
Vinny Hillman 20 PF So* 6-6 205 No 21 OK Romulus, NY
Vinny Starks 24 PF So* 6-11 257 Yes 29 Injured Greensburg, KY
Hakim Martell 45 C Fr* 6-9 247 Yes 54 OK Moultrie, GA
Isiah Yancey 21 SF Fr 6-5 198 Yes 100 OK West Liberty, KY
Da'rion Ivy 25 C Fr 6-10 203 Yes 23 OK Beckley, WV
Eugene Pak 43 SG Fr 6-4 193 Yes 28 OK Lexington, KY
Julius Creel 0 PF Fr 6-10 262 Yes 60 OK Thibodaux, LA



We come into this year with four seniors, having lost none of our starters last year from the Final Four team and replacing them with another Top 25 recruiting class and it's not unreal to say that expectations in Southern Kentucky are high this year. VCU's national title last year just steeled the resolve of fans who believe SKU can do the unthinkable. Also, having our coach taken by Kentucky, even though fans are frustrated, we feel like anything success they might have going forward would be attributed to a coach that we had first.

But it'd be so much sweeter to bring a ring to the state before they do and for once, it appears it might be remotely possible.

SCHEDULE

SOUTHERN KENTUCKY SADDLEBREDS Schedule

Date Opponent Record RPI Result Score Record
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11/09/03 vs. Kentucky 0-2 219 W 94-86 1-0
11/15/03 Kentucky A&T 1-0 1 L 116-111 1-1
11/20/03 Central Connecticut State 0-0 153
11/21/03 #13 Cincinnati 0-0 156
11/22/03 Arkansas Little Rock 0-1 133
11/28/03 at Northern Kentucky 0-1 259
11/29/03 at Rutgers 0-0 279
11/30/03 at Penn State 0-1 267
12/07/03 Harvard 1-0 73
12/13/03 Grand Canyon 1-0 72
12/14/03 Wofford 0-1 351
12/19/03 at Eastern Kentucky 1-0 67
12/29/03 South Florida 1-0 103
01/03/04 Charlotte 1-0 61
01/05/04 at Boise State 0-1 140
01/10/04 at Baylor 0-1 138
01/17/04 at Houston 0-0 200
01/19/04 at Charlotte 1-0 61
01/24/04 Southern Methodist 1-1 3
01/26/04 at Tulsa 1-0 320
01/31/04 Old Dominion 0-0 263
02/02/04 Baylor 0-1 138
02/07/04 at Texas Christian 0-1 313
02/09/04 UAB 0-1 321
02/14/04 at Southern Mississippi 0-0 297
02/16/04 vs. VCU 0-0 338
02/21/04 Houston 0-0 200
02/23/04 Boise State 0-1 140
02/28/04 at East Carolina 0-0 175

[Young Drachma]

2003-04



SOUTHERN KENTUCKY SADDLEBREDS TEAM INFO

Current Performance
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Team Prestige: 71 Record Vs 1-50: 5-4 Poll Rank: NR
Season Record: 22-12 Record Vs 51-100: 5-3 RPI Rank: #35
Conference Record: 10-6 Record Vs 101-200: 6-4
Home Record: 9-6 Record Vs 200+: 6-1


Team Stats CR NR Opp. Stats CR NR Margin CR NR
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Points 97.9 1 1 Points 89.7 13 348 Points 8.1 3 38
O.Reb 17.1 1 39 O.Reb 16.6 13 298 O.Reb 0.5 7 141
D.Reb 26.4 10 200 D.Reb 28.1 9 260 D.Reb -1.7 11 273
Rebounds 43.5 5 86 Rebounds 44.7 11 303 Rebounds -1.3 10 220
Assists 21.5 1 7 Assists 19.2 13 352 Assists 2.3 4 52
Steals 10.2 1 3 Steals 6.1 2 100 Steals 4.1 1 4
Blocks 3.7 10 216 Blocks 5.2 8 310 Blocks -1.6 12 296
Turnovers 13.0 2 46 Turnovers 17.7 1 11 Turnovers -4.8 1 7
Fouls 18.8 9 303 Fouls 18.4 5 48 Fouls 0.4 6 217
FG% .467 1 14 FG% .464 13 339 FG% .003 9 152
FT% .704 3 86 FT% .658 6 56 FT% .046 1 40
3P% .357 6 179 3P% .357 9 181 3P% .000 8 173
PPS 1.27 1 11 PPS 1.23 11 310 PPS .038 5 114
Adj. FG% .534 2 27 Adj. FG% .529 13 328 Adj. FG% .005 6 142


SOUTHERN KENTUCKY SADDLEBREDS Schedule

Date Opponent Record RPI Result Score Record
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11/09/03 vs. Kentucky 19-12 91 W 94-86 1-0
11/15/03 Kentucky A&T 18-14 166 L 116-111 1-1
11/20/03 Central Connecticut State 13-17 230 W 117-64 2-1
11/21/03 #22 Cincinnati 23-9 28 L 84-83 2-2
11/22/03 Arkansas Little Rock 15-16 150 W 114-101 3-2
11/28/03 at Northern Kentucky 12-21 266 L 87-83 3-3
11/29/03 at Rutgers 10-19 222 W 85-74 4-3
11/30/03 at Penn State 11-20 211 W 96-88 5-3
12/07/03 Harvard 14-16 64 W 84-73 6-3
12/13/03 Grand Canyon 16-13 200 L 109-107 6-4
12/14/03 Wofford 10-20 272 W 94-63 7-4
12/19/03 at Eastern Kentucky 16-14 202 W 94-83 8-4
12/20/03 vs. Louisville 19-11 56 L 112-107 8-5
12/29/03 South Florida 16-14 123 W 107-84 9-5 (1-0)
01/03/04 Charlotte 17-14 132 L 97-88 9-6 (1-1)
01/05/04 at Boise State 19-13 32 W 108-107 10-6 (2-1)
01/10/04 at Baylor 14-16 62 W 96-86 11-6 (3-1)
01/17/04 at Houston 23-9 11 L 101-89 11-7 (3-2)
01/19/04 at Charlotte 17-14 132 W 113-104 12-7 (4-2)
01/24/04 #23 Southern Methodist 23-8 34 L 109-95 12-8 (4-3)
01/26/04 at Tulsa 8-22 219 W 102-71 13-8 (5-3)
01/31/04 Old Dominion 19-12 78 W 83-70 14-8 (6-3)
02/02/04 Baylor 14-16 62 L 98-93 14-9 (6-4)
02/07/04 at Texas Christian 18-11 135 L 98-94 14-10 (6-5)
02/09/04 UAB 15-14 172 W 110-91 15-10 (7-5)
02/14/04 at Southern Mississippi 15-15 157 W 107-101 16-10 (8-5)
02/16/04 vs. VCU 19-11 33 L 108-102 16-11
02/21/04 Houston 23-9 11 W 102-101 17-11 (9-5)
02/23/04 Boise State 19-13 32 W 109-68 18-11 (10-5)
02/28/04 at East Carolina 14-16 95 L 101-92 18-12 (10-6)
03/06/04 vs. Old Dominion 19-12 78 W 81-67 19-12
03/09/04 vs. Texas Christian 18-11 135 W 108-88 20-12
03/11/04 vs. #23 Southern Methodist 23-8 34 W 93-86 21-12
03/12/04 vs. Boise State 19-13 32 W 86-75 22-12

SOUTHERN KENTUCKY SADDLEBREDS Averages

Player Pos GP GS Min Pts Orb Reb Ast Stl Blk To Fls +/-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ezra Page SF 34 34 27.6 13.0 2.4 4.3 2.2 2.2 0.5 1.8 2.5 6.1
Romelo Holiday C 34 34 27.4 15.4 2.8 7.4 2.3 1.1 0.7 1.1 2.5 7.8
Dontrelle Ivy PG 34 34 25.6 10.1 0.8 3.7 5.4 1.1 0.1 1.4 2.0 6.5
Dino Clauser SG 34 34 24.3 13.5 2.5 4.7 2.6 1.3 0.1 2.1 1.7 5.7
Vinny Starks PF 34 0 21.7 9.7 2.1 6.1 1.3 0.9 0.5 1.1 2.5 3.6
Shon Clayton SG 34 0 20.2 11.5 1.4 4.0 2.1 0.9 0.2 1.3 2.0 3.2
Buddy Conners PF 34 34 19.8 9.4 2.4 5.7 2.1 1.2 0.4 1.6 2.3 5.8
Vinny Hillman PF 34 0 11.0 5.3 1.0 2.0 0.8 0.9 0.1 0.7 1.3 0.0
Tashard Christy PG 34 0 10.6 6.1 0.4 1.7 2.0 0.4 0.0 1.2 0.8 1.8
Hakim Martell C 30 0 5.0 1.0 0.8 2.2 0.3 0.2 0.5 0.2 0.4 -0.5
Eugene Pak SG 30 0 4.8 2.0 0.4 0.9 0.3 0.2 0.0 0.4 0.5 -0.4
Julius Creel PF 33 0 4.7 1.2 0.4 1.2 0.2 0.1 0.3 0.2 0.5 0.0


After being on the bubble, the Saddlebreds get it done in their first B12 tournament and are back in the Big Dance another year as an 8 seed in the South region.



MOST BIDS BY CONFERENCE
SEC: 8
PAC-16: 7
B1G: 6
BIG NORTH: 4
IVY: 3
A10: 3
B12: 3
MVC: 3
SUN BELT: 3
BIG EAST: 3
WCC, MAC, C-USA, ACC: 2

I took the American Athletic and renamed it the Big North in an effort to create a major northern football league.

In their first year, they didn't do too bad.


BIG NORTH CONFERENCE BUBBLE WATCH

Team Record RPI vs. 1-50 vs. 51-100 vs. 101-200 vs. 200+ SOS Projected
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Connecticut 28-4 .601 (12) 7-2 2-0 10-1 9-1 157 NCAA
Rhode Island 23-9 .573 (38) 4-3 2-3 11-3 6-0 88 NCAA
Temple 22-10 .566 (44) 6-5 1-2 8-2 7-1 73 NCAA
Massachusetts 25-8 .565 (45) 2-6 2-0 12-1 9-1 168 NCAA
Pittsburgh 18-13 .506 (158) 1-6 3-0 5-6 9-1 193 CBI
Syracuse 16-15 .514 (131) 4-5 0-1 3-4 9-5 127 Out
Boston College 12-19 .515 (126) 2-10 1-3 5-3 4-3 25 Out
Delaware 10-21 .484 (207) 2-8 0-1 4-9 4-3 47 Out
Maine 9-21 .510 (143) 0-11 0-3 6-6 3-1 8 Out
William & Mary 8-22 .447 (295) 2-6 0-1 3-5 3-10 135 Out

[Young Drachma]

2003-04



2003 Big 12 Conference Standings

TEAM CW CL Pct W L Pct RPI Prestige
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#23 Southern Methodist Mustangs 14 2 .875 24 9 .727 31 67
Boise State Broncos 11 5 .688 19 14 .576 38 61
Houston Cougars 10 6 .625 25 10 .714 16 66
Texas Christian Horned Frogs 10 6 .625 18 12 .600 136 53
Southern Kentucky Saddlebreds 10 6 .625 25 13 .658 22 71
Baylor Bears 8 8 .500 14 16 .467 64 64
Charlotte 49ers 8 8 .500 17 14 .548 140 72
Old Dominion Monarchs 7 9 .438 19 13 .594 88 73
UAB Blazers 7 9 .438 15 14 .517 175 87
East Carolina Pirates 6 10 .375 14 16 .467 101 57
South Florida Bulls 6 10 .375 16 14 .533 135 61
Tulsa Golden Hurricane 4 12 .250 8 22 .267 223 49
Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles 3 13 .188 15 15 .500 163 64


FIRST ROUND: SKU 92, 9) YALE 50
2ND ROUND: SKU 90, 1) TENNESSEE 82
SWEET 16: SKU 113, 4) HOUSTON 85


The game sets these matchup a lot and it's funny to me how it seems to know. But Notre Dame will face their former coach in the Final of the South region for a shot at a Final Four. Notre Dame's last Final Four came in 1996, also their only title. Team has never missed the tournament in my sim, they're led by 34-year old Vinny Ingraham who spent two years at Gonzaga and took them to a Sweet 16 before taking this job. He's a native of Indiana.

It'll be quite weird for Coach Byrum to face his former team, but maybe he knows something about them that'll give us an edge.

In case you wanted to know why conference consolidation works, it eliminates most of the mid-majors by the Sweet 16. This year's Sweet 16 by conference:

PAC-16: 4
SEC: 5
ACC: 1
B1G: 2
BIG 12: 2
MVC & A10: 1 each

Our two "underdogs" this year were 3rd seeded George Washington (A10) and 4th seeded Drake (MVC) and that's it. So that's why these leagues consolidate, because it makes it so the last few rounds of the tournaments will surely be comprised of top-tier leagues who get to keep the profits for themselves.

Notre Dame wins 109-91 and we end the year at 25-13 and in the Elite 8. Marks the end of the road for Clayton, Ivy, Page and Holiday, but...we were super fortunate to hold onto them for as long as we did to be honest. At least two of them should've gone to the NBA two years ago.

[Young Drachma]

I haven't been able to figure this out. Is SKU going to be a football school or not? I've been debating this and up to now, I've been operating that they're not. I mean, the B12 move could've indicated we were but I even had them in there as a non-football school. If we're a football school, makes it easier to get into top-tier leagues. I guess we can always say they added a program or maybe we're FCS?

Would like some input on this one...I think I've decided the enrollment for the school has blown up exponentially over the years and that SKU has surpassed Western Kentucky University for the 2nd highest enrollment in the state. (http://collegestats.org/colleges/kentucky/largest) And maybe, eventually the #1 beyond University of Kentucky at some point.

[Young Drachma]

2004-05

Once again, the top scoring team in the nation. I love that this team plays like I'd want a team of mine to actually play. Up tempo. All. Day. Wish we played better defense, but I haven't ever recruited for it, to be fair.

We moved the Saddlebreds to the Atlantic 10 after just a year in the B12, as that league expanded back to 10 teams and we were a good fit.


2004 Atlantic 10 Conference Standings

TEAM CW CL Pct W L Pct RPI Prestige
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saint Joseph's Hawks 10 4 .714 26 9 .743 23 63
Southern Kentucky Saddlebreds 9 5 .643 24 13 .649 33 74
VCU Rams 8 6 .571 20 12 .625 77 73
La Salle Explorers 8 6 .571 18 14 .563 128 77
Duquesne Dukes 7 7 .500 15 16 .484 104 81
George Mason Patriots 7 7 .500 16 14 .533 58 58
George Washington Colonials 6 8 .429 19 15 .559 63 85
Fordham Rams 6 8 .429 15 16 .484 120 59
St. Bonaventure Bonnies 5 9 .357 16 14 .533 135 54
Wichita State Shockers 4 10 .286 12 19 .387 255 58



SOUTHERN KENTUCKY SADDLEBREDS TEAM INFO

Current Performance
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Team Prestige: 74 Record Vs 1-50: 4-8 Poll Rank: NR
Season Record: 24-13 Record Vs 51-100: 8-2 RPI Rank: #33
Conference Record: 9-5 Record Vs 101-200: 6-2
Home Record: 8-6 Record Vs 200+: 6-1


Team Stats CR NR Opp. Stats CR NR Margin CR NR
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Points 96.0 1 1 Points 91.4 10 353 Points 4.6 4 78
O.Reb 19.3 1 16 O.Reb 19.3 9 332 O.Reb 0.0 5 175
D.Reb 23.9 6 160 D.Reb 23.9 6 199 D.Reb -0.1 6 185
Rebounds 43.2 3 48 Rebounds 43.3 10 306 Rebounds -0.1 6 198
Assists 21.4 1 12 Assists 19.9 10 354 Assists 1.5 5 90
Steals 10.1 2 32 Steals 8.2 10 300 Steals 1.8 2 58
Blocks 3.9 8 245 Blocks 5.6 10 280 Blocks -1.6 10 285
Turnovers 18.3 10 283 Turnovers 20.0 2 33 Turnovers -1.6 4 94
Fouls 18.4 7 272 Fouls 20.3 1 4 Fouls -1.9 2 46
FG% .468 2 35 FG% .457 8 291 FG% .011 5 111
FT% .712 5 65 FT% .694 7 268 FT% .017 6 121
3P% .380 4 118 3P% .379 7 261 3P% .001 6 160
PPS 1.31 1 9 PPS 1.25 7 286 PPS .053 4 93
Adj. FG% .543 2 40 Adj. FG% .531 8 303 Adj. FG% .012 4 117

SOUTHERN KENTUCKY SADDLEBREDS Schedule

Date Opponent Record RPI Result Score Record
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11/07/04 vs. Alabama State 3-27 342 W 106-72 1-0
11/14/04 Nebraska 16-16 62 L 104-82 1-1
11/19/04 vs. Vermont 8-24 336 W 94-68 2-1
11/20/04 vs. Louisiana State 14-19 109 W 93-85 3-1
11/21/04 vs. Purdue 8-23 256 W 113-84 4-1
11/28/04 at #18 Kansas State 28-9 9 L 90-65 4-2
11/29/04 at Kentucky A&T 15-17 215 L 106-95 4-3
12/09/04 at Belmont 12-18 261 W 89-73 5-3
12/12/04 Connecticut 23-12 22 L 101-79 5-4
12/13/04 Illinois 18-15 100 W 111-94 6-4
12/14/04 #20 Louisville 26-9 5 W 87-77 7-4
12/31/04 at Northern Iowa 23-10 17 L 105-80 7-5
01/02/05 at Northern Kentucky 8-22 299 W 92-86 8-5
01/07/05 at Penn State 21-14 37 W 111-103 9-5
01/10/05 UCLA 17-16 82 W 102-98 10-5
01/11/05 Virginia 27-10 49 L 104-101 10-6
01/12/05 Yale 13-17 187 W 108-77 11-6
01/19/05 Saint Joseph's 26-9 23 L 90-88 11-7 (0-1)
01/22/05 at VCU 20-12 77 W 107-100 12-7 (1-1)
01/26/05 at Duquesne 15-16 104 L 114-101 12-8 (1-2)
01/29/05 George Washington 19-15 63 W 91-88 13-8 (2-2)
02/02/05 at Saint Joseph's 26-9 23 L 102-93 13-9 (2-3)
02/05/05 St. Bonaventure 16-14 135 W 100-92 14-9 (3-3)
02/09/05 VCU 20-12 77 W 81-69 15-9 (4-3)
02/12/05 La Salle 18-14 128 L 84-72 15-10 (4-4)
02/16/05 George Mason 16-14 58 L 117-111 15-11 (4-5)
02/19/05 at George Washington 19-15 63 W 100-93 16-11 (5-5)
02/23/05 at Wichita State 12-19 255 W 115-82 17-11 (6-5)
02/26/05 at St. Bonaventure 16-14 135 W 93-67 18-11 (7-5)
03/02/05 at Fordham 15-16 120 W 100-85 19-11 (8-5)
03/05/05 Duquesne 15-16 104 W 107-102 20-11 (9-5)
03/11/05 vs. George Washington 19-15 63 W 75-70 21-11
03/12/05 vs. George Mason 16-14 58 W 115-110 22-11
03/13/05 vs. Saint Joseph's 26-9 23 L 113-110 22-12
03/18/05 vs. #22 Oklahoma State 21-9 20 W 111-109 23-12
03/20/05 vs. #10 Middle Tennessee 27-5 26 W 95-78 24-12
03/24/05 vs. #3 Maryland 29-5 8 L 88-78 24-13

SOUTHERN KENTUCKY SADDLEBREDS Averages

Player Pos GP GS Min Pts Orb Reb Ast Stl Blk To Fls +/-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tashard Christy PG 37 37 31.4 17.7 1.6 4.7 7.0 1.1 0.2 3.6 2.5 6.0
Dylan Tomlinson SF 37 37 31.2 15.1 3.0 5.5 2.2 2.1 0.5 2.0 2.6 5.1
Vinny Starks C 37 37 29.9 13.5 4.3 9.3 1.9 1.0 0.6 1.9 3.1 4.8
Buddy Conners PF 37 37 26.9 10.2 3.4 7.4 2.2 1.6 0.7 2.5 3.0 5.8
Dino Clauser SG 37 37 25.9 15.8 2.5 4.5 3.5 2.1 0.5 3.3 2.1 2.0
Von Foreman SG 37 0 18.8 9.6 1.0 2.9 2.2 0.7 0.2 2.0 1.5 1.2
Vinny Hillman PF 37 0 18.4 9.0 1.8 3.9 1.1 1.0 0.3 1.5 2.1 -0.4
Riccardo Hines SG 37 0 5.4 2.5 0.1 0.8 0.5 0.3 0.1 0.6 0.6 -0.2
Isiah Yancey SF 34 0 2.8 0.6 0.2 0.7 0.2 0.1 0.0 0.3 0.3 -0.5
Quinn Kenyon C 31 0 7.6 1.9 1.0 2.0 0.4 0.1 0.5 0.4 0.5 -1.8
Hakim Martell C 17 0 6.5 1.1 1.3 3.2 0.4 0.1 1.0 0.4 0.4 1.9
Da'rion Ivy C 6 0 3.8 0.0 0.0 0.8 0.2 0.0 0.2 0.3 0.3 -1.3
Eugene Pak SG 0 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Allard Napier PF 0 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
Ghislain Le Gall PG 0 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0



There are no words for this year's national champion. There are not Southern Kentucky University, either.


To be clear, there are no super studs on this team. West Virginia was coached by a future hall of famer who has a title on his resume from Kentucky and took that same team to the Final Four last year. CCSU had none of this. They just kept winning basketball games.


CENTRAL CONNECTICUT STATE BLUE DEVILS Potential

Player Pos Yr Ins Jps Fts 3ps Hnd Pas Orb Drb Psd Prd Stl Blk
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jarrid Mathias C Sr C F D C C C B C C D C A
Nickie Cowart PF Sr* B F D C D D A C D D B C
Gerrard Crews SF Sr* F C C B F D B C B C C B
Luther Gamez SG Jr F C C B B D C C D B D C
Olly Bryson PG Jr* C D C B D B B C D C B D
Vinny Wang C Jr* A C C C D F A C C C F D
Parker Wooten PF Sr B C D F F D C C D D B B
Buddy Pannell SG So* D A C C C C C D F F B F
Rubin Hendrick PF Jr* C B C F D F B B C D D B
Alphonse Bartels PG Jr* D D C D C C B C F B D D
Nicola McKeon SG So* D B C A D D D F C B B F
Byron Goodson SF So* D A A F C D A A D D F D
Jayson Pendergrass SF Fr* D C C C D D D D A D D C
Reg Creel C Fr C F D F C D C C C D D C
Stacy Creel SF Fr C A C B F C D F C F D B

CENTRAL CONNECTICUT STATE BLUE DEVILS Schedule

Date Opponent Record RPI Result Score Record
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11/07/04 vs. Florida 21-10 59 L 92-68 0-1
11/21/04 Nevada 17-15 251 L 76-70 0-2
11/26/04 at Hartford 16-16 218 W 84-78 1-2
11/28/04 at #3 Maryland 29-5 8 L 69-58 1-3
11/30/04 at La Salle 18-14 128 L 65-46 1-4
12/05/04 Albany 22-10 134 L 77-66 1-5
12/10/04 Seton Hall 24-9 47 L 78-66 1-6
12/15/04 at Duquesne 15-16 104 W 76-75 2-6
12/17/04 at Vermont 8-24 336 W 77-67 3-6
12/23/04 St. Francis PA 14-17 229 W 87-84 4-6 (1-0)
12/25/04 LIU Brooklyn 22-9 112 W 101-64 5-6 (2-0)
12/30/04 at Bryant 16-15 207 L 88-70 5-7 (2-1)
01/01/05 at Mount St. Mary's 6-25 273 W 85-48 6-7 (3-1)
01/06/05 St. Francis NY 6-23 344 W 78-53 7-7 (4-1)
01/08/05 Robert Morris 11-18 329 L 86-77 7-8 (4-2)
01/13/05 at Sacred Heart 9-21 333 L 79-70 7-9 (4-3)
01/15/05 at Wagner 18-15 248 L 77-67 7-10 (4-4)
01/22/05 at Fairleigh Dickinson 8-22 252 W 87-78 8-10 (5-4)
01/27/05 Mount St. Mary's 6-25 273 W 77-53 9-10 (6-4)
01/29/05 Bryant 16-15 207 W 80-74 10-10 (7-4)
02/03/05 at Robert Morris 11-18 329 L 81-69 10-11 (7-5)
02/05/05 at St. Francis NY 6-23 344 W 75-67 11-11 (8-5)
02/10/05 Wagner 18-15 248 W 106-56 12-11 (9-5)
02/12/05 Sacred Heart 9-21 333 W 80-78 13-11 (10-5)
02/14/05 USC Upstate 21-11 132 W 85-67 14-11
02/19/05 Fairleigh Dickinson 8-22 252 W 77-70 15-11 (11-5)
02/24/05 at St. Francis PA 14-17 229 W 62-60 16-11 (12-5)
02/26/05 at LIU Brooklyn 22-9 112 W 93-78 17-11 (13-5)
03/02/05 vs. Sacred Heart 9-21 333 W 62-54 18-11
03/05/05 vs. Bryant 16-15 207 W 93-85 19-11
03/08/05 vs. Wagner 18-15 248 W 104-91 20-11
03/18/05 vs. #9 Indiana 24-7 13 W 72-69 21-11
03/20/05 vs. Baylor 20-12 12 W 86-85 22-11
03/25/05 vs. UC Santa Barbara 27-9 25 W 94-80 23-11
03/27/05 vs. #8 Georgia 28-7 7 W 54-53 24-11
04/02/05 vs. #12 California 29-7 6 W 83-71 25-11
04/04/05 vs. #2 West Virginia 31-4 2 W 71-67 26-11

[Young Drachma]

Ok, so the Atlantic 10 and America East merged after several schools in the A10 decided to start their own league (which will keep the A10 history) originally called the "Hickory League" named after the Hickory Pine that predominates the eastern half of the US all the way to Kansas, but finally settled on the name, The Allied League or A-League for short.

Here are the initial 10 members:


Duquesne
Fordham
George Washington
LaSalle
St. Joseph's
Southern Kentucky
VCU
Wichita State
Central Connecticut State (I feel like you win a national title and you deserve an upgrade in league...)
Denver


Next year, two other schools will join us to bring the league's total to 13:
Belmont
Loyola Chicago
Maryland-Baltimore County

A 14th school is possible.

The idea here was basketball-first schools, primarily in major media markets or with the success to remain competitive and to create a national footprint of likeminded programs without going too far south. So at this moment, we're not looking to join the big time of college basketball's elite because we haven't earned it. There might be a time for that in a decade or two, though, if things change.

Here's the league's look with prestige ranks at the end column:


2005 Allied League Standings

TEAM CW CL Pct W L Pct RPI Prestige
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saint Joseph's Hawks 0 0 .000 0 0 .000 23 67
Southern Kentucky Saddlebreds 0 0 .000 0 0 .000 33 78
Central Connecticut State Blue Devils 0 0 .000 0 0 .000 45 44
George Washington Colonials 0 0 .000 0 0 .000 63 80
VCU Rams 0 0 .000 0 0 .000 77 72
Duquesne Dukes 0 0 .000 0 0 .000 104 77
Fordham Rams 0 0 .000 0 0 .000 120 57
La Salle Explorers 0 0 .000 0 0 .000 128 74
Wichita State Shockers 0 0 .000 0 0 .000 255 54
Denver Pioneers 0 0 .000 0 0 .000 264 22


With the exception of SKU and CCSU, the entire league is located in major media markets. We won't get any ink in those markets, but at least we exist in them. By adding Baltimore, Nashville & Chicago next year it'll be even better. It's a coup bringing in the defending national champs and with VCU in tow, we have in our league two of the last three national champs. Only Creighton and UNLV are the other non-major conference teams to ever win national titles in-game and those titles came in the 80s.

So we're creating the premier mid-major league in a sense. Which is a real-life thing that CNNSI suggested back in 2011 (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/stewart_mandel/03/29/midmajor.leverage/) called "The Major League"

[Young Drachma]

So a setback for the Saddlebreds as we miss the post-season for the first time since 1997. We also lost Curt Sistrunk after two years, he went to Ohio State and the parade of coaches continues. Someday we'll be able to get someone to stay for a while, but no idea when that'll be. We hired Kentucky native and former Middle Tennessee State head coach Chris Clark, who took them and Cal State Northridge to NCAA appearances.

I've noticed eroded development when players lose coaches, too.

In any case...here's the post-mortem. I probably recruited the best class we've ever had but those kids are going pro because I have (For now) the ability for HS kids to go straight to the pros turned on. The nice thing is, the 2005 draft will be completely insane and so, I'm excited to get to it in the NBA version of the league to see what some of these guys end up doing if anything.

Another mid-major wins a national title as SE Missouri State knocked off Alabama to claim the national championship after going 32-3 on the year or something crazy.

We lost 3 seniors last year, but this upcoming year we won't have any seniors on the team and so...while it doesn't mean we'll necessarily have a team that gels, at least we've got a chance to get this right and bring most of the kids back if we do get it right.



SOUTHERN KENTUCKY SADDLEBREDS TEAM INFO

Current Performance
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Team Prestige: 78 Record Vs 1-50: 1-7 Poll Rank: NR
Season Record: 17-15 Record Vs 51-100: 2-4 RPI Rank: #80
Conference Record: 10-6 Record Vs 101-200: 7-3
Home Record: 8-5 Record Vs 200+: 7-1


Team Stats CR NR Opp. Stats CR NR Margin CR NR
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Points 80.6 2 111 Points 78.8 9 207 Points 1.8 4 135
O.Reb 16.8 5 114 O.Reb 17.8 9 278 O.Reb -1.0 8 227
D.Reb 23.0 7 226 D.Reb 24.9 9 256 D.Reb -1.8 9 269
Rebounds 39.9 6 170 Rebounds 42.7 10 285 Rebounds -2.8 8 259
Assists 16.1 6 154 Assists 17.4 10 305 Assists -1.3 9 256
Steals 9.9 3 35 Steals 7.3 4 186 Steals 2.6 3 33
Blocks 4.5 6 166 Blocks 5.9 9 328 Blocks -1.4 8 266
Turnovers 17.1 4 153 Turnovers 19.2 3 51 Turnovers -2.1 3 63
Fouls 16.8 4 112 Fouls 17.1 5 222 Fouls -0.3 4 143
FG% .432 4 196 FG% .441 6 199 FG% -.009 6 207
FT% .678 7 181 FT% .688 3 213 FT% -.009 6 213
3P% .385 2 77 3P% .375 6 233 3P% .010 4 128
PPS 1.20 4 165 PPS 1.17 4 114 PPS .029 3 123
Adj. FG% .514 2 143 Adj. FG% .512 7 196 Adj. FG% .002 3 162

[Young Drachma]

SOUTHERN KENTUCKY TEAM PERFORMANCE

Season Team W L CW CL Rank RPI PRS Result
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2005 Southern Kentucky 17 15 10 6 145 80 76 No Postseason
2004 Southern Kentucky 24 13 9 5 40 33 78 Loss in NCAA Sweet Sixteen
2003 Southern Kentucky 25 13 10 6 22 19 74 Loss in NCAA Elite Eight
2002 Southern Kentucky 25 15 7 9 46 38 71 Loss in NCAA Final Four
2001 Southern Kentucky 19 14 9 7 101 76 65 Loss in CBI Round 2
2000 Southern Kentucky 28 10 10 6 17 15 63 Loss in NCAA Sweet Sixteen
1999 Southern Kentucky 27 6 14 2 39 43 58 Loss in NCAA Round 1
1998 Southern Kentucky 16 15 9 7 165 156 50 Loss in CIT Round 1
1997 Southern Kentucky 13 18 6 10 230 252 51 No Postseason
1996 Southern Kentucky 25 7 12 4 36 49 54 Loss in NCAA Round 1
1995 Southern Kentucky 29 8 14 4 25 32 50 Loss in NCAA Final Four
1994 Southern Kentucky 28 7 15 3 47 64 40 Loss in NCAA Round of 32
1993 Southern Kentucky 19 14 10 10 99 173 34 Loss in NIT Preliminary Round
1992 Southern Kentucky 7 23 4 16 335 331 32 No Postseason


So we lost Chris Clark to Tennessee, despite the year we had last year, apparently they were interested in him a year ago before he left MTSU, so..off he goes and now we have to find another coach.

Here's the coaching carousel over the years, in case you're having trouble keeping up like me:


SOUTHERN KENTUCKY COACHING STAFF

Season Head Coach Assistant Coach Recruiting Coordinator Scout
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2005 Chris Clark Berkly Sales Albert Boyett Junior Boyette
2004 Quintin Byrum Raphael Cruz Alfonzo Jones Andrew Worden
2003 Quintin Byrum Raphael Cruz Alfonzo Jones Andrew Worden
2002 Bernie Boyd Buddy Norton Gerald Mitchell Dustin Stumpf
2001 Brian Pace Buddy Norton Bernie Boyd Dustin Stumpf
2000 Shon Dobbs Buddy Norton Jamiah Cassidy Dustin Stumpf
1999 Clint Sistrunk Shon Dobbs Jamiah Cassidy Benjamin Samuel
1998 Clint Sistrunk Shon Dobbs Rolf Bermudez Benjamin Samuel
1997 Brian Pace Shon Dobbs Rolf Bermudez Benjamin Samuel
1996 Brian Pace Shon Dobbs Rolf Bermudez Benjamin Samuel
1995 Brian Pace Shon Dobbs Jeffrey Burns Thomas Abney
1994 Brian Pace Leonel Nelson Jeffrey Burns Thomas Abney
1993 Alfonzo Jones Leonel Nelson Jeffrey Burns Thomas Abney
1992 Robert Smith Claud Hardin Eliseo Lynn Andrew Thiel


I'm thinking we'll go with an older assistant who has never been a head coach or something. CCSU did that when they won their title, that guy wasn't a head coach until his 50s, of course he bolted for UConn after he won the title with them as they had an opening, but...still?

Or a really young guy and hope we can groom him into the role down the road. Or maybe an alumnus.

But man...we need someone to stick around.

Finally, here's what the Allied League will look like next year, barring a last minute 14th team addition. The league now has 13 members.


2006 Allied League Standings

TEAM CW CL Pct W L Pct RPI Prestige
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------ac
#12 VCU Rams 0 0 .000 0 0 .000 22 76
Loyola Chicago Ramblers 0 0 .000 0 0 .000 54 39
George Washington Colonials 0 0 .000 0 0 .000 55 79
Wichita State Shockers 0 0 .000 0 0 .000 71 57
Southern Kentucky Saddlebreds 0 0 .000 0 0 .000 80 76
Belmont Bruins 0 0 .000 0 0 .000 83 40
Duquesne Dukes 0 0 .000 0 0 .000 120 75
Saint Joseph's Hawks 0 0 .000 0 0 .000 130 65
Central Connecticut State Blue Devils 0 0 .000 0 0 .000 151 47
Fordham Rams 0 0 .000 0 0 .000 174 54
UMBC Retrievers 0 0 .000 0 0 .000 243 40
La Salle Explorers 0 0 .000 0 0 .000 304 66
Denver Pioneers 0 0 .000 0 0 .000 310 25


I think I'll go back to adding Kentucky HS prospects into the game, as I'd like to start to recognize some of these kids heading to the pro game as I don't right now and it'd be more interesting to have some careers to follow especially dating back to their HS years. It'll make future draft classes more interesting for me. But probably not immediately, maybe closer to the 20 year mark, since I'd like to see how this program goes in the next few years and then see where we end up next.

[Young Drachma]

The OS dudes crowdsourced the idea that this school should be a football school, so I went ahead and created them in NCAA14. They won't ever make it to this dynasty, but...decided it was good to have colors for this program finally and so, we went with Eggplant from the original mighty ducks and Orange, with blue as an alternate.

[Young Drachma]

Our new head coach is Kentucky high school basketball legend Tony Patrick who retired in 1999 after a pro basketball career which included several years in the NBA. Unlike Brian Pace, Patrick never coached in HS, he was an NBA assistant before deciding to come back to his home state to be a college coach.

Here's his resume:


PLAYER DETAILS

#45 PF Tony Patrick
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Height: 6-6
Weight: 244
DOB: 1/21/1965 (39)
College: Ohio State
Hometown: Hindman, KY
Exp: 13

Attributes:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Type INS JPS FTS 3PS HND PAS ORB DRB PSD PRD STL BLK QKN STR JMP STA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Current: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Potential: - - - - - - - - - - - -


Stat Averages:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season LGE TEAM G GS MIN PTS ORE REB AST TO A/T STL BLK PF
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1998 CBA BEI 10 0 3.2 0.9 0.3 0.9 0.0 0.0 0.00 0.1 0.0 0.3
1997 FTB STL 35 0 7.3 2.4 0.5 1.4 0.3 0.2 1.13 0.2 0.1 1.3
1995 NBA CGO 68 0 12.8 5.0 1.3 2.9 0.9 0.8 1.05 0.3 0.2 2.2
1994 NBA CGO 82 0 17.8 7.3 1.4 3.7 0.9 1.0 0.96 0.6 0.5 3.1
1993 NBA CGO 82 82 32.9 14.3 2.7 7.7 1.7 1.5 1.09 0.9 0.5 4.1
1992 NBA CGO 82 82 34.0 12.5 2.4 8.0 1.3 1.7 0.79 0.6 0.5 4.4
1991 NBA CGO 77 77 34.8 14.4 3.1 8.5 1.6 1.9 0.88 0.7 0.6 4.3
1990 BBL BRO 7 7 30.4 29.4 3.4 10.3 0.7 2.0 0.36 1.1 0.3 3.9
1989 ACB SEV 34 34 27.3 16.5 2.9 8.5 1.2 1.3 0.91 0.6 0.5 3.5
1988 ACB SEV 34 34 25.5 13.5 2.9 7.7 1.2 1.1 1.05 0.6 0.5 3.6
1987 NBA ORL 68 0 12.0 5.0 1.1 2.9 0.6 0.6 1.00 0.4 0.3 1.9
1986 NBA KEN 82 3 16.9 7.6 1.1 3.5 0.8 1.0 0.81 0.5 0.3 2.6
1985 NBA KEN 82 1 15.5 8.4 0.9 3.1 0.7 0.8 0.88 0.5 0.2 2.5
Career 743 320 21.9 9.7 1.8 5.2 1.0 1.1 0.88 0.6 0.4 3.1

Shooting Averages:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season FGM FGA FG% FTM FTA FT% InsM InsA In% JsM JsA Js% 3PM 3PA 3P%
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1998 0.3 0.8 .375 0.2 0.4 .500 0.2 0.3 .667 0.0 0.2 .000 0.1 0.3 .333
1997 1.0 2.2 .442 0.4 0.6 .682 0.5 0.8 .643 0.5 1.2 .390 0.0 0.2 .000
1995 2.1 4.5 .458 0.8 1.0 .750 1.3 2.2 .588 0.6 1.7 .381 0.1 0.7 .222
1994 3.1 6.2 .495 1.0 1.5 .672 2.1 3.3 .644 0.8 2.2 .370 0.2 0.7 .213
1993 6.0 11.2 .532 2.0 2.9 .700 4.1 6.3 .647 1.5 3.6 .411 0.4 1.3 .308
1992 5.0 9.5 .525 2.2 3.2 .692 3.6 5.3 .684 1.0 2.8 .362 0.3 1.4 .250
1991 5.9 11.1 .533 2.2 3.4 .659 4.0 6.2 .647 1.5 3.6 .406 0.4 1.2 .326
1990 12.3 18.0 .683 4.0 7.0 .571 8.6 9.9 .870 2.9 6.0 .476 0.9 2.1 .400
1989 6.5 11.8 .552 2.9 4.3 .685 4.6 6.8 .672 1.4 3.6 .398 0.5 1.4 .362
1988 5.6 9.5 .587 2.1 3.0 .709 4.2 5.6 .743 1.1 2.8 .411 0.2 1.1 .222
1987 2.0 3.7 .550 0.8 1.2 .646 1.3 2.1 .625 0.5 1.1 .461 0.2 0.4 .414
1986 3.0 5.6 .539 1.3 1.9 .691 2.1 3.2 .674 0.6 1.6 .364 0.3 0.8 .354
1985 3.3 5.8 .576 1.5 1.9 .797 2.4 3.2 .744 0.7 1.8 .386 0.2 0.7 .295
Career 3.9 7.4 .536 1.6 2.2 .693 2.7 4.1 .672 0.9 2.4 .394 0.3 0.9 .292

Stat Totals:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season LGE TEAM G GS MIN PTS OREB REB AST TO STL BLK PF +/-
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1998 CBA BEI 10 0 32 9 3 9 0 0 1 0 3 -10
1997 FTB STL 35 0 256 83 19 48 9 8 8 2 47 -47
1995 NBA CGO 68 0 870 341 91 200 58 55 20 11 148 -69
1994 NBA CGO 82 0 1462 601 116 305 76 79 49 44 252 41
1993 NBA CGO 82 82 2701 1176 224 629 137 126 75 37 340 12
1992 NBA CGO 82 82 2789 1024 199 660 107 136 49 38 360 -126
1991 NBA CGO 77 77 2682 1110 235 652 126 143 52 47 328 -275
1990 BBL BRO 7 7 213 206 24 72 5 14 8 2 27 71
1989 ACB SEV 34 34 928 561 97 290 41 45 22 17 120 93
1988 ACB SEV 34 34 868 459 98 262 41 39 22 18 122 169
1987 NBA ORL 68 0 814 337 75 198 38 38 25 20 131 -166
1986 NBA KEN 82 3 1384 622 93 291 64 79 40 22 216 135
1985 NBA KEN 82 1 1269 688 73 252 58 66 45 16 208 217
Career 743 320 16268 7217 1347 3868 760 828 416 274 2302 45

Shooting Totals
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season FGM FGA FTM FTA 3PM 3PA
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1998 3 8 2 4 1 3
1997 34 77 15 22 0 8
1995 140 306 51 68 10 45
1994 252 509 84 125 13 61
1993 489 919 166 237 32 104
1992 407 775 182 263 28 112
1991 455 854 170 258 30 92
1990 86 126 28 49 6 15
1989 222 402 100 146 17 47
1988 189 322 73 103 8 36
1987 137 249 51 79 12 29
1986 247 458 105 152 23 65
1985 272 472 126 158 18 61
Career 2933 5477 1153 1664 198 678

Efficiency:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season LGE TEAM G TS% PPS AST TO USG ORR DRR RR PER VA EWA +/- OEFF DEFF
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1998 CBA BEI 10 .400 1.13 0.0 0.0 12.1 12.5 20.7 17.0 12.4 0.4 0.0 -1.0 110.8 139.0
1997 FTB STL 35 .483 1.08 8.7 7.7 15.7 10.6 16.2 13.4 10.2 -4.8 -0.2 -1.3 102.0 114.8
1995 NBA CGO 68 .506 1.11 12.9 12.2 19.1 12.3 15.8 14.0 11.8 4.5 0.1 -1.0 110.6 115.6
1994 NBA CGO 82 .532 1.18 10.6 11.0 18.8 9.2 16.3 12.6 14.0 54.2 1.8 0.5 111.8 110.5
1993 NBA CGO 82 .575 1.28 10.7 9.8 18.1 9.9 18.9 14.3 16.0 183.2 6.1 0.1 113.0 111.4
1992 NBA CGO 82 .575 1.32 9.4 12.0 15.8 8.6 20.5 14.5 13.3 75.5 2.5 -1.5 109.3 110.9
1991 NBA CGO 77 .573 1.30 10.2 11.6 17.4 10.3 19.9 14.9 15.4 154.1 5.1 -3.6 109.2 113.3
1990 BBL BRO 7 .696 1.63 3.0 8.4 32.0 14.8 28.1 21.6 47.7 115.2 3.8 10.1 117.7 98.2
1989 ACB SEV 34 .601 1.40 7.4 8.2 23.2 12.9 26.0 19.4 26.5 208.3 6.9 2.7 108.4 101.4
1988 ACB SEV 34 .627 1.43 9.2 8.7 19.5 14.2 23.2 18.8 24.7 171.5 5.7 5.0 111.5 99.8
1987 NBA ORL 68 .592 1.35 10.6 10.6 16.2 10.0 18.6 14.0 16.9 65.9 2.2 -2.4 101.2 112.8
1986 NBA KEN 82 .592 1.36 9.6 11.8 18.4 7.9 18.4 12.9 15.9 91.7 3.1 1.6 107.5 103.5
1985 NBA KEN 82 .635 1.46 8.7 9.9 20.1 7.9 17.5 13.0 19.8 156.6 5.2 2.6 112.5 103.8
Career 743 .581 1.32 9.7 10.6 18.3 10.0 19.5 14.6 16.8 1276.3 42.5 0.1 109.9 109.4

Playoff Averages:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season LGE TEAM G GS MIN PTS ORE REB AST TO A/T STL BLK PF
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1997 FTB STL 1 0 12.0 4.0 0.0 1.0 0.0 0.0 0.00 1.0 0.0 1.0
1994 NBA CGO 11 0 22.4 10.5 1.7 5.5 1.3 2.4 0.54 0.8 0.5 2.5
1986 NBA KEN 18 0 13.7 6.0 1.2 2.8 1.0 1.2 0.86 0.4 0.3 2.3
1985 NBA KEN 6 0 16.7 10.5 1.0 3.0 1.2 1.5 0.78 0.5 0.2 4.0
Career 743 320 21.9 9.7 1.8 5.2 1.0 1.1 0.78 0.6 0.4 3.1

Playoff Shooting Averages:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season FGM FGA FG% FTM FTA FT% InsM InsA In% JsM JsA Js% 3PM 3PA 3P%
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1997 2.0 3.0 .667 0.0 0.0 .000 1.0 1.0 1.000 1.0 1.0 1.000 0.0 1.0 .000
1994 4.5 7.0 .649 1.2 1.8 .650 3.2 4.5 .700 1.1 2.0 .545 0.3 0.5 .600
1986 2.6 4.6 .561 0.9 1.1 .800 1.9 2.6 .761 0.6 1.7 .367 0.0 0.3 .000
1985 4.0 6.7 .600 2.0 2.7 .750 3.3 4.5 .741 0.2 1.2 .143 0.5 1.0 .500
Career 3.9 7.4 .536 1.6 2.2 .693 2.7 4.1 .672 0.9 2.4 .394 0.3 0.9 .292

Playoff Totals:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season LGE TEAM G GS MIN PTS OREB REB AST TO STL BLK PF +/-
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1997 FTB STL 1 0 12 4 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 -7
1994 NBA CGO 11 0 246 116 19 61 14 26 9 5 27 71
1986 NBA KEN 18 0 247 108 21 50 18 21 7 6 41 -2
1985 NBA KEN 6 0 100 63 6 18 7 9 3 1 24 -13
Career 743 320 16268 7217 1347 3868 760 828 416 274 2302 45

Playoff Shooting Totals
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season FGM FGA FTM FTA 3PM 3PA
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1997 2 3 0 0 0 1
1994 50 77 13 20 3 5
1986 46 82 16 20 0 6
1985 24 40 12 16 3 6
Career 2933 5477 1153 1664 198 678

Playoff Efficiency:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season LGE TEAM G TS% PPS AST TO USG ORR DRR RR PER VA EWA +/- OEFF DEFF
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1997 FTB STL 1 .667 1.33 0.0 0.0 10.2 0.0 50.0 9.1 0.0 -2.1 -0.1 -7.0 91.3 121.7
1994 NBA CGO 11 .674 1.51 11.1 20.6 19.2 9.4 19.6 14.6 14.2 9.7 0.3 6.5 122.2 107.3
1986 NBA KEN 18 .593 1.32 13.8 16.2 19.4 10.5 15.2 12.8 13.0 5.3 0.2 -0.1 106.8 109.1
1985 NBA KEN 6 .681 1.58 11.1 14.3 23.0 8.2 14.3 11.5 16.8 7.8 0.3 -2.2 111.7 118.0
Career 743 .581 1.32 9.7 10.6 19.7 9.5 17.1 13.3 13.8 20.7 0.7 0.1 109.9 109.4

Career Highs:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Type Pts OReb Reb Ast Stl Blk TO FGM FGA FTM FTA 3PM 3PA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Playoff 26 4 14 3 2 3 6 11 15 5 8 2 2
Career 45 9 18 7 4 5 7 18 28 11 14 4 5

Awards & Achievements:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season Award
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total Player of the Game: 25
Total Player of the Week: 2
Total Player of the Month: 1
Total All-Star Appearances: 1
Total All-League Third Team : 1
1989 ACB All-League Third Team
1989 ACB All-Star
1988 ACB All-Rookie Second Team
1985 NBA All-Rookie Second Team
1985 NBA Rookie Game Participant
1984 1st Team All-Conference (Big Ten Conference)
1984 1st Team All-American
1983 2nd Team All-Conference (Big Ten Conference)
1982 Conference Freshman of the Year (Big Ten Conference)
1982 Freshman All-Conference (Big Ten Conference)
1982 1st Team All-Conference (Big Ten Conference)
1982 Freshman All-American
1982 2nd Team All-American
1981 High School: All-American
1981 High School: All-State (Kentucky)
1981 High School: Rated ***** and #2 overall by the FBCB scouting service.