Reaching the Summitt (FBCB)
 

So because I changed my FBCB to an entirely women's setup, I've never altered it for solo play. It's how I play now and I've almost become invested in it.

With Pat Summitt announcing her retirement today and someone mentioning the insanity of 1098 wins over a career, I was wondering what it would take to do what Tennessee has done in women's basketball.

Ironically in my ongoing dynasty I've been managing since 1941, Tennessee hasn't missed a tournament and are the most successful program in the game. But taking over that program would be too easy.

So rather than try to follow her legacy at UT, we're gonna pick a new program and create a coach who is the same age as Pat was when she took over UT and let said coach for 38 years at the same school. We'll compare their histories and while she'll never "BE" Pat, I think it'd just be a fun dynasty to compare the level of success and see if a program could manage to reach those heights accounting for the advantages financially and coaching-wise they'd need to match it.

Sue Charles will be the name of our 22-year old coach. She grew up tagging along with her dad, a successful high school coach who won multiple state titles. After her high school career ended, she enrolled in college and played D1 basketball at Wisconsin-Green Bay. She graduated early at age 20, because she was harboring the idea of going to graduate school to become a school psychologist.

"I was really done with basketball. Loved the game, but was sure I was done with it."

But when she enrolled at Nebraska State, she was made an offer she couldn't refuse upon graduation from her masters program. Word was out that she was still working out and that many of the players -- male and female -- were using her to work them out. "I told her she could be our assistant coach. She thought about it for about fifteen minutes and realized that she'd never get an opportunity like that so soon again and with that, she was on our squad," said athletic director Pete "Skippy" Bitterman.

But before the first game of the season, head coach Mark Altshull suffered a debilitating stroke that rendered him incapacitated and unable to start the year. The responsibility fell on the staff to serve in his stead, but Bitterman thought not twice about making the 22-year old Charles his interim head coach.

"We were a new program in D1 and really didn't know who wanted to get. Anyone's who's ever met her felt like she was gonna be a coach someday. I thought it'd be good for her to get the experience that might serve her well down the road..."

With that, Sue Charles and the Pronghorns of Nebraska State University in Kearney were apt to join Division 1 after years at the D2 level.

Nebraska State (Real life: Nebraska-Kearney) is located on I-80 in Kearney, Nebraska. It's essentially the state university of western nebraska. What's ironic and unplanned about the selection of bringing this D2 school to D1 is that in my current solo dynasty that we'll be continuing for this one (And if you read the old Cambridge FBCB girls dynasty with muns, still the same file) is that Nebraska in the Big Ten has become a successful program.

The Lady Huskers have been successful under their own young coach, 28-year old Lily Aguilar who in her 3rd year took the team to the NCAA Finals, defying all expectations and so..basketball renaissance is going on in the state in the women's game.

The idea here is for Nebraska State to capitalize on this success.

The Pronghorns are going to spend at least their first two seasons as an independent. Not sure what conference they'll end up in after that, but we'll figure it out.

Rules of Engagement
 

So I'm going to try to balance between being too much of a stat dump, but I don't want to wax poetic either. So I think we'll probably focus on each season as it happens, focus on recruiting and just realize that the goal is to build a winner here and that she's going to get the resources to do that. We're trying to win 1000 games, we're not trying to suck perpetually.

With that in mind, my scheduling for the first year is to go after wins and not worry about much else. We'll get an entire squad of walkons, of course. There won't be a lot of money to spend since we're an independent to start and so, we'll just go after players that can help us win and then try to build slowly from there.

I'll be creating recruits of course, with the hopes that the infused talent can possibly land in our laps but really...the goal is to build fast a la South Dakota State in real life..but on steroids.

So I'll run through the first seasons with a schedule, talk about recruiting and then recap the season's tournament. If there's specific information you want to know (e.g. anything random or stuff like who she marries, ha.) then you can ask and I'll put it out there otherwise I'm just gonna blaze through this before I get discouraged and/or bored.

1999-2000 SEASON PREVIEW
 

We loaded up on transfers, hoping to scratch out the best squad we could honestly. Pat had it easier even though she was doing the laundry of her first team. Luckily, Sue has a student manager for that.

I will say the empty cupboard experience is fun. You get 13 scholarships from Day 1 and then the walkons come after that. So you get to really fill out your roster if you want with whoever is available, not saying that many/all of them are quality, but it's a pretty sweet scenario to start off with.

That said, I made the miscalculation of getting way too many freshman and so we're gonna be a young team with a young coach.

Here's the roster:


Gidley is a former 3-star recruit who transferred from Florida and Ramsey transferred from Virginia Tech and is the player I expect we'll run the offense through this year as she's a horse. Our walkons won't factor much, but we'll come into next year with a few schollys to offer up, but with us being independent for the next two years at least, we'll probably be slim pickins until we can get somewhere more permanent.

When it came hiring coaches, the idea was to save enough money for recruiting, since we knew there was no way that we'd really be able to get anyone out of this world. The idea was to get experience since our coach was so young. Not sure they are folks we'll keep around for the long haul, so I won't even introduce you. ;)

Financially, the program is in decent shape though with a total budget of $368k. That's solid for a mid-major in this universe, as it's more than any of the other independents are spending, more than Nebraska-Omaha and would essentially put us near par with spending the Summit League or the WAC, which is about what I was hoping for to begin with.

Our first year schedule is, like I said, loaded with teams that would give us games and not much more than that. We were happy to get a few games against in-state teams that everyone knows. If you'd like a future game against a program you know, feel free to ask and I'll try to make it happen.

I realize the schedule is frontloaded. Also an accident of having to schedule so many games at once. But so it goes. There are some "money games" early on purposely to simulate what real life might be like.

THE FIRST CLASS (1999-2002) Pt. 1
 

Going into the 1st year, it was obvious that we knew that Coach Summitt never had a losing season. So I was trying to schedule with that in mind, hoping that Coach Charles would have a potentially similar fate. The world is a lot more competitive now than it was in the early 70s for women's basketball, but I still tried to set things up to provide her with the most success possible.

Luckily, there are a lot more teams now and so..it was a lot easier to setup a schedule that would give us something to work with and the team of transfers seemed to get the job done led by our two standouts.

I think the easiest way to do this dynasty is to just recap each four-year class. That way, I don't have to do the stat dump thing and can instead just focus on performance and highlight anyone that's worth talking about.

So with that, let's recap Coach Charles First Class (1999-2002)

1999-2000
First season in D1 for the program and Nebraska State didn't miss a beat from its D2 days, going a surprising 23-7 in the regular season. Despite key losses, the squad played some tough competition early in the year which gave them a strong (inflated?) RPI and helped the school to its first postseason appearance in the bigs. The Pronghorns earned a #4 seed in the West region of the WNIT.

WNIT 1st Round: (4) Nebraska State 97, (5) Western Michigan 67
WNIT 2nd Round: (1) Drexel 80, (4) Nebraska State 75

So the first season ends with a record of 24-8. Coach Summitt went 16-8 in her first season, giving Coach Charles a 6 game lead to start her career.

No #1 seeds made the NCAA Final Four that year. (3) Houston beat (3) Mississippi State in one semi-final and (2) Tennessee beat (2) Notre Dame in the other one. Houston beat Tennessee in the national championship. It's their 4th title in program history, but the first one they'd won since 1973.

2000-2001
Our recruiting class was ranked #95th in the nation, inking four three-star recruits including the best player in Nebraska, Ximena Lafreniere.

We will be independent again this season, but have a short list of conferences that we might be interested in. They include the Summit League, Big Sky Conference and the fictional Blue Sky Conference comprised of schools I created (some were suggested by people here) and the Western Athletic Conference.

Depending on which league we join, there's a possibility we'll be able to start in our new conference as early as next season, otherwise we'll be two years away. I have divested control of recruiting for the time being, mostly because it's time-consuming and I want to sim years not be bogged down trying to find the best players for the team, plus this first group of kids are so young that there aren't many scholarships for a bit anyway.

Down the road, I'll be adding potential recruits to deepen the Nebraska pool but I haven't done that yet.

SEASON RESULTS
So this year was a bit different than last as the games were backloaded since I scheduled a bunch of home and home series purposely. So it added a different complexion to our late schedule and might have cost us a few wins.

We ended the 2nd regular season at 26-5, but firmly outside of the Bubble Watch’s predictions for the tournament, mostly due to a strength of schedule that was 361st in the nation (though our RPI was 78) and so it looked like another trip to the NIT for Coach Charles and the Pronghorns. But despite that, we were making a name for the program and people were noticing the little engines that could from Western Nebraska. That was the goal all along and sets the table for what we hope were future successes.

In the 2000 NIT, we were the #3 seed in the South Region.
WNIT 1st Round: Nebraska State 67, Carolina State 53
WNIT 2nd Round: New Mexico State 95, Nebraska State 92

So for the 2nd straight year, we make a departure in the second round of the WNIT. We end the 2000-01 season with a final record of 27-6. Wake Forest beat Georgetown in the WNIT.

In the NCAA Final Four, (1) Notre Dame beat (1) Washington and (5) Iowa knocked off (3) Nebraska to face off in the final, which was won by Notre Dame, their 3rd title overall, the last coming in 1996.

With no scholarships to give this year, there won’t be a recruiting class. But maybe that’s a good thing while the conference situation gets figured out anyway.


Ava Ramsey is coming off a season were she was National Freshman of the Year and a 3rd team All-American. Not bad for a player that didn’t fit at Virginia Tech. This season, she’s a 2nd-team All-American and really the only reason this team is nearly as good as it is. Topping her was Iain Gidley, who at the center position was a 1st-team All-America. This surprised me, but anytime you get a recruit from Florida I suppose it’s a good thing.


2001-2002
Season three starts with the decision on a conference. Our options are 1) Summit League 2) Big Sky and 3) Western Athletic Conference. We could probably win the WAC right now with our current squad, but it’s a pretty down on its luck league and we’re not sure what that’ll do for our SOS and so forth. The Big Sky is probably a better fit and the Summit League is the best fit. The problem with the latter of the three is largely that we’d end up being in the same conference as Nebraska-Omaha and that might hurt recruiting because we’ll both essentially be playing for the same possible tourney bid each year.

In the end, the decision was made to join the WAC. We will become members of the WAC effective this season. Hooray, we’re in a conference!

The WAC’s membership in this universe is comprised of:

New Mexico State
Idaho
Texas State
Utah Valley
UT-San Antonio
Southern Utah
Alaska Anchorage
Boise State
Texas-Pan American
Sacramento State
Denver

Last year, Utah Valley won the conference tournament and was a 16 seed. New Mexico State who beat us in the WNIT were the regular season champ going 16-2 in the conference. The AD raised $17k to put our budget over to $461k. That puts us as the top budget program in the WAC which isn’t saying much but is pretty nice in the grand scheme of things. With two players on our roster who are among the best in the nation, we’re hoping for a tournament appearance. Anything less would probably be a disappointment.

We’ll finally have two scholarships to use for recruiting freshman, as two of the players I initially recruited will be seniors this year. What’s even more interesting is the motherload of players that we’ll lose in two years -- SEVEN -- we’ll really have to rebuild the team then. We’re hoping that we can have enough success in the next two years to warrant having a club to really build.

Here’s our roster for the upcoming year sans any walkons we get:

2001-2002 SEASON RESULTS

Into the 3rd season, the Pronghorns were not newbies into their new conference going 21-9 (14-2, WAC) and claiming the #1 seed in the WAC tournament. They steamrolled through the tournament knocking off Alaska-Anchorage and Texas State to set a date with Sacramento State for a bid to the NCAAs. Nebraska State knocked off the Hornets 100-85 and claimed their first WAC title.

We're going to the dance! Coach Charles matches Pat Summitt's record going to the tourney in her 3rd season, as the Vols finished 3rd at the AIAW in Coach Summitt's 3rd season.

The Pronghorns are the #13th seed in the Midwest region and have a date scheduled with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish (26-6), the defending National Champs and have made back to back Final Fours. No small feat.

NCAA 1st Round: Notre Dame 84, Nebraska State 66

With the loss to Notre Dame, we end the year at 24-10.

In the Final Four, 10th seed Towson performed the upset winning the Midwest region and faced off against in-state Maryland, the 4th seed out of the East Region. In the other semi-final 1-seed Mississippi State beat 4th seeded Florida in an all-SEC semi. Mississippi State beat Maryland in the title game to win their 2nd overall and first since 1978.

2002-03 SEASON RECAP
 

In Year 4, we’re taking the training wheels off and we’re going to schedule much tougher opponents. Coach Summitt was known for scheduling tough regular season games and while our conference can’t match the SEC, we’re going to go out and find tough non-conference in the interim.

We went into this season with seven scholarships. It’s going to be a real adventure replacing all of those spots on the roster, but I’m going to see what we can do to fill as many as possible, though leaving us a bit of space might be nice. Not sure we’ll get any of our targets, but we’ll try. So far, the problem is that top recruits would rather go play for Wyoming -- we’ve lost so many kids to them -- and Nebraska isn’t yet producing the kinds of recruits we can really use in our program, though I always go after the best players in NE, SD, ND, MN and even Missouri. Wyoming produces even less than we do, so they have to dominate the region and do. Titles will do that for you though. So we’ve been having to hit overseas kids because they’re less biased against us, except it’s expensive to recruit lots of those kids. It seems like the right tactic to build this program up though.

Since we’re about to lose two of our standouts, I’ll start to chronicle a Pronghorn Hall of Fame so that we can recap the best players to ever done the Blue and White.

SEASON RECAP
Seems this year, we were the Murray State of our league. It also coincided with the emergence of point guard Sophia Foster who transferred from George Washington. The former 2-star recruit from Florida has done extremely well for us in her senior year, but has always been a quiet scorer putting up double digits in all four years she’s been here and was 2nd-team All-WAC last year.

We ended the regular season at 28-1 (15-1 in the WAC) and so, now it’s conference tourney time. Our schedule was not as strong as I thought it was gonna be. We were actually 335th in SOS this year. Our RPI was 26 at the end of the WAC tournament which culminated with a 54-41 win over UT-Pan American to claim our second straight WAC title and to again make the NCAAs.








Hilariously, we’re the #2 seed in the South Region and our first game? Against Summitt’s alma-mater UT-Martin.

NCAA 1st round: Nebraska State 71, Tennessee-Martin (22-11) 53
NCAA 2nd round Nebraska State 68, 10th seed VCU (25-10) 57


In the Sweet 16, we lucked out in the sense that there were upsets. #14 MTSU knocked off defending champion Mississippi State in the 1st round and 11th seed Clemson pummeled Stanford and so, we knew we’d end up with a low-seeded team in our first Sweet 16.

NCAA Regional Semi-final Nebraska State 85, MTSU 56 (25-11)
NCAA South Region Final Nebraska State 80, SE Louisiana 69 (28-8)

With a trip to the Final Four on the line, the upsets kept coming as we focused against 9-seed SE Louisiana who beat #1 North Carolina State in the Round of 32 and then knocked off #5 seed UConn in the Sweet 16. These kids are not going joking around.

The club was starting three seniors, but wasn’t enough to stop the Pronghorns from making their first Final Four. It’s an astounding ascent for a team that was made up largely of cast-offs from other programs and it’s setting the stage for bringing Nebraska State into the big time.

For once, I’m recapping the Final Four from being in it rather than just talking about the other teams. In this year’s Final Four we have two 3-seeds in Florida (27-8) and St. John’s (30-8) and we’ll be pitted against West region champ, 6-seed Iowa (29-8) in the other semi. Iowa’s current class lost in the title game two years ago and lost in the Elite Eight last year. They are battle tested and ready. Florida is making back to back Final Four appearances, while St. John’s is in the Final Four for the first time since 1944.

We are a team with SEVEN seniors, so naturally we're extremely experienced. That's surely why this is going so well. We have four players scoring in double figures, we rebound well and while in the earlier years Ava Ramsey was our dominating player, we've got a lot of contributions now.

FINAL FOUR
Nebraska State 83, Iowa 73


In the Final, we will face St. John's who were in the Final the last time they made the Final Four.

2002-03 NATIONAL TITLE GAME



Coach Summit made her first Final Four (if you count AIAW, which I do) in her 3rd season. It took Coach Charles until her 4th to do it. But in her 1st try, she won a national title. It was an unlikely ascent for the Pronghorns, but the real question is whether this is a flash in the pan fueled by aggressive recruiting and a lot of luck (and senior-laden roster) or whether they'll be able to sustain it over time.

I'm probably going to speed things up a bit.

This is fun

2003-04 SEASON RECAP
 

This year was most certainly a tougher schedule than the program had ever seen before. That's how it's going to roll now, purposely so that the wins aren't as easy to come by especially playing in the WAC.

When you lose seven seniors, you're going to have to come back and have a much tougher year the next season and 2003-04 was precisely that for the Pronghorns. Coupled with a much harder schedule to boot, this was going to be the year where Coach Charles came back down to earth.

The Pronghorns were the #2 seed in the WAC tournament after going 18-13 in the regular season. It'll take running the table in the tourney to get back to the NCAAs after last year's success.

We lost to Texas State 78-77 in the WAC semis, which means we'll be headed to a craptastic tournament since we weren't the regular season champ in the WAC.

Sure enough, we're headed to the A4 tournament as a 12th seed, which isn't really indicative of anything specific, that tournament will place regular season teams in no-bid leagues ahead of us and low-seeds always do well in that tourney. Not that we will, just indicating what it means.

A4 1st Round: Nebraska State 91, (5) St. Francis-PA (20-11) 89
A4 2nd Round: Nebraska State 74, (4) Hetfield (20-11) 68
A4 Semi-Finals: Nebraska State 69, (9) Fairfield (20-13) 60
A4 Championship: (3) Davidson (24-11) 90, Fairfield 73

In the A4 title game, we lost to Davidson ending the year at 22-15.

In the NCAAs this year, the Final Four was comprised of (9) Tennessee, (7) SMU, (3) Butler and (4) California.

In the national championship, SMU beat Cal. SMU won the WNIT last year and it was their first national championship.

After five years, Pat Summitt had a .759 win percentage. After five years, Sue Charles has a .770 win percentage. She's ahead with 1 national title, had coached 9 All-Americans and has two conference titles to Pat's 1 at this point.

Sue Charles won't match her streak of 38 straight tournament (AIAW/NCAA) appearances, since the Pronghorns missed the NCAAs their 1st two years and missed against this year.

The 2003 recruiting class was ranked #40, the highest in program history and the only WAC program in the Top 50 (or Top 100, for that matter) and it included two four-star recruits for the first time, too.

The administration is getting restless with the WAC, feeling we've clearly outgrown it and have begun shopping for a new home for the program.

The options are:

Summit League (prestige: 2)
Horizon League (prestige: 3)
Major Conference (prestige: 4)

The Major is a mid-major superconference I formed to bring a bunch of mid-major teams that were having a ton of league success together years ago. It's probably the most tempting of the three because it'd be most like an SEC-like environment for the program. We'd also never leave. The difference is, we'll get roasted in that league.

The members are currently: (prestige)

VCU (88)
Butler (69)
Vermont (59)
Wyoming (90)
Drexel (70)
Xavier (53)
Rice (60)
Rocky Mount State (50)
BYU (50)
Gonzaga (41)
Cambridge (57)

If you read the old Cambridge dynasty, you'll know they're still around here with new coaches. Wyoming is a juggernaut thorn in our side and other programs are no joke either. It's a tough league night in and night out.

So with that as the bar, I think it's probably the best destination for the Pronghorns. We'll be moving to the MAJOR Conference. Financially, we compete well with those programs as our budget is actually bigger than theirs and yet, those teams still have lots of national success.

Anyway, we'll spend one more year in the WAC before making that move.

Thanks!

2004-05 SEASON RECAP

This season was easily the worst of Sue Charles career. After a 16-14 regular season and going 10-6 in the WAC (tied for 2nd with a bunch of other teams...everyone just beat up on each other this year) they had to play a play-in game in the WAC tournament.

Despite that, the team put their game faces on and managed to beat Southern Utah, Texas State, Sacramento State and Utah Valley (the latter as the 10th seed who were on a huge run of their own at 10-23) to claim the WAC tournament title and with it, their 3rd NCAA bid in 4 years.

SEASON RESULTS


The Pronghorns were a 14-seed in the South Region.

NCAA TOURNAMENT
1st round: #3 Towson (28-5) W, 81-67
2nd round: #6 San Jose State (26-9) W, 77-69
Sweet 16: #2 Oklahoma State (26-7) L, 72-58

So we fall in the Sweet 16. Not bad for a team that really had no regular season business being in the tournament at all. But we clicked at the right time and behind the efforts of Wyoming transfer Harper Cromer (C) and 4-star recruit Gracia Leon (SG) we were able to maximize and really it's a nice foundation for what we'll possibly be able to do next year.

With only one scholarship, we probably won't be bringing anyone in to impact things -- no freshman signed during the early period -- but we're still pleased at the end result as we head to what's going to a bloodbath of a conference next year.

If you hadn't noticed, I just update the season results for the coach in the first post. So if you just wanna see how close she's getting to 1098, you can do that up there.

In the Final Four this year, it was 1) Tennessee, 5) UNC, 2) Nebraska and 5) Rutgers. Tennessee beat Rutgers to claim their 7th title in school history.

2005-06 Season Recap
 

With a few Top 100 recruiting classes under the belt, the Pronghorns are hoping for big things, especially after last year's surprising Sweet 16 run.

This was buoyed by the school's first 5-star recruit:


It was a much better year for the Pronghorns upon joining the Major Conference. Rather than play down to the competition, the ladies blossomed in a big way.

After a 25-6 regular season, Nebraska State lost to Vermont in the conference semi-finals. Wyoming went on to beat the Catamounts to claim the conference tournament title. Despite that, the Pronghorns who went into Selection Sunday ranked 6th in the nation will surely be in the tourney this year.

We are the #4 seed in the Midwest Region.

NCAA TOURNAMENT
1st round: (13) IUPUI, W 98-59
2nd round: (5) California, W 91-74 Gracia Leon put up 43 points in this game. She is an absolute machine.
Sweet 16: (1) Nebraska, L 77-55

When I saw this matchup, I thought the AI had a huge sense of humor. This is obviously the first playoff matchup between the cross-state rivals. Nebraska is still the top dog in the dog park, but the Pronghorns and the state faithful view this as the chance to finally topple the dragon at the top of the mountain.

Not this year, though. Nebraska pummels us and we end the year at 29-8. Still another strong season for the club and with a 5-star and a 4-star recruit coming next year, one has to expect big things for a program that's continually on the rise.

In the Final Four, we had (1) Nebraska, (8) Georgetown, (1) NC State and (3) Notre Dame. The title was won by Notre Dame over Georgetown. It's Notre Dame's 4th title overall and their 3rd since 1996. Notre Dame has only missed the tournament once in school history (1946) for what it's worth and their head coach was actually Nebraska old head coach.

Emeka Iwu was named National Freshman of the Year. Gracia Leon was a 1st team All-American.

Here's the roster for next season:

COACHING TREE
 

The following are members of the Sue Charles Coaching Tree as head coaches:

Frederique Rigsby, UNLV
Emily Grande, UCLA
Addison Tran, Louisville
Madison Glass, Ohio State
Isabella Slover, Scottsbluff State
Gianna Ramey, Kansas
Juliana Poling, Northern Illinois
Grace Bassett, Green Bay
Allison Nelson, San Francisco
Dayana Powell, North Dakota
Ella Walter, Wyoming State
Chloe Arsenault, Cal State-Northridge
Chaya Bergin, Hawaii
Ally Ison, Nebraska-Omaha
Skylar Denton, Yellowstone
Marie Hunley, Bethune-Cookman
Alyssa Duty, Brown
Addison Murray, Wichita State
Maddy Neely, Louisiana-Monroe
Gabrielle Jackson, Cambridge
Andee Hooper, Northern Illinois
Juliette Chaplin, Holy Cross
Aiyana Taylor, Milwaukee
Abbigail McGehee, Chicago
Julia Brinkley, UMKC
Sarah Fowler, IPFW
Halyee Murray, UTEP
Alison Fisher, Rutgers
Claire Nichols, UConn
Amy Lewis, TAMU-CC
Rachel Cole, Nebraska State
Emily Jones, CSU-San Fernando Valley

As new assistants go on to be head coaches, I'll add them to the list mostly so that I can keep count for the very end, since as coaches eventually retire the game won't keep an accurate count. If people leave these jobs or get fired, I won't edit. The idea is just to see how many of her former assistants went on to be head coaches in the future.

2006-2007 SEASON RECAP
 

So to start Coach Charles 8th season, we lost to Cosby, an independent team 71-70. I suppose flukes do happen. But after that? Well...let's just say it was a long year of the different sort.

When you have three lottery picks on your roster, it can be a game changer and for us, the game has indeed changed.

Fueled by Garcia Leon's 24.2 PPG and the tandem of Emeka Iwu (15.0 PPG, 6.4 RPG) and Lily Thompson (6.3 APG, 13.7 PPG), the Pronghorns were unstoppable through the regular season.

The Major Conference thing has worked out better than I anticipated, but because we've risen to the occasion not because the competition has wilted.

After a perfect regular season in the conference (28-1, 16-0) we had to get through the conference tournament to a likely 1-seed, a team first. They accomplished the task with aplomb and went into the tournament 31-1.

We were the #1 seed in the West Region.

NCAA TOURNAMENT
1st round: 16 Bucknell, W 86-66
Just a programming note, South region #2 seed Nebraska lost to 15-seed Grambling State 86-83
2nd round: 8 Clemson, W 80-63
Sweet 16: 4 Arkansas, L, 104-84

And with that, the dream season ends! Very disappointing as I thought this was surely the year we were going to go all the way after so much success. But for the 3rd straight year we lost in the Sweet 16.

In the Final Four:

4) Arkansas, 3) Mississippi State, 1) Purdue, 2) St. John's.

Purdue beat St. John's in the title game. It was their first title in school history.

After eight seasons, Pat Summit had been to 1 NCAA Final Four and had a career record of 197-58 (.772)

After eight years, Sue Charles has a career record of 218-65 (.770) and has been to one NCAA Final Four.

you should join the Big 10 and terrorize Nebraska your conference is too easy.

2007-2008 SEASON
 

There are at least two more players headed to the Pronghorn Hall of Fame after this year. The real question is whether this season will be the year Nebraska State gets past the Sweet 16?

We'll be losing six seniors this year and I'm letting the AI do all of the recruiting, so whoever we end up with will be at the behest of our computer overlord. One has to think that with three lottery picks on our roster -- easily the best team on paper in school history -- we'll have to do better this year. But we'll have to see how it all flops out.

The schedule is a bit of a mixed bag. Some challenging games, but also some games we ought to win. I won't bog down these threads with extraneous details unless someone is dying to see them.

Nebraska State ended the regular season 26-2, going 16-0 in the Major. Their two losses came against Top 25 opponents vs. Illinois and at Rutgers. We won the conference tournament title over 10th seeded Gonzaga. Will this be the year we make it back to the Final Four? Will it be considered a huge disappointment if we don't? I'd like to think so, given the talent we'll be losing after this year.

We're the #1 seed in the West region.

NCAA TOURNAMENT
1st round: 16) Ball State, W 101-69
2nd round: 8) Arkansas W, 78-54
Sweet 16: 5) Purdue W, 72-63
Elite 8: 10) Iowa State L, 91-86

With a trip to the Final Four on the line, we lost...to a 10th seeded Iowa State team that was on a hellbent path to the Final Four.

I don't even know what to say. It's just really disappointing. We end the year at 33-3.

There were two double digit seeds in this year's Final Four. Iowa State faced Illinois, a 2-seed. In the other semi, it was 1-seed Mississippi State and 11-seed South Florida. In the final, Iowa State became the highest seed to ever win the national title, knocking off Mississippi State.

What a season.

PRONGHORN HALL OF FAME
 

#21 Iain Gidley (1999-2002)
#20 Ava Ramsey (1999-2002)
#12 Gracia Leon (2004-07)
#32 Emeka Iwu (2005-08)
#0 Alyssa Duty (2008-2011)
#11 Lorena Geary (2009-2012)
#13 Nadziejan Adamicz (2012-2015)
#26 Daniella Cook (2014-2017)
#0 Matilda Wandering Soul (2014-2017)
#10 Rosalina Guerrero (2015-2018)
#53 Brooklyn Winburn (2015-2018)
#31 Izabella Morgan (2019-2022)
#31 Aiyana Taylor (2023-2026)
#23 Alexis Shedd (2023-2026)
#5 Skylar Ramos (2027-2030)
#33 Dulce Chavez (2028-2031)

If we had D1 football, I'd make the move. But no way that's happening in a state where the Huskers are kings. So yeah, we can't go there. I'd like to do it for the competitive reasons but I don't think it makes sense.

2008-09 SEASON RECAP
 

A diminished schedule left us firmly on the bubble at the time of the Major Conference tournament. We finished the regular season 22-7 and needed a few conference tourney wins to solidify what was a near bid to the tournament.

We lost in the conference quarters to Butler. The Major Conference tourney is way earlier than any other leagues and so, the fact that we won't play for several weeks before Selection Sunday could push us out. We'll be 23-8 for the committee, our RPI is 26 and SOS is 69. It should be a good enough resume to put us over the top, but...it's anyone's guess what'll happen.

We will be moving to the Missouri Valley Conference next year. While it's technically a step down (a 4 prestige from the Major's 5 now) the budgets are actually higher in that conference than the league we're in now and our budget went down when we switched conferences which I didn't see coming and that annoyed me. Plus, I just think it'd be better for the program to be in a league with regional rivals rather than a random assortment of programs. So it gives us all of the competitive advantages of the Major Conference with more money to spend. Seems like a win-win.

So much for staying, I know. Well, as it turns out after this season I just dissolved the Major Conference and sent all of the teams back to where they came from. It frees up an auto-bid, which is good and it enables those teams to go back to doing what they were doing before -- in theory -- and that's being successful in their respective leagues rather than beating up on each other.

NCAA TOURNAMENT
We were awarded the 10th seed in the West Region. So the streak continues in spite of ourselves. Can we go on an Iowa State-like run towards to the title? Probably not, but let's see what happens.

1st round: (7) Houston, W 70-64
2nd round: (2) UCLA, L 84-64

And with that, we're out. But not especially shocking given that the team wasn't really playing especially well. So we end the year at 24-9. The team loses just one senior, albeit an influential one in Emeka Iwu, but...there's a lot to be hopeful for.

In this year's Final Four, UCLA knocked off UNC (also a 2-seed) and in the other semi-final, Tennessee, the lone top seed to make the Final Four beat Purdue. In the title game, Tennessee claimed their 8th national championship over UCLA. It's worth noting -- I just found this out -- that the head coach of that UCLA team? Former Nebraska State assistant Emily Grande who was in her first year after three years at San Diego. So the coaching tree continues to grow, branch out and succeed at a high level.

Going into the 2009-10 season, it's already 11 seasons into the career of Coach Charles. It has been a largely successful campaign for her, as she's established Nebraska State as a player on the women's college basketball scene. But as we've learned, titles are not gimmies no matter who you are.

This year's roster lacks size and doesn't really have the depth we're accustomed to seeing. But after a few years of good yields in recruiting, this is probably the most complete team we've ever had in terms of a starting five.

Loretta Geary is a transfer from NC State, who was #3 in her class overall. This five-star recruit somehow fell into our laps and we couldn't be happier. After losing Iwu, having a third cog to complement Hunley and Duty will probably make us a lot better off.

We don't expect to have huge problems with the MVC this year, but we'll have to bulk up the schedule to compensate for the drop in weight class and it'll be during the non-conference that we can really see whether this team will be able to tourney tested or not.

2009-2010 SEASON
 

Ok, so the 2009-10 season was a new one for us playing in the Missouri Valley. We had a few injuries earlier in the year that kept us from maximizing things, but in the end, we went 11-5 in the conference and won the conference tournament.

Our overall record heading into the tourney was 26-7 and we were ranked 8th in the nation. Despite that, we ended up getting a low seed in the NCAAs, we were a 10-seed in the West region.

The team was led by senior Marie Hunley, our first 5-star recruit who felt some pressure to really get us over this hump of playoff flameouts. She was bolstered by the dynamic sophomore Alyssa Duty, a 5-star nab we took out of Kansas which in my mind singled our ascent into the upper echelon of midwest programs.

1st round: 7) SMU, W 84-65
2nd round: 2) Florida, W 69-56
Sweet 16: 3) Rutgers, W 76-74
Elite 8: 1) USC L, 76-66

With that, another year on the doorstep of the Final Four and we couldn't get the job done. We end the year at 29-8. We have a strong class replacing Hunley and another senior, so I'm pleased with what we'll be doing next year but...it's unfortunate we didn't have the pieces we needed to really get over the hump. Still, we squeezed a lot of out not a ton with a smaller rotation and not the depth we've had in the past.

Final Four: 1) USC 3) Arizona State 2) Cal 2) Nebraska

Cal beat USC 74-73 in the national title game.

In case you were wondering, Nebraska has four Final Fours since Nebraska State joined Division 1 and five overall (they made the title game the year before we moved up)

Our recruiting class for next year? #3 in the nation, our highest ever. Our only real pro prospect from the outset is the junior Alyssa Duty. But we'll have a nice core to work with, which isn't something we've had in a while with some real horses at each position and less undersized than we've been too in recent years.

2010-2011 SEASON RECAP
 

Those dominant Pronghorns you know and love are back with aplomb kids.



We're the #1 seed in the Midwest Region. Will this be the year, in Coach Charles 12th year that we'll reach the promised land? For context, the girls on our roster are insane. Geary was rated #3 in her class, Jones #28, Duty was rated #11th, Fillmore #40, Roundy #53 and Carden was #70. The only one we'll be losing of that five is Carden, but we have THREE top 100 recruits redshirting right now (that's our class from last year that was rated 3rd and I might be ending up with a few more recruits to add to that list, to fill out our bench.)

The point is? We're at the point where we're starting to expect to win, not just be happy to be there. Too much money and energy is being invested in the program now for us to do anything other than 1) Beat the Huskers 2) Win championships.

NCAA TOURNAMENT 2010-11
1st round: 16) Loyola-IL, W 111-49
2nd round: 9) Purdue, W, 75-74
Sweet 16: 12) UT-San Antonio, W 80-71
Elite 8: 3) Georgetown, L 75-66

A programming note. For the first time that I've ever noticed, a 16 seed beat a 1 seed. Austin Peay beat UConn 75-74 in the East Region.

We end the year at 35-2. I suppose the bright side is, we're bringing almost the entire team back and our eight-man rotation will be waaaaaay deeper than it's ever been in the 12th years that Coach Charles has run the program.

2010 FINAL FOUR: 3) LSU 3) Florida 3) Georgetown 7) Towson

LSU beat Towson 88-77 in the national title game. It's their first championship.

After 12 seasons, Coach Charles is 339-87 with a win pct of .796. She's now 34 years old. I haven't decided if we'll change her name if she gets married off yet, but feel free to make some suggestions, since Coach Summit was originally Coach Head, after all. ;) Season 13 is when Pat won her 1st title. Sue has already one under her belt, but we're getting to the point in her career where Pat did extremely well. From Season 13 through 25, she made eight Final Fours and won six titles.

So we'll really get to see how much Coach Charles compares as we get through the next decade or so.

What do you all think so far?

2011-12 SEASON PREVIEW
 

So we've caught up to the real world now. We'll have seven scholarships going into this year, since last year's recruiting didn't really go as well as I'd hoped. We'll lose the dynamic Alyssa Duty this year, as well as three other key role players. The other three scholies are freed up from us cutting some walkons I'd been carrying.

The one thing that I think has separated this program from others is our lack of depth. We could never really run a full eight-man rotation because our role players are near walkon quality the past few years or transfers with serious flaws. So even with 3 or 4 blue chippers we weren't able to hang with programs that boasted super deep ballteams.

The hope is after this year, we can get closer to that position perhaps with a few transfers to fill out a roster of 3-4 blue chip recruits.

With this as the 13th year, we naturally want to claim a title. Missing the Final Four again is going to be a huge disappointment. Two of our assistant coaches left for Head Coaching jobs and were replaced and the hope is the new coaching staff will help move things along a bit.

2011-12 SEASON RECAP
 

After a strong regular season that ended 29-1 with a 16-0 regular season, the Pronghorns lost to Drake in the MVC semi-finals which cost the team a #1 seed for sure. But after the way the past few years have gone down, maybe that's for the best.

1st round: 13) UAB, W 100-59
2nd round: 5) Stanford, L 88-83

Season ends with a record of 31-3. Winning is harder than it looks, folks.

I think there's a 95% chance we're going to change conferences too. We just need to be challenged, because racking up victories in crap conferences isn't good for the challenge of trying to be Pat. I think the Big 12 is going to come calling after this year.

Final Four: 9) Providence, 4) St. John's 4) Pittsburgh 1) Towson

Pitt beat St. John's in the title game. It was their first title.

2012-13 NEBRASKA STATE ROSTER
 

Here's the Pronghorns 2012-13 Roster for your persual. We're drawing from all over the place.

2012-13 SEASON RECAP
 

The first year in the Big 12 was a success. Not only did it help us, but Wyoming ended up winning the Missouri Valley and will make their first tournament appearance since 2005.

We won the Big 12 tournament and headed into the tournament at 29-3. We were the #1 seed in the Midwest region. In contrast to past teams, this team was very well balanced offensively and otherwise. And I'd struggle to attach the "star" pin onto any of the women specifically. They're a pretty cohesive unit and our rotation is pretty deep all the way down the bench for the most part. It's weird having a 4-star kid you can insert playing 8th, 9th or 10th in the rotation. It's quite the luxury.


We are the #1 seed in the Midwest region in this year's tournament.

NCAA TOURNAMENT
1st round: 16) North Dakota, W (97-66)
2nd round: 8) Nebraska, W (91-81)
THE COMPUTER HAS A SENSE OF HUMOR
Sweet 16: 4) Oklahoma State, W (100-65)
We split the season series with these guys, with each team winning at each team's respective home. Now at a neutral site? I'm not sure what to expect to be honest. But as it turns out, it wasn't anything to worry about. Our girls were ready for the task.
Elite 8: 6) Portland, (94-78)

And with that win, Nebraska State will head to our first Final Four in 10 years!

FINAL FOUR: 2) Tennessee, (95-87)

Other semi-final: 2) Iowa v. 1) North Carolina, (North Carolina W, 104-95)

So we're back in the title game for the first time in a decade. UNC last won a title in 1986, so we're both fighting droughts, though they've made every tournament since then. Their roster boasts two sophomore stars in Emmy Rosenberg and Ekwueme Saro-Wiwe, the latter would be the 1st pick in the draft we let players leave early in this league (we don't, since the WNBA doesn't...)

The programs have played once in history and we won that lone meeting. I feel confident that we can win this, we have a lot of weapons to throw at them, but it's hard to say.

If Pat's advantage was that she coached during the nascent stages of the NCAA and prior, then Sue's advantage is that she's coached in an era where 30-win seasons are theoretically easier to come by as an elite team.

With the squad only losing one senior (Lorena Geary) one has to fear the 'Horns next year and perhaps the year after, as again there will only be one player lost next year too.

Scary proposition, especially when you consider the 3 redshirts who'll see action this coming year. It makes you start to understand how to build a program that constantly reloads a la a UConn or Tennessee in real life. I'd see them operate in the game, but never really understood how it happens myself since I'd never built an elite program from the ground up before.

But now that I'm watching it happen, it's sort of fun (also, completely insane) how these things come together and even as they recruit Top 10 class after Top 10 class, you see how hard it is to claim titles year after year.

So with that, let's get to Season 15.

2013-14 SEASON RECAP
 

Imagine if Kentucky had brought back their entire Starting 5...for four years straight. Essentially, we're doing some variation of this and it didn't occur to me until now how sort of ridiculous that is. But that's the scoop here.

The expectations couldn't be higher and the real test is going to be whether the women can rise to the occasion or whether Nebraska State will wilt until the pressure.

The regular season ended with a #2 seed in the Big 12 tourney, but the Pronghorns rolled through the tournament knocking off Iowa State, the top seed in the conference final. They go into the NCAAs with a record of 29-5.



The SEC led the field with 7 bids, Big East & Big 12 had 6, Big Ten and ACC had 5 apiece.

We earned the #1 seed in the Midwest region and will play the winner of a play-in game.

NCAA TOURNAMENT
1st round: 16) Eastern Illinois, (W 80-43)
2nd round: 9) Kentucky (W, 80-62)
Sweet 16: 4) Houston (W, 90-79)
Elite 8: 7) NC State (W, 93-81)

FINAL FOUR
It's going to be a Big 12 party, apparently.

1) Iowa State 1) Nebraska State 1) North Carolina 5) West Virginia

We face off against West Virginia in the other semi-final. We only played them once this year, it was in Kearney and we beat them 96-71. But of course, none of that matters right now. They're 25-10 and boast four scorers averaging in double figures including Elizabeth Hill, who is putting down over 20 PPG, more than anyone on our team individually.



The national title game will be a rematch of last year's title game between Nebraska State and North Carolina.



UNC claims their first title since 1986 and we go home on the losing end.

Here's the current list of coaches with the most wins in my particular universe. Because why Coach Charles is chasing Pat Summitt, there have been luminaries in this game prior to her arrival that are worth noting.

So we have four seniors this year, but they are mostly just role players and not of the impact variety. They'll be key components in helping us move forward this year towards what we hope is a 3rd straight Finals appearance and another title, but with another #1 recruiting class under our belts, we're expecting good things.

What I've decided to do is for the next ten years, I'm just going to let the AI control everything (well except the notional human character so she doesn't take another job...) and then see what happens.

My thinking is that it's been a bit too easy with a human controlling stuff and it might be better to see what the computer does with her over the next decade. So we'll sim through the next 14 years, since I did the recruiting for this current class.

That'll put us in line to coach her 30th season through her 38th and final season to see how she does. I'm hoping that a successor emerges sometime over the next 20 years or so too. Most anyone now would be too old to do it, but perhaps we'll find an assistant we can keep on for a long period of time or someone on the staff by then will be good enough to handle the shift.

Not that I intend to go further necessarily. But just saying...

In a naming footnote, Sue Charles married John Dickinson Muldowney and they've had one son they named Trevor. She had him after the 2013 season when she was 38.

What I've been doing through this portion in addition to simming, is making sure when assistants leave I've been replacing them with first-time assistant coaches who become former players of the program since the game can't do it automatically.

So then the coaching tree is like Pat Summit's where it's full of former players.

Ok, so 14 years are up but I'm gonna run through a 15th year before taking over the program again. It'll be Sue Muldowney's 30th season and so, I'll have seasons left before she retires. Her record and team's results through the years we simmed are available in the first post. Also showed you the updated wins record. In our universe, it's 1108 so Sue has about 9 years to get 200 or so wins.

She has more titles than any coach, 2nd in win %, more all-americans and more conference titles.

We are into the 32nd season of Coach Charles-Muldowney's tenure as the 1st and only head coach that Nebraska State women's basketball has ever known.

There are six seasons left, as we're going to retire her after her 38th season.

Still plotting the best way to go through the recaps...but I have been updating everything in the first thread so you get a sense of how things have been going.

It's the 35th season of Coach Sue Muldowney's career. It's sort of amazing how time flies when you consider that we were just getting started here not too long ago. But she has single-handedly built the program at Nebraska State. There are whispers that might be ready to "pursue a new challenge" and quietly, the school has begun pinging possibilities for her role, knowing that as she nears 60 she will want to step down, as she's said always that she "never intended to coach forever."

Here's the roster heading into the current season, which I had nothing to do with. I've stopped recruiting for the program ages ago and so their performance over the past two decades or so hasn't had anything to do with my input:


Muldowney is 47 wins away from tying Veronica Gower's record of 1108 set in 2016 after she retired from Iowa State. The difference is, Muldowney got all of her wins at the same school. She has the highest win percentage currently of any coach, surpassing the .857 set by former Tennessee coach Macey Kelm back in 1959 where she won 4 titles in 19 years.

Her eight titles and 24 conference titles tops the list and she's coached more all-americans (46) than any other coach by nearly double.

So there's a wonder about what's her motivation to stay around other than chase the wins record and perhaps get to 10 titles.

With that said, we're going to see how the next year goes while also monitoring the upstarts. I can't decide what I want to do next. Whether I ought to follow the progress of the next coach to follow her with the program or move on to some other challenge in this universe.

Whether she'll catch Coach Summitt or not is seemingly inevitable, but given the challenges of doing it how Pat did when she did it, says a lot. Still, building a program into a formidible one is saying a lot too. And when it's all said and done, no coach in the game will have ever done what Sue Muldowney did and with that...we'll need to see if someone can follow HER act and reach the milestones she's set.

Because that might be more impossible than our initial task.

With three seasons left in her career and nearing the record for most wins, I'm tempted to add some levels of difficulty as she reaches her quest since we're now so close.

One of those was the geographically illogical move to put the Nebraska State squad into the SEC. I figured it was crowning pinnacle of the story since it was based on Pat Summitt's club in the SEC. Evening out the league with 16 was founding member Georgia Tech. It makes the SEC even more formidable than before and there will be absolutely no breaks in that schedule.

There were some other conference moves, like adding Pitt to the Big Ten, West Virginia to the ACC, Tulane and Wyoming to the Big 12 (remember, Wyoming is actually good in this universe and has been for a while...) and so we'll see what the new universe looks like.

I also, for the first time, turned on academic suspensions because I want to make the next 4 years really hard and want to see what kinds of results it produces. Also jacked up injuries for the same reason. It won't necessarily stay that way, but...that's what we're doing for at least the next year to see what happens.

All right, so I've decided what I'm going to do.

In a move best termed as unorthodox, when Sue Muldowney retires I'm going to reboot this dynasty in a completely different state maintaining the history of Nebraska State but with a new program.

I'm thinking I'd like to keep going, but in a state that actually produces its own in-state talent.

Moving on...
 

I've been trying to figure out precisely how we'd end Sue Muldowney's career. As of her 36th season, she passed the all-time wins mark. I've been trying to figure out a way to get back to the roots of the story in a sense while focusing on the coach's end and I've come up with a solution.

The twist in our story is now that Sue Muldowney is being forced out by the program that she built from the ground up. School officials are privately wondering whether or not she's losing her touch, despite a streak of NCAA tourney appearances, Top 10 recruiting classes and are wanting to groom her replacement now while the program is stop at a high place rather than waiting for some kind of inevitable decline before pushing the coach out when she's too old to coach.

Coach Muldowney is sure that she does not want to step down or retire, because she feels she still has a lot left to give. So after an impasse, the two parties decide to meet to discuss what they'll do about her future. It's evident that she's probably never going to coach another game with the program. Alums are upset, but are split as they understand that the program needs to move forward.

The school wants Coach Muldowney to move into a VP role with the university, but she's not interested in any ceremonial jobs. She wants to coach plain and simple.

Nebraska State seems to believe that she will not get hired by most schools due to her age and the fact that she can't be afforded. They also don't want her to leave though.

In the end, the decision will be made for Coach Muldowney to leave. Officially, the parties will say it's a retirement. But she will then crop up a few months later taking over a job at another program. The rules are that it needs to be a program with a prestige at 70 or lower.

I haven't decided whether she'll just coach the last two years of her career and stop at 58 or if she'll coach for longer and establish a new legacy elsewhere. The story arc now turns to this idea that the John Wooden of women's hoops has moved on. The questions will abound whether she can duplicate her success elsewhere, with no help from me or anything like that. It'll be straight up a coaching job of an unprecedented scope.

Naturally I have no idea where she'll go or anything yet, but...stay tuned!

"Coach, we need to part ways here..."
 

Part of this story arc is trying to figure out what would possess a program to pass on someone who has built them up. Perhaps in the modern era, we've seen it more. Though 58 is considered young, she's had the helm of the program from the start.

Meanwhile, the coach decides that she's good enough to do it anywhere and believes that's precisely what she'll do. From the start, she rules out elite programs. Too many friends in those situations and too big a fishbowl. She wants to go someplace off the beaten path like where she started knowing that she can make a name for a place like that and the people will be continually grateful for what they get.

The biggest difference? The drop in resources compared to what she's used to at Nebraska State.

But before we get to that point, we're going to need to evaluate the possible programs that are vying for what will rival Peyton Manning leaving the Colts for most interesting free agency move we've seen.

She's going to be looking for a program that 1) hasn't had a lot of success 2) that's in a mid-major conference and 3) where there are a lot of seniors so she can immediately begin recruiting and can remake the program in her own image.

I'm not sure if being in a place with its own local recruiting base is a priority, but I imagine that it will be after years of coaching in relatively barren Nebraska.

Next, we'll profile the finalist programs and pick her next job.

COACH MULDOWNEY'S FINALIST LOCALES
 

Sue Muldowney has been asked to leave Nebraska State. Officially she will retire and not return for her 37th season, but she will turn up a few weeks later as the new head coach of a completely different program after 36 years at the helm of the program at Nebraska State.

Her goal is to find a program where she can make an impact. We haven't decided how long she'll stay coaching, it might be for the next two years or it might be longer than that.

We also don't know who will be the person to replace her at Nebraska State, but we'll tackle that after we figure out where she's going. I originally was thinking only mid-major, but as I've gone through I feel like there are some intriguing possibilities that we need to consider.

The only coach in this dynasty's nearly 100-year history to claim titles with multiple teams was Melinda Lefebvre who won 3 titles with Duke, before leaving for UConn and winning three more in the 1960s and 1970s.

IUPUI (Prestige: 36, Summit League)
Budget: $287,625
#2 rated facilities in their conference, have made the NCAAs 6 times in their history, but only once in the last 25 years. Roster boasts six seniors.

FGCU (Prestige: 28, Atlantic Sun)
Budget: $265,000
Last NCAA appearance came in 1977. Pretty much barren situation, but at least they're in Florida.

North Florida (Prestige: 24, Atlantic Sun)
Budget: $260,000
Last NCAA appearance came in 1979. Pretty much barren situation, but at least they're in Florida. Coach has had the job for eight years.

Creighton (Prestige: 65, Missouri Valley)
Budget: $497,500
It's not an upgrade, but from the perspective of "stay in the neighborhood and show them whose boss" this move would make sense. Two years removed from a 26-win season were they made the NCAAs.

Kentucky (Prestige: 67, SEC)
Budget: $576,250
Obviously not a mid-major. But the program has made 12 NCAA appearances ever and only has one Sweet 16 in school history. Making it easier, they're without a coach.

New Orleans (Prestige: 39, C-USA)
Budget: $338,812
Only the 7th year of the program, they've made one post-season tourney in their existence. Seems less likely an option, since the coach is a Louisiana native. But I thought it was an interesting program to put on the list.

USC (Prestige: 100, Pac-12)
Budget: $800,000
I actually had UCLA here, as they've never won a national title either. But USC has made more Final Fours than any program never to win a national title (11). They also don't have a head coach at the moment, making this the almost perfect landing spot for a Hall of Fame coach to cement her legacy.

Florida State (Prestige: 74, ACC)
Budget: $602,500
Have been to the Sweet 16 four times but have never reached the Elite 8 in program history. Have made 3 NCAA appearances in the past seven years, but have never been able to get over the hump as a program. Obviously in Florida where recruiting might be easier to manage, too.

Seems like the likely outlet is to pursue a major conference gig, because she wants to prove she can still coach at a high level, especially since there are major conference gigs actually available. Because really, the only thing left to cement her legacy would be taking two schools to national titles.

Finalists for the Nebraska State Head Coaching Job
 

The hardest job is following a legend. Now we need to figure out who will replace Sue Muldowney as head coach at Nebraska State after 26 years. If the choice is made to go to the pipeline, there are these names:


Now not all of these coaches are currently working as head or assistants. Some have retired, but I wanted to keep a chronicle of all of them so we'd know. A number of them are former players too, which adds to it.

Let's take a look at some of the finalists for the position after a search committee went through and whittled all of the pretenders out:

Chaya Bergin
Head Coach, Duke
Age: 57
Career Record: 464-213
The problem here is she's actually just a year younger than Coach Muldowney. She's two years removed from leading Duke to a national title, the first of her career. If Muldowney were truly retiring, then you'd have to think the first call would go to her, but with the circumstances as they are, it feels like you almost have to go with a younger coach. But should one of them not want the job, Bergin would be a great fallback option to lead the prorgram after a few years.

Ella Walter
Head Coach, Rutgers
Age: 55
Career Record: 427-285
Another one of those coaches who has done well since getting her career going, but whose age would seem to disqualify her. Also, Rutgers last made the Sweet 16 eight years ago. Not exactly the signs of "turning things around" in Jersey. Still, a good Plan B if Bergin weren't interested.

Gabrielle Jackson
Head Coach, Missouri
Age: 40
Career Record: 117-107
Now we're talking. Alumna who was a 4-star recruit out of Omaha. Didn't have much of an impact on the program, but has proven her worth as a coach. She spent three years as an assistant before taking over at Cambridge, spent a year at Akron leading them to the Final Four and has now been at Mizzou for 3 years. Problem? Well, the Tigers haven't been very good and since she's not even the most famous alumna of the program coaching, it'll mix the audience if she were to be hired. But still, a Final Four appearance is no small feat, especially for a young coach.

Addison Murray
Head Coach, Northern Iowa
Age: 40
Career Record: 187-133
Another lightly used former player that went on to be a coach. She left after serving four years as an assistant during the three-straight title run of the early 20s. After starting at Wichita State, she left for Tulane and is heading into her 4th year at UNI where she took a program taht won 9 games in her first year to back-to-back 20+ win seasons. A much better fit probably than Jackson.

Juliette Chaplin
Head Coach, Marist
Age: 31
Career Record: 91-95
Will be remembered as a key player on title teams during her career (2023-26) but was not a star. Still, as a youngster and well-regarded young coach, could be a useful pick to consider if the program strikes out on a better regarded alumna.

Aiyana Taylor
Head Coach, UW-Milwaukee
Age: 30
Career Record: 71-61
She's still in her first coaching job after leaving the program in '30 after four years under Coach Muldowney. All-time leading scoring program history and one of only two players with over 3000 points in her Nebraska State playing career, all-time assists leader and steals.

Heading into her 5th year, she's taken the program from two 11-win seasons her first two years to back-to-back 20-win seasons. They lost in the Sweet 16 this year after winning the A4/USCAA tournament in '33. Best of all, her jersey number hangs from the rafters which will provide instant credibility. She's the fan's choice hands down.

Alyssa Duty
Head Coach, Georgia
Age: 45
Career Record: 175-181
3rd leading scorer in program history, but easily the player that's most associated with Nebraska State basketball in the annals of history because she was part of some of the first teams to ever exist. She graduated in 2011, just 12 years after the program was founded. Her coaching career hasn't taken her to the most successful places. After three years at Brown, she spent seven years at Alabama State before joining the Bulldogs this year. She's a good coach, well-regarded and seems to boast the right balance of age, with experience and embodiment of the Pronghorn spirit. She's the favorite of the majority of the boosters.

So those are our finalists. Truly have not made a decision yet.

Alyssa Duty. Pipeline time.

and definitely USC.

The USC tie opportunity was too much to pass up. Coach Muldowney, just 15 days after announcing her retirement at Nebraska State inked a 2-year deal to become head coach at USC.

"This is an opportunity I couldn't pass up," she said. Meanwhile, the replace her the program went back to its deep well of talent and hired former Pronghorns star Alyssa Duty. It came down to Duty and 30-year old Milwaukee head coach Aiyana Taylor who took the Panthers to a Sweet 16 last year. But in the end, the decision was made to give the job to the more experienced Duty, who has had three straight winning seasons at SEC counterpart Georgia.

Aiyana Taylor doesn't want anyone to cry for her. She's was also a finalist for jobs at DePaul, Kentucky, could've taken Duty's job at Georgia if she wanted it too. In the end, she opted for the golden goose gig at Purdue, the defending national champions. A huge jump for her, but being in the midwest already made them comfortable and it's the kind of job where the program hoped essentially that she could become like her mentor and have an extremely long career in one place.

So we'll be following both USC and seeing what happens at Nebraska State in passing to see how the mentor and the student do.