Sim Fast: Minnesota State Screaming Eagles (FBCB)
 

I feel like my dynasties lately are way too narrative and frankly, too slow. I'm not sure anybody cares about all of this stuff, I just wanted to get through a bunch of years. I finally found a program I'm interested in coaching for a while.

The premise here is going to be pretty light. I'll give you a season summary, highlight a game or two that I might care about and in general, I'm mostly interested in 1) recruiting and 2) seeing how the coaches maximize the talent that we bring in.

I started writing the dynasty already, so we'll pick the story up in the 2008-09 season.


BACKGROUND

So I’m in an empty cupboard mood, I’m going to take over a recently transitioned to D1 college basketball program.

I’m taking over Minnesota State Screaming Eagles, based in Rochester, MN for the purposes of this story. They’ll be joining the Summit League as the 10th team starting in the 2004-05 season.

I’d like to establish an identity of a program that’s among the top scoring programs in the nation, regardless of how good or bad we are. I don’t care about defense, really. I just want to see them light up the scoreboard every single night and to become home to a program that’s known for its run and gun.

I have a pro league that’s parallel with this college league, but instead of doing a season in each at a time, I’ll probably reel off 3 or 4 college seasons ahead of the pros, so that I have players to look forward to. I have a direction I want to go in the pros that doesn’t actually involve the NBA at all, but we’ll get to that later.

Minnesota State will also host a pre-season tournament in Week 4 called the Northern Sun Classic. It’ll start off as a low prestige event, but as the program gets better, we’ll decide whether to increase the prestige of the teams that get invited or whether to cancel it altogether.

Going to go fast these first few seasons, mostly because I want to get my bearings with the program and I think I know what I’d like to do.

2004-05
Head Coach: Demarcus Waters. Waters is a 28-year old who actually played pro basketball overseas after graduating from UT-Chattanooga. He’s a Minnesota native, who returned back to the States after a career-ending injury desiring a chance to coach and through his former high school coach who is now athletic director at Minnesota State; Waters received an interview and becomes the second-youngest head coach in D1 right now (Vance Eagleton at Hofstra at 26 is the youngest.)

In our first D1 season, the Screaming Eagles go (5-28) starting a squad composed entirely of walk-ons. Nothing to see here, really. Five wins is a lot more than I anticipated, to be honest.

2005-06
Our main targets for recruiting are 1) Minnesota 2) Wisconsin and 3) overseas.

I’m more interested in immersion than I am trying to suffer in perpetuity with a bad team. In our second D1 season, Minnesota State is better than last year — progress — but still bad. I mostly handled recruiting myself this year, hoping that it would yield us a few wins by picking more favorable matchups. It paid off not only out of conference, but primarily in-conference where we were much better. Overall, we finish the year (13-21 (9-5 in the Summit League))

We have not yet reached the point where we have personnel capable of running the up-tempo offense I want to run, so I’ve still delegated coaching responsibilities to the head coach. This is the first year we’ll get to participate in the conference tournament, as it’s been expanded to include all 10 teams in the league.

AWARDS
Freshman C Caleb Lane won Conference Player of the Year, Conference Freshman of the Year and was named to the national All-Freshman Team and All-Conference 1st team. Needless to say, he’s gonna be a star.

2006-07
I have no idea what to really expect this year. Last year’s recruiting class was mostly guys who’ll redshirt this year, not certain they can help us this season out of the chute. Year 3 we have no available scholarships, so I won’t do any recruiting this year unless someone unwisely decides to go pro.

I think my ideal scenario for this season is to somehow get into a post-season tournament of some kind. But I just have no idea if this team is ready for even a winning season. You’d have to think so, after the gains of last year. I’m not doing the scheduling for this year, so we’ll just see how it evolves and whether the team can hang or not.

Milestone: We start the year ranked #22 in the Mid-Major Top 25. Apparently, someone thinks that our young talent and coaching are something to be reckoned with.

It’s clear that when we look back on the program’s trajectory, this season will be the one that we recognize as a turnaround year. After posting a positive record in the non-conference, the Screaming Eagles set sights on the Summit League where they intended to soar and did just that.

Ended the regular season 23-12 (10-4 in the Summit), entered the conference tournament as the #2 seed, in a one-bid league that means you have to win the whole thing and well..that’s precisely what the Screaming Eagles did to end up in the NCAA tournament for the first time in program history, in their 3rd year as a Division 1 program.

Not bad, huh?

This program reminds me of the year that Florida Gulf Coast & #dunkcity burst onto the scene, because it’s a very similar situation. New program to D1, successful young coach who is surely going to get poached after leading the most improbable run to the Final Four I’ve ever seen. This is FGCU meets Butler, except even more nuts.



While we lost in the Final Four, the championship game was Cal v. Stanford, so it was a perfect way to cap off an absolutely insane season.

With no scholarships, I’ve cut two walkons at the end of the year — a few will be rising seniors — in exchange for a transfer or two or a late signee. I’d prefer to build on this momentum, rather than just carry dead weight and hope for the best.

I’m going to turn my attention from here to the pro game, where I’m curious to see if I can create an independent league juggernaut in an overseas league.

2007-08
Head Coach Demarcus Waters left Minnesota State after three years to take the job at Penn State who have reeled off five straight tournament appearances but can’t break through. Replacing him was Minnesota State assistant Jae Cook.

Nobody is expecting the team to luck into a Final Four run again, but a repeat appearance in the NCAAs with the same core group of talent could be nice. The team took a massive hit when C Caleb Lane went down early in the season with an injury that shelved him until February. Still, the team plodded through the non-conference schedule knowing they had a good shot in Summit League play of being competitive.

But after a 22-13 regular season and going 10-4 in-conference again, the team reeled off three straight wins in March to claim their 2nd straight Summit League tournament title and with it, a return trip to the NCAA tournament. MNSU loses in the first round.

2008-09
A young program on the rise, Minnesota State is now facing its third coach in three years when Jae Cook left after one season as the head man to take over the job at Virginia Tech. Long-time college assistant at other programs (not ours) Shane Daniels takes over for his first head coaching role.

The real problem with the transition over the past few years is how empty the cupboard will be after this season. MNSU has six scholarships available, meaning that we’ll probably have to hit the transfer market or hope to garner a few late signings.

I'm going to take over in 2008-09. The basic structure will be "season recap" essentially with capsules of each season. I'll share our seniors or graduating or draft eligible players with you, too. But that's about all.

2008-09 SEASON RECAP
 

2008 was a disappointing year. After two years of progress and tournament appearances, the Screaming Eagles take a step back finishing under .500. Losing a ton of seniors, with no Top 500 recruits showing up and the possibility of transfers, I feel like things are going to get worse before they get better in Rochester.

We're going to hit the JUCO market hard in the hopes of getting some talent that can help us not lose (more) ground for next year.


TEAM ROSTER

TEAM INFO


SEASON SCHEDULE

SENIOR DAY 2008
 

Each season, I'll do a "senior day" thread where I list the seniors we'll truly miss. Coach Waters will always be remembered for his first monster recruiting class. We're starting to see those guys leave now, but they'll never be forgotten as they'll always be known for putting MNSU on the map.

G JIONNI RAND


C CALEB LANE
Gonna miss this kid like crazy. A big man with a fantastic interior presence. Not sure if he has a pro career ahead of him, but if he doesn't, would love to see him behind the bench someday.



G MARCEL WOELFL
He's been like our Ginobili during his 4 years. Not a starter, but indispensable.


G TOMI TUOMOLA


PG MORGAN FLETCHER

NATIONAL CHAMPIONS LISTING
 

This will be the permanent updating list of National Champions


FINAL FOUR PROGRAMS

2009-10 SEASON RECAP
 

TEAM ROSTER
For the first time since '04, MNSU tops the Summit League recruiting race. We picked up JUCO transfer Dontrelle Jenkins who is probably the one newcomer to be most excited about.

Besides that, hard to say what this team will look like this year. After last year's disappointment, I am not certain if they'll be more athletic and fresher or if they'll continue to be plagued by inconsistent that befell last year's squad.

Recruiting feels more realistic for a program like this when I just skip the early signing period and wait to start offering guys in March when we see who doesn't have offers. It probably has something to do with my talent pool, but I always find there are quality dudes who are still available just due to the nature of major programs not having enough scholarships and guys being reluctant to adjust their expectations accordingly at a certain point (or being willing to go the JUCO route)

We have 3 scholarships available for next year.

As for the season, it was a turnaround year indeed. Perhaps the team was just more balanced or things have settled down from having to deal with their third coach in three years for many of our seniors.

A 20+ win season ensures that we'd be playing in some kind of tournament, but a third NCAA appearance in four years would be better. We did make the conference tournament final and beat South Dakota State on a last second shot to advance to the tournament.

We lose to Notre Dame in the 1st round as a 13-seed (again) and end the year on a low note, but happy to be back in the post-season again.


TEAM INFO



TEAM SCHEDULE

TEAM STATS

SENIOR DAY 2009
 

G ALEC CHAPARRO
One last of the key guys from our improbable Final Four squad, he was Top 20 in the nation in scoring this year.



C MO HANSON
The first Minnesota recruit we scored that was worth a damn. Very good interior presence and will surely be missed.



G BRIAN LIPSCOMB
We hit the jackpot with this 4-year walkon. If he wanted to be head coach tomorrow, I'd probably hire him. Huge basketball IQ, excellent motor and the sort of guy you'd let marry your daughter. Just a great great guy. Happy we were able to have him on our roster.

2010-11 SEASON RECAP
 

We lost in the first round of the NIT this year. Not bad for what amounted to a rebuilding year, I guess. Not sure if next year has anything better in store. Appreciate Dontrelle Jenkins choosing us, but he wasn't exactly the game-changer that I'd hoped when we signed him.

Off to next year we go.

ROSTER

SENIOR DAY 2010
 

These two were contributors to us making the post-season. Have to applaud them for their work.



F IAN LUDWIG


G DONTRELLE JENKINS

2011-12 SEASON RECAP (13-19)
 

Worst season in years. But you can't keep changing coaches and expect there to be real consistency. Until we can get a coach in this program that doesn't keep leaving and has time to install a system, this is probably how things will go.


TEAM ROSTER


SEASON INFO

TEAM STATS

2012-13 SEASON RECAP
 

In contrast to the past few years, this isn't a senior laden team and the cupboard isn't bare from poor recruiting like in the past. This is another turnaround year or at least, that's the hope in Rochester if Damien Flores is going to get a 4th year at the helm of this program.

There were some in the administration who felt he was probably in over his head taking this job, given he's never been a head coach before. But after losing coaches in successive years, the feeling in Old Main was that we needed someone close to the program.

When you play a mid-major league, you can often get beat by the bloodbath of talent being close to your level. With that, it'll be hard to say how this year goes but if we can get through the non-conference relatively unscathed then there is a chance at a post-season berth, which is what it'll take to keep Flores in the job.

Luckily for him, he did that and more. The team lost in the conference title game, earning a 8-seed in the NIT.

Once in the NIT, the team began to truly gel, making a run to the NIT Quarterfinals, knocking off 2-seed Indiana State on the road to punch a ticket to New York City and the NIT Final Four. While no one would confuse this with the real Final Four, the fact that after a bad season we're making a deep run into a tournament bodes well for the program especially as we're only losing one senior.

There is a natural fear that we'll lose our coach (again) since that's what happens here when the team does well, but...we'll have to take our chances.

After the season, Coach Flores left to take over the program at Creighton, his alma mater.

ROSTER

NIT CHAMPIONS

TEAM INFO
Worth noting that this MNST team was 13th in the nation in scoring.

The American Patriot Conference split into two after the 2012-13 season. The old conference renamed itself the Patriot League (again) and the new conference becomes the American Athletic Conference (again) meaning one less at-large bid for the NCAAs this upcoming year, but that's okay.

The new conference has seven core members are from the APC and added three new programs to fill out the league - Illinois State (MVC), Minnesota State (Summit) & UMass (A10). The league will be an all-sports conference.

So MNSU gets a promotion out of the moribund Summit League where we were forever doomed to be a double-digit seed and join a conference with a national footprint. Remains to be seen whether the league has the staying power to be among the top conferences in the country, though.

Programming note:

If you'd

1) like me to schedule a game against your alma mater, favorite college team or something else...let me know and I'll arrange Minnesota A&M to play them and highlight the game.

2) want to know something about my custom conference setup in this league, let me know and I'll explain more about the conferences (i.e. Pac-16, B1G with 16 teams, etc.)

3) Anything else of interest. "Hey who was the leading scorer in the nation?" "How is my favorite team doing?" Just let me know and I'll fill you in as part of my narrative.

2013-14 SEASON RECAP
 

To say our first season in the AAC went well would be an understatement. Not sure exactly what lightning struck. Our new head coach, Corey Wadsworth is another Minnesota native, but spent most of his time primarily overseas and this is first head coaching job. Not a bad job to show up and win National Coach of the Year in your first year.

Seems like he was able to motivate the guys in ways our past coaches had not, as he led the team anchored by AAC player of the year Rion Turner, Brett Aviles and a big man combo to make a run all the way back to the Final Four.

That's the 4th tournament appearance for Minnesota State since moving to D1 and two of those appearances resulted in a Final Four. NOT BAD.

We lose in the national title game to City College of New York who win their 9th national championship, by far the most of any program in the country.

ROSTER

TEAM INFO


In this year's Sweet 16, we had a meeting against our former head coach Jae Cook and his Virginia Tech squad. Nobody on this current team would've been coached or recruited by him, so the game lacked the real punch for any of the players but it was still an interesting factoid for me anyway. Especially since we beat them. Then in the Final Four, we also faced another former assistant for our program Ronny Westerbrook who is now at Miami, but we beat them too.

MNSU is truly the "Incubator of Coaches"

SENIOR DAY 2013
 

G RION TURNER
Still the best recruit we've ever gotten to come here. We signed him super late when none of his main target were able to make a scholarship offer. Seems like things ended pretty okay with a national title game appearance.



C STEVE MILLER
Two-time all conference big AND a Minnesota native. Always nice when we can get a local kid and he's a legit contributor. Proof that 3-star recruits can be just as vital as 5-star guys if you have the right system around them.

From time to time, I like to look at the archives.

Was curious what ever happened to the all-time leading scorer in college basketball - Aaron Chambers, a small forward who played at SMU. He ended his 3-year college career with 2855 points, the most of anyone ever, a record that still stands. He was three-time National Player of the Year. Pretty much the consensus greatest college scorer ever.

He was drafted 4th overall in 1984, but after a rookie season where he was named to the All-Star game, he floundered mightily. Most interesting thing is him taking 7 years off and then making a comeback for a year in the Greek League. I can just picture his whole story and what went wrong. Game doesn't model for substance abuse problems, but man...this is pretty much a 30 for 30 story in the making.

2014-15 SEASON RECAP
 

ROSTER

After last year, I was pretty sure that this year would be good. Bringing back a returning squad & the National Coach of the Year don't hurt. Offense was the story of the day, again. Also, the AAC has been the best thing for us at least right now as that conference enabled us to get better competition and we've taken advantage winning back to back conference titles.

This year, the Final Four hosted Miami, Penn State, MNSU and UCLA. Miami's head coach is a former Minnesota State assistant. We beat them in the Final Four last year en route to the title game. Penn State was in the other semi-final, their head coach DeMarcus Waters is considered the architect of the Minnesota State empire, but left us after three years to coach at Penn State. He has them in the Final Four for the first time.

We lose in the national title game for the 2nd straight year, this time to UCLA.

Corey Wadsworth is 68-10 in his two years as head coach. Needless to say, we can't pay him what he's worth. He signed an extension, but my question is...does he leave? He's a Minnesota native, he played at Pepperdine, but none of that matters much. If he can get a major conference job, does he just hang out a la Mark Few at Minnesota State and try to return to the mountain?

My original idea was that he'd hang out for a while, but now I'm wondering if it's more fun to have them have to rebuild again with a new guy at the helm, especially since almost all of the coaches that have left here have gone on to do pretty well.

SENIOR DAY 2014
 

The most successful group of seniors to ever wear the Purple and Salmon. Can't say enough about these dudes.


C ADAM OMOWALE


G BRETT AVILES

AYO OLAKUNE

2015-16 SEASON RECAP
 

Easily the most fun I've had with a dynasty in a while, hence the volume.

Minnesota State was known for years as a top offensive team that eschewed defense. In 2015, that flipped when Corey Wadsworth left for the Michigan State job after two years with the program. Taking his place was former Minnesota State 4-year starter Brian Lipscomb who joined the program in 2010 as an assistant coach.

Lipscomb wanted a team that was more disciplined defensively and the end result was a top 25 finish nationally in points allowed.

As for the overall performance? The team missed out on the NCAA tournament, but settled for the NIT. In the NIT, we reached the Final Four but lost in the NIT championship to Seton Hall.

We only lose one starter this year - Anthony Iversen - who I feel like we waited to get good for a long time and he finally paid some dividends this year when we needed someone to be an anchor on this roster after losing (another) head coach and with a young squad.

The most interesting thing about this team to me, is that we're able to get solid regional prospects, but we're just outside of the "two and done" class of guys who declare early for the draft. In the past, I've always had talent that was inflated and too good, so they always left when they could. I think part of our success at this level is very Gonzaga/Butler-esque in that, we're getting guys who are in some cases highly touted, but who aren't elite enough to go pro...so they stay with us and develop and we reap the benefits.







Worth noting that this year's national title game was CCNY v. Michigan State, the same Michigan State that took our head coach versus the team that beat us in the title game two years ago.

CCNY won again, claiming their 10th title in program history. Their head coach, Ezra Stockton has had that job since 2002 and wins his 4th national championship. He ties Albert Garcia (Oregon - '68, '69, '72, '73) with the most national titles in history.

Meanwhile, Corey Wadsworth our latest former head coach is now 101-16 for his career and I'm super intrigued to see how he does at Michigan State, getting them to the title game in his first year, this was a squad that lost in the 1st round last year and missed the post-season entirely the year before that.

After 12 years of at least passive management of Minnesota State, I'm going to take the next decade off. My other preoccupation in this dynasty is renaming recruits. The game does a not so great job with this and I probably ought to just dispense with the frustration and make my own name file, but I find that process tedious and I can never truly get the balance right anyway.

I will still process MNSU seasons and report on seniors, but I won't have a hand in who shows up there. At least now there is a history and so, if the program fails (or suceeds) I won't have a hand in this next chapter. I'm just curious to see what happens to a program after over a decade of wild success and whether they can sustain it or fall into a slump or somewhere in-between.

I might do some kind of side game where I pick players and keep track of them, the only real barrier to me doing that is there's no real way to "win" unless I play against myself and I just don't really care that much.

2016-17 SEASON RECAP
 

Garbage schedule. Another NIT appearance, this time a loss in the 2nd round. I am not at the helm of the upcoming seasons (including this one) I'm just watching and posting.

TEAM ROSTER

TEAM INFO



TEAM SCHEDULE


TEAM STATS

2016 TOP 25 RECRUITING CLASSES

AAC RECRUITING

Also, since I'm just simming, you can give me a recruit to add to the game for you and we'll track his career.


Alternatively, if you just prefer to be a "booster" for a program, you can do that too. Just indicate the program you want to be a "booster" for you and your contributions will start flowing in over a 4 year period. It will not result in any player enhancement, just increased program budget.

2017-18 SEASON RECAP
 

Apparently, Head Coach Brian Lipscomb left after just two years at Minnesota State for Creighton. If I'd been at the pilot seat, I would have not let him leave. This probably makes for a better story though, because the narrative remains the name -- MNSU cannot keep a head coach because they always leave for greener pastures. Literally, in this case.

They replaced him with a 61-year old career assistant by the name of Moses Towner who has never been a head coach before. I guess the wise money here is, at least he won't leave for greener pastures at his advanced age.

Team was 14-seed and returned to the NCAA tournament, but lost to Fordham in the 1st round.

Team only loses one senior (walkon) and so...at least there is talent in the cupboard.

CCNY wins ANOTHER national championship. Ezra Stockton is alone with 5 national titles, the most of any coach ever.

2017 RECRUITNG RANKINGS

AAC RANKINGS

ALL-TIME SCORING LEADERS (As of May 1, 2018)

2018-19 SEASON RECAP
 

Six seniors on the squad this year, but they're battle tested (in theory) so that has some value. But it resulted in another NIT appearance, where the team lost in the NIT title game. I think the fans are probably getting tired of NIT appearances, but that's what happens when you can't keep a coach so there's no consistent approach to recruiting.

Will be intrigued to see how this regime did in recruiting with SIX scholarships at their disposal.

2018-19 was the most insane year in the tournament too. Your national champions? THE RAMS OF FORDHAM UNIVERSITY.

I guess some of the CCNY luck is rubbing off in New York City. Fordham is the FIRST TEAM IN HISTORY to go undefeated (39-0) en route to their national championship. Holy cow.

I don't know anything about their team.

Here's their lineup:

SENIOR DAY 2018



Bret Tyson was a four-year starter, played a pivotal position and while this team didn't collect a lot of hardware, they played hard and were consistent post-season appearers. That has some value and so, we want to honor these guys from once, especially since they're the only two notable seniors from this class. Kris Jensen was not a mainstay in the lineup, but he's a Minnesota-kid and he was a quality practice guy.

F KRIS JENSEN


G KA'JAI PHILLIPS



C BRET TYSON

2018 RECRUITING TOP 25

AAC RECRUITING

How's Wadsworth doing at Michigan State? He had a solid recruiting class, followed by an excellent one. Has that translated?

What is the top conference in your dynasty? Seems like you're using an alternate file (I prefer an older one myself).

2019-20 SEASON RECAP
 

Man...I'm glad they're not letting me run this team right now because otherwise this Moses Towner guy would be absolutely, positively GONE.

Nothing to see here, just another year where they lose their top two scorers and have nothing in the cupboard to really replace them. I think this is where MNSU is right now, a program that's kind of stuck in a weird space between "okay" and "not bad" versus "program on the rise."

Not sure how it gets fixed until they get a new regime at the helm committed to not sucking and spend more money to fix the issue. Just hard to watch the free fall, next up...losing seasons and shit.





FINAL FOUR
4) Fordham
2) NC State
1) Alabama
4) St. Mary's

NATIONAL TITLE: Fordham (34-5) wins their 2nd straight title, this year beating NC State.

Was looking at coaches and ran across something I've never seen before: he gets fired by NC State as head coach, but then stays on as an assistant with them. Wacky.

So it's a custom file I've been managing since 1940, the start of this file. I started with a real-life sized league back then, but only gradually increased the size of the NCAA tournament.

Anyway, as for the top conference. ACC was last year by RPI. But in general?

The Power 6 leagues are the ones in real life, at the moment: ACC, B1G, SEC, B12, PAC-16 & Big East.

It's just the composition of those leagues are weird. Big East has 14 teams, Big 12 has 12, but ACC, B1G, SEC and PAC-16 all have 16 teams each.

I deliberately did weird stuff with the conferences (over time) because I feel like it's fun to experiment sometimes. Plus, a few custom teams that might change over time as I retire dynasties.

These programs are in the "wrong" conference:

BIG EAST
---
City College of New York
Wichita State
Dayton
St. Louis

B1G
---
Georgia Tech
Kansas

ACC
---
Temple
UConn
Cincinnati
West Virginia


PAC-16
---
Texas
Texas Tech
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State

BIG 12 is just weird, but it's held up mostly as solid.


As for that traitor Corey Wadsworth, the results are pretty good, even if he hasn't gotten back to the title game since his first year. Seems like if nothing else, he'll probably that job for as long as he wants it unless stuff really goes south.

For context, Moses Towner is a perfectly fine coach. 70-31 is a respectable record that most programs would absolutely love. Two NCAA appearances in three years? Nothing to complain about for a normal program.

MNSU fans are rabid and were spoiled early. Yet, he's obviously going to get a 4th year and since he's old, he's probably not leaving and thus...he should have the job a while.

CONFERENCE REALIGNMENT
For 2021-22

This was largely a self-preservation move for Minnesota A&M, but they moved to the American for football in the first place and while they don't give you much from a media market perspective, the Big 12 is the only league in the "Power 5+" without more than 12 teams.

Even the basketball-only Big East has 14. Not sure they can sustain keeping that number long term, even as they're doing pretty well.

They've won just two national titles as a conference since 1997. Hell, Fordham has won 2 national titles in the last 3 years.

So it's time for a bit of a chain reaction. This will take effect NEXT season, so after the one I'm going to post.

TO THE BIG 12
Houston (AAC)
South Florida (AAC)
Minnesota State (AAC)
Central Michigan (MAC)

TO THE MAC
North Dakota State (Summit)

TO THE AMERICAN
Air Force (WAC)
Charlotte (C-USA)

2020-21 SEASON RECAP
 

The worst season for MNSU in 16 years.

I complained too much about that last coach, Mose Towner and he left for Indiana. His replacement? Rhode Island's former head coach, whose main accomplishment in 3 years was taking that team to the 3rd round of the NIT once.

Good to know where the administration sees the program. Needless to say, I can see how irrational fans in real life can make things insufferable for programs. I'm just rooting for a fake team and I'm annoyed watching from the outside at the decisions they're making with men's basketball after a decade plus of wild success.

Anyway, here's the body count on this past year. At least we're going to the Big 12. I figure if we're going to suck, at least we can suck in a conference against better competition.



2nd leading scorer Perry Acosta is a returner. So that's encouraging. Too bad we don't recruit worth a damn anymore.


FINAL FOUR
The 2021 FINAL FOUR IN LAS VEGAS WAS BANANAS!


NEW YORK BASKETBALL IS AT ITS PEAK. They should've just moved the whole thing to Madison Square Garden.

Anyway, two-time defending champs Fordham fell to St. John's 77-52 and ended their reign. In the title game, St. John's lost to perennial champs CCNY 71-69 in a thriller. Ezra Stockton is now 37th all-time in career wins, but increases his all-time titles to 6, still the most ever of any coach.

St. John's Head Coach Les Mier is in his 2nd year with St. John's. He spent the previous decade at Vermont as their head coach. Prior to that? He was an assistant to Ezra Stockton at CCNY. So the storylines were peak at this year's Final Four besides the NYC connection.

Needless to say, the media attention and hubris from New Yorkers claiming basketball mecca-dom would be more insufferable than listening to SEC fans talk about football.

2020 RECRUITING

AAC RECRUITING
This won't cut it in the B12.

2021-22 SEASON RECAP
 

FINAL FOUR
6) Miami 10) Vanderbilt 5) St. Louis 3) North Carolina

Weird year. No CCNY. No Fordham.

Big East still goes home with the title, though. St. Louis claims their first-ever national title, beating Vandy, who were also in the Final Four for the first time.

SEASON INFO
NIT appearance for MNSU. The new normal, I guess. But it's better than a losing season in their new conference.


ROSTER

SENIOR DAY 2021
 

A four-year player, three-year starter and one of the most consistent thing son this rag-tag roster we have now.


F CARY YBARRA


I always appreciate transfers who commit to the program and Ashley was a solid contributor.

G JARVIS ASHLEY

After two years at the helm of MNSU, Merle Williams left the program to take the job at Air Force. I induced this move because I was tired of watching them hire old coaches who can't do anything.

Also because it just so happened that former MNSU player turned coach Morgan Fletcher was fired from his job at Georgia last year, so he was available. (You can see his player card from Senior Day 2008)

So he's the 9th head coach in MNSU history.

2022-23 SEASON RECAP
 

MNSU misses out on the post-season after a loss in the conference tournament, ending the year 18-14.

SENIOR DAY 2022
 

G HOLLIS SALDANA

TALES FROM THE TOURNAMENT (2022-23)
16-seed Belmont knocked off top seed Denver in the South region and rode all the way to the Elite 8 before falling to 2-seed Arkansas.

FINAL FOUR
Arkansas (2), Ole Miss (3), Arizona (2), Pittsburgh (4)

Arizona won their first-ever national title, knocking off Ole Miss in the national title game.

FORMER MNSU COACHES

Let's check in and see how our former coaches are doing in their various locations:

Corey Wadsworth on the hot seat at Michigan State



DeMarcus Waters still doing things at Penn State. They want a Final Four, but he's not on the hot seat yet.



JAE COOK has Virginia Tech as a consistent Top 25 program.



DAMIEN FLORES is probably the worst of our former coaches, who still has a job, but not for long.



Former coach Shane Daniels was recently hired as an assistant to DeMarcus Waters at Penn State. He left us for Wisconsin and after 3 years there, went to Florida where he was recently fired after 8 years. Brian Lipscomb was just fired by Creighton after 6 years, never taking them to the NCAA tournament during that time.


Mose Towner and Merle Williams are both retired.

2023-24 SEASON RECAP
 

Morgan Fletcher has Minnesota A&M back in the tournament for the first time in five years. They lost in the 1st round to eventual Final Four team St. Louis. This year's squad was senior-laden and what they lacked in talent, they made up for in cohesion. Way more out of this club than anybody had any business getting, tbh.






FINAL FOUR
1) Xavier (Big East)
3) Alabama (SEC)
11) Wichita State (Big East)
7) St. Louis (Big East)

Alabama wins the national title for the first time since 1975 over St. Louis, who are in their 2nd finals in 3 years (they won the last time).

This old dynasty of mine had some pretty great recruit names. So I'm going to dip back into that history and start creating some of them again to see how they do in a new universe.

I'll resist adding more fictional schools, though I might end up with one or two just because of how these things go.

I was looking at some random programs that had made the NCAAs sparingly and found that one was in a major conference.

Arizona State has made only one NCAA tournament appearance ever, but it was a doozy -- an Elite 8 appearance -- in 1968. They won an NIT in 1991, so at least they have another banner hanging, but even with an expanded tournament this kind of futility is astounding.

But that's it.

Vandy is another major conference program with a few appearances, they've got just 3, but all of them have come since 2014 and includes a national title game appearance a few years ago out of nowhere, so perhaps they are on the upswing?


No other major conference program has fewer than 6 appearances in the tournament:

WAKE FOREST (ACC): 6
MISSOURI (SEC): 6
BYU (B12): 9
RUTGERS (B10): 10

Things I'm most interested in is tracking player progress over time and seeing how they do when they get to the pros. Less interested in seeing how stars do, more interested in guys who are really solid college players who maybe don't get NBA looks to see how they evolve.

The game does a decent job of letting guys develop later and then you see them you see them work their way up from lower leagues to better foreign ones as their careers evolve. So I'm intrigued by tracking some of these dudes over time, especially since both leagues -- college and the pro -- are pretty well evolved at this point.

Not sure how I'll go about it yet (all the while following Minnesota A&M's program) but...that's my current interest.

After six national titles at CCNY, Ezra Stockton wants to retire, but didn't want to stop coaching. So I had him take the job at Arizona State to replace a former assistant of his who didn't exactly light the place on fire.

It'll be hell to his record, but I'll be curious how long he stays there before he calls it quits and whether he can get them to respectability before he's all done.

The best parallel I know of is in college lacrosse when Princeton's head coach left to go coach University of Denver when they weren't good and turned them into a power too.