Minnesota State Basketball (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

NIT CHAMPS


CBI CHAMPS


CIT CHAMPS

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