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
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#11 MINNESOTA STATE SCREAMING EAGLES General
Player # Pos Yr Ht Wt Sch Acd Status Hometown
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Steve Miller 30 C Sr* 7-0 282 Yes D OK Bertha, MN
Kenny Russell 34 PF Sr* 6-7 244 Yes C+ OK St. Francis, MN
Billy Lopez 35 SG Sr* 6-2 179 No F- OK Springfield, MN
Rion Turner Jr. 25 PG Sr 5-10 183 Yes B+ OK Taylor, TX
Brett Aviles 41 SG Jr 6-1 175 Yes C- OK Stewartville, MN
Ayo Olakunle 13 SF Jr 6-6 230 Yes C OK Bloedel, Canada
Adam Omowale 20 PF Jr 7-0 249 Yes C OK Lagos, Nigeria
Anthony Iversen 32 SG So* 6-7 229 Yes D+ OK Willmar, MN
Graciano Martin 33 C So* 6-8 241 No C+ OK Simi Valley, CA
Bret Freese 22 SF So 6-5 199 Yes D+ OK Afton, OK
Dylan Clough 51 SG Fr* 6-4 197 Yes B- OK Galesburg, IL
Ilari Tverdovsky 50 PF Fr* 6-7 231 Yes F- OK Stavropol, Russia
Brain Bui 11 C Fr* 6-9 231 Yes C OK New Lisbon, WI
Bill Heller 23 SF Fr 6-3 185 Yes D OK Kealakekua, HI
Angel Acevedo 14 PG Fr 5-10 171 No C Redshirt Carlton, MN
TEAM INFO
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#11 MINNESOTA STATE SCREAMING EAGLES TEAM INFO
Current Performance
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Team Prestige: 60 Record Vs 1-50: 5-2 Poll Rank: #11
Season Record: 33-6 Record Vs 51-100: 6-1 RPI Rank: #14
Conference Record: 15-1 Record Vs 101-200: 9-2
Home Record: 14-0 Record Vs 200+: 13-1
Team Stats CR NR Opp. Stats CR NR Margin CR NR
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Points 81.3 1 1 Points 68.0 5 219 Points 13.3 1 5
O.Reb 10.5 8 219 O.Reb 10.2 4 135 O.Reb 0.3 5 163
D.Reb 19.5 7 198 D.Reb 21.3 9 318 D.Reb -1.8 9 302
Rebounds 30.0 7 218 Rebounds 31.5 7 253 Rebounds -1.5 8 263
Assists 18.1 3 41 Assists 14.7 1 208 Assists 3.4 1 42
Steals 12.6 1 1 Steals 4.9 2 8 Steals 7.6 1 1
Blocks 4.0 5 129 Blocks 4.3 8 301 Blocks -0.3 6 190
Turnovers 13.6 3 21 Turnovers 21.7 1 1 Turnovers -8.1 1 1
Fouls 23.0 9 331 Fouls 23.9 1 16 Fouls -0.9 3 114
FG% .519 1 20 FG% .482 7 247 FG% .037 4 61
FT% .691 7 216 FT% .692 4 154 FT% -.001 7 188
3P% .328 5 198 3P% .311 2 76 3P% .018 5 120
PPS 1.49 1 6 PPS 1.42 8 262 PPS .076 3 81
Adj. FG% .555 2 35 Adj. FG% .521 6 211 Adj. FG% .033 3 67
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#11 MINNESOTA STATE SCREAMING EAGLES Schedule
Date Opponent Record RPI Result Score Record
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11/10/13 vs. Michigan State 16-16 106 W 81-77 1-0
11/11/13 vs. Richmond 19-15 127 W 80-66 2-0
11/12/13 vs. Nebraska-Kearney 18-14 64 L 81-68 2-1
11/18/13 Charleston Southern 10-21 230 W 94-62 3-1
11/23/13 at North Dakota State 8-24 256 L 107-97 3-2
11/26/13 Central Connecticut State 12-18 285 W 85-55 4-2
11/30/13 at Alaska-Anchorage 15-20 196 W 65-51 5-2
12/05/13 Southeastern Louisiana 13-17 233 W 62-50 6-2
12/10/13 South Dakota State 16-15 154 W 101-91 7-2
12/13/13 Arkansas-Pine Bluff 10-21 344 W 86-57 8-2
12/17/13 at Creighton 12-20 155 L 70-66 8-3
12/21/13 at Nebraska-Kearney 18-14 64 W 70-49 9-3
12/23/13 at Arkansas 15-16 107 W 77-44 10-3
12/26/13 SIU-Edwardsville 13-19 226 W 76-73 11-3
01/03/14 at #22 Wisconsin 24-10 17 L 63-49 11-4
01/07/14 Navy 11-20 300 W 92-53 12-4 (1-0)
01/09/14 Tulsa 20-13 74 W 81-60 13-4 (2-0)
01/14/14 at Massachusetts 17-14 142 L 84-66 13-5 (2-1)
01/16/14 at East Carolina 6-24 348 W 97-72 14-5 (3-1)
01/21/14 UCF 11-19 284 W 90-71 15-5 (4-1)
01/23/14 at Illinois State 15-15 147 W 70-60 16-5 (5-1)
01/28/14 at Houston 20-12 54 W 81-70 17-5 (6-1)
01/30/14 at Tulsa 20-13 74 W 90-73 18-5 (7-1)
02/04/14 East Carolina 6-24 348 W 101-64 19-5 (8-1)
02/06/14 Army 13-18 241 W 88-77 20-5 (9-1)
02/11/14 at Navy 11-20 300 W 94-57 21-5 (10-1)
02/13/14 Massachusetts 17-14 142 W 86-75 22-5 (11-1)
02/18/14 at UCF 11-19 284 W 65-53 23-5 (12-1)
02/20/14 at South Florida 16-16 209 W 85-76 24-5 (13-1)
02/25/14 Illinois State 15-15 147 W 85-74 25-5 (14-1)
02/27/14 Houston 20-12 54 W 100-96 26-5 (15-1)
03/09/14 vs. Massachusetts 17-14 142 W 79-78 27-5
03/10/14 vs. Houston 20-12 54 W 82-46 28-5
03/21/14 vs. Xavier 20-13 39 W 77-54 29-5
03/23/14 vs. #18 Indiana 24-10 11 W 98-69 30-5
03/27/14 vs. #24 Virginia Tech 24-11 21 W 77-67 31-5
03/29/14 vs. Florida 23-12 8 W 75-51 32-5
04/05/14 vs. #20 Miami 27-9 5 W 90-79 33-5
04/07/14 vs. #4 CCNY 34-5 1 L 97-65 33-6
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.