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MINNESOTA STATE TEAM PERFORMANCE
Season Team W L CW CL Rank RPI PRS Result
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2014 Minnesota State 35 4 15 1 3 2 77 Loss in NCAA Championship Game
2013 Minnesota State 33 6 15 1 11 14 69 Loss in NCAA Championship Game
2012 Minnesota State 28 12 10 4 41 57 60 NIT Champion
2011 Minnesota State 13 19 8 6 250 215 56 No Postseason
2010 Minnesota State 18 17 10 4 158 137 55 Loss in NIT Preliminary Round
2009 Minnesota State 25 12 9 5 58 67 52 Loss in NCAA Round 1
2008 Minnesota State 15 17 5 9 197 266 46 No Postseason
2007 Minnesota State 22 14 10 4 90 132 46 Loss in NCAA Round 1
2006 Minnesota State 27 13 10 4 48 60 41 Loss in NCAA Final Four
2005 Minnesota State 13 21 9 5 290 289 30 No Postseason
2004 Minnesota State 5 28 3 11 366 364 25 No Postseason
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MINNESOTA STATE TROPHY CASE
Season Team Trophy
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2014 Minnesota State American Athletic Conference Champion
2014 Minnesota State American Athletic Conference Tourney Champion
2014 Minnesota State Battle for Atlantis Champion
2013 Minnesota State American Athletic Conference Champion
2013 Minnesota State American Athletic Conference Tourney Champion
2012 Minnesota State NIT Champion
2010 Minnesota State Summit League Champion
2009 Minnesota State Summit League Tourney Champion
2007 Minnesota State Summit League Tourney Champion
2006 Minnesota State Summit League Tourney Champion
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MINNESOTA STATE COACHING STAFF
Season Head Coach Assistant Coach Recruiting Coordinator Scout
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2014 Corey Wadsworth Marques Terrell Alan Lamb Brian Lipscomb
2013 Corey Wadsworth Eddy Fung Danny Araujo Brian Lipscomb
2012 Damien Flores Morgan Sherrell Jamaal Reed Brian Lipscomb
2011 Damien Flores Morgan Sherrell Jamaal Reed Brian Lipscomb
2010 Damien Flores Morgan Sherrell Jamaal Reed Brian Lipscomb
2009 Shane Daniels Demarcus Edwards Xeric Royster Damien Flores
2008 Shane Daniels Demarcus Edwards Xeric Royster Damien Flores
2007 Jae Cook Xeric Royster Demarcus Edwards Damien Flores
2006 Demarcus Waters Ronny Westbrook Jae Cook Damien Flores
2005 Demarcus Waters Ronny Westbrook Jae Cook Damien Flores
2004 Demarcus Waters Ronny Westbrook Jae Cook Damien Flores
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 Iโm in an empty cupboard mood, Iโm going to take over a recently transitioned to D1 college basketball program.
Iโm taking over Minnesota State Screaming Eagles, based in Rochester, MN for the purposes of this story. Theyโll be joining the Summit League as the 10th team starting in the 2004-05 season.
Iโd like to establish an identity of a program thatโs among the top scoring programs in the nation, regardless of how good or bad we are. I donโt care about defense, really. I just want to see them light up the scoreboard every single night and to become home to a program thatโs known for its run and gun.
I have a pro league thatโs parallel with this college league, but instead of doing a season in each at a time, Iโll 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 doesnโt actually involve the NBA at all, but weโll get to that later.
Minnesota State will also host a pre-season tournament in Week 4 called the Northern Sun Classic. Itโll start off as a low prestige event, but as the program gets better, weโll 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 Iโd 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. Heโs 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.
Iโm 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 โ progress โ 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 Iโve still delegated coaching responsibilities to the head coach. This is the first year weโll get to participate in the conference tournament, as itโs 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, heโs gonna be a star.
2006-07
I have no idea what to really expect this year. Last yearโs recruiting class was mostly guys whoโll redshirt this year, not certain they can help us this season out of the chute. Year 3 we have no available scholarships, so I wonโt 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. Youโd have to think so, after the gains of last year. Iโm not doing the scheduling for this year, so weโll 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.
Itโs clear that when we look back on the programโs 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..thatโs 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 itโs 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 Iโve ever seen. This is FGCU meets Butler, except even more nuts.
Spoiler
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, Iโve cut two walkons at the end of the year โ a few will be rising seniors โ in exchange for a transfer or two or a late signee. Iโd prefer to build on this momentum, rather than just carry dead weight and hope for the best.
Iโm going to turn my attention from here to the pro game, where Iโm 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 canโt 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 weโll 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.
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