So after 12 years at D3 East Texas Baptist and solid success (was trying to do the elusive D3-D1 jump, but couldn't do it), 5 NT bids in a row, winning the PI tournament earlier in my stay there, I decided to make the jump up to D2.  Of course this season the new coach takes them 35-1 and wins the NT.  Congrats to una_hoops, I'm sure I would have screwed up the game planning and not won it all, but I'm curious how many of you have had this happen?

Obviously someone has to win every year, but who has built up a roster, changed teams and then watch them make a deep run and win it all?

Not win it all, but I had a former  team make the championship game and finish 31-4. I'd lost 3 starters and left for D2.  It was many seasons before I ever made the final game

Left and my team made the championship game and lost. Returned the following season...

I had one team that I recruited some really good players at Greenville but I left and the coach that took over got to the final four it was tough to see but if there was one coach I wanted to take the job it was the one who did so I was happy with that and I was happy where I was anyway

I coached at Texas Southern in D1 years ago and then left to coach Nova after a Sweet 16 run.  The next year, the SIM took Texas Southern to the championship game.  Since it was D1, I was quite dismayed.

Almost. In D3 Smith, I left Calvin and moved to Elmhurst. At Elmhurst we went undefeated until losing in the Elite 8. So at Calvin I think max99 took over. They went undefeated until tonight - losing in the NT Championship game.

Actually forgot I left a team that went to the NT game the next season. I was coming off a season where I had my best team ever at Bryant in Phelan and was running through everybody and got upset in the Sweet 16. The frustration led me to make the jump to D1, and the new coach took them to the NT game. The most frustrating part was I had lost something like 7 straight Elite 8 games.

It's more frustrating, I think, when you know you've built an awesome team and you watch the next coach come in and run it into the ground. I gave him advice, of course...

I left Tenn. last year with 7 returning players that I thought were really good.  A coach, who has a pretty decent track record, came in but had a tough go of it in recruiting, and took an 0-fer.  So he only had my 7 guys returning.  He took them to the Final Four.  Meanwhile, I got bounced in the 2nd round with my new team, who probably had more talent on the whole.  It was tough to watch, but kudos to that coach for getting that deep with only 7 guys.  Wish he would have stuck around more than one season though (essentially insuring the implosion of the program into the abyss).

I've coached Valdosta St in Knight for the better part of the last 40 seasons with 2 short breaks. Early on I left for D1 but quickly missed my old school and returned after just one season. More recently (about 10 seasons ago) I left again (as part of my let's try to be in a position to take Syracuse if it ever opens here quest). collegeboss7 won 2 titles in my 4 season absence. (in seasons 2 and 4 - half of the first were my kids (including NPOY), on the last only 1 of mine was left, but he was NPOY as well). That last team was pretty clearly cb's, but I always wonder what I might have done with that first half-team.

Posted by eflhoca on 10/21/2013 2:29:00 PM (view original):
It's more frustrating, I think, when you know you've built an awesome team and you watch the next coach come in and run it into the ground. I gave him advice, of course...

I've seen that too, a few times. Once I left a school after having just graduated the all time scoring leader and having recruited someone I thought was nearly identical, if not slightly better, expecting him to follow the tradition (the kids coincidentally had the same last name). The kid didn't even finish his career averaging double figures. Totally misused (the coach switched o and d as well, so that probably hurt)

I'm happy he won, if anything it reinforces the recruiting and building I did there.  I'm pretty sure my gameplanning would have screwed something up had I stayed, but it does reinforce to me the importance of schedule/RPI/NT seeding.  I saw that at my D2 team in another world, it's just so much easier when you're not starting as a 14 seed or something.

I'm happy a human picked up the team, for most of the time I was there the conference has 3 other solid coaches with great programs.  After they left the sim coaches sort of whittled them down.  It was a good learning experience, and sort of reinforces the different stages of team building - talent, building a roster that works well together and then ramping up schedule to get good seeds.