Ron Steele was one of my favorite players.  As good or better than Mo Williams--who came through Bama just prior--until injuries took their toll.

I miss seeing plays like this in Bama basketball games.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3VQZDpngnA

TRIVIA
A friend from Indiana pointed out that there are 10 DI schools in Indiana and none of them will be in the NCAA tournament this year.   The schools are Ball St., Butler, Evansville, Indiana, Indiana St., IPFW, IUPUI, Notre Dame, Purdue, and Valparaiso.

Question #1:
 When was the last time, if ever, that Indiana was shut out of the tournament?

Question #2:
  Are there any other states, with more than 10 schools, that won't be in the tournament?

I don't know the answers but it'll be a challenge for you trivia buffs!

Posted by ettaexpress on 3/13/2014 4:08:00 AM (view original):
Dunlap has been everywhere. Pretty sure he won at least one D-II championship at Metro State. This seems like a really good hire if he still has the fire and energy level to put into a rebuild. 

Dunlap hasn't been everywhere.  He had huge success at Metro but never got a shot at a big job so he said F it.  Since then he has jumped around some, as that is the nature of the NBA.  He built his success at Metro on Aussie players.  Should be a great fit in the WCC.

NJ has 8.  We can go presidential administrations without getting a team in.

For a state loaded with high school talent, we just can't keep it in state.

Posted by Trentonjoe on 3/13/2014 12:54:00 PM (view original):

Posted by ettaexpress on 3/13/2014 12:22:00 PM (view original):

Posted by scaturo on 3/13/2014 9:40:00 AM (view original):
Princeton sued Trenton State College a couple years back when TSC wanted to change their name to The College of NJ.  Apparently, that was Princeton's name like 300 years ago for an hour and a half.   Princeton lost, or settled or something....

That was a great branding move by TCNJ. Not only does it sound a helluva lot better than Trenton State, it kind of sounds like a private school. 

Plus their baseball uniforms look just like the Yankees, only with an NJ rather than NY.

I think they just wanted to ditch the Trenton aspect.  They have transitioned into the best small public school in NJ.  The running joke around here is TCNJ is the Princeton of Mercer County, if you don't count Princeton.

I don't know if wanting to sound like it's a private school was it's goal tough. There's no perceived advantage to that in NJ.  The pecking order of academic prestige around here is:

Princeton
Rutgers College
TCNJ
Seton Hall
Other Rutgers New Brunswick Colleges
Everyone else (and theres about 30)

Even out of state, other than the local Ivy's (and Johns Hopkins) there isn't a private college within 250 miles of NJ with a better academic rep than Rutgers or TCNJ.   

that last part is a bit of a stretch... there are quite a few private schools in a 250-mile radius of NJ with good academic reps. All depends on what you're looking for, which programs, etc. 

But Swarthmore outside Philly is a top-10 liberal arts school, there are lots of small schools near Philly, in DC, etc that have great academic reputations.

A lot of it is just local rep, too-- I live in Virginia and would put a bunch of our local private schools ahead of those two. (And UR is 200-ish miles from Jersey, has a good reputation, and draws tons of Jersey kids, too). 

I probably should have said "significantly" and I was mentally factoring in cost.  TCNJ is a great public liberal arts college.    There aren't many private schools with in 200 miles of NJ that are significantly better than RU or TCNJ.

And I did forget about Swarthmore and G'town.

TCNJ is in the 550/650 SAT range, there's probably 30 schools on the east coast that are better.  

And I always forget about Swarthmore, I think it's because I don't think real people go there.   I always kinda figured the people who went to Swarthmore were people who would never to talk to people like me.  And people that own monocles.

Posted by alblack56 on 3/13/2014 1:22:00 PM (view original):
TRIVIA
A friend from Indiana pointed out that there are 10 DI schools in Indiana and none of them will be in the NCAA tournament this year.   The schools are Ball St., Butler, Evansville, Indiana, Indiana St., IPFW, IUPUI, Notre Dame, Purdue, and Valparaiso.

Question #1:
 When was the last time, if ever, that Indiana was shut out of the tournament?

Question #2:
  Are there any other states, with more than 10 schools, that won't be in the tournament?

I don't know the answers but it'll be a challenge for you trivia buffs!

On 1, i would think it would have to be pre-Bob Knight. IU has missed some lately, but I would think Butler has been in most of those same years. Before that it was pretty much every year IU was in. There *might* have been a year after Knight left before Butler started really coming up, but probably most of those years Purdue or IUPUI made it. My first ditch effort is 1971.

On 2, there aren't many states with 10+ D-I schools, but I'm thinking maybe Illinois would be in that club?

Posted by Trentonjoe on 3/13/2014 3:02:00 PM (view original):
I probably should have said "significantly" and I was mentally factoring in cost.  TCNJ is a great public liberal arts college.    There aren't many private schools with in 200 miles of NJ that are significantly better than RU or TCNJ.

And I did forget about Swarthmore and G'town.

TCNJ is in the 550/650 SAT range, there's probably 30 schools on the east coast that are better.  

Actually, now that I reread this, I am clearly talking out of my ***.   That sentence has so many disclaimers I can't even remember what my original point was.  

Posted by cburton23 on 3/13/2014 1:25:00 PM (view original):

Posted by ettaexpress on 3/13/2014 4:08:00 AM (view original):
Dunlap has been everywhere. Pretty sure he won at least one D-II championship at Metro State. This seems like a really good hire if he still has the fire and energy level to put into a rebuild. 

Dunlap hasn't been everywhere.  He had huge success at Metro but never got a shot at a big job so he said F it.  Since then he has jumped around some, as that is the nature of the NBA.  He built his success at Metro on Aussie players.  Should be a great fit in the WCC.

To me this qualifies as well-traveled...

As coach:
1980–1985	Loyola Marymount (assistant)
1985–1986	Iowa (assistant)
1986–1989	USC (assistant)
1989–1994	Cal Lutheran
1994–1996	Adelaide 36ers
1997–2006	Metro State
2006–2008	Denver Nuggets (assistant)
2008–2009	Arizona (assistant)
2009–2010	Oregon (assistant)
2010–2012	St. John's (assistant/interim)
2012-2013	Charlotte Bobcats
2014-present	Loyola Marymount

How I wish that WVU's Bob Huggins was included on the list of those seeking employment.
This Mountaineer alum has had enough of him.

Posted by Trentonjoe on 3/13/2014 3:22:00 PM (view original):

Posted by Trentonjoe on 3/13/2014 3:02:00 PM (view original):
I probably should have said "significantly" and I was mentally factoring in cost.  TCNJ is a great public liberal arts college.    There aren't many private schools with in 200 miles of NJ that are significantly better than RU or TCNJ.

And I did forget about Swarthmore and G'town.

TCNJ is in the 550/650 SAT range, there's probably 30 schools on the east coast that are better.  

Actually, now that I reread this, I am clearly talking out of my ***.   That sentence has so many disclaimers I can't even remember what my original point was.  

i think your point was something about rutgers and tcnj being good schools... which is true. especially on the engineering and science side of things, rutgers is very strong. but once you start getting into terms like "best" you start to get in hot water :) rutgers is a solid university but its not like its just below the top tier universities out there.

Sources told ESPN that Rice Univ. will be firing Ben Braun

Posted by padgett1547 on 3/13/2014 3:28:00 PM (view original):
How I wish that WVU's Bob Huggins was included on the list of those seeking employment.
This Mountaineer alum has had enough of him.

You've got to be kidding me. 

They're going to be *very* good next year.

Posted by gillispie1 on 3/13/2014 3:29:00 PM (view original):

Posted by Trentonjoe on 3/13/2014 3:22:00 PM (view original):

Posted by Trentonjoe on 3/13/2014 3:02:00 PM (view original):
I probably should have said "significantly" and I was mentally factoring in cost.  TCNJ is a great public liberal arts college.    There aren't many private schools with in 200 miles of NJ that are significantly better than RU or TCNJ.

And I did forget about Swarthmore and G'town.

TCNJ is in the 550/650 SAT range, there's probably 30 schools on the east coast that are better.  

Actually, now that I reread this, I am clearly talking out of my ***.   That sentence has so many disclaimers I can't even remember what my original point was.  

i think your point was something about rutgers and tcnj being good schools... which is true. especially on the engineering and science side of things, rutgers is very strong. but once you start getting into terms like "best" you start to get in hot water :) rutgers is a solid university but its not like its just below the top tier universities out there.

I think TCNJ being at the top of the heap as far as those publics shows the value of the re-branding. Do you think they would be there if they were still Trenton State? It's differentiation. Pretty similar to what Glassboro State did in renaming themselves Rowan.