My Nazareth team just won the National title in the Rupp world. After playing with a normal team for about 30 seasons as chapelhillne, I decided that it would be fun to create a profile with Billy Graham as the coach. He would coach at Nazareth (Jesus' birthplace), and only play Bible related schools. The kicker was that the only players that would be recruited were players with names that appeared in the Bible. This probably narrowed the pool down to about 25%, if that, of a normal pool.

The first season we had to recruit 7 players, I believe I recruited 6, and somehow my assistant recruited a 7th one, Victor Nolin, which is why he is on the team even though he didn't have a bible name.  Surprisingly, I ended up with what I thought was a really good recruiting class.

Since there were only 5 players left on the team, I started 4 freshmen, and one sophomore that I recruited as a transfer student. In year one, we went 11-17. In year 2 we improved to 22-7. Last year we went 29-4 and made the Elite 8, and this year we just won the national title with a record of 34-1 - the only loss coming to Emmanuel.

Billy Graham has now amassed a record of 96-29, and has been named conference coach of the year for three consecutive years. The team has gone undefeated in conference play for two consecutive years. The Empire 8 conference was #2 in conference RPI, so it wasn't a super easy conference.

I was wondering if anyone else has had an experience like that with a themed team. I also think it would be cool to have a themed conference at some point.

it is highly recommended to have a divine being as a booster...

is it an NCAA violation if the Lord gives special benefits to a player?

Revelation 2:7 -- "I will give the victor the right to eat from the tree of life..."

Your assistant coach is far wiser than you thought...

i took an all PG/SG team to the D3 Elite 8 in Naismith in 4 seasons but retired the theme after that because I'm not sure I could have done much better with it.  I might be curious enough to dust it off and try it at D2 or D1 at some point though

Ephesians 6:13...........'stand your ground on the day of battle, and, having fought to the end, to remain  victors on the field.'

Also, one of the leading Biblical reference books is the Victor Bible Background Commentary..

Wow. Neat.

I could be wrong... But wasn't there a coach who won it all with a team comprised solely of international players?

^Irregardless of that, that's an incredible feat, my friend. 

Last season in IBA, a player transferred from Philadeplhia Biblical to Yeshiva. Had to learn a new offense, defense and switch from the King James Bible to the Torah.

I picked Billy Graham for the coach name because he is probably the living person I respect most in the world today. For someone of his stature to have gone 90 years without a major scandal  is amazing. And he has impacted millions of lives. So, I chose that coach name out of respect for him.

My backup center had an especially cool name for the theme of this team - Adam Comfort

When my daughter was about five years old, she thought the bald recruit pictures were really funny.  So she would sit with me while I opened player profiles and giggle like a maniac whenever the player was bald.  Any time I was choosing between similarly talented recruits, if other things were equal I would recruit the bald guy.  But I never had the guts to go with an all-bald team.  Billy, you have my respect!

Posted by davis on 9/12/2011 2:14:00 PM (view original):
When my daughter was about five years old, she thought the bald recruit pictures were really funny.  So she would sit with me while I opened player profiles and giggle like a maniac whenever the player was bald.  Any time I was choosing between similarly talented recruits, if other things were equal I would recruit the bald guy.  But I never had the guts to go with an all-bald team.  Billy, you have my respect!

That would be a cool themed team - coached by Mr. Clean

Would be fun to see if you cool get a team of white guys together where the guards are all under 6' and the other guys top out at 6'5" or 6'6"... especially if you could do it without sacrificing athleticism.  Just a bunch of white guys who CAN jump.