I said it once already this season and I'll say it again. This season 73 Lander team was the best team I've seen in Iba D2 since I've been coaching. Hats off to getbearded for pulling off the national championship under the duress of such high expectations. In season 60, I had the best team, but got upset in the final by a Longwood team that was on a terrific run and really a year away. congrats getbearded. Just because you're the best team on paper doesn't mean you'll win. You still got to coach them.
My only regret is that I didn't get to play him in the NT like I did last year. This year would have been the championship. I really thought I had the 2nd best team but fell victim to the terrific Cinderella run of Cbus St. That was the other story of this NT.
I also want to post on this thread for posterity sake. Michael Lewis will be remembered as one of the best players in Harding's storied history. It took two pretty dog gone good PGs (Oleg Zausch from Lander and Russell Jackson from C-Bus) to knock him out of the NT in the Elite 8 his final 2 years. In Harding's record books Lewis is:
- 1st in Steals with 233 (4th all time in Iba D2)
- 2nd in Pts with 1784
- 8th in Assists with 429
- 22nd in FT shooting with 76.5%
Nationally he was NPOY, NDPOY, and 2-time All-American.
In my opinion he's still 2nd to my Wesley Ellis who starred for me from 34-38 and took me to two NT championship games (one starting as a Frosh) and ended up being drafted in the 1st round by the Philadelphia 76'ers with the 28th overall pick. But I digress.
Fun year.