ESPSports.com10/21 02:15 AM

bomberball accepts head coaching position at Richmond. Columbia searching for replacement...

I'm pretty excited about this one. When I moved from Central Connecticut to Providence, I quickly realized the tippy-top level of HD just wasn't for me. However, the A-10 Conference is right up my street. Coaches can field competitive teams with less of a grind, early entries aren't as big a deal, and there are enough human-coached teams to ensure a somewhat lively coaches' corner.

Richmond's coach had been there for ages, but he moved on to take the Boston College job after the Eagles won the NT and their coach bolted for Texas. There'll be some recruiting to do, but there's still some talent left on a roster that went to the third round of the PI. I'm pretty excited to get this going and see what I can do!

Round 2 of recruiting is underway, so here's a look at two of the newest Spiders (with hopefully more to come).

John Ferris (*, #165 overall, #40 SG) - As has been the case for some time, the guards WIS generated this year were pretty lousy. Ferris signed before I got here, and he's a good get. I wish he was faster, but he's going to turn into an excellent defender, and while he's a lousy passer for a guard right now, that skill will improve with time, and he may see more playing time at SF than SG anyway (so the low passing won't be a massive burden). He's not a star, but I like him just fine.

Ivan Schimanski (international, so unranked) - Richmond has just three bigs returning, so we needed some more bodies in the frontcourt. I recruited Schimanski a bit when I was at Columbia, and he's not a terrible fit here. I wish his on-ball defense was better, and he's not a supremely-gifted athlete, but he'll wind up a very good rebounder, a decent scorer, and a very good passer for a big man. I'm not sure he'll ever start for an A-10 team, but at a minimum, he'll turn into a strong rotational player.

It's been a fun season to date for the Richmond Spiders. We're 16-6 overall, and 10-2 in the A10. This year's conference is dominated by St. Bonaventure, who should run the table and win the CT. Will being the second or third-best team in the league be enough for an NT bid? I'm not sure, but we don't have a bad loss on the resume yet, our RPI's in the 60's, and I'm having a blast in this league.

Recruiting is underway, and I've got three scholarships available this time around. Here's the first signee...

Bill Layman (*, #142 overall, #24 SG) - As per usual, the guards WIS generated, on the whole, weren't great. However, while he won't be a star, Layman is a good prospect for this system. He's going to be an excellent defensive player, and while he won't be insanely fast, his athleticism will mitigate some of that. He'll also be a very strong rebounder for a guard, which is a cool quirk.

Offensively, he's an OK outside shooter that will turn into a decent passer. The reason I got him for cheap, I imagine, was his low ball handling, which thankfully will go up a ton in due time. Once that gets up to snuff, he'll likely top out as a solid A10 starter, and I'm happy to have him in the fold.

Lots of good news to report. We finished A10 play at 13-3 and earned a #1 seed in the CT after somehow winning a three-way tiebreaker with Saint Louis and Dayton. Our RPI is currently 61st in the country, which means we've got some going to do to get off the NT bubble. A trip to the CT finals may, MAY, be good enough to do it, but we might need to win the CT to make sure.

The other piece of good news comes with our second signing.

Dustin Jones (**, #132 overall, #32 PG) - First things first: Jones is ineligible. That means there's an element of risk here, but given how good a player he should be in due time, it's a chance I'm willing to take.

Jones is as good an offensive guard as we could've hoped to land. He's an excellent outside shooter that will turn into a solid distributor as well, and the high potential in athleticism, speed, and stamina is very appealing. Defensively, he won't be a liability, but he won't be a lockdown guy, either. Still, if he tops out between 65-70, that's just fine.

I won a true coin flip here. UMBC promised him the world, and that limited my favoritism to 52-48 despite having a significant prestige edge. I promised him 15 minutes of playing time, which may be a mild inconvenience if he becomes eligible. However, he also won't be a liability in that role. He's already a good player, and he's got the potential to turn into a very good (perhaps great, at least offensively) A10 starter.

The bad news: A loss to Saint Louis in the CT semis, despite shooting 57% from the floor and 31-of-34 from the line, meant we missed out on an NT berth.

The good news: We went on a heck of a run in the PI, advancing all the way to the finals before losing an overtime game to Rutgers. As a result, we went 24-9, and we also got a bit lucky when starting shooting guard Gregory Lewis, who averaged nearly 16 points per game, decided to return for his senior year rather than declare for the draft.

All told, this was a solid first season. An NT berth would've been nice, but we advanced far enough in the PI to keep our B- prestige, at least. Next season's Spiders will bring back nine of 10 scholarship players, including four starters. Add in Layman, perhaps Jones if he becomes eligible, and maybe one other newcomer, and I think it'll be a really fun group to coach.

I was really excited about this season, and our on-court play reflects that. The Spiders are 23-3 (after an 0-3 start, no less!), and we enter the A10 tournament with a real chance at doing damage at the NT level. Here's hoping we keep playing at a high level and get the opportunity to do that.

Recruiting has been...interesting. I'll have a few stories for when my class is finalized, but for now, here's the first guy to sign.

Willis Sellers (*, #128 overall, #21 C) - Sellers is ineligible, but that's just fine. While our backcourt is going to be ravaged by graduations, we thankfully have plenty of frontcourt firepower coming back next season, so waiting a year won't be an issue.

Sellers was close to campus (within 100 miles), and there's a lot to like. He's already a very good athlete with strong defensive and rebounding skills, and he'll develop into a top-notch player in both areas. In addition, he's already a decent free throw shooter, and he'll get much, much better from the line before he's done. His lone limitation is that he's not going to be the world's greatest scorer, but I won't need him to be, and at least he'll be able to refine his perimeter game a bit.

It shows that I promised him the world. However, I'm not expecting him to magically become eligible. If he does, and I need to start him, that's not the end of the world. As a long-term prospect, I really like him, and I think he'll turn into a very strong player.

Good news on the court: We finished at 27-4 after winning the A10 tournament and knocking off Lipscomb in a minor, 11-over-6 upset in the NT. A second-round loss to Duke was unfortunate, but the Blue Devils wound up advancing to the national title game, so it's not like we got beat by patsies.

Round two of recruiting was underway, and this guy was crucial.

William Woodward (***, #71 overall, #12 C, PA Mr. Basketball) - Ronald Topping, our starting PF, declared for the NBA draft a year early. As such, Woodward (and, to a lesser extent, the already-signed Willis Sellers) went from "nice to have" luxuries to "must-have" players.

Woodward isn't a finished product, and he didn't come cheap, but he's going to be an NBA-caliber player. It helps that he knows our triangle offense, and with his absurdly-high work ethic, he'll turn into an A10-ready defender very, very fast. As it stands now, he's in no way an offensive threat, but he does have a lot of room to improve and he's already a solid passer for a big man.

I outdueled Penn State for Woodward and won a 70-30 flip. I promised him the world, and he might be a bit out of place as a day one starter. However, by the end of the year, he'll fit right in, and I see him giving other A10 teams major headaches for four years. I really like him, and him signing means I can breathe a sigh of relief (and ensure this recruiting period isn't a total disaster).

Douglas Rogers (#87 SF) - Operation "limit the damage caused by a very shallow backcourt" is in full effect right now. Usually, I recruit shooting guards who are a bit too slow for that spot to become SF's, but after losing several battles, I needed to call audibles.

Fortunately, Douglas Rogers slipped through the cracks and signed very quickly overnight. He's a bit raw, and I wish he was faster/more athletic. However, he knows our offensive and defensive sets, he's already a decent defender (even if that won't improve much), and he's going to turn into an outstanding inside scoring threat (with a perimeter game that isn't totally non-existent). I wish I could afford to redshirt him, because he's got very high potential in several areas, but he won't be too out of place getting 10 minutes a game as a freshman.

Eventually, Rogers will turn into a solid starter. The limited potential on defense might come back to bite me down the line, but at a minimum, he'll be able to contribute a ton offensively to offset some of that. He wasn't a first choice, but he makes for a good fallback option that fills a gap.

Okay, with my last two signings, it's time to tell the story of how I had to call about 20 audibles during recruiting.

Rolf Kaszynski (international so unranked) - If I'd had any other options, Kaszynski wouldn't have been considered. However, let this sink in: Prior to him signing, I offered scholarships to no fewer than eight guards. I lost major battles for two of them early on in recruiting (one to Rutgers, one to Howard), and that sparked a series of unfortunate events. Louisville and Missouri poached a few other guys of note, and I was a cycle or two too late on several others.

Kaszynski isn't good. He's not close to good. He's slow and he can't defend, at all, whatsoever. His primary purpose is to give me a #4 guard so we have an option other than a walk-on in the event of an emergency. His one plus is that he's a good shooter, so we can park him in a corner and have him jack threes. However, to say I'm disappointed this is the best I could do for that role is a huge understatement. If I play my cards right in recruiting this time around, Kaszynski may not be on the team as a sophomore.

Thomas Johnson (#140 PF) - Johnson signed right when recruiting stopped, and while he's another guy who will struggle to see significant, meaningful playing time, there are at least a few good things here. He'll turn into a solid defender and shot-blocker, and his high work ethic ensures we'll see some gains pretty quickly.

Like Kaszynski, he signed solely to provide an option for mop-up minutes that wasn't a walk-on. Also like Kaszynski, it's tough to see him playing a ton more than that. However, he's not a complete whiff and at least belongs at the D1 level, so I could've done worse.

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RECRUITING THOUGHTS

In some ways, I'm happy. Woodward has the potential to be a star. Sellers won't play this season, but assuming he shows up/doesn't go JuCo, he'll turn into a very strong frontcourt player, too (a Woodward-Sellers frontcourt genuinely excites me). Rogers, meanwhile, is raw right now but has a ton of potential and should be a solid starter late in his career.

In other ways...yikes. Kaszynski was my ninth choice in the backcourt, and that's tough to swallow. Yes, he's better than taking an additional walk-on (I'll still need one), but not by as much as I'd like. Johnson, at least, won't be terrible in a "we have foul trouble and just need a guy to play decent defense for a few minutes" role.

There are some good things here, and it's not like I completely struck out. However, the pressure's on next season, and if some good guards don't sign, we'll be in pretty big trouble.

GRADE: C/C+. As bad as the Kaszynski signing is, and it's bad, it's not bad enough to totally take away from two really strong ones and another that's solid.

We've really suffered from graduations and the early entry that came out of left field. Richmond is 8-15 this year, and we just don't have the depth necessary to compete with some of the really good teams in the A10.

However, with recruiting comes optimism and, in this case, one of the best flips I've ever won.

George Brown (***, #85 overall, #17 PF) - Our SF, Reed Buchholz, is going to get drafted. This means we need reinforcements, and after the backcourt disaster during last season, not many answers existed on the Richmond bench.

This made Brown our biggest recruiting target, and for good reason. He'll be the most athletic player on the team when he arrives on campus next season. He's a bit slow right now, but that'll change, and he's already a good enough passer to transition from PF to SF. He'll be an excellent defender, a strong rebounder for the position, and a solid scorer (maybe more than that if his perimeter potential is through the roof).

I battled Georgia State from the word "go." Ultimately, they had a 52% likelihood to win the flip (not sure why, given their C+ prestige compared to my B prestige and me maxing out the investment with 20 HV's, a CV, and max promises), and I got a little lucky. Given all the issues I had last year, though, I'm not sorry, in the least. :)

There may be some growing pains early on when he's getting the starting spot/playing time he's promised. However, his potential is sky-high, and he may very well wind up getting drafted when all is said and done.

The HD gods must be trying to throw me bones, because I just won another flip.

Patrick Sena (#251 overall, #50 PG) - Last year's catastrophic backcourt recruiting meant getting a guy or two this season was critical. Sena was priority #2 for me behind Brown all along, and I'm pretty happy we snagged him.

He's never going to be a top-flight scorer. However, he'll wind up an excellent defender on one end and a solid, pass-first PG on the other. He'll need to learn our sets, but that's minor and he'll get up to speed soon enough.

In this instance, the flip I won came against a conference rival. La Salle, a program that's turned around considerably since a human coach came on board a few seasons ago, had a 53% chance to get Sena, and once again, I got a little lucky.

Sena isn't a star, but he provides valuable depth and will grow into a good starter. After the events of last season, when I whiffed on a bunch of good players, I have a new appreciation for guards like that.

What's this? Another guard, and a recruiting class that's done barring something unforeseen in round two?

Steve Lane (#172 overall, #32 PG) - The WIS rankings (which are, of course, entirely cosmetic) have Lane as a better player than Sena. I don't think that's accurate, and I never had to fend anyone else off to sign him, but Lane's still a really nice get. He knows our sets, and he's going to develop into a top-notch defensive player.

Offensively, the potential is limited. His ball handling potential is encouraging, for sure, but he won't get better as a shooter or a passer. The one really cool quirk to his offensive game is that he's an excellent free throw shooter. Coupled with solid athleticism and blazing speed, that could mean his value is as a "dribble, drive, get fouled" guy.

Sena fits a more defined spot coming to Richmond next season, and I may redshirt Lane. Assuming that goes as planned, he'll be ready to see significant time off the bench as a redshirt freshman, and he'll be a big part of the team in the seasons following. Even with Lane's offensive limitations, I like him a fair bit.

We finished 12-16 this past season. That early entry following our second-round NT run really hurt us. However, we stayed at a B prestige, which I wasn't expecting, and there was a fun development in round two of recruiting.

Charles Lamar (#97 C) - I decided to cut Rolf Kaszynski. The signings of Sena and Lane give us backcourt depth we didn't have before, and he was just never going to play. My philosophy was to try to get someone for cheap, but I wasn't going to be upset if I had to take a walk-on (since that just means I'd have the money for an additional scholarship next season).

Lamar is ineligible, but that's okay, as he wouldn't play a lot this year anyway behind Woodward, Sellers, and Schimanski. However, Schimanski, our #3 big, is a senior next year, and while he'll almost certainly never start for us, Lamar will help fill the gap created when that one graduates.

He's an excellent rebounder and shot-blocker, for sure. He's just very raw in other areas, and he'll never be a world-class athlete, but the high potential in defense and low post means he'll eventually be a very useful player. I imagine he'll top out very similar to Schimanski, my very first Richmond recruit. He's turned into a reliable #3 big who can play 12-15 minutes per game without being a liability, and that's sort of how I see Lamar developing. As round two signings go, this one doesn't stink.

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RECRUITING THOUGHTS

After the debacle of last season, where I got zero in the way of backcourt help, getting some high-quality guys was pretty crucial. George Brown certainly fits that bill. He'll be a four-year starter and may very well get himself drafted, given his high ceiling.

Sena and Lane aren't perfect, but they'll be very good guards (especially on the defensive end). Sena will play a lot right away and not be out of place as our #2 point guard, while Lane will almost certainly redshirt and give himself a little more time. Lamar wasn't a priority, but given that we got rid of a guy we won't ever use in favor of a guy that'll be part of the rotation down the road, that was a solid win.

It's not a world-class group, and we'll probably still have a rebuilding year in front of us next season. However, I'm far more optimistic about the team now than I was at the start of recruiting, and we've got a foundation for some success moving forward. With only one senior in next season's starting lineup (and the only junior being Dustin Jones, who's really a sophomore since he was ineligible as a true freshman), the guys we've got who can play will be around for quite a while, and that makes for a fun scenario.

GRADE: B+/A-.

As I expected, it's another rebuilding year for Richmond. We're 10-14 right now, but a decent 7-7 in the A-10 despite only having one senior starter (and another senior acting as our #3 big). I'm expecting big things in the next two years from this group, we just need to get there.

Time for another round of recruiting. Here's this season's first signee...

Eric Bryan (#125 PG) - Our backcourt is set for next year. Dustin Jones runs point, Bill Layman plays off the ball, and last year's two point guards (Steve Lane, unfortunately, did not redshirt) will back them up. What we needed was an outside-shooting prospect, and Bryan might be that guy.

He's not perfect. I wish he'd wind up faster, he's never going to be a floor general, and while he'll get better defensively, he won't be a shutdown guy. Those limitations probably mean he won't start for us, and I may very well try to redshirt him. However, he should develop into a very good "instant offense" guy off the bench, and if he's not guarding another team's starting guard, he doesn't have to be a defensive ace. There's value in getting rotation players ahead of time, and while it's not like he was my first choice, I'm also not displeased about him coming to town.

We finished last season 13-15. Most remarkably, I managed to finish off recruiting while in Hawaii with my fiancee, and I'm typing this up while she gets ready for the day.

Dean Whittle (#154 C) - I lost a pair of brutal battles in back-to-back fashion. I was a 52% favorite in a three-way flip involving a *** big, but he signed with St. Bonaventure. Being involved in that battle meant I was a cycle too late to win over another big, who I got to offer a scholarship to but didn't get to bring to campus. I then tried for a ** overseas big, but Missouri State had pumped in a ton of resources and I never had a shot (I probably should've known better).

This led me to Whittle, who still won't be terrible. He's going to turn into an excellent rebounder and a decent scorer. He's just not a great defender, and he needs time to develop as an athlete. Thankfully, my starting frontcourt is set for the next two seasons (assuming no early entries), so I can give him a lot of time before having to rely on him. He reminds me a bit of the recently-departed Ivan Schimanski, who never started because of athletic and defensive limitations but was a fine #3 big.

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RECRUITING THOUGHTS

The bad news is neither Bryan nor Whittle will be stars. The good news is, I don't need them to be. I've got four starters coming back from last year's team (which was 13-15 but was a few bad rolls of the dice from winning 16-18 games), and these guys will be useable role-players when the time comes. We can't afford many recruiting periods like this, but if I'm going to have them, this is the time for it.

GRADE: C-/C.