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the Nation

Posted Dec. 11, 2002

All Rhoades
lead to success
The turning point for the 1994 national champion Lebanon Valley men's basketball team came in the second round of the 1993 NCAA Tournament when the Dutchmen lost by two points to No. 1 ranked Scranton.

"They were No. 1," said Mike Rhoades, one of the stars on that team and now the head men's coach at Randolph-Macon, "and we felt that we could be there too. We should have won that game."

By Pat Coleman, D3hoops.com Mike Rhoades is 58-28 in his fourth season at Randolph-Macon.

Rhoades hopes that his current team, which lost by 12 to eventual national champion Otterbein in the Sweet 16 of last season's NCAA Tournament can take similar steps towards the top. RMC sliced a 20-point Otterbein lead in that game down to three, but tired down the stretch. Rhoades wants this group not to put itself in that position again.

"I think we're getting there," said Rhoades, whose team is unbeaten and ranked No. 4 nationally after being ranked No. 1 briefly last season. "The best thing about us is that we're 10 to 12 guys deep. We have nine guys back from last year's team that got significant playing time. We're moving along at a nice pace."

One of the benefits of having one of Pennsylvania's all-time best collegiate players is that Rhoades is well known throughout that state. In each of his four years as head coach, he's made it a point to try to pluck at least one player away from there. Two starters — junior forward Kurt Bergmann and leading scorer, senior forward Jared Mills (19.2 points per game, 63% shooting) both come from the Keystone State and have made significant contributions. Junior shooting guard Ryan Stein is one of four players from New Jersey, but lives close enough to the border of the two states that he could count for one as well. This season's team marks the first class of players Rhoades recruited entirely himself.

As well as being the all-time leading scorer, Mike Rhoades was Lebanon Valley's assist leader when he graduated.

After his playing career concluded in 1995 as LVC's then-leading all-time scorer with 2,050 points, and he had earned National Player of the Year honors and an invite to Phoenix Suns training camp among other things, Rhoades broke his ankle while mulling over offers to play overseas.

While working as a substitute teacher, Rhoades learned that a position was open to assist legendary RMC coach Hal Nunnally. He was one of five to interview — the other four candidates were already assistant coaches elsewhere — but Nunnally saw something special in Rhoades and hired him three days later. When Nunnally retired four years ago, Rhoades became head coach at age 25.

"I wish I could have played, but I think that breaking my ankle was a sign for me to get into coaching," Rhoades said. "There are certain jobs you love and I've got one of them. I still try to play as much as I can. I signed up for a men's league this fall and played one game. I don't think I'm going to get to play any others."

That's because Rhoades has a lot of work to do, not only on the court, but off it as well. One thing he says will be kept intact under his watch is a 99% graduation rate for the team that dates back more than 40 years.

On the court, he's making sure his team is ready for anything and there is a story that goes with that as well. In that 1994 title game, Lebanon Valley trailed NYU by two points in the closing seconds of regulation. Rhoades missed a shot, but teammate Jason Say was there to tip it in right as the buzzer sounded. TV replays after LVC triumphed in overtime showed the tip came after the buzzer, though Rhoades chuckles at the mention and still insists that the shot was legit. What was important though, was that Say was in exactly the right spot to give himself a shot at a shot.

"I tell our players that you don't know when something like that will come along," Rhoades said. "You better be prepared for when it does."

A CLOSE CALL: We gave proper credit to the two Division III programs (Fisk and Navy) that upset Division I teams earlier this season with front-page mention, but felt we should mention the team that came closest to joining that group.

On Dec. 4, Robert Morris defeated Carnegie Mellon, 68-55, but not without a scare or two along the way. The Tartans led at one point, 12-4, then rallied from 10 points down to tie the game with 12 minutes remaining. CMU was within five points at the five minute mark before Robert Morris, which plays in the Northeast Conference, pulled away.

"We try to play at least one Division I team a year as a rule," said head coach Tony Wingen. "Every Division III school has a couple of guys that feel like they should play Division I. It's fun to play up and you have nothing to lose by doing it."

We should note that CMU was without two starters for that game. One, Nick Miller was out for an unusual reason.

"Nick had what I'd call, an academic injury," Wingen said with a laugh. "He cut his finger while finishing a mechanical engineering project and needed 10 stitches."

One note on that Johns Hopkins men's team that ties into last week's story on assistant coaches. JHU, which upset Navy a week ago, has a pair of assistants with impressive longevity. Both Bob McCone (15 seasons) and Ed Richardson (17 seasons) have been with the program for a lengthy period of time under head coach Bill Nelson.

3-ON-3, ANYONE? David Petroff of UW-Stevens Point shares this tidbit: Three of the four teams in this year's Pointer Tipoff Tournament have a 2001-02 All-American on the bench as a student assistant coach. Kari Groshek of UW-Stevens Point was named first team All-American by D3hoops.com, Rachael Poland of Heidelberg was a fourth team D3hoops.com All-American and Kara Brandau was an NAIA Division II All-American last season. "We're thinking about letting the student assistants get together and enter a team in the tournament themselves," Petroff joked.

ON FIRE: One of the year's most improved players may be Wesleyan's Keala Mills, who was MVP of the Harbor Invitational at Mass-Boston. Mills was 33-for-51 from the field, made 16 3-pointers, and had successive games of 33, 37 and 31 points. According to Wesleyan SID Brian Katten, he may be the first player ever at Wesleyan to score 30 or more points in three successive games. Mills was subsequently held scoreless for the first 39 minutes of the Cardinals next game againt Eastern Connecticut, but managed nine points by the end of the overtime win. He averaged 7.4 points per game a year ago, but could end up more than doubling that at his current rate. Wesleyan is 6-2 and riding a 6-game win streak entering Dec. 11.

WHAT A REACH: Tinea Phillips from Massachusetts College is averaging 11.5 rebounds through her first four games. She's just 5-5.

HEY DUDE, I MEAN, COACH: When the Emerson and Wheelock women's basketball teams went head to head last week, it was a battle of two of the four youngest head coaches in the country. Emerson's Mike Burns (25 years old and in his second season) went head-to-head with his former assistant, Wheelock's Rich Glesmann (24 years old, first season). Emerson won the game, 63-30. The rematch is set for Jan. 9.

"It was strange," Burns said. "We played together for a year. In fact, with his assistant and my assistant, we all played together. We went to a conference championship. It was interesting to see them on the other side now with a different team."

By the way, Amanda Curtis (23 years old, at Bluffton) and 1998 D3hoops.com All-American Jessica Ott (24 years old, Milwaukee School of Engineering) rank No. 1 and No. 2 among youngest coaches in the nation.

JONESES JOKE HERE: Monmouth's Melissa Jones had the best clutch performance of last week. Jones not only scored her 1,000th point early in the game, but hit the game-winning shot at the buzzer as Monmouth edged Rockford, 70-69. The basket not only gave Jones' team the win, but got her the team record for most points in a game — 37. To top it off, Jones was playing against her sister Paula, a freshman at Rockford, who won the Illinois high school 3-point shooting contest last season.

NEWARK NO MORE: A neat, but unfortunate note courtesy of NJCU sports information director Ira Thor, as seen on Posting Up: This year's 0-2 start for NJCU in the NJAC marks the first time since 1965-66 that NJCU is winless in the league after two games...The 65-66 team started 0-3 in the league. Coincidentally, that was the season after current head coach Charles Brown graduated (last year 64-65). NJCU was 20-0 all-time at Rutgers-Newark in Brown's career until a loss last Saturday and now is 23-2 all-time in Newark.

Notes for Around the Nation are compiled with the help of sports information directors across the country. If you have suggestions or information for this column, please send it to mark@d3hoops.com.

Previous columns
2007-08 columns
March 6: Faith restored
Feb. 27: John Jay, Cinderella
Feb. 21: No safety net
Feb. 14: Ursinus better enough
Feb. 8: Hope-TMC on collision course
Jan. 31: Plattsburgh's big shot
Jan. 24: UMD answers call
Jan. 18: Like Bosko, like son
Jan. 11: Keystone stakes
Dec. 13: Unstoppable
Dec. 7: UWW aiming deeper
Nov. 30: Coach's shadow lingers
Nov. 15: Strong duo
2006-07 columns
2005-06 columns
2004-05 columns
2003-04 columns
2002-03 columns
2001-02 columns

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