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| Photos by d3photography.com and Carthage athletics |
By Pat Coleman
D3sports.com
Once upon a time, we released an All-Decade team. Perhaps, just perhaps, that one was early.
In contrast, this one is late.
In 1997, when I took over running D3hoops.com, there was no concept of doing this work for a decade, let alone 23 seasons, plus whatever this one is. So when we got to 10 years, in 2008, we released an All-Decade team. That one recognized the greatest Division III men’s and women’s basketball players who took the court from 1997 through 2007.
We either should have waited, and somehow ignored the accomplishments of the likes of Devean George, Andy Panko and Michael Nogelo, or done another one in 2007.
We did neither, of course. Instead, we're taking our gap now. And as Gordon Mann wrote when we unveiled our women's All-Decade team for the 2010's this past summer, we could all use something to celebrate right now. This project brought our team a lot of joy, and we hope it does for you as well.
This could not have been done without our team of Gordon Mann, Dave McHugh and Ryan Scott, who chased info and quotes from coaches and players and assembled the player profiles on each of the 25 players.
Without further ado:
For our men's team, we considered anyone who played at the Division III level at any point from the beginning of the 2009-10 season through the end of the 2019-20 season. Otherwise, we used the same structure as always for All-Americans. There are five teams with five players each, selected to balance frontcourt and backcourt players.
The All-Decade process, as always, starts with our existing awards, our All-America teams and perhaps our All-Region teams as well. Sometimes an outstanding player only made our All-America team once, but someone who did so as our Player of the Year, and was able to back it up with other first-team All-Region selections, typically made a good candidate.
There are at least a dozen more players whom we could have put on our team. Leaving special players off the list is the hardest part, especially when you get down to the final selections. Their omission should not be looked as a slight on their accomplishments -- creating a list of just 25 players from a decade of basketball inevitably means some great players will not make this team.
And, there is a gap, yes: players who were seniors in 2008 and 2009 don't fit either of these decades. We have not forgotten them: Our All-Gap team covers the top players who fell in between our first and second All-Decade teams.
Each player on our All-Decade team has a page recapping their major accomplishments in a Division III uniform. We reached out to each head coach to talk about what made each of these players special, and contacted as many players as possible. (Some are playing professionally overseas and are more difficult to reach.) We are generally blessed with a good archive of our coverage from the past decade and have feature stories on many of these people from their playing days, plus video interviews and highlight videos.