June 27, 2023: Schedule Analysis: Part II + Coaching News
Rose-Hulman and Cortland both announced head coaching hires on Monday
Time for another edition of “Schedule analysis”, as I break down schedules for various D3 women’s basketball teams across the nation! Looking at Rochester, Tufts, and Concordia-Chicago today. And, inspired by the work of my friend Robert Rochelle at D3 Volleyball West, I’ll be trying to put a grade on each of these schedules.
Remember, this is relative to that team’s placement within their league and the national rankings, so what might be an A+ schedule for a mid-tier team would be a B- schedule for a top-level team. Remember that these are totally my opinions, and I’d love to hear your insight. Drop a comment below if you have a different schedule grade for any of these 2023-24 slates! And also be following Scott Peterson’s work over at d3data.weebly.com. He is still updating his spreadsheets and data in preparation for the upcoming season!
Rochester | 2022-23 record: 16-9 | Conference: UAA
Rochester comes off a season in which the YellowJackets seemed unbeatable at the start. They rose quickly in my Top 25 ballot after taking down Messiah and St. John Fisher, led by D-II transfer Katie Titus. Add in wins over Ithaca, Emory, and Chicago, and it seemed like Rochester was an NCAA Tournament lock. But the Yellowjackets struggled over the second half of UAA play, losing five of their final seven.
This season, they won’t have Titus, but are expected to bring back a good number of players from last year’s rotation. I fully expect Rochester to be in the heart of the UAA title race this winter.
Leading things off with this year’s slate is Rochester’s annual Chuck Resler Tournament. I really like these events as compared to the more-common “Classics”, because there is an actual bracket, with a championship game and a consolation game. I’ve always thought it is good prep for the conference and NCAA Tournaments, because teams must be able to pivot gameplans within a short span of time depending on who they play the following day.
Rochester opens the tournament with Allegheny, and then will face either Baldwin Wallace or Gettysburg on the second day. That second matchup will certainly give Rochester an SOS boost. That is followed by a neutral site game against St. John Fisher (as part of an event at Nazareth) and a Dec. 6 road game at Ithaca. They’ll host Hamilton later in December, which should be an intriguing matchup, and likely get two strong opponents (or at least one) in Puerto Rico after Christmas.
UAA play tips off on Jan. 6, with Rochester hosting Emory. Notably, the Yellowjackets get four straight home games in the month of February, which should help, before closing the season with three straight road duels.
Schedule Grade: B+
Tufts | 2022-23 record: 24-7 | Conference": NESCAC
Tufts went all the way to the Elite Eight before falling to eventual national runner-up Christopher Newport this past March. The Jumbos will return to the court with a stacked schedule. Might be the best one I’ve seen so far. With the amount of quality competition in and around Region 1, it is not uncommon to see NESCAC programs scheduling some big names in non-conference play.
It’s hard to beat last year’s schedule, and I’m going to use it as a benchmark to a degree when grading this one. Overall, I’m really excited to see some of these matchups play out.
Tufts opens it up with a battle against last year’s Cinderella, Rhode Island College, who advanced all the way to the Final Four in dramatic fashion. I know RIC loses a couple from last year’s team, but overall, it would seem that the majority of the roster is back. It’s on the road on Nov. 10, so it’ll be a great test for the Jumbos out of the game.
A home duel with St. John Fisher follows two days later, and then on Nov. 14, Tufts travels to face Roger Williams, a program that went 25-4 with an 18-0 league record in the CCC last season. Nov. 21 brings Colorado College to Medford, and it’s obvious that CC is looking to learn from last year and improve their SOS, as the Tigers were left out of the NCAA Tournament, despite being the only team with a regular season win over then-No. 1 Trinity (TX).
Before the month of November is done, Tufts gets MIT…also at home! MIT is going to be a force in the NEWMAC in my opinion, and is definitely a Top 30 preseason team for me. That’ll be a great test, as will Tufts’ home game against Stevens on Dec. 5. Emmanuel College is another good test, as that’s yet another 2023 NCAA Tournament team on the slate. I really like the Dec. 9 contest AT NYU, as it will be played in the Violets’ new state-of-the-art gym, and could probably go either way, considering both sides bring back notable talent.
NESCAC play begins on Jan. 5 after a two-game trip to California for games against Claremont Mudd-Scripps and Pomona-Pitzer, and a non-conference duel against Babson is also thrown in there on Jan. 7. Wooh…good luck beating that schedule. Virtually every team on the slate (besides a couple) has the potential to make the NCAA Tournament and/or be regionally-ranked.
Schedule Grade: A+
Concordia-Chicago | 2022-23 record: 12-13 | Conference: NACC
I’m trying to get different regions of the country included in these schedule analysis articles, so here’s one from the midwest. And notably, one of the few schedules that doesn’t include multiple “TBD” scheduled games. Though Concordia went 12-13 overall, they were 10-8 in the conference, and are likely going to bring back Kate Benes, who led the nation in scoring for a good part of last season. With an older team, Concordia is definitely in contention for the NACC title.
They open the season with a home matchup on Nov. 11 against Illinois College before facing NAIA Olivet Nazarene and traveling to the west coast for duels with Redlands and Chapman. The Cougars battle Manchester and Mount Mary before opening conference action against Dominican on Dec. 2.
Dec. 9 is the big one, as Concordia hosts UW-La Crosse, who will be under the direction of Moran Lonning, in her first year as UWL’s head coach. That Saturday afternoon matchup is a chance for the Cougars to make a statement, especially with an 11-day break to follow.
They also face D-I Northern Illinois in a game on Dec. 20, and interestingly, it has not been coded into the schedule as an exhibition, as most D3 vs D1 matchups are. Though I do expect it to count as an exhibition for Concordia. The NACC will be deep once again this year, with a lot of unpredictability. Games against Concordia (Wis.) and St. Norbert definitely stick out, as those two have been the league’s traditional powers. I also really like the “Concordia Tournament”, held in mid-January, with the Concordia-named schools in the midwest meeting up for a four-team tournament each year.
Ultimately, there’s a few more non-D3 matchups than I would like on this slate, and besides UWL, no super well-known opponents from a national standpoint. However, it has the right balance of challenge and competitiveness, and I fully expect Concordia to finish above .500 this year.
Schedule Grade: B
In coaching news yesterday, Cortland hired its next head coach, as Colleen Ames takes over the program. This was a coaching search I had followed closely since Jacey Brooks departed to join the University of Buffalo coaching staff back in April. Cortland went 24-5 en route to the NCAA Tournament this past spring, and had Trinity (CT) on the ropes before the Bantams prevailed 64-59 in the Second Round.
Ames comes to Cortland from Mount St. Mary College of the Skyline Conference, where she went 63-16 over the last four years. Notably, in 2021-22, her squad upset Johns Hopkins in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, as Mount St. Mary claimed the Skyline Conference title and Ames was voted as the league’s Coach of the Year.
Prior to that head coaching stop, she spent the 2018-19 season as the interim head coach at Clarkson. She also has experience in the SUNYAC, having been a volunteer assistant on the staff at SUNY New Paltz when the Hawks reached the Sweet 16 in 2016-17.
Cortland is undoubtedly a high-caliber program, though I’m unsure of how many returners Ames will have in 2023-24. This past year’s squad had nine seniors, which played a key role in their success, and while most of those seniors could use their Covid year, not all do, for varying reasons. So I am interested to see what this team looks like when they take the floor in November. Overall, I’m looking forward to seeing how Ames guides this program to new heights after all of her previous success.
Rose-Hulman also made coaching news with its hire of Devrinn Paul as head coach, thus ending one of the longest coaching searches in recent memory. Jon Prevo stepped down as head coach of the program back in December, after the institution canceled the season just five games in due to having too few players.
Paul comes to RHIT after one season at Cincinnati, where he served as an assistant before the entire staff was ousted following 9-21 season. Prior to that, he spent six years as a consultant, and was not part of any basketball coaching staffs in that span. Earlier in his coaching career, Paul served on the staff at Louisville and Marshall, both D-I programs.
Notably, he has zero D-III experience or background coaching at a high-academic, which is often a necessary piece of the resume when schools like RHIT seek to bring in new head coaches. It is a challenging school to succeed at, considering the strong academic reputation, admissions standards, and heavy courseload can make for recruiting difficulty. That said, RHIT had success within the last five years on a national stage, and has proved it can be done. It certainly isn’t an impossible challenge, but will definitely be a learning process as Paul adjusts from the D-I ranks to one of the most prestigious academic institutions in D-III.
I’m looking forward to see how he approaches this season, and looking at their roster (which currently has 10), they should be just fine. Everyone needs to stay healthy, but Jamie Baum is an outstanding player who can do a little bit of everything, Grace Roland could easily be in contention for HCAC Freshman of the Year, and Peyton Miller and CK Gallegos-Rodriguez will contribute as well. It’s just a matter of putting it all together.
I’ll have another edition of “D3 women’s basketball multi-sport athletes” coming on Thursday, so be looking for that! Until then, have a great day and God Bless!