Q&A: David Saur, Chatham Head Coach
Chatham went 24-4 this past season, winning the PAC tournament title en route to the program's first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance
The 2023-24 campaign for the Chatham women’s basketball team was the finest the program has ever seen. With a 24-4 record, the Cougars set a new program record for wins in a season, along with claiming their first PAC Tournament title and reaching the NCAA Tournament for the first time. Leading that charge was sixth-year head coach David Saur, a Thiel graduate, who has built Chatham women’s basketball into a consistent contender in the PAC title race.
Though Chatham’s season came to a close in the first round of the national tournament against No. 2-ranked Transylvania, it is just the beginning. Chatham is set to return its entire roster from 2023-24 next season, with the exception of guard Kaitlyn Fertig, making the Cougars one of the nation’s most experienced teams in 2024-25. That is along with transfer Kameron Goodman, who averaged 13.4 points per game last season at Dominican University.
There is certainly excitement around the program, and I recently had the chance to talk with Saur on the success this past year, his background in coaching (including serving as an assistant at Thiel for the men’s and women’s teams simultaneously), and why he believes scheduling strong in non-conference is important, even in a one-bid league like the PAC.
Looking back on last year, it was historic in so many ways for the Chatham program. How cool was it to see years of hard work in recruiting and raising the standard of Chatham women’s basketball pay off with the program’s first-ever trip to the NCAA Tournament?
“It was definitely an exciting time. It felt like we had made our mark and put ourselves in a position to compete for championships. I think the big challenge was, every season is its own individual task. Coming in, the expectation was to get back there [to the PAC championship game]. But you still had to play a 25-game regular season and do all the things along the way to put yourself in position to get back to that point. Our group was really hungry to do that and compartmentalized in a big way through the year to take care of one day, one week, one month at a time.
“Thankfully we have really talented players that are ultra-competitive and really grab the bull by the horns night in and night out. It was awesome. It was a really exciting year. I couldn’t have been more thrilled for the group.”
In your season opener, you started two sophomores and three juniors. Your roster as a whole had zero seniors and just one grad student. What helped your younger players, who already had some quality collegiate experience under their belts from 2022-23, really take that step forwards in pivotal roles as the season progressed?
“I think playing a pretty solid schedule early on helped. We beat W&J, who had been getting Top 25 votes the last couple years. Oberlin College has been a really good squad the last couple years. Then getting Elizabethtown down in Puerto Rico was big as well. So I think it was playing early as young players, but also playing high-level competition and seeing, ‘Hey we can really do this.’ I think that helped our group be, in some ways, battle-tested, over the last year and a half to make that stretch run to the championship game and finish it off there.”
That win over perennial power Washington & Jefferson came on the heels of back-to-back losses to McDaniel and St. Vincent (both of which came by 19 points). I would imagine that was a pretty crucial win, knowing how valuable it was in the PAC regular season title race, but also with the timing of it coming off two challenging losses.
“Without a doubt. The first piece was the year prior, knocking them off on their home floor in the conference semifinals. I think that was a massive confidence-builder for that group. Early this year, it was a tough stretch.
“We had a lot of depth, so there’s no excuse whatsoever. But in that opening tip-off event, 2023 Freshman of the Year Alyssa Laukus went down in the first five minutes of the opening game and she wasn’t back for the St. Vincent game. Then one of our guards who had been a starter since her freshman year went down. Thankfully we had Laukus back for the W&J game, but I do think hitting that wall early and facing that adversity allowed us, as a team, to do some self-reflecting. It put a sense of urgency into the group, to be honest with you.
“Although it was only the second conference game of the year, we’re playing against two of the teams we expected to compete with for the championship (St. Vincent and W&J). We knew we couldn’t go 0-2 and had to get that split. As I said, our group is ultra-competitive and has that “refuse to lose” mindset. Frankly, from start to finish we controlled that game, and that absolutely set the table for the run we went on through the rest of the year.”
I do have to ask, as we talk about having a young roster and the start of the season. With D-III having eight additional days to practice prior to October 15 for the first time this year, how much did you all take advantage of that? How beneficial was it?
“We absolutely took advantage of it. We’re big, even in our normal practice structure, on competing. A lot of our practices are 80-85% percent live basketball, with time, score, and winner/loser types of situations. So I thought it was really effective [to get into that earlier].
“This year for the first time we added our two scrimmage opportunities. We played two Division II opponents, one of which went to the Sweet 16 this year. So we wanted to get that ball rolling earlier and at least compete with those two programs. I thought it was really good, especially for our level. We do a lot with transfers, and obviously everybody brings in freshmen. When they get on campus, this is a new environment. Even from a social standpoint, to get them in the gym with their teammates, with their coaches and be able to have some touch points early on when people are away from home, I think it was a big deal.”
You talk about competing and putting your team in game-type situations throughout practice on a daily basis. How did you come to that practice philosophy?
“I’ve been doing this for 16 years with women’s basketball. I don’t think women get the same opportunities, especially in the summertime, to just play. Like, back in the day—I’m from Baltimore, Maryland—you’re going to the park and playing pickup. You’re finding the game all the time. I think it's hard [in women’s basketball], even for the players that want to do it, to find eight or nine other similar players to go out and play.
“For me, I think everybody now has access to skill trainers and shooting machines. I think that is at an all-time high and why we see more of a volume of people who can knock it down at every position. But I think the thing that has lacked is true game feel, IQ, and being able to play the game with four other people out there. The ability to feel the game. So that’s been our philosophy. We want to give them as many of those opportunities as we possibly can within our program.”
When it comes to the Division III student-athlete experience, holiday trips to play in classics and tournaments always seem to be a memorable part of a player’s career. You all had the opportunity to take a very cool trip to Puerto Rico just before Christmas this past season. What was that experience like, especially coming out 2-0 with a Top 25 win over Elizabethtown?
“To get out of this Pittsburgh snow in December is nice! I think where our university is in terms of an athletic standpoint, we’re kind of an infant in terms of having established perennial championship-contending programs. Our athletic director got here nine years ago and he has really started that. But in the grand scheme of programs, it’s really early. A lot of the top programs take trips like that and play in events like that, so for us to have our first opportunity to do that with our program was really exciting. It’s something we’ll always remember and it’s now going to be an “every-other-year” type of deal to play in those types of events.
“We’ll host a tip-off tournament on the odd years and get some really high-level teams here. We have St. John Fisher coming in next year. I think that’s what you want to do. Our players absolutely enjoy it and the team bonding and chemistry [is good]. To be able to do that and come out with two victories…it was a great Christmas present there.”
The PAC plays 20 conference games right now, which leaves just five non-conference dates, and little room to really boost that SOS, which is important for NCAA tournament Pool C selections. But you’re obviously eager to challenge your team in non-conference, with going to Puerto Rico last year, and getting a team like SJF coming to Pittsburgh this year. I’d be interested to get your perspective on why you feel it’s beneficial to schedule strong, even in what will almost certainly be a one-bid league every year.
“We don’t kid ourselves, I think in our league, it’d be hard to get two teams into the tournament. But I think the bigger piece for us is probably twofold.
“The top half of our league is strong. But then we’re playing another 10 games or so that aren’t sharpening the sword, so to speak. So we have to play some high-level teams to stay sharp late in the season.
“But the other piece to the puzzle, and we ran into it this year for the first time, we don’t want to play the No. 1 team in a region in an opening round. Instead of playing Transylvania on their home floor in the first game, let’s get them in the second one. That’s frankly the biggest part of it. To give us the best possible position if and when we win the league, to win a first round game to give us a chance to win another and make it to the second weekend.”
Speaking of Transylvania and playing in Lexington in that first round matchup, what was the NCAA Tournament experience like for you and your team?
“Hats off to their staff there and the athletic department. First-class hosting job and their fans are exceptional as well. I think the experience to go do that was similar, to a lesser extent, to what we did the year before [reaching the PAC Championship], playing in a championship environment on the road. There’s no substitute for experience. Until you actually do it, you really don’t know what to expect. Knowing our group as well as I do, if we go back to an environment like that, I trust that it’ll be a little different in terms of our mentality heading into that.”
You took the Chatham job in 2018 as the program was coming off a 5-20 season. Obviously the opportunity to be a head coach played into it, but what ultimately made you take on this challenge?
“It’s definitely our athletic director (Leonard Trevino), who was a highly-successful men’s coach at Goucher previously. He had gotten the job here a couple years prior [to my hiring] and just had his first opening for basketball. His vision and confidence in what he felt we could do here [was big]. The university sells itself in a beautiful part of Pittsburgh, and [Chatham has] great academics that fit our type of student-athlete. You don’t really know until you’re in it, but from the outside looking at it, I thought it was a place you could really be successful. I knew the league, having been at Thiel. It took some time. As you know, it’s not an overnight thing. This is the vision I had for it coming in, and frankly, I think we did it even a little sooner than I thought we could to get to this level.”
You mentioned Thiel and your experience there. You were an assistant with the men’s team during that 2010-11 season when Thiel went undefeated in PAC play. How memorable was that season to be part of, so early in your career?
“That was phenomenal. That’s how you do it, especially in our league. That group had high-level players from all over the country, including four Division II transfers on that roster. [We] lost in the championship game on our home floor to Bethany College, who was a phenomenal team as well at that time. But that’s the model that has kind of always stuck in my head of how you can do it; have a well-balanced veteran group, but some high-level young high school kids as well. It was an awesome time.”
Now, I should mention that you worked as an assistant with both the men’s and women’s teams at the same time while you were there at Thiel as a student. I’ve talked to a handful of coaches in the past who have worked with both teams at the same time and they’ve said how beneficial it was to their development as coaches. For you, what did you take away from that experience at Thiel?
“It was basically four hours of practice a day, and you got a two-for-one in terms of experience during the season. Instead of maybe 150 practices, you’re getting 300. Instead of 25 regular season games, you’re getting 50. It speeds up the development. Thankfully the two people I worked with there, Tina Trader and Tim Loomis, gave me an unbelievable opportunity to do everything within a program, even as an undergrad student at the time. I would travel to recruit. It was invaluable. And it set up the opportunity for me at a high-level D2 program at California (PA).”
We’re seeing more and more teams officially assigning assistant coaches as offensive and defensive coordinators on the staff, and you have that with Olivia Barkley (defensive coordinator) and Brittani Smith (offensive coordinator). What are the benefits to your team in having those coordinators dedicated to one aspect of the gameplan?
“They both played for me here and have been on the staff for a couple years now. I think the biggest thing with it has been the preparation from game-to-game. They’re able to prepare our team, but they also prepare me in a lot of ways. It allows me, as a play-caller and an in-game adjustor on the defensive end, to be as prepared as absolutely possible heading in. That’s been a big part. You play to your strengths, even as a head coach, and for me, I think recruiting is a big piece, as are player relationships. There’s only so many hours in the day, so having them taking some of the bulk of the scouting and preparation work has been huge. They’ve been with me since they were players, so they know what I want, what’s important, and how we can streamline the information to be done. It has paid dividends, and they’re now both getting into the territory of having the talent level and experience to be head coaches. This past year, they both took a huge jump, even with their in-game suggestions, and subbing, and keeping things in a really good place through the course of games.”
Lastly, as we look towards the 2024-25 season, you bring back so much of the roster from this past year. That continuity will be huge. What’s the mentality as you all shift your focus towards what next season could be, with the ability to basically pick up where you left off?
“The great thing with this group is that school and family are certainly 1A and 1B, but basketball is a close second. Their love and passion for it is huge. It’s going to be exciting to have a lot of players who have been in the program for three and four years; it’s the first time I’ve ever had that as a head coach. We’re about as connected as you could be, players-to-coaches. We’re on the same wavelength mentally in games. Obviously the No. 1 factor is you have to have the talent and the depth to do it, and we have that. Our players have goals in mind: they want to be a Top 25 team nationally, they want to win an NCAA Tournament game and see how far they can take this thing. It’s going to be a really exciting season.”
Thank you to Coach Saur for taking the time to share his perspective with me and talk about the exceptional program he continues to build at Chatham! He can be followed on X/Twitter at @CoachDavidSaur. Chatham WBB can be followed on X/Twitter at @ChathamWBB and on Instagram at @chathamwbb. Learn more about the Chatham program and follow the latest news on Cougar women’s basketball at gochathamcougars.com.