ONE LAST THING...
By Chris Granozio
By now, everyone is well aware of former St. Thomas Aquinas Coach Tobin Anderson’s accomplishments in his first year as a Division 1 coach at Fairleigh Dickinson. Taking over a team that won four games the previous season and relying heavily on his STAC stars Demetre Roberts, Grant Singleton and Sean Moore, the Knights made it into the field of 68 without having won either the NEC’s regular season or tournament titles (Merrimack snagged both those trophies) but more than capitalized on the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. FDU proceeded to knock off Texas Southern in the “First Four” before stunning the world and wrecking countless brackets by downing top-seeded Purdue in Columbus. This opportunistic squad became the second-ever #16 seed to knock off a #1 following UMBC’s 20-point shocker vs. #1 Virginia five years earlier, but these Knights became the first 16-seed ever to win two NCAA Tournament games. Simply remarkable.
Even more remarkable... Tobin may be the only man ever to coach a D1 team to not only one NCAA Tournament victory one year after achieving the same feat at Division 2... but it seems highly unlikely that anyone ever did so with two triumphs at both levels in consecutive seasons. Our friends at the NCAA have begun researching this and expect to have an answer for us shortly (they’re kinda busy at the moment with that Final Four thingy).
Anderson parlayed that magical week in March, during which he completely outcoached Johnny Jones and Matt Painter, into a new job at Iona of the MAAC, as his star continues to rise.
With FDU’s multiple ties to our region, I felt it was worthwhile to offer some historical context from a D2 perspective. It was 50 years ago that the NCAA restructured its classification format, from the University/College Divisional framework to the system we all know now as Divisions 1, 2 and 3. Since that switch in 1973, I have been able to find 21 examples of a head coach at a school that was at one time in the East Region (formerly Northeast and New England) eventually becoming an active coach at the D1 level. There’s a chance I overlooked something, so I welcome any corrections. Some of you have added to this pretty definitive list, and I thank you for that:
P.J. Carlesimo – New Hampshire College (now SNHU) 1975-76 – to Wagner & Seton Hall
Jim Larranaga – American International 1977-79 – to Bowling Green, George Mason & Miami
Brian Hammel - Bentley 1978-84 - to Northern Illinois
Frank Sullivan - Bentley 1984-91 - to Harvard
John Beilein – Le Moyne 1983-91 – to Canisius, Richmond, West Virginia & Michigan
Bob Brown - St. Anselm 1983-86 - to Boston University
Don Doucette - Lowell (now UMass-Lowell) 1983-88 - to UNC Asheville
Stan Van Gundy - Lowell 1988-92 - to Wisconsin
Norm Roberts – Queens 1991-95 – to St. John’s
Scott Hicks – Le Moyne 1992-96 – to Albany & Loyola (Md)
Sidney Green – Southampton 1995-97 – to Florida Atlantic
Dave Paulsen – Le Moyne 1997-2000 – to Bucknell, George Mason & now Holy Cross
Jim Ferry – Adelphi 1999-2002 – to LIU, Duquesne, Penn State & UMBC
Jay Young – New Haven 2000-05 – to Fairfield
Max Good - Bryant 2001-08 - to Loyola Marymount
Dave McLaughlin - Stonehill 2004-13 - to Dartmouth
Tim Cluess – LIU Post 2006-10 – to Iona
Greg Herenda – UMass-Lowell 2008-13 – to FDU
Chris Casey – LIU Post 2010-13 – to Niagara
Jay Crafton – Nyack 2012-18 – to Maryland Eastern Shore
Tobin Anderson – St. Thomas Aquinas 2013-22 – to FDU & Iona (hasn’t coached a game yet)
From this list, only five men (Carlesimo, Larranaga, Beilein, Paulsen and Anderson) won games in the D1 NCAA Tournament. Beilein and Larranaga are the only ones to reach the Final Four, both doing so twice... and the latter with two different teams, no less! Beilein has reached the national championship game twice - both with Michigan.
Roberts, Hammel, Van Gundy, Brown, Hicks, Paulsen, Green, Young, McLaughlin and Crafton took “detours” between their D2 and D1 head coaching gigs. Roberts was an assistant at no fewer than four D1 schools (Oral Roberts, Tulsa, Illinois and Kansas, where he now serves an assistant for a second time), Hammel spent seven years as a D1 assistant at Iowa and USC), Van Gundy was an assitant for two years at Wisconsin before ascending to the head coaching position, Brown had three 20+-win seasons at D3 Southern Maine, Hicks was with Albany as it transitioned from D2 to D1, Paulsen won a D3 national championship during eight seasons at Williams, Green coached at D2 North Florida, Young was a D1 assistant for 14 years at Stony Brook & Rutgers, McLaughlin spent three years as an assistant at Northeastern and Crafton spent a season as an assistant coach for the Delaware Blue Coats of the NBA’s G-League.
There are numerous examples of coaches who maintained their positions while their schools transitioned from D2 to D1, including Dave Bike (Sacred Heart), Joe DeSantis (Quinnipiac), Bernard Tomlin (Stony Brook), Al Walker (Binghamton), Jim Casciano (NJIT), Joe Gallo (Merrimack) and Chris Kraus (Stonehill).
There are also cases of East Region coaches who had previously been D1 head coaches: Mike MacDonald (Canisius to Daemen), Jack Perri (LIU to Southern New Hampshire) and Pat Kennedy (Iona, Florida State, DePaul, Montana & Towson to Pace). Good also came from Division 1 (Easterm Kentucky) before Bryant, and then back to D1, first as an assistant for eight years at LMU before becoming its head coach for five years (he then concluded his unconventional career with one year heading up a JUCO).
More Notes:
Anderson - who is one of four men on this list to have coached at Le Moyne (he was an assistant under Paulsen from 1997-99) - becomes the first to spend one year at his first D1 job before taking another.
Beilein is the only one listed who completed the natural coaching progression of High School, JUCO, D3, D2, D1 and NBA. He was also never an assistant coach at any of those levels.
Bentley and Lowell had successive coaches who turned the trick, while Le Mone had three in a row.
Doucette and Paulsen both won national championships, the latter coming at the D3 level.
Carlesimo was New Hampshire College's head coach in the school's final year of NAIA (Mayflower Conference).
It should also be mentioned that Adelphi coach Steve Clifford, though never a D1 head coach, eventually jumped to the NBA, where he has coached the Bobcats, Magic and now, the Hornets. Former C.W. Post Head Coach Herb Brown - brother to Hall of Famer Larry Brown - coached in the NBA for the Dtroit Pistons two seasons after his last year with the Pioneers. That pair joins Beilein, Van Gundy and Carlesimo as the only head coaches in our region to eventually guide an NBA team.
So in summary, the 51-year Anderson is in pretty exclusive company, both regionally and nationally. When reached for comment, the Wesleyan graduate reflected upon his career arc, which began with him driving vans as an assistant at D3 Clarkson:
“I've enjoyed every moment from D3 to D2, especially the guys I've been able to coach and the coaches and people I've had to go against. Small college basketball is great basketball and I'm happy to bring some attention to basketball beyond the D1 level! All those experiences make me appreciate this journey even more.”
It’s always great to see folks from our region succeed. There’s never been any doubt that Tobin can flat-out coach, and now the world has gotten to witness and appreciate “one of ours.” Though our coverage of Anderson here has now essentially come to a close, we at d2easthoops.org will be watching with great interest as we wish him continued success with the Gaels.
Tobin Anderson photo courtesy Brad Sarno, Assistant Athletic Director for Athletic Communications, St. Thomas Aquinas College
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Loyal hoops fans... we have a special column coming up later this week, so be on the lookout! Until then, I welcome all comments, questions and suggestions: chrisgranozio@gmail.com. Please follow us on Twitter, and please consider becoming a Patreon partner at: https://www.patreon.com/D2easthoops. Until next time, stay safe and Happy Hooping to All!