Welcome (back) to the Starting Five, your rundown of the key stories in #HLWBB since the last Starting Five post.
1. PFW keeps it casual for uniform reveal
Sometimes teams like to make an entire production out of uniform reveals. Theyāll fire off some vaguely-worded posts about SOMETHING BIG happening at a certain date and time, then theyāll keep things spinning with a few teasers. Maybe, if theyāre able, theyāll send the new gear to a few influencers, who in turn produce unboxing videos and spiderweb the team’s reach.
Once, in a previous version of my existence, Illinoisā non-NCAA menās hockey team saw an attempt at hyping new uniforms twisted into a white-hot rumor that the Illini were joining NCAA Division I. That situation was a little exceptional, but it still shows the sort of noise typically involved with these things.
Then thereās Purdue Fort Wayne, which did absolutely none of that, choosing instead to casually drop their new look in a standard-issue set of photo shoot behind-the-scenes pictures.
For the Mastodons, thereās something a little liberating in the fact that, technically speaking, the school in its current form didnāt exist until 2018. Other than a splash of blue as a nod to the IPFW era (which is becoming harder and harder to find in PFWās branding, in my casual assessment), the Dons are completely un-tethered to history. The Youngstown States and Milwaukees of the world, sure, theyāre free to evolve their designs and try new things (I have a huge crush on the Panthersā menās teamās Cream City set, for example), but they still have to deal with a certain gravity thatās built up in their programs over the years and tread carefully.
PFW doesn’t have to worry about that, and they have the rare opportunity to essentially make up their ātraditionalā look on the fly. Between these and their world-class āThe Donsā jerseys, theyāre doing fantastically well at it.
2. Oskey takes coaching job at alma mater
One of the more significant stories in the Horizon League during the 2022-23 season was Hailey Oskeyās sudden departure from Green Bayās program due to still-undisclosed personal reasons. The former Wisconsin Miss Basketball was the Phoenixās leading scorer in 2021-22, a status that helped her collect All-Horizon League first team recognition. Undoubtedly, she was a true headlining player on a team typically avoids them with the intensity typically reserved for the color purple in Northeast Wisconsin.
Needless to say, Oskey stepping away after just seven games of her fifth-year season had a massive effect on the HL as a whole ā particularly after GB was clobbered by injuries late in the schedule, and eventually suffered a blowout loss to Cleveland State in the conference championship game.
However, neither basketball nor life can keep a player of Oskeyās caliber down forever, and last week brought the news that she has returned to the sport as the head coach at Seymour Community High School, about 30 minutes west of Green Bay. The Thunder has fallen on some hard times since Oskey graduated in 2018 as the schoolās all-time leading scorer, but sheās already hard at work fixing that.
“I think that bringing back a consistent culture within this program is going to be helpful,” she told Fox 11. “They haven’t really had a consistent coach throughout since I left. I’m very excited, most of them still know me from when I played which is also exciting.”
Oskey is also something of a celebrity with her players, given that she was one herself not too long ago.
“I’ve never been more excited in my life, honestly,” senior Salem Boyd said. “It was kind of like how a kid feels like on Christmas. Speaking for me and a lot of other girls, I know we’ve all looked up to Hailey since we were little.”
Hyperbole? Maybe a bit. But either way, itās nice to see a former conference star make her way into the coaching world.
3. Falcons Nic former HL coach from EMU
Though itās impossible to say a bad word about new Youngstown State coach Melissa Jackson and her staff, it was hard not to feel bad about the fact that John Nicolais didnāt get the permanent job at YSU. All Nicolais did for the Penguins, after all, was spend more than a decade playing a central role in the program’s longest period of sustained success since the 1990s. Most of that was as John Barnesā right-hand man, but he also managed to make the best of a tough situation after Barnesā abrupt departure just prior to the start of the 2023-24 season and had the Guins playing some good ball by the end of the year.
Thatās the nature of the coaching profession though, where deep roots in a program can be pulled up almost instantaneously. On some level, thatās not terribly different from a 9-5 slug getting laid off without warning, though coaching uniquely offers a fleeting taste of a promotion and attainment of the near-universal goal of running a program before the trap door opens to a landscape with far fewer jobs available than corporate sales management. So, with all of that in mind, it was great to see that Nicolais caught on at Eastern Michigan back on May 16th, as part of new coach Sahar Nusseibehās staff (incidentally, Nusseibeh replaced former Oakland coach and Roundtable favorite KeāSha Blanton, who was tasked with her own interim coaching assignment after Fred Castroās mid-season dismissal).
On July 12th, the news that Nicolais was added to Fred Chmielās staff at Bowling Green hitā¦a little differently. Itās certainly not the first time that a coach quickly ejected from a new situation, though an intra-conference move offers the promise of a little bit of juice when the Falcons and Eagles meet this season.
BGSU is also set to visit Cleveland State, for the second half of a home-and-home series that began with the Falconsā dramatic home victory in last seasonās opener.
4. Motor City Madness
Most of the Horizon Leagueās recent coaching news has originated from Detroit Mercy, where the Titans will enter Kate Achterās third season attempting to follow up an outstanding 2023-24 with another massive step forward.
Theyāll try to do it with a significantly overhauled roster ā UDM returns just four players, two of whom (Myonna Hooper and Makayla Jackson) saw significant playing time ā but also with plenty of shuffling next to Achter on the bench. On July 12th, the Titans announced Kieffer Haffeyās promotion to associate head coach and co-recruiting coordinator, while assistant coach Juanita Cochran becomes the other half of that two-headed recruiting coordinator position. Additionally, Andrea Cecil has added director of player development responsibilities to her role, while Antonio Capaldi joins the staff as a third assistant coach.
Capaldi previously coached at NAIA Concordia Ann Arbor under then-head coach Haffey (pour one out for the Cardinals, by the way, as CUAA recently announced that itās discontinuing its athletic program after 2024-25, which definitely sucks for a friend of mine who happens to coach womenās hockey there), and was subsequently at Division IIIās Alma College.
Thereās a clear theme here. Achter, of course, is originally from the Toledo area and was a legendary player at Bowling Green before beginning her coaching career, which has mostly transpired in the Great Lakes region. Haffey? Michigan Man. Cochran? The D. Cecil? Northwest Ohio, about a half hour from Achterās hometown, and she coincidentally played at Bowling Green as well (there’s a whole lot of BGSU in this post, guess we’re making that the title). Capaldi? Michigan, as weāve discussed.
While nobody in the world is in a position to turn away great players who want to play for their school, regardless of their mailing address, donāt be surprised if the Titans start to develop a little bit of Motown swagger in the near future.
5. Furious change continues to define the NCAA
I could pretty much devote this final space to the NCAA every single time, because thatās how quickly things change anymore. Itās kind of annoying, to be totally honest. But here are a few of the major recent developments:
- The NCAA Division I Womenās Basketball Committee made several changes around the selection and execution of March Madness. Specifically, team sheets (the summaries of that selection committee members have available for each team under consideration) will now include quadrant-based data, a concept familiar to those who pay close attention to the NET rankings. Additionally, the committee will release a full seed list from South Carolina through 68 on Selection Sunday and, beginning in 2028, all three NCAA divisions will host their respective final fours at the same site, with Indianapolis (shocker) getting first dibs on the basketball megafestival.
- Longtime Milwaukee athletic director Amanda Braun was elected vice chair of the DI Womenās Basketball Committee, and will become chair in 2025-26.
- Another change ā this one merely a proposal right now ā would stagger the start dates for the womenās and menās basketball seasons, beginning in 2025-26. Presently, of course, everyone begins on the same day (November 4th this fall, November 11th next year), but the idea here is for womenās teams to open on Monday, November 3rd in 2025, followed by the men two days later. Part of the motivation involves increasing promotion for womenās basketball since obviously, ending the offseason first creates a lot of potential exposure. If they can get the normies to actually pay attention to college basketball before February, they might be on to something. Ā
- Finally, on the less-fun side of the ledger, things appear to be moving even further in favor of the Power Four conferences, in terms of NCAA governance, thanks in part to soulless vampires like Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark, who enjoy giving soundbites like āI live by the value equation. Those who create value deserve to be rewarded.”
Forgetting for a minute that the Big 12ās present role in college athletics is essentially to serve as a holding area for programs that didnāt get invited to better conferences, it is clear that the league, along with the Big Ten, SEC and ACC, is part of a growing rift between universities with Scrooge McDuck vaults full of football money and those that struggle to afford the DI-minimum 14 (or 16, for FBS schools) athletic teams. It’s still early to know whether weāre talking about something extremely drastic like a divisional split or a flat-out departure by the Power Four (supposedly, the NCAA basketball tournaments are āthe fabric holding the association togetherā), or simply a shift in decision-making power, but either way, itās not amazing news.
Let’s try to keep it to one or two bullets next time, sheesh.
