OT: - Hartford to DIII | The Boneyard

OT: Hartford to DIII

oldude

oldude

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It’s official. The U of Hartford Board of Regents just voted to move all sports from D1 to D3. The school will file its intent to move to D3 in January of next year with the plan to initiate the change by 2025. In the interim all coaching contracts and scholarships will be honored.
 
Last edited:
oldude said:
It’s official. The U of Hartford Board of Regents just voted to move basketball all sports from D1 to D3. The school will file its intent to move to D3 in January of next year with the plan to initiate the change by 2025. In the interim all coaching contracts and scholarships will be honored.
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fixed it
 
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Jordy said:
You obviously know nothing about D3 basketball, where my daughter played. Her team won a national championship the year after she graduated; it would be hard to convince the players, coaches, parents, students and fans that nothing was special.
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It isn't that there is anything wrong with D3, in fact we had a player at Rutgers right when CVS came that played a couple semesters D3 between 2 stints at Rutgers. Not for any "issue" reasons, I think she planned on leaving RU for good but returned because she needed the scholarship. She was a bench warmer at Rutgers (3 point shooter), Vivian actually liked her quite a bit, she just had a limited skill set.

Coaching at D3 is a totally different skill set than DI as to the lack of scholarships and there is the skill difference. Some folks struggle to coach a different skill set, I have seen this in several instances. It may not have been Morgan's cup of tea.
 
KnightBridgeAZ said:
It isn't that there is anything wrong with D3, in fact we had a player at Rutgers right when CVS came that played a couple semesters D3 between 2 stints at Rutgers. Not for any "issue" reasons, I think she planned on leaving RU for good but returned because she needed the scholarship. She was a bench warmer at Rutgers (3 point shooter), Vivian actually liked her quite a bit, she just had a limited skill set.

Coaching at D3 is a totally different skill set than DI as to the lack of scholarships and there is the skill difference. Some folks struggle to coach a different skill set, I have seen this in several instances. It may not have been Morgan's cup of tea.
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Sure, but using the word cesspool was very offensive. I took it personally, as would any D3 parent.
 
Vowelguy said:
Good move by Morgan to get out.
Pretty much an outhouse-to-penthouse move.
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No attack @Vowelguy ... Would it break your heart to show a little compassion? I get your loyalty to the UConn program but why denigrate and kick an in state program when they are down? One of our own coached there for 17 years and did well.
Jeff Bagwell and Vinnie Baker I'm sure would not consider it an outhouse.

Attend a UConn football game and hear a rock or funk band made up of UHart music students pre-game entertaining the tailgaters. Different than the marching band UConn puts on the field but they are in the realm of top quality at an early age.
A good school on hard times as are many just like UConn. An outhouse not by any explanation. Again no attack just a very different opinion.
 
Jordy said:
You obviously know nothing about D3 basketball, where my daughter played. Her team won a national championship the year after she graduated; it would be hard to convince the players, coaches, parents, students and fans that nothing was special.
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Ha I went to a D3 school, love D3 basketball, snd usually post here every year on the D3 tournament.
Morgan had a job that was about to get downgraded. For someone aspiring for big time coaching that effectively ends her career there.
minutes before that happens she gets a job at the premiere wcbb
 
Sorry that the comment was taken the wrong way.

Outhouse does not refers to D3 or UHart. I was talking about the situation. Having your D1 job downgraded to D3 effectively ends her career there. And the interim will be a mess — you can’t recruit and existing players probably have 1 leg out the door. UHart will basically be the worst job in D1 the next few years. That’s what I meant by outhouse.
 
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Jordy said:
You obviously know nothing about D3 basketball, where my daughter played. Her team won a national championship the year after she graduated; it would be hard to convince the players, coaches, parents, students and fans that nothing
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I’m not sure the present UHart athletes will buy that argument. A great accomplishment, but sort of like filet mignon and stew beef.
 
topogigio said:
I’m not sure the present UHart athletes will buy that argument. A great accomplishment, but sort of like filet mignon and stew beef.
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A few thoughts on D3 sports. D3 athletes work every bit as hard as D1 athletes, actually harder when you consider that they generally have to work to earn a portion of their tuition, since there are no athletic scholarships. D3 sports may not be as important to many fans, but they are just as important to a D3 athlete as a D1 athlete.

Final point: the vast majority of D3 athletes will never become pro athletes, so the “student” part of student-athlete is a critical element in D3 sports. My son was a D3 athlete, captain of a championship football team, AA and an engineering honors student. Today he is running an energy services company in TX. There is not a single pro athlete among his former college teammates. However, there are doctors, lawyers, engineers, businessmen and educators.

While we all love Big Time college sports, you could make a strong argument that D3 sports is far closer to the ideal that we should aspire to for student-athletes and college sports in general.
 
oldude said:
A few thoughts on D3 sports. D3 athletes work every bit as hard as D1 athletes, actually harder when you consider that they generally have to work to earn a portion of their tuition, since there are no athletic scholarships. D3 sports may not be as important to many fans, but they are just as important to a D3 athlete as a D1 athlete.

Final point: the vast majority of D3 athletes will never become pro athletes, so the “student” part of student-athlete is a critical element in D3 sports. My son was a D3 athlete, captain of a championship football team, AA and an engineering honors student. Today he is running an energy services company in TX. There is not a single pro athlete among his former college teammates. However, there are doctors, lawyers, engineers, businessmen and educators.

While we all love Big Time college sports, you could make a strong argument that D3 sports is far closer to the ideal that we should aspire to for student-athletes and college sports in general.
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Agree wholeheartedly, my post was not a knock, but rather the “ take” from UHart’s perception, and the reality of talent level differences between the divisions.
 
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KnightBridgeAZ said:
It isn't that there is anything wrong with D3, in fact we had a player at Rutgers right when CVS came that played a couple semesters D3 between 2 stints at Rutgers. Not for any "issue" reasons, I think she planned on leaving RU for good but returned because she needed the scholarship. She was a bench warmer at Rutgers (3 point shooter), Vivian actually liked her quite a bit, she just had a limited skill set.

Coaching at D3 is a totally different skill set than DI as to the lack of scholarships and there is the skill difference. Some folks struggle to coach a different skill set, I have seen this in several instances. It may not have been Morgan's cup of tea.
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Sorry, I still think you have it wrong. The term shouldn't be skill set, but physical talent set.
I played D3 at Washington and Lee Univ. In my time, we were nationally recognized, one year ranked nationally as high as #4. In my 3 years playing there we averaged about 20 wins. We beat Randolph-Macon, the D2 runnerup to UT-Chattanooga, James Madison, right at their switch to D1, UNC-Greensboro and our school annually played in the UVA tipoff tournament. My best friend covered Wally Walker. W&L is located literally feet away from VMI. The year before I started there, VMI made it to the Men's Elite 8. Great team and program, we went to a few games. We also played pickup with the Veemees in the spring. A couple of our players knew a couple of theirs from camps. They were not more skilled than us! They were physically better than us. Our center was 6'5, 6'6 or maybe 6'7, there's was 6'10. Same kind of comparison at each position. We worked on our games and dedicated ourselves to the game as much or more than they did.
 
My granddaughter was a skilled but undersized (5'1" and 100 lbs.) soccer player on some very good teams in SoCal. Her club team coach's goal was to get every player a scholarship. Caitie had to deal with her ego, because she wanted to play D1. But, ultimately, she decided she liked a coach in the Midwest and chose to play D3. She made All-Conference as a freshman and was the leading scorer on her team by far. Her second year was wiped put, partly by the pandemic and partly by her contracting Covid-19. She is still less than 100% physically 7 months later, but hopes to be cleared for next fall. With a Covid extension, she could play 4 more years, get a graduate degree, and possibly finish in the top-3 in the school's career scoring. She found that D3 was her niche.

Two side notes. One of her friends from SoCal is doing very well:


One of her former opponents is also doing very well:

www.mercurynews.com

Trinity Rodman, Dennis’ daughter, is youngest ever selected in women’s pro soccer draft

Her freshman collegiate season was scrapped because of the coronavirus pandemic.
www.mercurynews.com www.mercurynews.com
 
Some D3 programs average more fans than the majority of D1 programs. In women’s basketball, I saw better free throw and three point shooting than one normally sees in most D1 programs. The difference is not skill set, but height and athleticism. Granted, I saw one of the nation’s premier D3 teams in one of the best conferences.
My comparison is minor league baseball, which I frequently visit. It’s still the same game, but the fastballs are 92 and the homers travel 390 feet. I can live with that.
 
Vowelguy said:
Ha I went to a D3 school, love D3 basketball, snd usually post here every year on the D3 tournament.
Morgan had a job that was about to get downgraded. For someone aspiring for big time coaching that effectively ends her career there.
minutes before that happens she gets a job at the premiere wcbb
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I dunno. Carla did ok at a D3 school and now she’s coaching at Princeton. The Princeton AD did think Carla’s D3 experience was much of a millstone
 
HuskyNan said:
I dunno. Carla did ok at a D3 school and now she’s coaching at Princeton. The Princeton AD did think Carla’s D3 experience was much of a millstone
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And Scott Rueck went from D3 to Oregon St. And several other successful D3 coaches have gotten D1 jobs. Again, this is not about D3. It is about a programming DOWNGRADING.

Having your job go from D1 to D3 is not good for anyone's career. And as I said, coaching a D1 program that's downgrading is going to be an awful experience.
 
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I have no particular ax to grind here, not having attended UHart, although I did go to high school (Hopkins, New Haven) in CT.

Having played on the freshman basketball team (prior to freshman eligibility for varsity ) in 1966-1967 at D1 Penn, under coach Digger Phelps, I can attest that, in retrospect I would have been better served had I attended a D3 school such as Trinity, Wesleyan or soon-to-be-D3 Hartford. I just wasn't quite good enough to play at the varsity D1 level, and while I will be forever grateful for the experience to play under the tutelage of the demanding, uncompromising and brilliant "Digger", there was no way that I, as the sixth/seventh man on a 12-10 frosh squad, was going to have a varsity D1 career. At a D3 school......................who knows?

I fully understand the disappointment of the women and men who have dedicated their D1 athletic lives to UHart. However, the administration has larger concerns that supersede those of the Athletic Department. Sad, but true.

The University of Hartford is a great university, poised to become one of the region's best. Its reputation will be further enhanced by its academic achievements, as well as athletic success alongside its soon-to-be peer D3 institutions.
 
MD#12Fan said:
Sorry, I still think you have it wrong. The term shouldn't be skill set, but physical talent set.
I played D3 at Washington and Lee Univ. In my time, we were nationally recognized, one year ranked nationally as high as #4. In my 3 years playing there we averaged about 20 wins. We beat Randolph-Macon, the D2 runnerup to UT-Chattanooga, James Madison, right at their switch to D1, UNC-Greensboro and our school annually played in the UVA tipoff tournament. My best friend covered Wally Walker. W&L is located literally feet away from VMI. The year before I started there, VMI made it to the Men's Elite 8. Great team and program, we went to a few games. We also played pickup with the Veemees in the spring. A couple of our players knew a couple of theirs from camps. They were not more skilled than us! They were physically better than us. Our center was 6'5, 6'6 or maybe 6'7, there's was 6'10. Same kind of comparison at each position. We worked on our games and dedicated ourselves to the game as much or more than they did.
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Yes, that would be a better way to say it.

I've seen a few televised DIII tourney games and they were very entertaining. I have nothing but respect for players at the DII and DIII level.

I have seen a number of D1 assistants that took their first HC job at a team with less talented players and, while I'm sure there are many factors affecting their success / failure I have actually seen at least 2 instances where the coach could not adjust their style to the talent of the players they had. I realize after the fact that assuming Morgen would have that issue was way off base.
 
Vowelguy said:
And Scott Rueck went from D3 to Oregon St. And several other successful D3 coaches have gotten D1 jobs. Again, this is not about D3. It is about a programming DOWNGRADING.

Having your job go from D1 to D3 is not good for anyone's career. And as I said, coaching a D1 program that's downgrading is going to be an awful experience.
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There are two quite decent D3 conferences close by that have strong programs. Tufts is one of them; Buffalo was D3 until they decided to upgrade. The transition would be difficult, but once Hartford is fully operational as D3, it could help general recruiting immensely. Being associated with such fine liberal arts schools will help their academic image in a big way.
 
Jordy said:
There are two quite decent D3 conferences close by that have strong programs. Tufts is one of them; Buffalo was D3 until they decided to upgrade. The transition would be difficult, but once Hartford is fully operational as D3, it could help general recruiting immensely. Being associated with such fine liberal arts schools will help their academic image in a big way.
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D3 has high end schools like NESCAC but also a lot of average ones. UHart would be competing against St Joe’s, Albertus Magnus, Eastern Ct, Western Ct.
Their best chance at a conference may be the NECC which will be down to 5 members — Mitchell, Bay Path, Lesley, Eastern Nazarene, and New England Coll.
 
Vowelguy said:
D3 has high end schools like NESCAC but also a lot of average ones. UHart would be competing against St Joe’s, Albertus Magnus, Eastern Ct, Western Ct.
Their best chance at a conference may be the NECC which will be down to 5 members — Mitchell, Bay Path, Lesley, Eastern Nazarene, and New England Coll.
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What about the league with the Coast Guard Academy? I tried to get one of my players to consider going there.
 
MD#12Fan said:
What about the league with the Coast Guard Academy? I tried to get one of my players to consider going there.
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The NEWMAC conference would be a good place for Hartford to land. The conference currently consists of 11 New England colleges, some of which are coed and some predominantly women’s schools. In addition to Coast Guard, the NEWMAC boasts MIT, WPI and a number of very strong academic schools.
 
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