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Post by jtay799 on Jun 6, 2013 12:18:38 GMT -5
I'm a basketball historian and trying to bone up on my Iona history. I'm one of the heads of a project to compile the stats of every D-I school from the 1940s on. Right now I'm working on Iona and I've learned it's hard to find information about a few of the McDermott teams.
If you guys would be so kind as to tackle a few of my questions, I'd be so appreciative
Coach McDermott coached 20 years but he was mostly a .500 coach. How did he make it so long and when he left was it his choice?
It seems like the Sports Info people don't have a lot of stats from the early 1960s. Neither does the school archives. Is there a go-to guy for old Iona records and stats around here?
For a while it looked like Coach Ruland was going to be a great head coach but the wheels fell off when 3 guys graduated from one of his best team. Did he just fail to recruit guys to step in for them? 23-8 to 2-28 is such a HUGE dropoff.
Who is the best coach in Iona history, is it Valvano, Kennedy or even Cluess?
Thanks for your help!
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Post by hawaii bill on Jun 6, 2013 18:10:41 GMT -5
I'm a basketball historian and trying to bone up on my Iona history. I'm one of the heads of a project to compile the stats of every D-I school from the 1940s on. Right now I'm working on Iona and I've learned it's hard to find information about a few of the McDermott teams. If you guys would be so kind as to tackle a few of my questions, I'd be so appreciative Coach McDermott coached 20 years but he was mostly a .500 coach. How did he make it so long and when he left was it his choice? It seems like the Sports Info people don't have a lot of stats from the early 1960s. Neither does the school archives. Is there a go-to guy for old Iona records and stats around here? For a while it looked like Coach Ruland was going to be a great head coach but the wheels fell off when 3 guys graduated from one of his best team. Did he just fail to recruit guys to step in for them? 23-8 to 2-28 is such a HUGE dropoff. Who is the best coach in Iona history, is it Valvano, Kennedy or even Cluess? Thanks for your help! Valvano wasn't a great X's & O's coach imo. He was a master at motivation. He could talk a dog off a meat wagon. Somehow got Ruland, one of the top recruits in the nation to choose Iona. Kennedy was a better game coach. I'm too young to know anything about McDermott. Tim Welsh was a good coach; his teams were more balanced than Cluess's. Cluess just wins though. Hard to say, but gun to my head I pick Kennedy over all of them. Ruland was a decent coach/recruiter imo. Kennedy I think was better though.
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Post by tiger on Jun 6, 2013 21:07:38 GMT -5
Anybody remember a guy named "woodring" ? His son just walked on at providence and they are telling me his father played at iona?
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Post by IONA86 on Jun 6, 2013 21:17:33 GMT -5
Anybody remember a guy named "woodring" ? His son just walked on at providence and they are telling me his father played at iona? There was a Tom Woodring who played from the early to mid seventies.
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Post by tiger on Jun 6, 2013 21:45:11 GMT -5
Anybody remember a guy named "woodring" ? His son just walked on at providence and they are telling me his father played at iona? There was a Tom Woodring who played from the early to mid seventies. Must be his dad
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Post by ic59 on Jun 7, 2013 7:23:43 GMT -5
ctbill, have to disagree with your take on Jim Valvano, and I'll base it on two things: 1. When Pat Kennedy was hired I asked JV if Pat was going to be the x's and o's guy. Jimmy said that HE was the X's and O's guy. Because of his personality this was often an overlooked part of his coaching genius. 2. When NCS won the NCAA championship, it was with the strategy that JV installed. Give up two for the chance to score three. The Wolfpack were behind in quite a few games and this strategy (of fouling to stop the clock) brought them back.
But you are right that most people think that he was just a motivational type coach, and that it is what he'll be remembered for.
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Post by jtay799 on Jun 10, 2013 11:21:34 GMT -5
I'm a basketball historian and trying to bone up on my Iona history. I'm one of the heads of a project to compile the stats of every D-I school from the 1940s on. Right now I'm working on Iona and I've learned it's hard to find information about a few of the McDermott teams. If you guys would be so kind as to tackle a few of my questions, I'd be so appreciative Coach McDermott coached 20 years but he was mostly a .500 coach. How did he make it so long and when he left was it his choice? It seems like the Sports Info people don't have a lot of stats from the early 1960s. Neither does the school archives. Is there a go-to guy for old Iona records and stats around here? For a while it looked like Coach Ruland was going to be a great head coach but the wheels fell off when 3 guys graduated from one of his best team. Did he just fail to recruit guys to step in for them? 23-8 to 2-28 is such a HUGE dropoff. Who is the best coach in Iona history, is it Valvano, Kennedy or even Cluess? Thanks for your help! Valvano wasn't a great X's & O's coach imo. He was a master at motivation. He could talk a dog off a meat wagon. Somehow got Ruland, one of the top recruits in the nation to choose Iona. Kennedy was a better game coach. I'm too young to know anything about McDermott. Tim Welsh was a good coach; his teams were more balanced than Cluess's. Cluess just wins though. Hard to say, but gun to my head I pick Kennedy over all of them. Ruland was a decent coach/recruiter imo. Kennedy I think was better though. I know I'm going back 40-50 years but does anybody here have any anecdotes or knowledge about McDermott?
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Post by oldtimer on Jun 10, 2013 11:34:09 GMT -5
Started this post 2 days ago, but bad cold distracted. Any discussion as to Iona basketball history must be broken down into two periods. The Valvano period and the after Valvano period...The pre period was mainly domineered by Coach McDermott. During this time Iona went from a ''club' type team to a low level Div. 1 program. They started with teams like Brooklyn Poly, Fort Slocum, Webb Institute of Naval Architech etc. They rarely ventured from the Metro area which was controlled by teams such as St. John's, CCNY, NYU and to a lesser degree Manhattan and Fordham..As the years went by the program and schedule bettered. Their reputation became known as a ''tough out''..Under McDermott Iona was always well prepared, and came to play. Although they were almost always out recruited by basketballs powers he with a keen eye for talent managed to pick up star or two along the way. McDermott should be remembered as the father of Iona basketball.........................The second period began with the arrival of flamboyant Coach Valvano. He arrived with a vision, and the sky was the limit. In a few short years he built Iona into a Mid-major power and at times close to a major candidate..Iona was to small for his ambitions.. He moved on to become a part of basketballs history He will be remembered as Iona's prodigal son......Today Iona is a mid-major power which has probably reached it limits taking into consideration all factors.....I personally have enjoyed the 68 year ride, and like a true Iona fan look forward to the future.....
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Post by jtay799 on Jun 10, 2013 11:45:32 GMT -5
Started this post 2 days ago, but bad cold distracted. Any discussion as to Iona basketball history must be broken down into two periods. The Valvano period and the after Valvano period...The pre period was mainly domineered by Coach McDermott. During this time Iona went from a ''club' type team to a low level Div. 1 program. They started with teams like Brooklyn Poly, Fort Slocum, Webb Institute of Naval Architech etc. They rarely ventured from the Metro area which was controlled by teams such as St. John's, CCNY, NYU and to a lesser degree Manhattan and Fordham..As the years went by the program and schedule bettered. Their reputation became known as a ''tough out''..Under McDermott Iona was always well prepared, and came to play. Although they were almost always out recruited by basketballs powers he with a keen eye for talent managed to pick up star or two along the way. McDermott should be remembered as the father of Iona basketball.........................The second period began with the arrival of flamboyant Coach Valvano. He arrived with a vision, and the sky was the limit. In a few short years he built Iona into a Mid-major power and at times close to a major candidate..Iona was to small for his ambitions.. He moved on to become a part of basketballs history He will be remembered as Iona's prodigal son......Today Iona is a mid-major power which has probably reached it limits taking into consideration all factors.....I personally have enjoyed the 68 year ride, and like a true Iona fan look forward to the future..... Thanks for those insights! The expectations were sort of reset by Valvano then. That explains why Ruland had such a short leash compared to McDermott. Since Cluess has won 20 games each year and this year made it through the first round, isn't it possible Iona could make it to the Sweet 16 some year?
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Post by oldtimer on Jun 10, 2013 13:28:05 GMT -5
YES..799 Iona can reach the sweet 16 some day, and the way things look and if things break right this could be the year.........Aside......We at one time had a group of about 50 rabid fans that were at every game. We gathered in the Iona side upper stands..We gave McDermott the nickname of ''Chicklets'' because when he smiled, which was rarely, is teeth reminded us of them..As he approached 100 years of age, he could requently be found at that spot in the upper stands..I would frequently stop by for his expert pre-game analysis.
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Post by jtay799 on Jun 10, 2013 13:54:18 GMT -5
YES..799 Iona can reach the sweet 16 some day, and the way things look and if things break right this could be the year.........Aside......We at one time had a group of about 50 rabid fans that were at every game. We gathered in the Iona side upper stands..We gave McDermott the nickname of ''Chicklets'' because when he smiled, which was rarely, is teeth reminded us of them..As he approached 100 years of age, he could requently be found at that spot in the upper stands..I would frequently stop by for his expert pre-game analysis. Did he know about the nickname and like it? I don't suppose any of you rabid fans have old media guides from the early 1960s? It was worth a shot!
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Post by Old Coach on Jun 10, 2013 14:23:25 GMT -5
Oldtimer is right in referring to Jim McDermott as "The Father of Iona Basketball". McDermott was a pretty good coach. However you have to look past his win-loss percentage as in the era he coached there was no money or commitment on the part of the school to basketball. Also many schools, like Fordham and Manhattan, would never come to our old sub-standard gym in New Rochelle. . .so many of our competitive games were away from home and it resulted in losses. If we had the statistics to go back in time, we would find the historical wins prior to Valvano dominated by Fordham and Manhattan while since Valvano Iona probably dominated the win totals with these same schools. If you gave McDermott the same players and schedule that some of our coaches in the post Valvano-Kennedy era had. . .McDermott would have done as well or better.
When I was at Iona in the early 60s. . .the tuition per semester was $320 (no typo here!). . .at that level there was no a lot of money left over to fund academics or athletics.
Today college basketball is a business with coaches now in a position to demand very good compensation. Good for the coaches and fans. The downside to demanding higher compensation is that if the coaches don't deliver the results they promised the schools when they signed their contracts. . .their tenure will be short.
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Post by ic59 on Jun 10, 2013 16:23:02 GMT -5
Some tidbits about McDermott: *Known as chicklets (his teeth looked like chicklets) when he smiled. *Was an NYU grad and a pretty good BB player. During WWII he served in the Navy, and stayed in the Naval Reserve, I believe retiring as a Commander. He played BB during the War, while stationed at the Great Lakes Naval Station. He made up one half of the team's backcourt. The other guy was a player from Purdue, named Johnny Wooden. *Had a reputation of successfully recruiting second tier talent and turning them into pretty good ball players. Jack Walsh (Bullets), Bob Santini and Richie Guerin (Knicks) were drafted. *As AD and Baseball coach, he introduced Fall baseball in the northeast. As we know the weather is better (usually) in the Fall than in the Spring. *As AD he oversaw the hiring of JV and the building of the Mulcahy Center. As most of us know we had been playing in a converted Airplane Hangar, and then in HS gyms. Jim McDermott did bring Iona to at least low mid-major status. As they say, "We've come a long way baby", and Chicklets played a big part in our journey.
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Post by Cjb on Jun 10, 2013 18:18:22 GMT -5
Jim McDermott was also the first MAAC Commissioner.
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Post by oldtimer on Jun 10, 2013 18:20:35 GMT -5
Last word about Coach McDermott...The first fan to call him ''Chicklets'' was Mal Delgudice a deceased New Rochelle firefighter. We always refered to him out of respect as ''Coach'' but I am sure he knew as he we yelled advice from the stands. Yes IC59 I remember watching many Freshmen and varsity games from the left over WW2 structure...How the game has changed, remember John O'Hagen a power forward at 6-3, and I mean power forward.....
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