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Finch had been coaching the Sheffield Sharks since 1997 and wasn’t sure where it was all going. As he bounced from England to Germany to Belgium, coaching teams like the Giessen 46ers and Euphony Bree, Finch was also applying to Division III coaching gigs in an effort to return home. He missed out on several opportunities but eventually coached the British National Team at the London Olympics and returned stateside with the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, the Houston Rockets’ developmental league affiliate.
The 53-year-old Finch credits some of his early coaches with instilling his mentality, as well as basketball fundamentals and strategy. While in middle school, Dave Stafford, then an assistant at Wilson High School, “took me under his wing and drove me all over, from Harrisburg to Philly,” to play against the best available competition. Reggie Weiss, Wilson’s head coach, taught Finch that basketball is “a simple game that has to be played really, really well.” The legendary Glenn Robinson, who became Division III’s all-time winningest coach while guiding Franklin & Marshall for 48 seasons, allowed for freedom and creativity within situational basketball. Weiss, meanwhile, described Finch as a small forward who could shoot, get to the basket and be a sometimes-too-unselfish distributor.
Gregg Popovich to return one more season?
I've nonetheless believed for much of the season, like some in Spurs circles closer to the situation than me, that Pop will return for at least one more season, because he still loves this job and needs to be in the gym. These Spurs are the youngest team he's had since was coaching Division III college ball. And Pop loves teaching so, so much ... even more than he detests in-game visits to his bench from sideline reporters.
After a season leading the nation in scoring and his Yeshiva University team into the record books, Ryan Turell declared for the NBA Draft Tuesday, formalizing his intent to become the first Orthodox Jewish player in the history of the league and one of the few Division III stars to make the leap.
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Even now, the party continues. Because as Thompson barrels toward one of the most anticipated comebacks in Bay Area history, he’s still singing the praises of those who added some finishing touches to what looks like the end of his two-and-a-half-year rehabilitation odyssey. And no NBA prospect makes Thompson more animated, more talkative, than a 28-year-old former Division III point guard whose pro career topped out with a junior-league team in Spain. David Fatoki, now a rising executive, is the general manager of the Santa Cruz Warriors. Thompson ranks among his biggest fans. The Warriors star agreed to this interview simply because of the subject matter. “Anything for ‘Toki,” Thompson said as he settled into his seat. “Thanks for writing about Dave,” he said as he departed.
Several NBA teams have asked Ryan's head coach for tape, saying they'll be watching this season. Although he is a long shot for the league by any measure, even this level of interest is extraordinary given that the list of former Division III players currently in the NBA starts and ends with the Heat's Duncan Robinson. And he moved up to Division I before going pro. Yet here now are the Turells talking about their boy's pro prospects. There's been little doubt for a while that Ryan could play in Europe or Israel, but the NBA musings are relatively recent. Laurel, the daughter of Southern Baptist evangelical singers, thinks providence may have played a small part in this fairy tale, but that's a story for later. At the moment, she and Brad are explaining Ryan's decision to bet his lifelong professional basketball dreams on a school better known for training rabbis, social workers, lawyers and doctors. Despite eldest child Jack's positive experience studying and playing at Yeshiva, the family had greater expectations for Ryan.
Hundreds of thousands of college athletes around the country will be free to exercise their new marketing rights starting tomorrow, following an NCAA rule change approved Wednesday afternoon. Governance bodies in the NCAA’s Division I, Division II and Division III voted to approve an “interim policy” on name, image and likeness (NIL) rights nationwide, removing some of the confusion about the status of athletes in the roughly 40 states that don’t have NIL laws taking effect July 1.
Raman’s journey wasn’t typical going from a lawyer to Division III women’s basketball coach to the NBA. But as she embraces the challenge of helping the Grizzlies reach the playoffs, she knows it’s not just about her path making history but those who will follow her. “It’s important to have that type of representations so that young girls who can see people that are like them, they see women in all aspects of the NBA,” Raman said. “They know that it’s a possibility for them for them, too, and expand what their options are if they want to go into the world of basketball.”
A guy from Williams College transfers from Division III to Division I, goes undrafted out of Michigan by NBA teams, gets a two-way contract with the Miami Heat, toils on a G League team in South Dakota, signs a minimum deal with the Heat, earns a spot in the starting lineup for an NBA Finals team and proves himself to be a historically great 3-point shooter with a lucrative future in the league. Now he’s taking the next step of his NBA career: He’s starting a podcast. The first episode of Robinson’s show, The Long Shot, is being released this week through a podcast company founded by New Orleans Pelicans guard JJ Redick, the latest development in the rapidly expanding universe of NBA players illuminating their trade.
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Chris Jones first met Stone back in the fall of 1990. They were freshmen basketball players for Williams College, a Division III liberal arts school in leafy Williamstown, Mass. Even then, Jones—who would go on to live with Stone for three years—could tell that Stone was different. “Raf had his life planned out,” he says. “He was going to play basketball, then go to law school, then he hoped to one day be involved with an NBA team.”
Duncan Robinson has received clips prior to each game of these NBA Finals. Before Game 1, Robinson there was the video compilation from his former teammates at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. Before Game 2, there was one from teammates at Division III Williams College, where he played a season before transferring to Michigan. The Wolverines handled the Game 3 clip, which included former coach John Beilein. For Game 4, the messages came from the Middlesex Magic, Robinson’s old Boston-area AAU team. And prior to Game 5 on Friday night, with the Heat trailing the Lakers 3-1, the video montage was all family.
Tom Thibodeau was a 1990s Knick, starring at Division III Salem State. “I’m a total prick when I play and Thibs was the same way, so we hit it off immediately,” Salem State co-captain Pat Veilleux said. “He would just clobber guys.”
Robinson’s path to this point falls somewhere between unlikely and unfathomable, as he ultimately progressed from Division III Williams College to receiving advice from Dwyane Wade about adjusting to the NBA. “I mean, you never want to limit yourself or what you’re capable of,” Robinson said. “I certainly didn’t expect or anticipate it necessarily, but I just try to put in the work every single day.”
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