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  • MrAugustana
    replied
    I should've posted my thoughts sooner. Always tough to follow Augieholic's words.

    Having barely been aware Augustana existed until about a year before deciding to come to school here in the early 2000s, I haven't known an Augustana team without Coach Billeter at the helm. Even while weathering those brutal early years of 6- and 8-win seasons, it wasn't hard to believe things would get better. Tom's passion and drive were contagious. One of the news stories yesterday mentioned that Augie had endured 17 straight losing seasons before Billeter arrived. SEVENTEEN. Assuming that’s accurate, it's crazy.

    So when the team turned the corner in 2008, got into the Regional, and won their first-round game (against Mankato, I believe), it felt like, "Hey...it's really happening." Losing in back-to-back Regional Championships in ’08 and ‘09 was really tough, but it still felt like things were on the rise.

    After a few more years of solid seasons but not making a ton of serious noise, I had started to wonder if the Vikings had plateaued a little under Billeter. Then the 2014-16 run came and banished any thoughts of a plateau. All of a sudden, I realized why WSU fans still talked about the glory years of their 06-08 run. It was so fun to walk into the Arena or the Elmen and feel completely confident the Vikings would walk out with a win. I even felt that way about the Iowa game to start the 2015-16 season. Those 2014-16 teams were something special, and long-time Augie fans will probably remember them for many, many years.

    After that, I do think the "Augie is going D1" thing really screwed the Vikings up for a few years. I've heard through a grapevine or two that it was a real killer for recruiting, as every NSIC coach was telling potential recruits to reconsider Augie, because if Augie went D1, they wouldn't be able to compete for any championships. Then the 2021-22 team stepped through that fog and surprised everyone (or surprised me at least) by going 26-4 or whatever it was and nearly winning another Regional Championship, despite having a bench about as deep as a plastic kiddie pool. Watching Riemersma work his weird, lanky magic on offense and watching LeBrun lock guys down (particularly Benedict Arnold/Matt Cartwright) on defense was delightful, night in and night out.

    Needless to say, I was looking forward to seeing how Billeter would take this recent group of underclassmen to whatever next level they could achieve over the coming 2-3 years. Now I'm excited to see Schilling take his shot at it. He's the perfect choice for the job, and it's going to be fun to see which aspects of his coaching style reflect Billeter's influence on him and the program and which things he takes in his own direction to put his own unique stamp on Augustana Men's Basketball history.

    Reflecting on where the program was, as again, Augieholic summarized well, it's hard to believe we'd have a National Championship banner hanging in the rafters and two decades of memories, from all of the fiery (and sometimes hilarious) interviews to the Midnight Madness in 2004 or 2005 when Billeter shouted to the students that, with the Jackrabbits out of the conference, he expected to see a Coyote thrown on the floor against USD (and then it actually happened), to the on-court celebrations after championships, Texas Tom will definitely be missed.

    On to the Cody Schilling era. Hopefully in another 20 years, Augieholic and I are posting about how great of a job Schilling has done and reminiscing on all of the new championship banners that have been hung.

    Go Augustana.

    Leave a comment:


  • simple as a $3 bill
    replied
    Originally posted by Augieholic View Post
    I'll miss the way he rubs his hands together when he's really excited about telling the refs how they we were falling short of his expectations. I'll miss how he would randomly go zone out of a key late game timeout to screw up the opposing coaches inbounds play. I'll miss how he walked onto the court before a big game, head slightly down while muttering some sort of pep talk to himself. I'll miss the full experience.
    Except for the year at SCSU that he unexpectedly walked onto the floor from the opposite end of the gym, on the end where their bench was located, right in front of me, and I gave him a "not tonight Texas Tom", he kept walking but looked over and smiled. After the game after he had finished up his postgame radio interview, he came over and introduced himself. He said that he knew how well I knew Noel and that he had struck up a friendship him when Noel moved to Sioux Falls as commissioner. He also stated that he liked opposing fans such as myself who wore the love of their team on their sleeves like I did, but never got rude or used foul language. We have been friends, okay maybe not friends but he will take my calls, ever since. Gonna miss that guy.

    Leave a comment:


  • Stanger86
    replied
    I miss the 'stache!

    Leave a comment:


  • Augieholic
    replied
    We'll have plenty of time to speculate about Cody's Era with Augie basketball so I'm going to focus on trying to summarize my thoughts on Coach B.

    Tom Billeter changed Augustana athletics as a whole. He arrived in the fall of 2003 at an insitution that entertained athletics at best and tolerated them at worst. Tom built a consistent winning basketball program and in the process helped turn the entire department into one of the best in the NSIC and Division II. He is a fundraising machine and that has spread across the entire athletic department.

    Tom molded his coaching to his teams. He won with offensive first teams like the 2014-2016 and 2008-2010 teams and created a defensive juggernaut in 2022. He hosted three Regionals in the modern day meatgrinder that is the NSIC/MIAA/GAC alignment, which only Margs and McCollum can match. His sideline demeanor made even less talented teams fun to watch and nearly every squad improved throughout the season.

    Tom gave us too many incredible basketball players, athletes, and characters to count but I'll try. Nick Olson, Corey McIntosh, Cody and Casey Schilling, Cam McCaffrey, Dan Jansen, Al Richter, Tyler Riemersma, and Isaac Fink were the most talented. Jordan Dalton, Mike Klepatz, Lee Stephens, Dave Foster, Adam Dykman, and Jaden Graves provided incredible theatre. Elliott Thomas, Eric Tiedman, Marques Blank, and John Warren were my favorites for their uniqueness.

    I'll miss the way he rubs his hands together when he's really excited about telling the refs how they we were falling short of his expectations. I'll miss how he would randomly go zone out of a key late game timeout to screw up the opposing coaches inbounds play. I'll miss how he walked onto the court before a big game, head slightly down while muttering some sort of pep talk to himself. I'll miss the full experience.

    Thank you Tom for the greatest in person sporting experience of my life at the 2016 National Championship game. Thank you for making 25-30 nights each winter feel important. Godspeed.

    Leave a comment:


  • Stanger86
    replied
    Originally posted by augieholic View Post
    shocking news.

    Since flo was a relatively inexperience head coach i would expect augie to zag back a candidate with time in the top job. If i was josh morton my first calls would be to mandy pearson and tom webb.
    stay away

    Leave a comment:


  • Augieholic
    replied
    Shocking news.

    Since Flo was a relatively inexperience Head Coach I would expect Augie to zag back a candidate with time in the top job. If I was Josh Morton my first calls would be to Mandy Pearson and Tom Webb.

    Leave a comment:


  • Stanger86
    replied
    Originally posted by vikingfaithful View Post

    In my nearly 40 years invested in Augustana athletics I cannot remember such a poor performing womans basketball team. Really miss the tall guy in a track suit named Dave Krauth.
    Congrats on getting your very own Mike Power (one-year dud taking over for a legend)! Interestingly, SMSU replaced Power with a familiar name around Augie at the moment in Mike Jewett...

    Leave a comment:


  • NSU4LIFE
    replied
    Originally posted by Stanger86 View Post

    I feel like Bourk is a foregone conclusion
    This was my fear since she came to the Wolves...

    Leave a comment:


  • MrMustang
    replied
    things were that bad with Augie WBB huh ? wow

    Leave a comment:


  • laker
    replied
    Originally posted by vikingfaithful View Post

    In my nearly 40 years invested in Augustana athletics I cannot remember such a poor performing womans basketball team. Really miss the tall guy in a track suit named Dave Krauth.
    He reminded me of Robert Vaughn- Napoleon Solo on The Man From Uncle. Imagine if David MacCallum had been his assistant.

    Leave a comment:


  • Stanger86
    replied
    Originally posted by vikingfaithful View Post

    In my nearly 40 years invested in Augustana athletics I cannot remember such a poor performing womans basketball team. Really miss the tall guy in a track suit named Dave Krauth.
    I feel like Bourk is a foregone conclusion

    Leave a comment:


  • vikingfaithful
    replied
    Originally posted by laker View Post
    Matt Zimmer
    @MattJZimmer
    Augustana has fired women’s basketball coach Jillian Flores-Bennett after one season.
    In my nearly 40 years invested in Augustana athletics I cannot remember such a poor performing womans basketball team. Really miss the tall guy in a track suit named Dave Krauth.

    Leave a comment:


  • laker
    replied

    Matt Zimmer
    @MattJZimmer
    Augustana has fired women’s basketball coach Jillian Flores-Bennett after one season.

    Leave a comment:


  • vikingfaithful
    replied
    Isaac "Ike" Fink gets more recognition as a top 15 candidate for the Trevor Hudgins award.

    Top-15 Watch List: Fink on Trevor Hudgins Award Watch List - Augustana University Athletics (goaugie.com)

    Leave a comment:


  • MrAugustana
    replied
    Another congratulatory post for Isaac Fink, this time for winning the NSIC's Bob Olson Outstanding Senior of the Year Award.

    https://goaugie.com/news/2024/3/1/me...-the-year.aspx

    BURNSVILLE, Minn. - Isaac Fink of Augustana University was voted by the league coaches as the winner of the NSIC Bob Olson Outstanding Senior of the Year Award. A native of Springfield, Minnesota, Fink is a graduate student majoring in physical ed and health and holds a 3.73 cumulative grade point average.

    The "Bob Olson Outstanding Senior of the Year Award" is presented to a NSIC men's basketball student-athlete who participates at his institution for four years and is academically superior while making a positive contribution to his team and University. The Bob Olson Outstanding Senior of the Year award was initiated in 2020-21 to honor an outstanding senior that exemplifies the attributes of Bob Olson. Olson, a longtime basketball coach and administrator at Northern State University, is known for his loyalty, commitment and humility. The NSIC men's basketball coaches felt Olson exemplified the attributes of the NSIC and wanted to honor a graduating senior student-athlete from the league that emulated Olson's traits.

    "Isaac is an outstanding young man," Augustana head coach Tom Billeter said. "He is a leader on and off the floor. He never says no to anything asked of him and he has an incredibly caring heart and demeanor.

    "Isaac is the epitome of why this award was created."

    On the court, Fink is sixth on the Augustana all-time career scoring list, ranks fourth in the NSIC in scoring, sixth in rebounding and seventh in field goal percentage in 2023-24. He was named D2CIDA National Player of the Week after he scored 39 points with a career-high 16 rebounds in a win over Northern State for his ninth career double-double. He followed that with 33 points against the University of Mary to average 36.0 points and 10.0 rebounds over the that weekend. He was named to the NSIC's first team for the second-straight year and earned an all-conference honor for the third time this season.

    In the classroom, Fink is a CSC Academic All-District honoree, an NSIC All-Academic Team and NABC Academic Team member and was on the Augustana Dean's List.

    In the community, Fink was worked with Christian based children's camps through Eyes Up Sports, been an elementary school mentor, and is a member of the Augustana Student-Athlete Advisory Committee.


    Fink is the first Viking men's basketball player to earn an Outstanding Senior of the Year award from the NSIC and joins Viking volleyball player Erika Bute as an outstanding senior in 2023-24.

    Leave a comment:

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