D3Playbook: Spencer Takes Over at CSAC

written by STEVE ULRICH
your must-read briefing on what's driving the day in NCAA Division III

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TOP STORY

1. Spencer Takes Over at CSAC

"Notre Dame of Maryland University President Dr. Marylou Yam, Chair of the Colonial States Athletic Conference (CSAC) Board of Directors, has announced that Travis Spencer will serve as Acting Commissioner of the CSAC, effective Thursday, April 15.

Spencer currently serves as the Director of Athletics at Centenary University, one of the CSAC’s 11 core institutions.

Spencer came to Centenary after spending 13 years at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He had most recently served as the Director of Business Development, a position he assumed in March of 2010. In that role, he worked with the sales and marketing teams to plan, budget and execute marketing plans while playing a significant role in the event management team that scheduled over a 100 events per year."

>> Of Note: Spencer replaces Adrienne Mullikin who had served as commissioner of the CSAC since 2016.

>> Complete Release

NCAA

2. Six Personals Would Be a Foul Change

by Mike DeCourcy, The Sporting News

"There was no bigger star in college basketball during the 2020-21 season than Iowa center Luka Garza. That’s not a controversial statement, is it? He was honored with the Sporting News Player of the Year Award in early March, and that was followed by the Naismith Award, the Oscar Robertson Trophy and the John R. Wooden Award. He ranked as the No. 3 scorer in Division I and led a team that entered the NCAA Tournament as a No. 2 seed.

The people in charge of the sport surely would want such a player on the court as much as possible, wouldn’t want to limit his participation simply because of a rule that’s been around for decades, the one that mandates disqualification after five personal fouls.

Which is fine, because Garza didn’t foul out of a game once."

>> Background: "One of the issues contained in the annual NCAA men’s basketball rules committee survey of coaches, officials, media members and other interested parties was the possibility of changing to a six-foul DQ rule. The truth: This is a solution desperately seeking a problem. There is no need for college basketball to mandate six fouls for disqualification. There’s never been a worse time to call for such a change."

>> Why It Matters: "The push behind the six-foul DQ is, ideally, to keep star players on the floor more. That seems like a worthy pursuit, but again, this is a concern based on a myth. The five consensus All-Americans this past season fouled out six times. Combined. They averaged 33 minutes of playing time per game. In games from which they were disqualified, they averaged 32 minutes."

>> Quotable: “As someone who was there when the Big East experimented with a 6-foul rule, you don’t really want to go there,” tweeted Mike Waters, who has covered Syracuse for three decades at The Post Standard. “Basketball turned into rugby."

>> Continue Reading

REGIONAL RANKINGS

3. Women's Golf

The first DIII women's golf regional rankings were released on Thursday.

Central

St. Catherine
Bethel
Washington, Mo.

East

York, Pa.
Stevenson
Alvernia

Great Lakes

Carnegie Mellon
Illinois Wesleyan
Rose-Hulman

Southeast

Methodist
Centre
Emory

West

Redlands
George Fox
Texas-Dallas

>> Complete Rankings

VOLLEYBALL

4. About Last Night

Top-seeded Westminster (Pa.) swept Grove City to capture its second straight Presidents Athletic Conference women's volleyball championship. Maya Steward was named the tournament's MVP after posting a career-high 17 kills.

ALUMNI

5. Marcucci is a Red Bull

"New York Red Bulls II have signed goalkeeper AJ Marcucci to a USL Championship contract pending federation and league approval, the club announced today.

Marcucci, 21, was a three-year starter at Connecticut College. He appeared in 54 matches and only allowed 27 goals.

The West Chester, Pennsylvania native holds the school record for 25 clean sheets throughout his career. He was named to the NCAA All-America First Team both by United Soccer Coaches and D3soccer.com. Marcucci was named 2017 NESCAC Rookie of the Year and 2018 NESCAC Player of the Year.

Marcucci was selected 67th overall by the New York Red Bulls in the 2021 MLS SuperDraft.

>> What They're Saying: “We are really excited to add AJ to the 2021 roster,” NYRB II Head Coach John Wolyniec said. “He is a determined player with a big personality, who continues to show that he can up his game.”

>> Complete Release

TRANSACTIONS

6. Comings and Goings

ELMIRA - Renee Carlineo will be leaving her position as associate vice president of athletics at the end of the academic year
GOUCHER - Brad Mountcastle named head athletic trainer
HOWARD PAYNE - Kevin Bachtel and Stoney Patton named assistant football coaches
LYCOMING - Allyson Kenyon named head field hockey coach
McMURRY - Marquis Muse named head men's soccer coach
WILSON - Mark Seidenburg named head men's basketball coach. Ben Roberts named head men's golf coach

1 THING

7. The Mascot Hall of Fame

"When we are down, when we're at our lowest point and getting close to hopelessness ... mascots give us a reason to smile, to laugh, to believe."

Actually, any reason to include a photo of the Phanatic makes my day. Have a great weekend.

>> Read More

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