After seeing his University of Toledo men’s basketball team erase a late eight-point deficit and get a game-winning basket with 1.4 seconds left Tuesday night at Buffalo, Tod Kowalczyk delayed a Wednesday lunch date/interview by some 40 minutes.
“Gotta go to noon Mass first,” he said. “Especially after that game.”
That game represented Kowalczyk’s 100th win as UT’s head coach. Not bad for being midway through his sixth season. And especially not bad considering TK’s first campaign — the end of an ugly four-year Rocket tailspin — was a 4-28 nightmare.
The folks at Corpus Christi University Parish saw Kowalczyk regularly during that 2010-11 season, too.
“I was able to find some comfort,” Kowalczyk said, pausing to smile. “I knew it was unlikely I’d feel much of it during practices and games.”
Can I hear an amen?
It has been a different story since. His overall record at the Rockets’ helm is 100-87, but it’s 96-59 in the past four-plus seasons.
Stan Joplin came close to matching that during periods of his 12 years as head coach, but to find the last time a UT men’s coach won at least 96 times in a 155-game stretch, you have to go back to Bob Nichols’ heyday. Starting late in the 1975-76 season and through the end of 1980-81, Saint Nick posted a glittering 118-37 mark.
As for 100 wins, Kowalczyk says it personally means “very little. I’m much more about the big picture, the quality of our program, and the quality of our young men. I believe if you do things the right way, wins will come.
“I truly believe the program has been built for sustainable success. I like this team, and I think we can be better next year. So I’d like to think there are a lot more wins on the horizon at Toledo.”
The Rockets, 15-9 after back-to-back road victories against Kent State and Buffalo, both pretty fair teams, have at least eight games remaining to hit the 20-win mark for a third straight season, another feat last accomplished during the Nichols era.
UT takes a three-game winning streak into Saturday night’s home game against Miami, and that streak followed three straight losses that had the Rockets reeling in the MAC race. Now they are tied for first place in a West Division where teams are best defined as above average or below average, certainly not as great or lousy.
“I’ve never seen a league like this one this year,” TK said. “It’s so competitive from top to bottom. Look at the Big Ten; there are some bad teams. Good teams can play awful and not lose to them. That’s not the case in the MAC.”
If Kowalczyk, who has 236 wins overall in 13-plus seasons as a college head coach, could identify what turns losing streaks into winning streaks, he’d bottle it and sell it for big bucks. Instead, he offers this:
“It’s just an unbelievably long season and you’re going to have peaks and valleys, good times and adversities. Look at Michigan State. They were No. 1 in the country, then hit a short stretch, like us, where they just didn’t play well. Same thing with Duke.
“It happens to a lot of teams, probably most teams. All you can hope to do is minimize the damage from those skids and get pointed back in the right direction and keep players healthy for the stretch run.”
That, of course, is what really matters, especially in the MAC, a one-bid NCAA tournament league. Come conference tournament time, one loss is fatal. The pressure is intense on players and coaches alike.
But Kowalczyk will remind his team that all it takes is another well-timed, three-game winning streak.
Contact Blade sports columnist Dave Hackenberg at: dhack@theblade.com.
First Published February 11, 2016, 5:23 a.m.