Mar 21, 2022 4 min read

Cleaning out a cluttered notebook:

Following his team’s loss last week to Indiana in NCAA Division II East Regional final – the fourth loss this season to the Crimson Hawks – California men’s basketball coach Danny Sancomb vowed that the Vulcans will someday reach and surpass IUP on the PSAC’s pecking order and win conference and regional titles.

Though Sancomb has done a remarkable job reviving a program that had fallen on hard times before his arrival, getting the Vulcans to IUP’s level just got a whole lot harder.

Philip Alston, Cal’s talented 6-6 sophomore forward who averaged 21.0 points and 10.8 rebounds per game, announced that he has entered the transfer portal. Alston is one of 25 finalists for the Bevo Francis Award, which is given to the top small college basketball player in the country. To replace a player of Alston’s caliber is an almost impossible task.

According to one report, Alston had 40 programs, both Division I and II, contact him within 15 hours of announcing his plan to transfer. At least one school from the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten and SEC were among those that contacted Alston.

According to Transfer Portal For Playing Time, a Twitter account that tracks this kind of thing, there were 975 players, as of Sunday, from Division I and II programs in the transfer portal.

With the new transfer rules that no longer require players changing schools to sit out of a year, it makes you wonder why any coach these days would want to take over a struggling college football or basketball program, especially at the mid-major or Division II level. The school’s president and athletic director will tell you to build a winning program. Yet once you develop good players and start winning big, you run the risk of losing those players to other programs from higher levels that are seeking a quick fix, some offering NIL money or spots on established winning programs.

It’s a culture that makes building a program and keeping teams together very difficult.

• Canon-McMillan football coach Mike Evans was recently named a head coach for one of the Pennsylvania Scholastic Football Coaches Association’s East-West All-Star Games to be played May 29 at Bishop McDevitt High School. Evans will coach the West team in the Large School game and have one familiar player on his roster.

The Big Macs’ Anthony Finney was chosen for the specialist position. Finney was a kicker, wide receiver and defensive back for the Big Macs.

Belle Vernon defensive end Cole Weightman also is a member of the West team.

• Charleroi and Ringgold have filled head football coach vacancies for next season. Charleroi recently hired Mark Gambino, who was an assistant at Elizabeth Forward. He replaces Brady Barbero, who resigned. The Cougars were 2-7 last year including 2-4 in the Class 2A Century Conference. Gambino will be the Cougars’ third head coach in four years.

Ringgold hired Marcus McCullough as the replacement for Darwin Manges, who left his alma mater after three seasons to become the head coach at South Allegheny. McCullough also is a Ringgold graduate and has extensive coaching experience in the Mon Valley. Ringgold was 3-7 overall last year but winless in six Class 4A Big Eight Conference games.

The head football coach job at Trinity remains vacant.

• Spring sports seasons for high schools begin Friday. I’ll assume that is when the current run of nice weather will come to an end.

• Burgettstown is looking for a head boys basketball coach. Tim Murray held the job for five seasons before resigning. The Blue Devils went 8-12 this year playing in the highly competitive Class 2A Section 2, which included state tournament qualifiers Fort Cherry, Carlynton and Sto-Rox.