By JOHN KEREZY, eyeoncleveland.com founder

(Trine University will oppose Trinity College in the second of the two NCAA Division III men’s basketball tournament national semifinals on Thursday. Here’s a  peak at one aspect of the first of the two games, Hampden-Sydney vs. Guilford, which will tip off at War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne at 5:30 p.m. today. The second contest between Trinity College and Trine University is scheduled for 8 p.m. Probable starters and line statistics for all four teams are below as well.)

FORT WAYNE, Mar. 14 – The NCAA’s men’s basketball semifinal contests Thursday evening features two intriguing teams from the Old Dominion Athletic Conference: The coach of the No. 7-ranked Guilford College Quakers (26-4) Tom Palombo, is also the former coach of — and still a mentor to — the coach of the No.1-ranked Hampden-Sydney College Tigers (30-2), Caleb Kimbrough.

It would be way too simplistic to call this just a teacher vs. former student match-up. Yet Palombo has been a coach for 33 years, including 21 as the head coach at Guilford. By comparison, Kimbrough is in his fifth season at the helm of Hampden-Sydney.

Great and talented players on both teams will determine the outcome of the contest. But the nose-to-nose defense, crisp execution on offense, and emphasis on ball control and rebounding are certainly attributes which Palombo helped instill in Kimbrough during the latter’s 10 years with the former, four as a player and six more as an assistant coach for the Quakers.

“I’m really proud of Caleb,” Palombo said in an interview before tonight’s contest. “He’s my all-time best competitor. It did so much for our team(s) to have a teammate (like Caleb) who is so dedicated.”

Kimbrough’s has mutual great feelings about his past coach. “My core values are from him (Palombo),” he says. “I spent 10 years with him, and those (are the) values we carry along to our program today.”   

Palombo has been a bit more of both the master and the teacher vs. a Kimbrough-led Hampden Sydney. In the eight times these two have opposed each other, Guilford has won five and lost three contests.

One of Hampden-Sydney’s two losses this season came against Guilford, at Ragan-Brown Fieldhouse in Greensboro, NC. on Dec. 2. The Quakers took advantage of the Tigers’ tight in-the-paint defense by hitting 12 of 30 three-point shots, four more treys than their season average.   Guilford’s Rob Littlejohn led all scorers with 21 points, including 4-of-8 from three-point country.  Tyler Dearman added 19 and Luke Proctor 12 for the victors.

Ryan Clements notched 21 points and Davidson Hubbard added 17 more in defeat for the Tigers. “Guilford exposed some things we needed to work on,” Kimbrough said about the setback. “We found a lot of ways we could get better …you never want to lose, but that game helped us for the remainder of the year.”

After that loss, Hampden-Sydney tore off on a streak of winning 14 consecutive contests. After a 48-46 loss to Randolph-Macon on Feb. 3, the Tigers then proceeded to win another 11 straight games. They have been ranked No. 1 in NCAA Division III multiple times this season.

Yet Kimbrough puts his team’s success into perspective when compared to Guilford, which has  five Elite Eight and  11 NCAA Division III playoff appearances under Palombo. This is just Kimbrough’s second NCAA post-season trip with Hampden-Sydney.

“Coach Palombo has helped make the ODAC one of the best leagues in the country by helping Guilford win on the national stage, consistently,” Kimbrough says. “Teams in our league certainly know it’s going to be a battle when you go against the Quakers. He is one of the best coaches in Division 3.”

Palombo has tremendous respect for his former star player and coach. “Hampden-Sydney has a relentless pursuit of excellence, and that’s due to Caleb,” he says. Expect the first semifinal game at War Memorial Coliseum to be a close and probably low-scoring battle between two teams which know each other quite well.

Palombo thinks it will play out that way. “I’m sure it’ll be a knock down, drag-out game. It always is (with Hampden-Sydney),” he says.

Both teams are playing at Fort Wayne for the first time. But some challenging road trips during the regular season might give the Tigers a slight edge in tonight’s contest.

“We’ve never been to Fort Wayne,” Kimbrough explains. “But we’ve played a lot of good teams on the road this season, so we’ll lean on those experiences.”

Eyeoncleveland.com gives thanks to Dave McHugh and his D3Hoopsville podcasts. You can hear his interview of both coaches, linked here.  https://www.d3hoops.com/hoopsville/index  McHugh us gave permission to use interviews from his March 10 podcast for this story. 

PROBABLE STARTERS
FOR BOTH GAMES

Hampden Sydney College

PLAYER                              PPG                                    RPG
Ryan Clements                11.0                                   4.1
Davidson Hubbard         15.1                                   7.2
Alex Elliott                         6.2                                     5.0
Adam Brazil                      13.4                                   3.0
Josiah Hardy                      7.5                                    4.3

Guilford College

PLAYER                              PPG                                    RPG
Tyler Dearman                20.1                                    5.3
Julius Burch                       11.2                                  10.0
Luke Proctor                      8.7                                    3.8
Caleb Farrish                     8.6                                    4.9
Rob Littlejohn                    7.9                                    4.4

Trinity College (Ranked #3, 30-1)

PLAYER                                            PPG                                  RPG
Ben Callahan-Gold                        16.3                                   6.0
Henry Vetter                                  14.8                                   4.7
Jarrel Okorougo                             10.9                                   5.9
Dana Smith                                     7.5                                     5.5
Will Dorion                                     6.7                                      2.8

Trine University  (Ranked #17, 27-4)

PLAYER                                            PPG                                   RPG
Emmanuel Megnanglo              7.5                                    7.1
Fred Garland                                  14.0                                   4.1
Drew Moore                                    9.1                                     2.0
Aiden Smylie                                  11.1                                    6.4
Cortez Garland                               16.1                                   2.6