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Wednesday, February 26, 2003

By Phil Axelrod, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

It was too early in his life for Mike Snell to qualify it as a crisis, but he couldn't take wearing a coat and tie to work every day and sitting behind a desk in a cubicle office.

The time was right to make a change.

"The world of business was boring to me. It wasn't interesting, it was no challenge," said Snell, who got into coaching basketball 10 years ago around the age of 30. "Being with the kids and being in a college atmosphere keeps you young. It's a healthier lifestyle."

He laughed, then added, "I'm making less money, but enjoying it more."

Snell, an assistant coach at West Liberty College the past four years, took Thiel to the regular-season championship of the Presidents' Athletic Conference in his first season as a head coach.

Thiel (15-10), whose current six-game winning streak ties the school record set in 1953-54, is the top seed in the league tournament with a first-round bye and will be host to the lowest remaining seed in the semifinals at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow.

No. 2 Grove City also has a bye and will play the next-lowest seed in the other semifinal.

The PAC champion doesn't get an invitation to the NCAA Division III tournament because the league has only six members, one short of the required number to receive an automatic bid. But Thiel is in good shape to participate in one of the ECAC tournaments, which are comparable to the NIT in Division I.

If Thiel wins the tournament, it will set a school record for most victories in a season. The Tomcats were 16-10 in 1997-98 and 1999-2000.

Snell came into a promising situation this season, inheriting three senior starters from an 11-15 team.

"I couldn't have asked for a better group of kids than I have for my first year as a coach," Snell said. "I give them a lot of leeway on the floor. We don't want them learning plays, we want them to learn how to play basketball. We press for 40 minutes. We don't shoot the ball that well, so we've really preached defense."

The seniors who have formed the nucleus of the team are 6-foot-6 forward A.H. Davis (19.2 ppg, 6.6 rpg), 6-2 guard Shane Manley (13.7 ppg, 3.7 rpg) and 6-4 forward Eddie Matthews (6.9 ppg, 3.7 rpg) of Bethel Park. Davis recently became the school's all-time scorer with 1,608 points, surpassing Vic Harp's 1,607 in 1981-85.

The Tomcats also are getting a lot of quality minutes from 6-2 sophomore Darryl Moore (Westinghouse), who was Thiel's starting quarterback this season.

Despite the experience, Thiel got off to a sluggish start and didn't start rolling in the right direction until Snell revamped his coaching philosophy.

"I've always thought I was a man-to-man, motion-offense guy, but now I'm doing things I thought I'd never do," he said. "It took us nine games, after watching film, to realize we didn't match up well. I never liked zones, but we've played a lot of zone. And we run some structure.

"I can't compliment these kids enough for what they've accomplished. Coaching is overrated."

But being a coach is the best career move Snell could have made.

"It couldn't have worked out any better," he said. "I was very nervous about actually coaching games because I didn't have that experience, but these kids have made it easy to be their coach."

Region XX tournament

Community College of Beaver County (27-0), No. 1 in NJCAA Division II and the top seed in the tournament, received a first-round bye and will meet CCAC-Allegheny (20-9) or CCAC South (14-14) in the championship game at 2 p.m. Saturday in Hagerstown, Md.

CCBC defeated both teams twice during the season and once more in the Western Pennsylvania Collegiate Conference tournament.

The winner of Region XX will play at the winner of Region III for the right to advance to the national tournament in mid-March in Danville, Ill.

CCAC's top scorers are 6-5 Orlando Ryan (21 ppg, 12 rpg) and 5-10 Steven Lee (14 ppg), and CCAC-South features 6-3 Ray Green (24.7 ppg), 6-5 Shaimon Howard (17 ppg, 14 rpg) and 5-9 LaRahn Cohen (15 ppg, 8 apg).

CCBC boasts 6-2 Lamar Castile (28 ppg, 11 rpg), 6-1 Curtis Cross (16 ppg) and 6-3 Brian Woodson (17 ppg, 7 rpg, 7 apg).